[This article has been selected as one of the Top 5 member blog
posts on gamasutra. Read about it here.] When we speak of video
games, we rarely ever think of exploration and discovery as
cases of exposure, that is, the calculated distribution of
information to audience and characters. In drama, exposure is
one of the most important and effective means of storytelling
and lies at the heart of narration. When we speak of video
games, we often prefer to speak of exploration instead of
exposure, because we think player-centric, that is, we describe
things from a player’s point-of-view. However, exploration is
often subject to the desiger’s planning, and at this point, his
manipulations in regard to how we explore and discover things is
a matter of exposure. Exploration is one of the most intriguing
aspects of narrative, because it results in discovery. As a
result of our exploration, we find out, or are being informed,
about a new type of event or object, and the change in our
knowledge changes also the picture