Oatmeal Agitante

This is one of the reasons I find free exploration somewhat of an anti-pattern in games. It can become deeply tedious.

The other reason is it sacrifices authorial control for no substantial return.

If you implement free exploration, or incentivize skimming, it had better be because you *want* the player to ignore some things,

because that's what you'll often get

Agreed. While I have come across folks expressly interested in *story-generation games*, I don't really share the interest

Would rather tell a particular story, and do it well

For me, I'm only interested in things that substantially react to the player, but I want it to be purposeful.

A player picking North doesn't tell you anything about them that you can use, so don't ask them that question.