Exploration draws in the creative and curious. Fans of the Pathfinder Play Style go into the world seeking to understand how it works and what it means. Rather than get hung up on the minutiae, they look within and underneath it for hints about the bigger picture. They are all about seeing the forest for the trees and experiencing the hidden meaning behind everything.
Through their interactions with the world, Pathfinders discover things that most are blind to. They experiment in ways that others would never think to try. The patterns they find – in time, in space, in thought – often end up being the very things that change the world in unexpected ways.
The titles that serve this Play Style often take place in an alternative world, whether historical, fantasy or science fiction. Alternative worlds have new rules, systems, and objects, which the audience is invited to discover and figure out. Exploration becomes especially tangible with open-world games, where players can interact more freely.
HBO’s breakout TV show Westworld offers a lot to explore, both through its full range of settings and its philosophical quandaries.
“I think that it's important to have shows such as Westworld in order to mentally, emotionally, and spiritually prepare us for if something like that were to happen.”
Blade Runner 2049
Star Wars The Last Jedi
Fantastic Beasts
The Man In The High Castle
Legion
Rick & Morty
Zelda
Fallout 4
Red Dead Redemption 2
For Pathfinders, the Internet and social web introduce new opportunities to become immersed in a story's world. Fan communities are now connected to discover and pick apart a game universe. They further research and discuss theories that are posed by movies or television shows. And they share surprising observations.
Movies, video games, and TV shows that introduce new ideas, theories, or underlying narratives are like catnip for Pathfinders. Driven by their innate desire to seek out novel ways of thinking, Pathfinders turn to online forums to discuss and expand their understanding of events in a story world. Sometimes they even work together to form mental models for what is going on. Once they do, it's onto the next discovery.
The Netflix sci-fi hit Black Mirror is a show that portrays a dystopian future within a series of standalone short stories. Well, at least that's how they were presented. Fans stirred up a conversation with the introduction of a new theory: that all episodes were in fact connected and part of the same world. Bloggers picked up on it, publishing timelines for the broader community to discuss and dissect, propelling the speculation even further.
The announcement of the Fallout franchise's next installment, 76, excited many fans. One of the first things Pathfinders did was turn to Reddit to unpack the teaser reveal and determine what the new developments meant for the lore of the Fallout universe. Superfans felt engaged by the act of integrating new knowledge with existing lore, and validated through the process of sharing and discussing it with their peers.
Annihilation left moviegoers confused and curious, leading many to speculate about the film's true meaning. Pathfinders flocked to YouTube to create and watch explainer videos that tackle the movie's complicated subject matter and offer a multitude of perspectives into the meaning of the movie’s ending. YouTube comments allow for a lively conversation that would typically happen over drinks or the car ride home from the theatre.
When a story world is well-crafted, it results in a satisfying gestalt – an organized whole that is more than the sum of its parts. Pathfinders want to immerse themselves in their favorite narratives, in ways that extend past the initial or traditional experience. They often achieve this by creating and sharing visually stunning content online. Examples include environmental fan art, screenshot stills from in-game adventures, and ambient audio.
Beyond its absurd comedy, Rick & Morty features a massive universe filled to the brim with new worlds to explore and unique characters to meet. Viewers become inspired to create and share art, often scenic, to further experience the show's various environments. And thanks to the show's introduction of an infinite universe with limitless worlds, fans are liberated to invent their own.
Gamers celebrate Horizon Zero Dawn's gorgeous post-apocalyptic setting and relish in the opportunity to explore every inch of it. Thanks to an in-game camera feature, Pathfinders who stumble across breathtaking scenery can capture and share it online. Hardcore content creators spend hours using the tool much like a professional photographer: setting up camera angles, light balance, and depth of field.
The world of Blade Runner 2049 is strikingly beautiful, drawing viewers in through color and emotion. The audio design and ambient soundtrack play a significant role in this as well, so much so that Pathfinders have latched onto it specifically. On YouTube, several fans have created ambient video soundtracks for people who want to soak up the film's vibrant atmosphere, whether they're on the job, working out, or on-the-go.
Pathfinders are interested in expansive worlds and narratives, but small details such as a set-design choice or a character quirk are what make these worlds come to life. Meticulous details give viewers a window into a world's more profound meaning and provide an opportunity to understand that world better. This possibility often energizes Pathfinders to go to extreme lengths to discover these details and then share them with friends.
Breath of the Wild gives players a seemingly endless number of activities and things to do. On YouTube, fans share unique discoveries and moments they experience while exploring the world. The game teaches players its core mechanics via in-game tutorials; however, many of the game's more advanced systems are discovered intuitively by expert players. It's these types of discoveries that become ‘Pathfinder currency’ within online communities.
The Man In The High Castle takes place in an alternate world in which the Nazis won WWII and occupy the United States. To bring the world to life, the show's creators put a great deal of time and effort into exploring what the world and environment would look like within that alternate reality. Avid viewers noticed these small details in set design, and some even went to great lengths to accurately recreate show props.
Based in the fantasy world of Harry Potter, the Fantastic Beasts franchise treats viewers with all sorts of visual goodies. On Pinterest, fans share thoughtfully designed documents that present and organize the movie's many intricacies. Pathfinders can easily discover these by searching a fan Wikia page, but the formatting of highly specific details into a piece of content, such as this, makes the world feel more tangible and immersive.
Experiences that lean into imagination and discovery are compelling to Pathfinders. They are an invitation to dive in and become immersed in the narrative world even further. Here, fans can appreciate details that provide more profound meaning and experiment in ways to expand their understanding.
Director Wes Anderson is known for his attention to detail, and the stop-motion animated film Isle of Dogs was no exception. To tease the fictional universe, Isle of Dogs launched an Instagram profile that showcased a series of stunningly detailed imagery. The graphics were presented across a variety of formats and dimensions, appealing to curious Pathfinders and making it impossible for them not to get sucked in.
Between seasons two and three of Rick & Morty, fans were hungry for more ways to explore the universe. To feed this craving, the show created FedConnect, an in-world platform full of click-bait-like content from the perspective of the Gromflomites. Fans would sign up for their Federation Rewards card and, unknowingly, hack into the Galactic Federation's Slack-like chat server. The channel featured an alien's POV on earth through content verticals like food, travel, and news - in familiar formats like essays, listicles, and animated shorts.
This year's #AlienDay celebration delighted Pathfinders, as 20th Century Fox decided to do something special for its audience. The Offworld Colony Simulator, an Amazon Alexa experience, invited fans to explore the randomly generated sectors of an offworld space colony where they would discover items, easter eggs, and even the introduction to a subplot within the Alien Universe. All of this while attempting to survive the impending Xenomorph threat.
Westworld could be considered the ultimate case study for Pathfinders. Online, it boasts an incredible digital content strategy, encouraging fans to go deeper. But this year, HBO decided to bring the show offline. It invited people to experience the town of Sweetwater IRL at Austin's annual SXSW festival. The 90-minute event featured 60 actors to interact with, all of whom were driven by a script that was more than 440 pages long.
