WOULD THIS ANNOY YOU?

I like a bit of direction as to where I need to go - especially in a game that's plot/character-driven. Then again, I also love to explore towns and cities and have the chance to ask people things and get led to different quests.

A nice balance of the two (with lots of secrets scattered around) would be my ideal of a game, really. Having hints of where to go but with the chance to take off and do something else if you want to.

The player will need a hook. Why is the character moving around in the world map instead of searching for a nice man/woman and starting a family? It's one thing to play a game without any direction (as long as most directions in some extent is the "right" way that is), but there has to be a reason for the main character to do all the stuff he's doing.

This would annoy me greatly. I'm with Shinan in that a game ought to have very clear objectives at the start of the game.

I have to agree with the choice of Fallout as an example here. For a long time you're basically just exploring the wasteland and doing stuff without obvious relevance to your objective, but:

-you're never without that fallback objective, and
-you always have a fairly direct way of finding someplace else interesting.

Just being told "this is a world, here you go" isn't very motivating.

I'd prefer direction at the start of the game, then go free style with some direction but the option to go where ever you want, as is with most pro RPG's. Final Fantasy 6 is a prime example of this, where you have a huge amount of direction for the first half, then you have some suggestions on where to go, but ultimately, the choice of where to go is up to you.

It would annoy me. Looks like it's safe to say that it would annoy most people...

To solve this, you could give a small hint about where the player should go/what the player should do that relates to the main quest before sending him off on his own.

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I have to agree with the choice of Fallout as an example here. For a long time you're basically just exploring the wasteland and doing stuff without obvious relevance to your objective, but:

-you're never without that fallback objective, and
-you always have a fairly direct way of finding someplace else interesting.

Just being told "this is a world, here you go" isn't very motivating.

Yes, you need that fallback objective. If you don't have any idea what you're doing, you need a main quest that's fairly clear about what you need to do. It could still take a while to reach a specific point - opening up areas and interesting side-quests on the way. Think about Fallout 3 (minor spoilers below):

After the intro, you can:
-Head to Megaton, to learn about your father (this is easy and leads you past the Springvale(?) School, which is a decent low-level dungeon)
-Head to that ship city, where you can also learn about your father (for those players who like to go completely opposite of the main quest; I stumbled onto it completely by accident in an early playthrough where I decided not to hit up Megaton)
-Head to Washington, since it is big and interesting and prominent
-Do whatever else, but you know at least the first option is always available to you

Oblivion is similar. You are told "go to Weynon Priory."

-Teleport to Weynon Priory, gg you get story - and you're right next to a town chock full of cool stuff
-Walk to Weynon Priory, finding towns and lots of places of interest along the way
-Go to the Imperial City (about two seconds away from your post-intro location) and find tons of content
-Run around aimlessly, knowing that eventually you should probably hit up Weynon Priory

Note how the "typical" route in both games that makes sense to a new player leads you right past interesting places and sets sidequest hooks into the player's mind.

Direction and structure is certainly necessary at the beginning. A trick many free roaming games use is actually introducing side areas during your travels to an area you're told to go (note Craze's examples).

Therefore giving the player freedom to go where they want while at the same time knowing where they could go to advance and understanding the advantages in advancing the plot.

Broke? Or Made it better?

*walks out comic store*

I was quite young when I first played Daggerfall which was the earliest Elder Scrolls I played. I remember a lot of the scenery was randomly generated the automap was pretty much the only thing telling you where you were going. The thing about the earlier games If you have a world that big there's no reason not to drop them into it and let them find it out themselves. The fact the game was generated made the game impossible to 100% secure where the quest helpers and starters would be placed except from the major towns.

In which case.. Why would being dropped into a big world be so bad? As long as the narrative game me a reason to want to continue the plot, common sense would send me to the biggest city and or nearest city.