When I look back at my favorite games of all time, they all evoke this feeling of "I can go anywhere and do anything. There's so much to do and see, and I'm a little nervous to venture out because I'm not sure I'll be able to find my way back."

Star Control II is that game. So is Ultima VII, and several Infocom games that filled my imagination and seemed bigger than they were. Before the era of a complete walkthrough a click away that will lead you by the nose.

The turning point was voiced dialogue. Once that became the norm, content became exponentially more expensive to produce, and so the size of the worlds shrank.