While I am, by no means, a worldbuilding expert, I am in the process of doing no small amount of worldbuilding: I’m working on three separate settings, with two taking place in the same universe. I’m a student; a novice, and as such, I do extensive research into related topics and seek the advice of more experienced voices on those subjects I’m still learning about. Sometimes, though, you come across people who are keen to offer their opinion without giving you a reason as to why you should heed it (credibility). I present to you, dear Reader, a YouTuber who provides no credentials while proceeding to criticize and tear into award-winning games… but, at the same time, he has a point: A little mystery goes a long way.
While he doesn’t go into the differences between hard worldbuilding and soft worldbuilding, what he is factually suggesting is that soft worldbuilding is the better of the two. Why? Well, to put it succinctly (and maybe save you some time watching the video above), fans of the world in question like to speculate as to what the answer to the mystery might be – and, when you provide that answer, there’s no more riddle to solve. In other words, people are more engaged by a puzzle than they are by its solution.
Of course, this is not the only video on this topic. More authoritative voices (as below) will sometimes corroborate some aspects of that opinion – as in this case – but not entirely. Per the video below, there are pros and cons to hard worldbuilding and soft worldbuilding, as with anything else. It may be worth noting that, unlike the previous video, this one is well worth watching, and I’d even go further in suggesting you Like and Subscribe to its creator: “Hello Future Me” (and he has books!). That said, this video offers a deeper perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of both hard worldbuilding and soft worldbuilding.
Hello Future Me does a wonderful job of distilling the differences between hard and soft worldbuilding at around 7 minutes in: Hard worldbuilding immerses its players with its realism, consistency, and concrete rules, whereas soft worldbuilding is otherworldly, mysterious, and engages the reader’s imagination about how that world might work. But the video also portrays these two methods of worldbuilding as if they are mutually exclusive, and I don’t feel they are.
I believe that there must be a middle ground here. Hard worldbuilding offers great depth of detail that soft worldbuilding lacks, but makes up for in mystique and atmosphere. Soft worldbuilding lacks concrete answers because of this, but can be far more engaging to players/readers because they don’t have all of the answers presented to them. Hello Future Me is absolutely correct about these aspects of those methods. But I feel like there are two ways to rectify this: 1.) Misinformation. We live in a real world (assuming this is not a simulation – har har har) where we still have people who believe the Earth is flat, 9/11 was an inside job, and that birds are not real (this last was actually a social experiment). Why would our fictional worlds be any different? Instead of creating one narrative to an aspect of your world, create several, and don’t decide for your fans which one is true. The fact of the matter is that this is something mankind has been doing since the dawn of time – and it is, perhaps, the #1 reason why we have such vast cultural treasure troves of mythology and religion. Our search for answers is one of many things that helps define a culture.
And #2.) would be the iceberg, or gradient theory: Only fill out as much as you need to in order to tell the story. And no, I don’t think that’s necessarily soft worldbuilding, because I’m suggesting you fill out those details. The video below does a decent job of explaining this concept, even if the composition is less than polished.
Complete the iceberg for all of these interconnected pieces that you want to fully flesh out, but leave some room for your world – and your story – to grow. This will not only present your reader with everything they
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