Originally Posted by wolfing 
And that is all lost for many people unless there is a reason to go there.
For how many, exactly ?
We don't have any serious data at all regarding the sum of players preferring a certain playing style.
Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
I love the feeling of finding something… like a mysterious temple… and since it isn't part of a quest you are really wondering why it is there.
Exactly. This was part of the Gothic 1 fun for me.
And everywhere else.
In the Larian forums, I even developed my own ideas of certain "forgotten times" in which creatures mist have existed looking like these giant statues which look like a mixture between a lion and a giant rat.
And these catacombs and temples … At least [i]someone[/i9 must have built them.
This is the "mystery factor".
For some, it is just fun musing about this.
Others just go through it, like in Blizzard's action games, where hacking & slashing was everything, and I believe that only very, very few people ever wondered on how these catacombs evolved …