Fun fact about dopamine: The brain releases more of it if the reward is inconsistent. (Ie: you’re more excited by success if failure was possible). I believe that’s the reason most trading card games have a level of card rarity that’s less than 1 per booster pack. Not every pack of Magic the Gathering contains a Mythic Rare, so finally opening one feels great.
By the same token, I’d feel more excited to find stuff in Larian’s maps if I wasn’t bombarded with stuff in the first place.
The caveat is that you can’t just add empty wilderness to make discovery surprising. Players would quickly spot the pattern, killing the surprise. The map needs to look like it could hide something, but doesn’t always do so. I feel BG1 did this quite well with treks through the woods interrupted just enough by wildlife and bandits to keep me guessing.
