Waypoint Objective Marker

Current goals project a symbol: a blip on the radar, a notch on a compass strip, or a diamond floating over the destination in the world itself, often with a distance in metres attached. Some systems draw a route line along the roads. Markers update as objectives change and generally persist through everything else, which makes them the most reliably consulted element anywhere on the screen.

DMA Design used them in Grand Theft Auto III in 2001 because a fully three-dimensional city defeated the readable overhead layout of the earlier games. Players could be told to go to the docks, but not reasonably expected to find them. Direction had to be supplied continuously, and a marker was cheaper and more dependable than landmarks, signage, or a passenger character explaining where to turn next.

Open worlds became navigable at scale, along with the criticism that they became unnecessary to actually look at. Playing toward a chevron reduces a city to a route, discourages the wandering the world was built to reward, and lets designers place content anywhere because discovery is guaranteed. Several later games ship a marker-free mode with directions given in conversation, which players describe as slower and more memorable.