[TimovieMan]

Originally Posted by Mad Manny

Personally I've always advocated starting extremely narrow, so that the player feels like he's achieved something before throwing him into a big area where he could potentially be walking around for 30 minutes speaking to ppl without feeling like he's achieving anything, also starting really narrow makes the open part feel even more open, kind of like how most church-interiors feels really large because you first have to pass through a narrow entrance to get into it.

^ This.

I always suggest starting very narrow, so that new players can get used to the gameplay mechanics (not really necessary if you're going with traditional point-and-click, but still) AND to give all players time to adjust to the game world and setting, i.e. as a sort of tutorial or prologue.

After that, feel free to gradually open it up. Once the story starts picking up pace, then you can throw it all wide open, imo...