If this campaign ended tomorrow...

I asked my players this question a week or two ago:

"If this campaign ended tomorrow, what would you still wish you’d gotten to do?"

Why did I do this?

I've been experiencing a bit of an existential crisis in my Crawljammer campaign (I swear I'm going to write more about what I've actually done in the campaign, this is just really on my mind right now).

When I initially started the campaign, I wanted to have a very 'let the players drive' philosophy about it. They would choose where to go and what to do and I would make that happen. I have to admit that I've absolutely failed in that respect. I like to think that, on the micro-level, my players have lots of choices about how they approach things, who they choose to keep alive or kill, and generally how to handle situations. But the situations they get into? I'm creating those--and sending them to them. So I've sort of accidentally created an 'adventure path'.

Why did this happen?

Probably mostly because I began the campaign without enough prep to feel comfortable with the idea that I wouldn't know where it was going. Also I'm still a relatively new DM and my players aren't any more experienced than I am--so we ended up doing something that's more familiar. A guided experience. I, through NPCs, give them missions--they go do them. I don't think there's been a single instance in the campaign yet where the players haven't wanted to do what was offered--so in that sense, I feel a bit better about all of this.

Is this really a bad thing?

I would argue that it isn't--because we're having fun. The players are engaged and enjoy themselves and that's my job, so I can say that it's been going pretty well. I AM frustrated that this isn't really the game I set out to play, but I think that's a lesson for the future.

So what's the point?

Asking that question was important for me and my players because now I know what they care about as I figure out where we're going. I can direct things towards the stuff they care about. I'm also going to include some other stuff because the game is also about me--but a plot point that I wasn't sure they wanted to follow up on was universally brought up--so I also know that I've got to return to that.

I really think this is a simple, straightforward question that some DMs might not ask because they're trying to maintain some sense of 'mystery' or maybe they just don't want to include their players in the process of where the campaign is going. I can see arguments for that, but I'd counter that it's nice to know where people are hoping to go--we literally have our audience right there to offer some guidance on what they want to see/do. Why not use it?