Yeah I have thought of this too; that the zones were meant to be realistic. They don't look fantastical at all. Maybe that plays into the lore; I don't know. They do seem like frontiers. However, they would be better frontiers if they didn't copy/paste. I don't really have anything against the frontier look, but I hope they expand to more interesting looking zones in the future.
Oh God, that link really hit a chord with me. I'm going to post it 10 times ..please people click this.
http://seahorror.com/sample.jpg
http://seahorror.com/sample.jpg
http://seahorror.com/sample.jpg
http://seahorror.com/sample.jpg
http://seahorror.com/sample.jpg
http://seahorror.com/sample.jpg
http://seahorror.com/sample.jpg
http://seahorror.com/sample.jpg
http://seahorror.com/sample.jpg
http://seahorror.com/sample.jpg
HOLY MOTHER OF THE TWELVE! You really hit the nail on the head. You see all the bottlenecks when you copy/paste the 11 zones on to each other? That must have been what they did, because Thanalan and the Shroud look the exact same, with bottlenecks in between regions. That literally is all they did, design 1 or 2 areas and then mass copy/paste it.
Now look at Thanalan, lol:
http://www.ffxivinfo.com/images/maps...s-thanalan.jpg
The Black Shroud:
http://www.ffxivinfo.com/images/maps...ack-shroud.jpg
Coerthas:
http://www.ffxivinfo.com/images/maps...s-coerthas.jpg
:(..............................................*
