What is the appeal of open world content?

[Khyra]

Please don't turn this into a hunts and atma complaining contest. I'm talking more in general - why do developers think open world content is good? Seems like a throwback to the bad old days of spawn 'stealing', lag fests and drama. I've never seen open world content (be it FFXIV, WoW, FFXI, or Guild Wars 2) require any skill.

I guess it depends what you mean by "open world" exactly, but FFXI had incredibly difficult content that was not instanced, like Absolute Virtue and all the sea bosses. They were pop-claimed-spawns, but they spawned in the open world and anyone could watch the fight or wander by.

HNMs could require some skill too especially if you had a small group and got claim (people definitely wiped to Nidhogg and so on), but admittedly the claiming system for that kind of sucked.

Not to mention various areas you had to sneak/invis through that could get pretty tense (especially in a game where death meant XP loss, FFXIV death is meaningless).

[FriendlyUncle]

Open world brings people together toward a common goal, and for more than just 5 minutes at a time with like how Hunts work. I would like to see a voidwatch system from FFXI, open world dungeons from back at original release. Things to sort of condense the player base in an area that is difficult enough to warrant a challenge solo, so that if you run across other players you would team up to make things easier and split the spoils. BAMs on TERA were fun and good, I would really like to seem NMs that are just not part of the hunt bill system. Does not reward allied seals, or myth, or sol, but superior gear to its equivalent level.

Side note, thing that really annoyed me was sharing my gear with Berserker's. Like I'm always constrained to having stats I did not want because it was shared with a damage class. Minor gripe in a game with fun, if not slightly buggy combat.

[Canopia]

Personally I think the death of open world content was lead partially by people who would sit and camp spawn points for hours or days to try and kill it before anyone else realized it had even spawned. Then there was the graveyard zerg parties for big open world bosses. Where there was no real challenge except how many warm bodies you could throw at it until it died. The greed of the playerbase, at least a portion of it, lead to them having to instance everything so everyone could at least experience it. I still see this sort of behaviour even today. The hunts in FFXIV, world rares in WoW, people rush in and zerg things down before most can react and get indignant if asked to sit back and wait for more than 5 seconds. Ive stood next to a hunt target and it was zerged down in front of my eyes before my first cast could finish.

Impatience and Greed, the killers of Open World content.

[Aegis]

Goddamnit, brb downloading SWG Pre-CU emulator.

That game had everything.
Huge open world(s).
Labyrinthine dungeons.
Space Combat.
Pets to be tamed, bio-engineered or crafted (Droids).
Player-created mounts (tamed pets, engineered pets or speeders/bikes).
Open world housing.
Completely player driven economies.
One of the most varied class/profession systems in the game (Should I be my Bounty Hunter Teras Kasi Master? My Squad Leader Combat Medic? My Ranger Creature Handler?).
A truly in depth crafting/resource gathering system (your EH17 Blaster is not as good as my EH17 Blaster because I spent the time tracking down non-ferrous metal with higher conductivity than yours and paid a smuggler to modify it for enhanced fire rate).
Support classes that were damn near essential (Dancers/Performers/Medics).
Open world PvP that could be Optional or Forced (depending if you chose to be faction-aligned, overt or covert).
Perma-death. Oh you spent 3 months grinding to become a Jedi? That's nice. Shame you let yourself be tracked down by a Bounty Hunter and his Ranger friend (though tbh, if you died to two people as a Jedi you sucked).

All this, and not a single instance.

[Gramul]

In a broad sense, freedom.

Let me post something I wrote up in another thread. It's more about stronger overworld enemies and more complex quests, but I think most of the concepts still apply.

The quests in this game are designed to be quick mindless task burns. They aren't engaging or memorable. Just busy work to fill in the grind.
Now, I'm not saying we would get rid of them, they have their place, but the stronger enemy areas would be suited for quests that require more thought, planning, patience, coordination, and overall involvement. This modern gofer quest style just isn't very fun. I liked when quests asked for you to pay attention, gave you the freedom to approach a problem in your own way. Do I sneak through the long path, or do I gather a band of high level heroes to guide me through the short path? Should I buy this key, steal it from the demons lair, or take it from his dead body? That was fun. The reward was the actual engagement you had with the world and overcoming the tasks set before you by your own ability as someone who can think and make decisions. The material reward of a quest was almost unimportant because you wanted to do the quest for the sake of the adventure. I want to be engaged by the actual game. Not the carrot on a stick and promise of more of the same but with a brighter glow. I want to play because the game itself is engaging. The world itself is a fascinating and dangerous place to explore, the people you meet can be your closest allies at a moments notice. Make my world alive! Make it fun to be there!

[WellFooled]

On the contrary, Radiata Stories with its day/night and living world cycles, where NPCs would travel between areas much like players (and on time), works just as well if not better.

I feel like you were trying to quote me, but missed :P So to respond, Radiata Stories did have an awesome single player open world, but that's not the same as open world when discussing an MMO. Kind of like a raid in a single player RPG is a whole different concept from a raid in an MMO.

[Hurlstone]

I think open world content can be good, I like it in games such as Fallout and Skyrim. I do not think it is the bastion of gameplay which every game should strive to be though. It seems to be to some that any game that is not open world is utter rubbish to some, which i do understand. I like the world of FFXIV more the XI, for example. The environments of Vana'diel are good, do not get me wrong, but they felt rather empty to me. Eorzea may be smaller (Not surprising, given how it is only a year old) but it has more to do per zone, such as quests and FATE's. I think stories are better told in smaller, more linear environments too.

Each to their own though!

[BlackHaloJT]

In a broad sense, freedom.

Let me post something I wrote up in another thread. It's more about stronger overworld enemies and more complex quests, but I think most of the concepts still apply.

I've always liked reading your posts. They always seemed on track and to the point. What I don't understand and never will is we "had" a form of open world in version 1. It certainly wasn't the greatest and needed to be filled with more content and structures. Overall though you still had that sense of danger and adventure. Never knowing what lurks behind every corner. As you stated in your post you had to make decisions. Getting to some of the warp points were a dangerous task themselves. Traveling all over the world in the quest "Living on a Prayer" for the Twelve before Dalamud came down. Tracking your way through Castrum Novum. Not these fetch quests where I have to get some tea from a NPC right across from the start NPC for example. Now I feel like I sit in a airport waiting to board a plane every time I log in. The world structure feels condensed like we live in a Bio-dome/petting zoo where everything is just nice to look at.

[Lenne]

To me the appeal of open world content in this game is having something to do other than dungeons and also having the freedom to do things with however many people you want, and not the required 4/8/24 person setup of instanced dungeons and battles.

The type of open world content I would love to see in XIV is where we adventurers would have to fight off forces attempting to breach a city, camp, or keep. In FFXI, it was fun defending the cities or kingdoms. It wasn't about claiming things first or even the rewards, necessarily. Everyone in the zone had a common goal, which was to protect the city. There should be waves of enemies coming in, with the weakest first and a unique boss (or even multiple bosses) last. It should be a struggle. In these battles, it would bring an opportunity for us to fight alongside our favorite NPCs, and alongside our fellow adventurers.

I guess this would qualify as a lag fest, but it would be worth it if it were fun.

[coldreactive]

I feel like you were trying to quote me, but missed :P So to respond, Radiata Stories did have an awesome single player open world, but that's not the same as open world when discussing an MMO. Kind of like a raid in a single player RPG is a whole different concept from a raid in an MMO.

We already have NPCs that do transition between areas from time to time, especially in Limsa Lominsa.