Does instant transportation effect game immersion?

[Eruantien]

I believe the little cutscenes are more than enough, unless you need to be on the airship I would probably just go afk on it anyway and wait for myself to arrive.

[Azurymber]

Awesome? Yes.
Convient? No.

In XI the moment I need to ride airship I run up to dock, auto run forward and then AFK, make a cuppa, catch up on RL stuff or whatever because I've seen that flight about a thousand times. It was fun the first time, its boring there after. So the time is just a delay for me, like waiting for a Download.

And I also do this at the ferry, even though that has pirate attacks or even krakens jumping on board I either stay at bottom AFK or I run to the top and go up the steps to stay out of aggro range and dont participate because I've done that a thousand times over.

In the current ferry you spawn smack bang in the middle, on the top, so if any content was to arrise they'd have to move that spawn or you'd die if you went afk, then you'd be back where ever your home-point is and your e-rage would be quite high.

I wouldnt mind some event, it would be fun, but doing it constantly? No, sometimes I just want to get to my destination quickly, im not interested in fighting.

You get your happiness by in future having events and content on airships and you choose not to skip it, and I get mine where I can skip it because im not to bothered about that after I've done it several hundred times.

Everyone is happy.

I am not interested in delaying my time around the world when all it is, is copy/pasted crap that I've seen thousands of time lol so I favor quicker routes.

I fully understand and agree... but then what does XIV actually have to its name?

If you took each leve camp, cut it off from the rest of the world, and let ppl "port" to it from a menu, do you think a lot of people would even notice?

Essentially you are saying you don't want to travel through boring cut and paste places (i dont either). but then whats the point of a game world? Why have chocobos if you're going to just be able to insta-port to wherever you need to go? Why have a giant world map if everything is focused around your leves?

MMOs are supposed to be about adventures and stuff. And if you just eliminate all the adventuring and have a game full of insta-port and grinding with nothing special to set it apart from other MMOs how will it succeed or draw good ratings?

Thats my major concern with this. Reviewers will come and PS3 release, play for 3 days, experiance the entire game world and say "FFXIV is a massive grindfest". New players will come to the game and experiance it all in a few weeks and leave.

FFXI had milestones, when you hit levels you got to experience a new place, new mobs to level on, there was always danger, there was always a goal with something new to experience.
FFXIV doesn't... you grind on essentially the same few mobs the entire game (mice/squirrels puks and goblins solo, efts and raptors and maybe ants in a party). Leveling up is meaningless except for allowing you to solo the unchallenging story missions. And you rare experience new areas (since tbh all the camps are really just cut and paste).

just how i see :x

[Catapult]

Oh I wouldn't recommend that game right now, the economy is kinda not working as intended and you can not contact the devs. Heck, people around the world can't agree on who the devs are/is.

That comment, my lady, is full of Win.

[viion]

I fully understand and agree... but then what does XIV actually have to its name?

If you took each leve camp, cut it off from the rest of the world, and let ppl "port" to it from a menu, do you think a lot of people would even notice?

Essentially you are saying you don't want to travel through boring cut and paste places (i dont either). but then whats the point of a game world? Why have chocobos if you're going to just be able to insta-port to wherever you need to go? Why have a giant world map if everything is focused around your leves?

The giant world map is useless, what does that have to do with anything relating to Airships? Airships would be instance flight events so it wouldnt even use the world lol.

A lot of people travelled at first, it was fun, but they dont do it over and over unless they have to.

You have chocobos because eventually anima will run out and your airship can only take you to 2 locations excluding the one you're currently in. So you have to travel manually eventually by running or by foot, Airships dont go everywhere, and even when they do, to the little camp sections you still have to run far.

The port above bloodshore is still a good 10 min run to Iron Lake and by the time those pads are out you can have the airship event or skip it.

Choice is everything, having choice is what makes the game good, removing it is what has ruined it so far, eg: No choice in content, all you could do was level. Now they have dungeons but even those are boring now because we've done them for the millionth time and now people just breeze them by ignoring mobs and going with the best setup.

No one cares about working for something or doing something the typical way after it becomes the same nonsense over and over, they just have to do it because the game is forcing it upon them.

[Azurymber]

The giant world map is useless, what does that have to do with anything relating to Airships? Airships would be instance flight events so it wouldnt even use the world lol.

A lot of people travelled at first, it was fun, but they dont do it over and over unless they have to.

You have chocobos because eventually anima will run out and your airship can only take you to 2 locations excluding the one you're currently in. So you have to travel manually eventually by running or by foot, Airships dont go everywhere, and even when they do, to the little camp sections you still have to run far.

The port above bloodshore is still a good 10 min run to Iron Lake and by the time those pads are out you can have the airship event or skip it.

Choice is everything, having choice is what makes the game good, removing it is what has ruined it so far, eg: No choice in content, all you could do was level. Now they have dungeons but even those are boring now because we've done them for the millionth time and now people just breeze them by ignoring mobs and going with the best setup.

No one cares about working for something or doing something the typical way after it becomes the same nonsense over and over, they just have to do it because the game is forcing it upon them.

i just see the airships as another lost opportunity. They can make it content rich and add to the game world or make it a port system taking out of the game world. Every little extra thing in the game world makes it more special. Especially for new players.

I understand no one wants to do the same thing over and over again and thats why XI's system was perfect. You could rent chocobos -after- a certain level. You could port to craigs -if- you visited them first. You could outpost warp -at- certain levels.

So for example they could make it so you gotta take normal airships. But at rank 36 you can do a quest and get on board new magitek enhanced airships (insta travel). That way you still add into a dynamic world, you don't take away from the adventure or mystery of the game, but you still give choice.

Choice can be bad if it inadvertently ruins a game experience, especially in an MMO. If you cheat in a normal game you essentially ruin the challenge of the game. In a normal game thats your choice. But in an mmo that means people quit faster, which hurts the community and the world, and the chances for expansions packs.

[viion]

i just see the airships as another lost opportunity. They can make it content rich and add to the game world or make it a port system taking out of the game world. Every little extra thing in the game world makes it more special. Especially for new players.

I understand no one wants to do the same thing over and over again and thats why XI's system was perfect. You could rent chocobos -after- a certain level. You could port to craigs -if- you visited them first. You could outpost warp -at- certain levels.

So for example they could make it so you gotta take normal airships. But at rank 36 you can do a quest and get on board new magitek enhanced airships (insta travel). That way you still add into a dynamic world, you don't take away from the adventure or mystery of the game, but you still give choice.

Choice can be bad if it inadvertently ruins a game experience, especially in an MMO. If you cheat in a normal game you essentially ruin the challenge of the game. In a normal game thats your choice. But in an mmo that means people quit faster, which hurts the community and the world, and the chances for expansions packs.

I complete agree with the bold statements.

The thing is people will still explore, a new player would typically:

- Start in starting nation and explore/level through leves. They have to run there because they cant tele and unless they get one free they dont have money to shout for a tele to the closest camp. They may do even up to third camp at station nation.

- By now they've collected gil, explored 3/5 zones in a region that are just as identical as each other and now they want to move to another area, say Grid to Uldah.

- Half of them will run it in thinking they want to explore or that they need to or do it instinctively.

- Other half will hop on the instant Airship. Now that they are there they will go and continue adventuring, doing quests and so fourth and then maybe they lv to 30 to and visit caves, then 40 they over at broken water.

So by just that they've explored and visited all the zones that are between Uldah and Grid haha. So no experience lost, just experienced it differently.

If people want to explore, they will, and while I agree it should be at a certain level you get instant, i'd rather have airships now than have them delay it and much would favor that and sadly highest wins haha.

Not to mention XIV is currently not exactly springing with new people right now and so when the day comes new people join they might not skip cutscene and they might be forced to do it manually, and eventually they will be content on the ships that force people to be active in them to receive xyz so people not going to skip a chance of that.

[Azurymber]

I complete agree with the bold statements.

The thing is people will still explore, a new player would typically:

- Start in starting nation and explore/level through leves. They have to run there because they cant tele and unless they get one free they dont have money to shout for a tele to the closest camp. They may do even up to third camp at station nation.

- By now they've collected gil, explored 3/5 zones in a region that are just as identical as each other and now they want to move to another area, say Grid to Uldah.

- Half of them will run it in thinking they want to explore or that they need to or do it instinctively.

- Other half will hop on the instant Airship. Now that they are there they will go and continue adventuring, doing quests and so fourth and then maybe they lv to 30 to and visit caves, then 40 they over at broken water.

So by just that they've explored and visited all the zones that are between Uldah and Grid haha. So no experience lost, just experienced it differently.

If people want to explore, they will, and while I agree it should be at a certain level you get instant, i'd rather have airships now than have them delay it and much would favor that and sadly highest wins haha.

Not to mention XIV is currently not exactly springing with new people right now and so when the day comes new people join they might not skip cutscene and they might be forced to do it manually, and eventually they will be content on the ships that force people to be active in them to receive xyz so people not going to skip a chance of that.

i agree with all that. cept kinda the way you say ppl will go about levelling. Since you can only get guild marks from the specific city now my friends (like 5 or 6 i convinced to get the game) have essentially just gotten free warps city to city when starting the game, or did a full run (ex, gridania to limsa) right off the get go or within the first few days. All of them have gotten bored, said the games a grindfest with no future and left. But im sure some ppl do it your way too. Regardless, right now it doesnt give you that adventuring feel that other MMOs give. and hopefully they will address that before PS3 release

[neizero]

What it does is it increases my enjoyment of the game, and that's worth 10,000 more than "immersion"

[Seif]

I do feel the overall play experience seems disconnected because of this and it removes a lot of strategy this game could potentially have especially with the harsh item carrying limitations in place.

There never is the sense of traveling around when you can just zap anywhere. Makes the game feel more like a set of levels instead of areas.

[AmyRae]

i agree with all that. cept kinda the way you say ppl will go about levelling. Since you can only get guild marks from the specific city now my friends (like 5 or 6 i convinced to get the game) have essentially just gotten free warps city to city when starting the game, or did a full run (ex, gridania to limsa) right off the get go or within the first few days. All of them have gotten bored, said the games a grindfest with no future and left. But im sure some ppl do it your way too. Regardless, right now it doesnt give you that adventuring feel that other MMOs give. and hopefully they will address that before PS3 release

I'm pretty confident these friends of yours won't be coming back for the "excitement" of waiting half-an-hour to go to the places they've already been to.