Does instant transportation effect game immersion?

[Enma]

At this point of the game's life I don't care if I have Anima, Teleport, Chocobo or whatelse, because the "sense of adventure" that the game should give simply doesn't exist... In Eorzea there are 5 landscapes, and once you have seen them your desire of exploration just disappear. Huge and monotonous maps that don't need any exploration at all. I hope in the future Yoshi will fulfill his promises about maps and landscapes, so that you can really prefer an healthy ride on your chocobo instead of an instant teleport ( by anima or airship ). I'm still convinced that "instant airship" and anima system will be deeply reviewed when the game will have solved all his main problems.

[DNO]

The mistake resides in associating the problems of this game (or any other) with a lack of immersion, and then, associating that lack of immersion with a lack of correspondence to reality.

Games don't have to be realistic in any form to be immersive.

The fact is that every game that ever was is based in well-crafted obstacle management. Without obstacles, there's just instantly achievable goals. And the moment you achieve your goal, the fun is over. (Also, the easier the path to achieve the goal, the less fun there is to be had.) The other fact is that every game that ever was edits, stylizes, and distorts reality, since its point is not to be reality, but a reminder thereof. The same happens in the theater, or in the movies. Nobody gets to witness anybody's every little move or to hear them think. Nobody in real life breaks into song and dance when they feel a strong emotion. And the Hong Kong martial-arts honcho, without bruises in his face and body after taking that beating, is as immersive and etertaining as we want him to be.

Chess is enormously immersive, and so are Go, Bridge, Poker and Mahjong. They actually are so stylized and abstracted that you really have to make an effort to remember that they all are basically representations of warfare and combat. You don't see bruises, blood, broken bones. The game is distilled to the abstracted basics of the encounters they try to replicate, and nobody minds that.

Nobody minds it because the obstacles to winning are considerable, and the management of those difficulties are what make those games fun. It's the same with every successful video game. Also--it goes without saying--the success of games depends on how elegant the abstraction is, not on how close to reality they remain.

Games are not about just tagging the tail to the donkey. They are about doing it blindfolded. Tie your left leg to your companion's right one, or jump into a sack and win that race. Don't let that egg off the spoon as you stride to the finish line. Remove the difficulties, lower the obstacles, avoid the hurdles, and the game is gone.

Rut

tell that to the insanly popular angry birds game. not hard no obstacles all you do is sling a bird over and hope you hit something yet it sold over 10 million.

Morale of the story hard does not equal fun for everyone. and truthfully hard does not equal sales as the wii killing everyone is proof off. and WoW killing everyone is also proving.

You do not need to add stupid timesinks for a game to be fun. Im glad with anima and insta airships SE has finally learned that.

Other then that i agree that games do not have to be realistic to be immersive.

[Onidemon]

tell that to the insanly popular angry birds game. not hard no obstacles all you do is sling a bird over and hope you hit something yet it sold over 10 million.

Morale of the story hard does not equal fun for everyone. and truthfully hard does not equal sales as the wii killing everyone is proof off. and WoW killing everyone is also proving.

You do not need to add stupid timesinks for a game to be fun. Im glad with anima and insta airships SE has finally learned that.

Other then that i agree that games do not have to be realistic to be immersive.

Agree 100%. Not everyone is a hardcore gamer who can spend 30+ hours a week playing a game and making something incredibly long and hard does not = more fun. Either way to me it looks like SE is taking wow's approach and trying to give something for everyone.

[PrettyPrincess]

Either way to me it looks like SE is taking wow's approach and trying to give something for everyone.

EXACTLY!!! They're making options for everyone but the "omg my immersion is ruined" people still have to moan about it even though they have the OPTION of enjoying the game how THEY see fit

[DNO]

EXACTLY!!! They're making options for everyone but the "omg my immersion is ruined" people still have to moan about it even though they have the OPTION of enjoying the game how THEY see fit

yup and its selfish and silly just like the thread. This thread is telling SE to limit people to what the OP thinks is best. When its clearly not best for everyone

[Kiote]

This is not really a matter of fun.. It's about sustainability. If there is no effort in travel then content becomes meaningless. 75% of most quest in most games is to get from point A to point B and then complete a task. No matter how difficult you make the task when you get to point B you are effectively quartering the life span of your games playability by allowing people to instantly arrive at there destination.

Unless SE intends to create well over a hundred quests that require you to walk out into the middle of no where then travel to another spot in the middle of no where this games will never break through the barrier of Users completing all of it's content before more can come out.

Instant travel will only serve to expand this problem. It effectively eliminates the possibility of a quest to carry the user between cities. We will be stuck with quests that require us to walk somewhere then telport back to town. Or quests that require us to teleport from town to town repeatedly. And of course the ever popular teleport to a specifc location and kill something. The only way around that of course would be to have quest check points all along the path to the next city which of course they will not do because it would require a lot of work and no one will do them in favor of simply teleporting.

How can you expect a game to have sustainable content if there is no effort required to get between start and end and your next piece of content? Even WoW, literally the easiest MMO ever made, does not have instant teleportation between towns. You have to watch yourself ride whatever random creature they give you the entire distance to the town.

[DNO]

This is not really a matter of fun.. It's about sustainability. If there is no effort in travel then content becomes meaningless. 75% of most quest in most games is to get from point A to point B and then complete a task. No matter how difficult you make the task when you get to point B you are effectively quartering the life span of your games playability by allowing people to instantly arrive at there destination.

Unless SE intends to create well over a hundred quests that require you to walk out into the middle of no where then travel to another spot in the middle of no where this games will never break through the barrier of Users completing all of it's content before more can come out.

Instant travel will only serve to expand this problem. It effectively eliminates the possibility of a quest to carry the user between cities. We will be stuck with quests that require us to walk somewhere then telport back to town. Or quests that require us to teleport from town to town repeatedly. And of course the ever popular teleport to a specifc location and kill something. The only way around that of course would be to have quest check points all along the path to the next city which of course they will not do because it would require a lot of work and no one will do them in favor of simply teleporting.

How can you expect a game to have sustainable content if there is no effort required to get between start and end and your next piece of content? Even WoW, literally the easiest MMO ever made, does not have instance teleportation between towns. You have to watch yourself ride whatever random creature they give you the entire distance to the town.

the problem is clearly you are saying beause its faster to get to town then he game is boring because you get to content faster.

That is wrong.

And it is a matter of fun. Last night i had 1 hour left and no anima. i needed to get to LL from grind. guess what i did? i signed out. Travel to camps and raids is needed but traval between quest hubs becaue thats all a town really is a huge quest hub is not needed. Signing out because i did not feel like walking for 45 mins IS and always will be a matter of fun or not fun.

anyways we will agree to disagree because it does not matter. SE agrees with us thats why we are getting airships. its a moot point aanyway becasue we are both getting what we want.

[PrettyPrincess]

Except I've already had to go into the middle of nowhere for quests. R36 btn quest? "HERE GO THROUGH THIS AREA THAT HAS PTEROCTRAPS AND ANOLES 20 RANKS ABOVE YOU"

There are plenty of other quests that require to walk to random locations as well. Hamlets anyone? I dont remember being able to teleport to those. That requires walking.

[Quanta]

Does instant transportation effect game immersion?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Instant travel only has an effect on immersion if travel time is a significant and worthwhile part of gameplay. The game's primary focal points are combat, crafting, and narrative (not necessarily in that order), which are affected by travel to varying degrees.

Travel affects combat (and gathering) the most, but only when you're in the field, where combat and gathering skills are actually relevant. Outside of that, travel is irrelevant, unless you're going to be mining iron or killing monsters on the airship.

For crafting, travel doesn't add anything. Having a 10-minute airship ride isn't going to give crafters anything they couldn't already get sitting in Ul'dah all day.

For narrative, travel is only relevant if the plot deems it so. If plot-relevant characters can be found on the airship, then having a scene on the airship prior to reaching your destination is an important break in the action, but only then; if there's no plot events occurring, having the extra scene in-between adds nothing to the experience.

Immersion is less about mimicking reality, and more about maintaining the audience's interest. People are more immersed when there's something going on that's keeping them active in the game than when nothing is going on and the only way to pass the time is to troll linkshell chat.

[Kiote]

the problem is clearly you are saying beause its faster to get to town then he game is boring because you get to content faster.

That is wrong.

And it is a matter of fun. Last night i had 1 hour left and no anima. i needed to get to LL from grind. guess what i did? i signed out. Travel to camps and raids is needed but traval between quest hubs becaue thats all a town really is a huge quest hub is not needed. Signing out because i did not feel like walking for 45 mins IS and always will be a matter of fun or not fun.

anyways we will agree to disagree because it does not matter. SE agrees with us thats why we are getting airships. its a moot point aanyway becasue we are both getting what we want.

You would not have signed out if there was a 5 minute Airship ride.