Teleport kills immersion

[Alahra]

I've said before I wish we only had a few central aetherytes. The three main cities, Ishgard, Mor Dhona, and Idyllshire would be enough. From there, Chocobo Porters or simply riding your own bird to your destination would be much more preferable to me. I'd like it if ferries at least had short cutscenes attached to them too, instead of just warping us, Captain Placeholder style. Even WoW, as the MMO that basically kickstarted the modern MMO themepark, had more immersive travel than FFXIV does.

While the option not to use teleportation is there, it's a wildly inefficient choice to make in a game that is, at its core, extremely encouraging of efficiency. Systems like Hunts directly encourage (and indeed pretty much require) it to really progress. Other overworld activities like Treasure Maps are ultimately so minor that the sense of buildup that would come from traveling to them would be unimaginably deflated once you actually did the content you were traveling to.

We'll never see a reduction in teleports—it's the sort of thing that, once implemented, is going to always stay. But I definitely wish they would have emphasized actual travel at least somewhat more, as I rather enjoy the feeling of the necessity of travel itself. It makes the world feel more cohesive and less like a queue lobby. Electing not to teleport (which I do actually do on occasion) lacks the important element of necessity, so it doesn't evoke the same feeling of immersion for me.

[Kaiser-Ace]

I've said before I wish we only had a few central aetherytes. The three main cities, Ishgard, Mor Dhona, and Idyllshire would be enough. From there, Chocobo Porters or simply riding your own bird to your destination would be much more preferable to me.

With the exception of zones like The Churning Mists, The Sea of Clouds, and Southern Thanalan, that's actually pretty much how it works. One or Two Aetherytes tops per zone and then you ride, fly, or walk to your destination.

Perhaps I'm miss understanding the definition of immersion. Are people complaining about it actually TRYING to feel like they're in a game world with no connection to the real world? Because with out a Sword Art Online style full dive rig that's never going to be possible no matter what the devs, or any dev for that matter, does. You can never take away the fact that the first thing between you and the screen is a Controller/Keyboard. At least fast travel conveniences like teleport were actually given a lore explanation in this game. Where as other are more like "It's here but pretend it isn't." We already have the friggin time bubble to break immersions. "Oh God, someone is getting executed at sunrise, better spend three days gathering those rare mats for new gear before I pick that quest up" NPC: "You got here just in time, the trial's about to start"...... Yea, that's the real immersion killer. Want a lore explanation for the load screen? <Fires Head Cannon> Well when we teleport since we are effectively reduced to our base aether we don't actually have eyes until we reform on the other side. BUT when switching between zones, since it actually takes a few hours in world, we call on our trusty chocobos and take a nap while riding to the next zone then dismount just after waking up at which point the new zone is loaded.

[Alahra]

Perhaps I'm miss understanding the definition of immersion.

It seems like you are. No one wants to be "jacked-in" so to speak.

Immersion is a pretty common topic of discussion in fiction generally, in which the term "breaking the fourth wall" refers to the creator deliberately dispelling the audience's sense of immersion in the work. In video games specifically, in an immersive game, the audience "forgets" about the interface and method of inputs generally, allowing them to fully experience the game's world and narrative "in universe" as it were.