Quote Originally Posted by Azurymber View Post
I'm really amazed at some of the criticism.

1. I'm not asking for the entire game to turn into this. Just one zone (or series of zones). FFXIV 1.0 had this "exploration factor" in it. And FFXI had this "exploration factor." Adding a single area is not going to kill the game.

2. It's supposed to turn into a ghost town. It's supposed to be a side zone people experience once or twice and then go to for fun, to get away from the repetitive and cyclic grind of the game. However, unlike dungeons, diadem, etc, etc, you don't need to queue up to experience it. So people can do it at any time. And mobs aren't supposed to be unkillable solo. Just challenging.

3. It's meant to make the game feel like a game. Why is there so much opposition to having a legitimate open world in modern games? This is an RPG, not halo. Everything doesn't have to be an instance.

4. It's supposed to be an experience. I don't understand why people have such a hard time grasping this with modern gaming. It's meant to leave a memorable imprint on people, like getting wiped by the kraken on the selbina mhaura ship in ffxi, reaching sky for the first time, reaching tavnazia for the first time, etc.

Essentially: This game is a chain link of instances. 2.0 is just a bunch of small zones that can be traversed in minutes. 3.0's story is amazing, and provides the exploration feeling, but then becomes small once you unlock flying. This idea is suggesting an OPTIONAL side area that always feels big, always feels epic, and creates that exploration feel in a permanent way. Just so people can experience that old feeling from classic MMOs like everquest, ffxi, and even ffxiv 1.0 (which for all it's flaws, had an intricate open world)

Even if you don't go to the zone, knowing it is there enhances the world. You know that part of FFXIV is this dangerous mysterious area that requires a time investment to get to. It makes the world feel bigger than it is. And that feeling alone would enhance the game.

1. Ghost town zones are bad for the game. Hence nobody designs it. It's not worth the resources if its not going to be used.
2. A side thing has to have rewards and traction towards it. If rewards are too great it's no longer a side thing. If rewards are too minor too little % would do the zone to even justify its existence.
3. Legitimate open world MMOs still make you fast travel trough it. Look at ESO introducing more fast travel methods. Look at WoW and the outrage it gets when you suddenly can't fly. Hence even open world RPGs like Skyrim you can fast travel from town to town and then to any landmark that you unlocked, and there's landmarks everywhere. FFXI was super inconvenient travel wise. Nobody in the 2010s onwards would play a game that makes you put up with it.