Lets go everywhere instantly lololol

[casker]

I really miss that feeling of exploration like in Everquest where just getting to the next zone or next city is a huge journey. Never played XI so I wouldn't know if they had it too. REALLY tired of this teleport anywhere at any time crap just because "I wanna play with my friends!!!"

[IloveYouPumpkin]

I really miss that feeling of exploration like in Everquest where just getting to the next zone or next city is a huge journey. Never played XI so I wouldn't know if they had it too. REALLY tired of this teleport anywhere at any time crap just because "I wanna play with my friends!!!"

For me, Everquest Online Adventures for PS2.. The MMO that got me into MMO's.. Such a classic.. Miss it so much. /cry

[Preypacer]

I really miss that feeling of exploration like in Everquest where just getting to the next zone or next city is a huge journey. Never played XI so I wouldn't know if they had it too. REALLY tired of this teleport anywhere at any time crap just because "I wanna play with my friends!!!"

It's actually not even about playing with your friends. You can play with your friends while exploring or traveling as well.

It's more this faux dilemma of "I don't have the time I used to!" which is really just a cover up for "I'm impatient and want my games to be like a vending machine where I can get whatever I want, where ever I want, when ever I want!"

People are stuck on this 100% self-imposed mindset (no one forces it on them, but themselves) of "when I log on to my MMORPG, I must be productive! I must feel like I accomplished something and that the time was worthwhile! I must get "x", "y" and "z" done in an hour, or the time is wasted!". And then people wonder why every MMO they play feels like "a chore" or "a job" to them. Hint: They should ask the person in the mirror why they're treating it like one.

The whole "teleport anywhere instantly" mindset is driven by this change in gamer mentality over the past several years where everything is reward-driven. It's all about the pay-off. If someone doesn't get a reward proportionate with what they personally feel they should for the time spent (read: as little time as possible), then "it's all wrong, the devs are clueless and, omg this MMO is going to fail".

It has nothing to do with "well, I don't have the time I used to have when I was younger. I have a family, and a job and kids and I can't spend endless hours locked in my room...". When you had tons of hours, there were others playing along-side you whom were in that same position you're in now. They had families, careers, other responsibilities as well. I personally knew a couple people who were business owners and could only play like, once or twice a week for an hour or two. They played the games, and they enjoyed them. People fall into that category today as well: limited time, but still can enjoy what time they get because their fun isn't focused around "rewards".

Why? If your answer is "because they were masochists, dur hur, I'm so clever and insightful", you're wrong.

It's because they had different priorities when playing them. They didn't play the games to "go go go" where every minute spent was judged harshly against some arbitrary, self-imposed ideal of whether they were rewarded enough with levels, drops, etc. They didn't treat them like jobs. They played the games as hobbies; as a pastime. The simple act of logging in and finding things to do, helping others out, exploring, crafting, questing... whatever... That was their enjoyment. And whether they were logged in for two hours, or 30 minutes, their time was enjoyed. They didn't measure their enjoyment by "how much they achieved in the time they were playing". They didn't treat their MMOs like a second job, and so they didn't feel like one. That's the difference.

People need to understand that when you're judging older MMOs, or the people who played them, or how they played them, you can not do so using the typical gamer mindset of today.

Going by some people these days, MMOs shouldn't have levels, everyone should start at end-game, there should never be traveling anywhere and all content should be ready "on-demand" like a damn vending machine. They should never have to figure out what to do or where to go - the game should tell/show them. They should never have to seek out what content might be available to them - the game should tell them. They should never have to make effort to talk to people, build rapports and develop a social circle of people to get together and do content with - the game should do all the work of automatically putting them into a group and whisk them away to their desired location, while they stand in one spot twiddling their fingers, and wondering all the while, "gee, why am I so bored playing this MMO?"

Many players these days want everything in a MMO to come to them - the content, the groups, the rewards, information, etc. They want to "sit back and be mindlessly entertained", as though they were watching TV.

The gamer of today is, again, all about "go go go", "get the best rewards as quickly as possible", "get to end-game by the most efficient and effective means possible". Anything that takes "this much" longer than someone feels it should - for them - automatically becomes "a horrible grind that takes far too much time and needs to be made faster/easier".

They've either forgotten, abandoned or never knew what it was to embrace and enjoy the journey of experiencing a game. For them, it's all Destination. The "Journey" is just an obstacle between them and their reward that they'd be thrilled to see go away entirely. This attitude is perfectly demonstrated in some of the ridiculous hyperbole people will use to describe travel. In another thread, someone described getting from the city to the first aetheryte camp as "taking three hours". I mean, really? Obviously they didn't really believe it takes 3 hours (at least I hope not), but the point was to say "it takes entirely too long". I mean really? How impatient must you be in where a run that takes - what, 5 minutes at most on foot? - is considered "unbearably long", especially when you're only "forced" to do that run once?

Things only "take too long" when an individual has expectations to complete them in a pre-determined amount of time. It's only "too slow" when you're in a hurry. There is no objective law that determines "how long things should take in a MMO", and there never really needed to be one in the past. Things took how ever long it took you to complete them, and that was it. Again, the focus was on enjoying what you were doing along the way, not only on the payoff at the end.

Bringing it back to the topic of traveling/teleportation, that plays right into that same mindset. People don't want to travel because they want as little "journey" in their game as possible. They couldn't care less about the lands all around them. They care only for the specific locations that contain some reward that they want... preferably as quickly as possible.

Will it ever change? Probably not. We'll continue to see people complain for "faster", "easier", "more efficient" and so on. And it will never be enough.

For me, I am perfectly pleased with the idea of getting to a remote aetheryte camp, or some remote location requiring me to go through different and potentially dangerous terrain. Make it a challenge. Getting there is part of the adventure. Once I've unlocked the location, if I want/need to get there faster for whatever reason.. wonderful, I just teleport.

TL;DR: Travel times in MMOs are fine, when you are playing for the adventure/journey, and aren't impatient or in a "go go go" hurry all the time. Thing is, many gamers these days fall squarely into the latter category and firmly (and ignorantly) believe anyone in the former is "just a masochist".

[Jynx]

It's more this faux dilemma of "I don't have the time I used to!" which is really just a cover up for "I'm impatient and want my games to be like a vending machine where I can get whatever I want, where ever I want, when ever I want!"

I couldn't press the like button any harder, it broke.