This idea sounds like an anime called "Log Horizon". after a certain calamity happened, all the teleporters are down and the adventurers are forced to travel by foot or by Flying mounts. The flying mounts also had stamina and once depleted could not be used for 24 hours. Enough about that though.

For the malfunction of the Aetheryte Crystals to work, the world really would need to be bigger. Not just the world itself, but the areas in general. As someone else said, the loading screen every 45 seconds is pretty lame.