What is the appeal of open world content?

[Krindor]

If done right open world content can be really good, and personally I enjoy running around doing stuff in a world instead of just sitting in a portal hub waiting on finding other people who want to run around in a closed of area. There are also games where open world is challenging, take a look at BAMs in Tera. FFXIV have a harder time to create a challenging open world due to its attack system where it would either be too easy or require a group which then leads to what hunts became. I believe that in the future FFXIV will have more fun stuff to do in the open world as for that we can just wait and hope.

[coldreactive]

If done right open world content can be really good, and personally I enjoy running around doing stuff in a world instead of just sitting in a portal hub waiting on finding other people who want to run around in a closed of area. There are also games where open world is challenging, take a look at BAMs in Tera. FFXIV have a harder time to create a challenging open world due to its attack system where it would either be too easy or require a group which then leads to what hunts became. I believe that in the future FFXIV will have more fun stuff to do in the open world as for that we can just wait and hope.

TERA isn't truly open world. Some of the areas require a transition because they are on separate virtual servers. But yeah, I really like how "Open" each area in TERA is. But the reason I don't like TERA: Crafting, The HUD uses Flash, AMD CPUs struggle in some areas due to single-threading of x86 programs.

[Krindor]

TERA isn't truly open world. Some of the areas require a transition because they are on separate virtual servers. But yeah, I really like how "Open" each area in TERA is. But the reason I don't like TERA: Crafting, The HUD uses Flash, AMD CPUs struggle in some areas due to single-threading of x86 programs.

What I was thinking about in Tera was mostly BAMs and they can be considered open world content which is challenging and fun especially solo

[Hurlstone]

I think open world content can be good, I like it in games such as Fallout and Skyrim. I do not think it is the bastion of gameplay which every game should strive to be though. It seems to be to some that any game that is not open world is utter rubbish to some, which i do understand. I like the world of FFXIV more the XI, for example. The environments of Vana'diel are good, do not get me wrong, but they felt rather empty to me. Eorzea may be smaller (Not surprising, given how it is only a year old) but it has more to do per zone, such as quests and FATE's. I think stories are better told in smaller, more linear environments too.

Each to their own though!