What is the appeal of open world content?

[Magis]

Because MMOs are basically virtual worlds (or they used to be). The whole interesting thing about them is you could meet other people "living" and interacting within this virtual world. Instanced content is the antithesis of the MMO, it takes something that is massively multiplayer and turns it into a 4 person multiplayer co-op game. This can be seen with earlier MMOs focusing on making the world believable rather building a game around it. Players would have to travel across the world (though had help with some teleports) and transportation had a schedule and would take time to move. In FFXI it was a literal time table and you could see the world go by as you sat on the ferry/airship. In WoW it was a bit quicker, with a instant zone load from Azeroth/Kalimdor once the boat/airship move far enough into the ocean.

Later, MMOs became more and more streamlined (mostly thanks to WoW) to the point where the point was shifted from the world to just being "a game". Honestly I think the best place to see the progression is in WoW's PVP system. First the whole world was an "open" pvp ground. Except for newbie areas, players could kill each other anywhere. This would also cause city raids by players, with attackers and defenders (X-Roads and Tarren Mill anyone?). Heck, the main cities would be raided which would have whole servers participate. It was content generated by the players themselves. Then Blizzard introduced battlegrounds... instanced PVP. While it was cut off to just 20 people... you still had to walk to the battle ground and queue up with the faction you were working for. You could even see the path to the battlefield through an instance portal. Heck, world pvp would spill into these entrances too as well. Then Blizz introduced Battle Masters which instantly teleported you to the battle ground making the treck pointless as well as the original entrances. Heck, most would even know why they were fighting there... just that you talk to the guy in the main city and poof! I stopped playing at the end of TBC, but it's from what I heard, it's been made even less open, with pvp accessible anywhere.

At that point you ask... why even have a "world" if you aren't going to encourage players to be in it? A lot of people play MMOs as a roleplaying game, as an interactive experience of the virtual world, with real people.... rather than just something to do for 10min cause /isbored. Heck some took it even further with actual "roleplaying", fully taking the role of their character.

[DenariusJay]

Because MMOs are basically virtual worlds ... *snip* A lot of people play MMOs as a roleplaying game, as an interactive experience of the virtual world, with real people.... rather than just something to do for 10min cause /isbored. Heck some took it even further with actual "roleplaying", fully taking the role of their character.

Your entire post was dead on man. Couldn't agree anymore. MMO's are no longer really about the world and traversing the world, most feel like the world is just one giant obstacle that needs to be avoided (hence all the tping mechanics). All modern themepark MMO's are basically over-glorified lobbies. Oh well, just the way it is. I find just accepting the modernized style of MMO's for what it is seems to help me have more fun. The more I wish "it was like the old days" the more I start disliking this game. We can't change the game but we can change the way we view the game.