For most people who played FFXI, the FFXIV world feels small in comparison. The same feeling has been felt by many new to the FF MMO scene. While I realize that they are "redesigning" zones, it seems like they won't be making any drastic changes since they keep implementing new landmarks like camps.

So how do you think they could make the world "feel" larger (because in reality it's pretty huge)

Recently I've given Morrowind and Oblivion a shot and I noticed that Morrowind felt significantly larger than oblivion, for almost all the same reasons FFXIV seems smaller than FFXI. That gave me some ideas about the psychology behind game worlds.

Here are some of my suggestions:

1. Remove automatic maps. Either have a fog of war type thing, or force people to quest for maps. Why? Because it will make zones seem more mysterious, expansive, and larger, to new players and when new zones are released. Even if you can see the map online, theres a huge difference when you have to navigate a zone by yourself as opposed to constantly looking at a map.

2. Make each atheryte crystal look drastically different. I realize they -may- be doing this but i don't think they have really confirmed anything. FFXI and morrowind felt big because there were lots of very different looking areas. FFXIV and Oblivion felt smaller because their areas nearly all looked the same. Even if you have smaller zones, if they look significantly different, they will make you feel like you're in a larger more diverse world. Even simple things like making the north forest's darker as you get further away from gridania, or maybe have one being partly burnt down with imperials running around can make a huge difference. The point is to change lighting, normal weather, mobs, etc, at each atheryte crystal. That would at least make it feel like your not just in one small identical forest but your in a dynamic forest. As such it would make it feel -a lot- bigger because going to camp nine ivies would give a whole different atmospheric feel than going to emerald moss or tranquil. At the same time it lets them use the same copy-paste method .

3. Add in aggro mobs between cities. Make it difficult for anyone under rank 15 to get to another zone. This creates a sense of accomplishment and exploration when you rank up high enough to make a new journey possible. In other words, you feel like you start out in a big forest and you have to work your way out. Make it so a lot of zones are difficult to reach either alone or at a certain level. For example, to get to camp bloodshore maybe you have to fight rank 18ish mobs on the way. So a low level can't just run there, and a rank 20 going there to do leves feels like they have to battle their way there.

4. charge gil for instant teleportation or make it more difficult or remove it (not sure if they are removing it once we get chocobos). This would make it feel like you have to journey to places and make the world feel larger.

5. Create "cool" things and "cool" places that are difficult to get to and tie them into quests. For example once you have an engine for "hamlet defence" apply it in more creative ways. Like have a small for or cave in northern black shroud in the middle of a clearing with aggro mobs and levelling mobs around it, where you can defend a fort from an imperial attack. Stuff like that. Having raids and activities neatly laid out in caves and villages and cities is great and all, but it makes the world feel dead. If you stick in weird random event-based things in hard to reach places (maybe away from typical sp camps) people get a sense of adventure when exploring. And it just feels more alive to be able to walk by a battle between the woodwailers and the imperials. Kind of like how it felt cool to walk through the "past" in FFXI and see an army of orcs start attacking a campaign spot. Would be even cooler to tie it in with ongoing stories. Like every patch the imperials get closer to gridania and the woodwailers get pushed back. That way with every new patch theres a reason to go out exploring.

tldr;
how would you make the game feel bigger or more expansive?
my suggestions:
1. remove auto-maps and force player to quest them or explore
2. drastically change how diff sections of zones look by altering lighting, weather, mobs, shades, etc.
3. add in mobs that agro so that you can't explore the entire world at rank 1 easily
4. reduce the amount of instant teleportation
5. implement interesting and unique things in each area in parts that normally go untouched to create an incentive to explore.