Does instant transportation effect game immersion?

[Rhomagus]

The point being made is that the game as an MMO needs to be immersive. I think no one can disagree to that. The issue is how and where are the appropriate places for immersion. No.. I take that back, immersion should be everywhere, the issue is how to tackle the issue of convenience.
This is where i will agree with OP, that the very concept of Airship that sets it apart from Teleporting or anything else for that matter is that your travelling through Air. If nothing will reflect that very fact and there is no experience involved, then why even bother with the Airship or even name it that? Surely you could set up some npc's in every city that warp you to each city for a fee. Airship is just that, it's an Airship, you are supposed to have an Airship experience or by it's very definition it is completely pointless, redundant and in reality is just another disguised form of teleporting. There should be times set for travel, and there should be an Air Travel flight experience.
By the same token, would you be happy if chocobo were insta travels too? Would it make any sense to insta travel through chocobos? Just rent a choco, and your instantly in a new location. No, it doesn't make sense and it completely beats the point of chocobos as a travelling method.

Airships aren't chocobos. A gil fee may be levied for use, replacing Anima costs with gil costs, effectively implementing a deflation strategy alongside the current repair system. No to mention, those who want to appreciate the airship ride can post 1.19 in a future patch update.

The issue is why are we forcing people to stand around when they could be doing something else? I agree with letting an airship ride remain for those who want to watch it but why must we keep it that way for those who don't? The argument is an attempt to manipulate an individual's playstyle to conform to the "immersionist's" ideal. I'll never agree with this, especially when the immersionist has the option whether or not to utilize said content. It's a poor argument with a selfish premise. In an MMO no less.

The very framework of the leve and anima system was to help accommodate casual players so that they too could enjoy playing with their more time wealthy allies. So what's being proposed by the development team is a system that, in later iterations, will provide content for the time wealthy but will also offer respite for those who are low on anima and need to travel to a given area quickly.

If you must keep immersion, why not implement a minigame that completely refunds your gil spent for choosing to take "the road less traveled"? Not only do you have the option for immersion, but you also have actual content. The level of difficulty provided by said mini game could be decided by the developers. Hell, here's an opportunity to introduce legitimate content now, but no, the premise for restricting instant airships is "because I don't want them to make it easy for others."

Change the premise and we can continue.

The other point is, I would agree with the other side that the flight itself should not be a long and/or tedious flight, have it somewhere in the middle, something long enough to enjoy the flight, and not long enough to be tedious/frustrating. it does not have to be a long ride. [You could implement an option for those that want to experience the airship flight along with some content like a mini game that can only be accessed while in mid flight or an airship battle of sorts.] Then ofcourse, content on the airship would definitely add to the immersion as well and make any time spent on the Airship an enjoyable time. Who wouldn't enjoy a garlean airship hijack/battle?
Certainly, i would for sure want to see to improvements over XI airship system, i think there is room for a lot of creativity in an airship flight and the ideas for a fun ride are many.

Fixed that for you. I now completely agree. This gives the content for those who want to experience it and the freedom for those who don't. Win/Win.

Point is, Immersion and convenience do not conflict. Insta travel has it's places and uses, Airship on the other hand has it's own unique place and flavor and is supposed to have an experience to reflect that. You want to instant travel to another city? Anima is there, you dont want to lose your Anima? Request some npc's for warping. Just dont kill the Airship experience for the sake of convenience, let the immersion, experience, fun, lore takes it's place, and let the convenience take it's place.

The problem is that I have yet to see someone advocate that we make sure there is no airship scenario option for those who do want one. One side wants to restrict the other, while the other just wants to be free. That's an oppressive stance to take if you must require that people aren't given the option to skip the ride. It's not hurting you, hell, you might even find yourself, one day, with no anima and be right in town where you could take the airship to it's other destination and maybe there is a live event that's going on but you might miss it if you don't skip the cutscene. Why not have that option there when you need it? You don't have to use it, but you might want to use it every once in awhile. I see no downsides to this except for red herrings and slippery slope logical fallacies. This is a very ample compromise.

This game is starting to feel like it's turning into a grindfest more than anything with all the requests for insta ports and the game will really suffer as a result. What's the matter with you guys? can't be bothered exploring anything this game has to offer? just raids and grinding? There really is much more to an MMO than that.

There's much more to this MMO than that. I suggest you get out and explore. What's the matter with you? Are you the one asking for an instant port? If not, then what's the problem. Does the game force you to insta port others? For those that are fine with getting together with their friends or playing solo, chatting it up, killing mobs, and grinding raptors: Go on ahead. I'm not going to dictate their gaming experience.

I agree it's frustrating to run all over the place due to poor design of the world and travel methods, but don't just kill off the concept of exploration and adventure.

Again, no one is advocating this. Show me a post where they have and I'll gladly adjust or retract my statement. Even if the world was designed well I still don't want to waste my time when I'm beholden by others or have my own goals in mind.

I personally hate Anima for that reason, though again it's understandable in the current poor state and design of the world of Eorzea, it is not feasible otherwise, then we can hopefully see people actually being bothered with exploring the land and enjoying it instead of whine for insta ports and convenience this and convenience that.

Anima has lore surrounding it. Anima was a game mechanic from the outset. That's not going away, I'm pretty confident in those words. Even if the game world was designed "better" it'd still have anima. There will still be people who just don't want to be bothered with tedious activities in between their goals. That is a direct response to the bolded area in your quote. You still had people offering tele taxis in XI. You don't think that would still crop up if we got rid of anima? Not to mention that was another avenue for RMT for awhile. If anything anima's implementation into XIV was more a direct response to complaints about XI's overreaching philosophy falsely obstructed by the term "immersion". In XI, they wasted your time because they didn't have content to back it up. Time spent =/= content and it never will. Why are we so against fixing XI's mistakes? Ridiculous wait times between content was one of it's biggest.

For longevity and overall success of the game, there should be some effort and places that are enforced upon players, or the game will turn boring and die off rather quickly. Just as long as those things are actually fun and challenging, not tedious, boring and frustrating. I do blame the state of the game. I hope time will fix this issue when more interesting content and a more dynamic and interactive world exists.

There is nothing here I disagree with. The immersionist argument is also presupposing that airships will take you everywhere. While we don't have information yet, what is making us believe it's going to take us anywhere other than the city-states?

The proposition still stands, wasting time for wasting time's sake is not good game design. This last paragraph is difficult to argue with, it's only when it's in context of the rest of the post is it misused. It should be fun and challenging. Yes! but AFK sammich is neither fun nor challenging. Well, if it is, it's not game related. It's sammich related.

[Gennosuke]

Airships aren't chocobos. A gil fee may be levied for use, replacing Anima costs with gil costs, effectively implementing a deflation strategy alongside the current repair system. No to mention, those who want to appreciate the airship ride can post 1.19 in a future patch update.

The issue is why are we forcing people to stand around when they could be doing something else? I agree with letting an airship ride remain for those who want to watch it but why must we keep it that way for those who don't? The argument is an attempt to manipulate an individual's playstyle to conform to the "immersionist's" ideal. I'll never agree with this, especially when the immersionist has the option whether or not to utilize said content. It's a poor argument with a selfish premise. In an MMO no less.

The very framework of the leve and anima system was to help accommodate casual players so that they too could enjoy playing with their more time wealthy allies. So what's being proposed by the development team is a system that, in later iterations, will provide content for the time wealthy but will also offer respite for those who are low on anima and need to travel to a given area quickly.

If you must keep immersion, why not implement a minigame that completely refunds your gil spent for choosing to take "the road less traveled"? Not only do you have the option for immersion, but you also have actual content. The level of difficulty provided by said mini game could be decided by the developers. Hell, here's an opportunity to introduce legitimate content now, but no, the premise for restricting instant airships is "because I don't want them to make it easy for others."

Change the premise and we can continue.



Fixed that for you. I now completely agree. This gives the content for those who want to experience it and the freedom for those who don't. Win/Win.



The problem is that I have yet to see someone advocate that we make sure there is no airship scenario option for those who do want one. One side wants to restrict the other, while the other just wants to be free. That's an oppressive stance to take if you must require that people aren't given the option to skip the ride. It's not hurting you, hell, you might even find yourself, one day, with no anima and be right in town where you could take the airship to it's other destination and maybe there is a live event that's going on but you might miss it if you don't skip the cutscene. Why not have that option there when you need it? You don't have to use it, but you might want to use it every once in awhile. I see no downsides to this except for red herrings and slippery slope logical fallacies. This is a very ample compromise.



There's much more to this MMO than that. I suggest you get out and explore. What's the matter with you? Are you the one asking for an instant port? If not, then what's the problem. Does the game force you to insta port others? For those that are fine with getting together with their friends or playing solo, chatting it up, killing mobs, and grinding raptors: Go on ahead. I'm not going to dictate their gaming experience.



Again, no one is advocating this. Show me a post where they have and I'll gladly adjust or retract my statement. Even if the world was designed well I still don't want to waste my time when I'm beholden by others or have my own goals in mind.



Anima has lore surrounding it. Anima was a game mechanic from the outset. That's not going away, I'm pretty confident in those words. Even if the game world was designed "better" it'd still have anima. There will still be people who just don't want to be bothered with tedious activities in between their goals. That is a direct response to the bolded area in your quote. You still had people offering tele taxis in XI. You don't think that would still crop up if we got rid of anima? Not to mention that was another avenue for RMT for awhile. If anything anima's implementation into XIV was more a direct response to complaints about XI's overreaching philosophy falsely obstructed by the term "immersion". In XI, they wasted your time because they didn't have content to back it up. Time spent =/= content and it never will. Why are we so against fixing XI's mistakes? Ridiculous wait times between content was one of it's biggest.



There is nothing here I disagree with. The immersionist argument is also presupposing that airships will take you everywhere. While we don't have information yet, what is making us believe it's going to take us anywhere other than the city-states?

The proposition still stands, wasting time for wasting time's sake is not good game design. This last paragraph is difficult to argue with, it's only when it's in context of the rest of the post is it misused. It should be fun and challenging. Yes! but AFK sammich is neither fun nor challenging. Well, if it is, it's not game related. It's sammich related.

Just reading through your whole reply, i can't help but think you missed the core concept behind my post.
To answer your question, No the game does not force me to insta-port and by the same token it does not force you to take an airship ride.
My suggestion for that issue, if you cared to pay a bit of attention was that SE could easily introduce alternatives for people like you, such as NPC's to cater for insta ports at some cost other than Anima.

My main point here is that Airship should be an Airship ride, not an insta port. You dont want to be dictated? That's Fine, i agree with you. Request for npc's for porting, we had them in XI, they can easily do them again. Perhaps if we stress that, it will come to pass. I nowhere dictated the Immersionist's style of play for those who can't be stuffed. The point here is that you shouldn't dictate what the Airship should grow and flourish to be, hopefully an exciting part of the game, and not just merely an instant travel tool. we've all seen the intro movie with the airship battles and that was something highly anticipated to be a part of the game.

One major potential issue i see with it being instanced is that if you do choose to take the ride, my impression is that you will be on the ride on your own instead of with other players where people can for example enjoy content on airship together such as teaming up with strangers on-board to fight against enemies in airship battles and such. That would just plain suck, and in that case aren't you dictating what other players could have enjoyed as a result of your beloved insta-port system?

The other issue is, realistically speaking, when you give the option to instaport or not, it would be silly not take the instaport option, everyone will just start instaporting, killing off the airship feature when it should be an integral part of the game. You can go ahead and blame the immersionist for choosing not to take that option to ride, but some things should be enforced for the good of the game. By your logic, they should also make the ferry insta port as well, and hey, why not have the guards by the city gates insta port us to any guild in the town so we dont have to run in the city anymore? Then, you tell me, who wouldn't use that option if it existed? Shall we just remove Anima cost? Heck.. lets just remove running All together, so with a click of a button in the menu, people can reach their destination in a split of a second and not waste any game time. It's just becoming ridiculous.
I don't advocate mindless time-sinks and neither do i advocate dictating those limited in time or uninterested, but we should strike a balance and there should be a line drawn somewhere. In this case, i'd like see these rides remain rides and not ports. There is a teleportation system, let's utilize that for those who can't be bothered.

It is merely my feeling that i think its a sad sight to see, where people in an MMO can't be bothered spending some time to explore/experience the world because they feel it's a time-sink when it plays a huge factor in the overall experience of the game. But Meh, To each his own.
Granted, i can see the short comings of taking this path myself in the current state of the game, it is rather dull as it stands. I just don't fancy seeing the game turning into an insta-everything for the sake of convenience and as a result compromise encouraging exploration and adventure and whatever else the game has to offer but.. that's just my opinion anyway.

[Rhomagus]

Just reading through your whole reply, i can't help but think you missed the core concept behind my post.
To answer your question, No the game does not force me to insta-port and by the same token it does not force you to take an airship ride.
My suggestion for that issue, if you cared to pay a bit of attention was that SE could easily introduce alternatives for people like you, such as NPC's to cater for insta ports at some cost other than Anima.

Ummm....

No. I read your post very thoroughly and replied accordingly. I do that to all my posts. I also put in there potential airship content and why a custcene/scenario and supporting evidence for why there should be one. So in essence, I added to what airships could be just like you stated.

Then you say I didn't here:

The point here is that you shouldn't dictate what the Airship should grow and flourish to be, hopefully an exciting part of the game, and not just merely an instant travel tool.

You see how you didn't read my post now and how you are putting words in my mouth and misconstruing me? I never dictated anything. My argument is against dictation. I don't see how I could even continue with this thread if I had dictated anything. Honestly, I'd stop right away if I did that.

The only part I didn't take out was, "Let people have the option to skip it." There you go, now you don't need to add NPC's, you can just have an option that does both. Fulfilling all possible needs.

But let's look at that entire paragraph to be fair:

My main point here is that Airship should be an Airship ride, not an insta port.I know. You dont want to be dictated? That's Fine, i agree with you.Awesome Request for npc's for porting, we had them in XI, they can easily do them again.Or just add Cancel>cancel> Skip Cutscene [yes] [no] Even easier yes? Perhaps if we stress that, it will come to pass. I nowhere dictated the Immersionist's style of play for those who can't be stuffed.This is where I lost you. I'm unfamiliar with what is being referenced to "who can't be stuffed" The point here is that you shouldn't dictate what the Airship should grow and flourish to be, hopefully an exciting part of the game, and not just merely an instant travel tool.Replied above. we've all seen the intro movie A lot of times and thankfully we don't have to watch every time we log in.with the airship battles and that was something highly anticipated to be a part of the game.Agreed.

C'mon man I read your posts. I know it's a lot and it may not be worth your time but if you're going to reply please read it. Otherwise just ignore me and don't bother. I totally understand that.

I already posted concepts for airship content. I even agreed with some of your points. The fact remains, which is at the center of the argument here and to stay on topic, is that you need other people to play the game how you do so that you can feel vindicated for your time spent by comparing and contrasting accomplishments specifically those related to exploration.

We'll keep it narrowed to exploration. Don't want you to assume that I'm putting words in your mouth nor misappropriate the discussion at hand.

I don't think that is necessary for fun nor the longevity of the game to force time sinks on people. This only applies to the actual use of the airship itself. I realize the option to not use the airship. I also realize the scenario where someone runs out of anima. I also realize that it won't hurt gameplay and less development resources are needed to add a "skip cutscene" prompt OPTION than even adding NPC's that can port you like in XI. Occam's razor.

The same logic applies to cutscenes as it does the airship scenario. Airships as a theme are necessary in order to preserve the Final Fantasy feel that many people have been clamoring for. Same applies for cutscenes. This has been the motivation for including them into the aesthetics of Final Fantasy XIV. This is also the motivation for implementing their bare bones framework. Same goes for Chocobos. Retaining the function to travel quickly, conversely, retaining the function to just "rent" a chocobo, is only in the best interests of the player base and their real life time constraints and only adds adaptability to each individuals personal lives so that they can adapt they're gaming time "around" their life, not the other way around. Would you recommend that we ban the rental Chocobos when the the "My little Chocobo" system is implemented? I'd hope not. And I'm also asking that you take that sentiment one step further beyond yourself and don't call for the banning of the "skip cutscene" option for airship rides function as well, for those that would like it retained.

This particular aspect of implementing new features should always trump the biased philosophy of immersion especially when that person can still choose to experience the content or not experience the content in this case. Immersion is different to everyone as is their game experience.

Moving on.

One major potential issue i see with it being instanced is that if you do choose to take the ride, my impression is that you will be on the ride on your own instead of with other players where people can for example enjoy content on airship together such as teaming up with strangers on-board to fight against enemies in airship battles and such. That would just plain suck, and in that case aren't you dictating what other players could have enjoyed as a result of your beloved insta-port system?

Nope, absolutely not dictating that. I can't dictate what other people choose to do with their playtime. I can't dictate what options are available to them. I won't dictate what other people choose to do with their playtime. I won't call for features that dictate what other people will do with their playtime. I also don't appreciate the snarky attitude but that's another matter. You could do without the sarcasm. It'll open people up to your point of view if you do so.

Have you not teamed up with strangers to do Toto? It can be fun, if they know what they're doing and are prepared for it. Sometimes it's fun to teach new players how to go about it, but the filter of forming a party is still present.

Personally, I'd rather the airship content be so dynamic that people go out of their way to form strategies and carefully put groups together in order to overcome obstacles rather than random rag-tag who knows it randoms with crafting gear that left they're level 50 LNC at home and all they're doing is taking the airship to get to Ul'dah to sell their stuff but their out of anima.

Even then, the random rag-tag scenarios could still happen, and you'd be with people of the same mindset.

People who want to experience airship content.

That is better than your proposal while still including airship content and the option to skip it.

Next!

The other issue is, realistically speaking, when you give the option to instaport or not, it would be silly not take the instaport optionNot to those that want to experience the content mentioned., everyone will just start instaportingExcept for those that want to experience the content., killing off the airship feature when it should be an integral part of the gameExcept not even in your hypothetical scenario.. You can go ahead and blame the immersionist for choosing not to take that option to rideI don't need to blame them. I just don't need them to force me. Ultimately though the choice is within their hands to take the airship in the first place. They could use their anima too., but some things should be enforced for the good of the gameSuperfluous timesinks for timesinks sake is not one of them.. By your logic, they should also make the ferry insta port as wellDepending on your goals. To be fair, they should add a chocobo carriage from Grid to Thanalan to even out the distance, and effort, it takes to travel between cities. Make both of those skippable and you're golden. Also add content for something to do on the carriage and you're set. As of now the ship can be necessary for fishing which is a gameplay oriented aspect of the game. So in short I don't disagree with you hear but it needs balancing for the other city-states as well., and hey, why not have the guards by the city gates insta port us to any guild in the townNever suggested this but if you want to add a fee or some gameplay mechanic on top of it go ahead. so we dont have to run in the city anymore? Then, you tell me, who wouldn't use that option if it existed?Those who prefer to enjoy the sites of the city and the ambience. Also implementing other content in town would offer a risk reward scenario in lieu of teleporting. Shall we just remove Anima costNope I like the dynamic. I also like the dynamic of being able to pay people or conversely, paying for an airship to get a similar effect.? Heck.. lets just remove running All togetherNow you're getting... nevermind., so with a click of a button in the menu, people can reach their destination in a split of a second and not waste any game timeNever advocated this. Also never asked for doing this type of thing without an accompanying risk reward mechanic attached.. It's just becoming ridiculous.To be honest, and I don't mean to rage you, but yes. I also never suggested it. These are your own slippery slope machinations.
I don't advocate mindless time-sinks and neither do i advocate dictating those limited in time or uninterestedThen we're in agreeance., but we should strike a balance and there should be a line drawn somewhereIt's been drawn and you are the one coloring outside the lines.. In this case, i'd like see these rides remain rides and not portsWhy not both. You're argument is unconvincing.. There is a teleportation system, let's utilize that for those who can't be bothered.And for those who've run out of anima. Specifically crafters that don't actually like running around all day and all their local leves require them to go to multiple cities and different camp locations. Why don't we just ease up on them a little bit, allow the option to view a cutscene which should be implemented post 1.19, and retain the option to quickly port for those weekend warriors that actually put a lot of game time in a short time span.

My suggestions appeal to a larger crowd. Fortunately for you that crowd also includes your own. Please understand this. I have your wishes in mind as well, but I also play with a stay at home mom, a stay at home dad (different relationship. They aren't both staying at home with their mutual children), an undersea oil rig robot pilot who works three weeks on three weeks off, a soldier, a teacher, a retail salesman, several college students, a lawyer, a retail manager, a small business owner, a musician, some veterans, an anti-missile engineer, a security guard, an English professor, a computer tech, and a physically disabled person all from different timezones and areas around the world.

It is merely my feeling that i think its a sad sight to see, where people in an MMO can't be bothered spending some time to explore/experience the world because they feel it's a time-sink when it plays a huge factor in the overall experience of the game. But Meh, To each his own.If you truly mean this you know that's the end of the argument right?
Granted, i can see the short comings of taking this path myself in the current state of the game, it is rather dull as it stands.To you. I just don't fancy seeing the game turning into an insta-everything for the sake of convenience and as a result compromise encouraging exploration and adventure and whatever else the game has to offer but.I agree. But the exploration is not going be forced upon nor spoon fed to you. And it shouldn't. Removing personal choice pulls out the whole fun and accomplishment of exploration. You took it upon your own to discover something new, to you, and hopefully you've brought back some nuggets of wisdom to share with the rest of the community as Azury and DoctorMog have done.. that's just my opinion anyway.And that's all it is.

[Gennosuke]

Ummm....

No. I read your post very thoroughly and replied accordingly. I do that to all my posts. I also put in there potential airship content and why a custcene/scenario and supporting evidence for why there should be one. So in essence, I added to what airships could be just like you stated.

Then you say I didn't here:


You see how you didn't read my post now and how you are putting words in my mouth and misconstruing me? I never dictated anything. My argument is against dictation. I don't see how I could even continue with this thread if I had dictated anything. Honestly, I'd stop right away if I did that.

The only part I didn't take out was, "Let people have the option to skip it." There you go, now you don't need to add NPC's, you can just have an option that does both. Fulfilling all possible needs.

But let's look at that entire paragraph to be fair:



C'mon man I read your posts. I know it's a lot and it may not be worth your time but if you're going to reply please read it. Otherwise just ignore me and don't bother. I totally understand that.

I already posted concepts for airship content. I even agreed with some of your points. The fact remains, which is at the center of the argument here and to stay on topic, is that you need other people to play the game how you do so that you can feel vindicated for your time spent by comparing and contrasting accomplishments specifically those related to exploration.

We'll keep it narrowed to exploration. Don't want you to assume that I'm putting words in your mouth nor misappropriate the discussion at hand.

I don't think that is necessary for fun nor the longevity of the game to force time sinks on people. This only applies to the actual use of the airship itself. I realize the option to not use the airship. I also realize the scenario where someone runs out of anima. I also realize that it won't hurt gameplay and less development resources are needed to add a "skip cutscene" prompt OPTION than even adding NPC's that can port you like in XI. Occam's razor.

The same logic applies to cutscenes as it does the airship scenario. Airships as a theme are necessary in order to preserve the Final Fantasy feel that many people have been clamoring for. Same applies for cutscenes. This has been the motivation for including them into the aesthetics of Final Fantasy XIV. This is also the motivation for implementing their bare bones framework. Same goes for Chocobos. Retaining the function to travel quickly, conversely, retaining the function to just "rent" a chocobo, is only in the best interests of the player base and their real life time constraints and only adds adaptability to each individuals personal lives so that they can adapt they're gaming time "around" their life, not the other way around. Would you recommend that we ban the rental Chocobos when the the "My little Chocobo" system is implemented? I'd hope not. And I'm also asking that you take that sentiment one step further beyond yourself and don't call for the banning of the "skip cutscene" option for airship rides function as well, for those that would like it retained.

This particular aspect of implementing new features should always trump the biased philosophy of immersion especially when that person can still choose to experience the content or not experience the content in this case. Immersion is different to everyone as is their game experience.

Moving on.



Nope, absolutely not dictating that. I can't dictate what other people choose to do with their playtime. I can't dictate what options are available to them. I won't dictate what other people choose to do with their playtime. I won't call for features that dictate what other people will do with their playtime. I also don't appreciate the snarky attitude but that's another matter. You could do without the sarcasm. It'll open people up to your point of view if you do so.

Have you not teamed up with strangers to do Toto? It can be fun, if they know what they're doing and are prepared for it. Sometimes it's fun to teach new players how to go about it, but the filter of forming a party is still present.

Personally, I'd rather the airship content be so dynamic that people go out of their way to form strategies and carefully put groups together in order to overcome obstacles rather than random rag-tag who knows it randoms with crafting gear that left they're level 50 LNC at home and all they're doing is taking the airship to get to Ul'dah to sell their stuff but their out of anima.

Even then, the random rag-tag scenarios could still happen, and you'd be with people of the same mindset.

People who want to experience airship content.

That is better than your proposal while still including airship content and the option to skip it.

Next!



My suggestions appeal to a larger crowd. Fortunately for you that crowd also includes your own. Please understand this. I have your wishes in mind as well, but I also play with a stay at home mom, a stay at home dad (different relationship. They aren't both staying at home with their mutual children), an undersea oil rig robot pilot who works three weeks on three weeks off, a soldier, a teacher, a retail salesman, several college students, a lawyer, a retail manager, a small business owner, a musician, some veterans, an anti-missile engineer, a security guard, an English professor and a computer tech all from different timezones and areas around the world.

I see you have put your reply to my post in your sig. you must be proud of it

Anyway, to cut the whole post short, since i'm not fond of nitpicking on every little line in your comment, i think we can agree on the concept of giving both options to keep both crowds happy. My disagreement with you however is how to go about doing that. To re-iterate, my idea was to preserve the ride as a ride to keep it's flavour in the game for all those who choose to take that path, and in the same time provide alternatives to those who don't fancy spending couple of minutes of their time in those rides, something other than the airship itself. (Although i would still argue the impatience of some of the players on here not willing to spend few mins to get where they want. But i rather not drag this any further).
I saw your new post, Some good ideas there and it certainly is better than what we currently have, though still not how i would tackle the issue but atleast your offering a solution, so, credit to you.

[Eekiki]

My suggestions appeal to a larger crowd. Fortunately for you that crowd also includes your own. Please understand this. I have your wishes in mind as well, but I also play with a stay at home mom, a stay at home dad (different relationship. They aren't both staying at home with their mutual children), an undersea oil rig robot pilot who works three weeks on three weeks off, a soldier, a teacher, a retail salesman, several college students, a lawyer, a retail manager, a small business owner, a musician, some veterans, an anti-missile engineer, a security guard, an English professor and a computer tech all from different timezones and areas around the world.

Every QQ thread that will ever be made is now irrelevant.

[PrettyPrincess]

I do wonder why you are here then if you can't handle people not agreeing with you.

Speak for yourself

[Jynx]

Speak for yourself

You obviously can't read, I've stated many times I respect everyones opinion. Am I not allowed to state my own?

[AlexNiculaie]

Ah, the slippery slope tripe. Who cares about rational arguments when you can just use fear mongering tactics and hyperbole. Won't someone think about the children? Why, if you cut out useless standing around on a boat doing absolutely nothing, people are going to start marrying marmots and chocobos! This is what happens you let Miqo'te wear skimpy bikinis!

You know, the world doesn't actually exist in such extremes, right? One can make an adjustment for convenience without it nosediving into such ridiculous outcomes.

[Jobeto-Rin]

People are really disregarding the points Jynx is making.
He isn't trying to make you walk, just stating the consequences of Instant teleporting.

I support non Instant-Teleportation of any form.

It depreciates my involvement, especially when otherwise I'd be incessantly committed.

Even if it's mundanely monotonous, my perspective is they're only moments that provide a MMO it's "You are involved in my massive world" feeling.

Imagine fighting the last boss of a game, and killing it in 3 hits.
That is the same effect we are feeling here. Where is the challenge? How am I to be immersed in a boss battle when I just literally skipped the fight?

Please understand me juxtaposing these 2 here.

Yes, we ultimately enjoy the boss killing, but it's the journey we went through to achieve it that was fun and entertaining. Killing the boss is similar to arriving at a destination. The enthusiasm and mental/emotional immersion we experienced gave that achievement a feeling of worth-fulness.

Now instant teleportations (can we just say IT's?) doesn't necessarily kill immersion totally, it just affects it, moreso than anything because when a game has no real achievements and less in-game involvement, it's killing what little we could have atm.

Now forcing that upon players is harsh I would say, I see the flip side, nobody has time, it's boring yadda yadda....

But....since when were MMO's for casuals anyway?

Oh, thats right...when game companies discovered it's fast cash potential, and slowly began disregarding what MMO's are truly about.

Complete game immersion in a fantasy world.

You make time for it, it doesn't make time for you.

[AlexNiculaie]

Honestly im wondering if the only reason we are getting insta airships is so the dev team can appease ppl and give them airships without doing any work at all.

Or, more rationally, it's a temp fix just like they have already stated, and they will later (after the map redesign) be made a full instance with content included. It's just a placeholder.