Does instant transportation effect game immersion?

[Delsus]

All game devs need to come to a compromise between immersion and conviniance. If you think teleports kill immersion and destroy the game for you then you can run everywhere, but this takes along time in the large world we have, which is why they give the options to teleport/use the airship or run.

Imo ffxi did this wrong because the time the airships took to get to sandy windy and bastok took that long it was faster to teleport and ride a chocobo to the cities than go to jeuno, wait for the airship then fly there, an airship should be faster than teleport and chocobo or the airships will go unused.

This does not kill immersion for me, it adds to conviniance, I dont want to have to run for 1hr-1hr 30 to get from LL to Ishgard (when its open) if I can use and airship or teleport I will.

Also I dont get these immersion arguments, first people say teleports and airships kill immersion and destroy the game, but then they want unlimited inventory, while it is more conviniant than being limited to 100 spaces, it is worse for immersion than teleports and airships, how many items can you carry on your person at once? Wheres the logic in these arguments?

Finally the reps have already said that instant airship travel is only tempory because everyone was crying about wanting them, SE gave us them and will refine them in future patches, we got what we asked for and everyone still complain, quit whining and let SE work on them like they said they would.

[Lyndis]

I think both Jynx and Azurymber have it right. I agree with this topic and sadly I know I'm in the minority here.

Immersion is a key point of the Final Fantasy series, just as much as airships and chocobos. In fact immersion is key in any story. Also I believe that seeking immersion in another world is what MMO's are supposed to be about.

So please people, support this idea and give it more thought. I can think of so many reasons why Immersion should be a focus for this game but I'd be typing all night. Maybe another time.

[viion]

cant fly to mordhona or fly to coerthas (right now) or fly to iron lake, can fly to limsa, and what do i miss? i miss a bit of Thanalan that i've seen 4 million times repeatative, but i still have to run from limsa to iron lake, or take choco.

Could fly to Grid and miss a bit of Thanalan and a bit of grid that i've seen countless times. Still have to run/chocobo from there to get to my final destination.

[Azurymber]

cant fly to mordhona or fly to coerthas (right now) or fly to iron lake, can fly to limsa, and what do i miss? i miss a bit of Thanalan that i've seen 4 million times repeatative, but i still have to run from limsa to iron lake, or take choco.

Could fly to Grid and miss a bit of Thanalan and a bit of grid that i've seen countless times. Still have to run/chocobo from there to get to my final destination.

I like the idea of airships i just think they should make you wait like the ferry and they should implement events on them like an occasional garlean attack. I dont necessarily mean a 20 or 30 min wait. I mean like have an airship leave every 15 on the dot and go from dock to dock (ex. 1 min to emerald moss, 1min to coerthas, 2 more min to thanalan 1 more min to ul'dah) something like that. Just to make it seem like your actually taking a trip. Otherwise why even bother with airships -at all- Just make an npc that warps you to cities using their anima for a price.

And theres airship docks in coerthas, at all the rank 20 leves i believe, etc. So im assuming you will eventually be able to instaport there as well.

[viion]

I like the idea of airships i just think they should make you wait like the ferry and they should implement events on them like an occasional garlean attack. I dont necessarily mean a 20 or 30 min wait. I mean like have an airship leave every 15 on the dot and go from dock to dock (ex. 1 min to emerald moss, 1min to coerthas, 2 more min to thanalan 1 more min to ul'dah) something like that. Just to make it seem like your actually taking a trip. Otherwise why even bother with airships -at all- Just make an npc that warps you to cities using their anima for a price.

And theres airship docks in coerthas, at all the rank 20 leves i believe, etc. So im assuming you will eventually be able to instaport there as well.

They are, just not now, this is just a temp solution. The instant port is not staying, it will be changed after including airship events.

I prefer instant though as I like to get around quicker, no one complained that flying to Sea was instant in XI and the airships in XI from nation to nation had no content, was pretty bleek, but what airship content did have story? Cop. It wasnt a travelling journey from 1 location to the next, it was part of the story, built in.

So anything is possible.

Dont like the instant, dont use it, run on a chocbo instead and wait until they finish the system off.

[Azurymber]

They are, just not now, this is just a temp solution. The instant port is not staying, it will be changed after including airship events.

I prefer instant though as I like to get around quicker, no one complained that flying to Sea was instant in XI and the airships in XI from nation to nation had no content, was pretty bleek, but what airship content did have story? Cop. It wasnt a travelling journey from 1 location to the next, it was part of the story, built in.

So anything is possible.

Dont like the instant, dont use it, run on a chocbo instead and wait until they finish the system off.

oh i fully realize that but aren't they making it instant forever? and just -giving- the option to ride it?
My problem isn't so much about me, its about the success of the game. I've noticed games like ffxi which are expansive and have time consuming travelling seem to hold players more simply because it feels more like your part of the world rather than playing a game. And then games that just let you port to every spot instantly feel a lot more like your just playing a game and have a series of instances, so people just come back when new raids are out and then poof again.

Think of how awesome the game could be if you were forced to ride airships and there were random garlean attacks.
Or if leviathan occasionally popped up as an NM on the boat from limsa to thanalan.

The kraken, pirates, etc were all really cool on the ferry and built memories. It also artificially made it seem like you were in a massive world. This porting system makes the game feel small. Like a porting system like TOAU had was cool where you port to an enclosed area and then have to run past agro mobs to wherever you want to get to. But when nothing agros, a porting system kinda defeats the purpose of a sprawling world.

But thats just my opinion i mean

[viion]

oh i fully realize that but aren't they making it instant forever? and just -giving- the option to ride it?
My problem isn't so much about me, its about the success of the game. I've noticed games like ffxi which are expansive and have time consuming travelling seem to hold players more simply because it feels more like your part of the world rather than playing a game. And then games that just let you port to every spot instantly feel a lot more like your just playing a game and have a series of instances, so people just come back when new raids are out and then poof again.

Think of how awesome the game could be if you were forced to ride airships and there were random garlean attacks.
Or if leviathan occasionally popped up as an NM on the boat from limsa to thanalan.

The kraken, pirates, etc were all really cool on the ferry and built memories. It also artificially made it seem like you were in a massive world. This porting system makes the game feel small. Like a porting system like TOAU had was cool where you port to an enclosed area and then have to run past agro mobs to wherever you want to get to. But when nothing agros, a porting system kinda defeats the purpose of a sprawling world.

But thats just my opinion i mean

Awesome? Yes.
Convient? No.

In XI the moment I need to ride airship I run up to dock, auto run forward and then AFK, make a cuppa, catch up on RL stuff or whatever because I've seen that flight about a thousand times. It was fun the first time, its boring there after. So the time is just a delay for me, like waiting for a Download.

And I also do this at the ferry, even though that has pirate attacks or even krakens jumping on board I either stay at bottom AFK or I run to the top and go up the steps to stay out of aggro range and dont participate because I've done that a thousand times over.

In the current ferry you spawn smack bang in the middle, on the top, so if any content was to arrise they'd have to move that spawn or you'd die if you went afk, then you'd be back where ever your home-point is and your e-rage would be quite high.

I wouldnt mind some event, it would be fun, but doing it constantly? No, sometimes I just want to get to my destination quickly, im not interested in fighting.

You get your happiness by in future having events and content on airships and you choose not to skip it, and I get mine where I can skip it because im not to bothered about that after I've done it several hundred times.

Everyone is happy.

I am not interested in delaying my time around the world when all it is, is copy/pasted crap that I've seen thousands of time lol so I favor quicker routes.

[Kiote]

cant fly to mordhona or fly to coerthas (right now) or fly to iron lake, can fly to limsa, and what do i miss? i miss a bit of Thanalan that i've seen 4 million times repeatative, but i still have to run from limsa to iron lake, or take choco.

Could fly to Grid and miss a bit of Thanalan and a bit of grid that i've seen countless times. Still have to run/chocobo from there to get to my final destination.

Quoting this post because I believe this is how most people are looking at this issue.

But, imagine you have not ever walked those roads. Imagine you just started in this game. And you can Instantly teleport youself to any City Via Airship grab the Aetheryte crystal and be ab le to free port between them without ever having seen the outside of a town. Then on top of that you can be ported to every other camp in the game by offering a few Gil. Now you can do everything in the game and haven't seen anything.

Yes, it's true that you have to choose to do that. But have you ever played an MMO where people did not pressure you to do everything the fastest possible way just to catch up? I mean, I can't even get through a run of ToTo Rak without someone swapping to there level Fifty and just slaughtering everything.

I can't imagine for a second any new player is going to have the joy of exploring this world when everyone they know or meet will be pressuring them to port everywhere as fast as possible.

[Zuellni]

I don't have a problem with instant airship travel. It will be enjoyable when they add the optional cutscene/airship ride, but it will also be convenient to be able to skip it sometimes as well. What I do have a problem with is the fact they spent the development time to create the inter-city airships when all they're really going to be are glorified inter-city teleports. They could have nixed the Anima cost for teleporting to cities and saved some resources. Perhaps divert the airship team into making player owned/controlled ones.

[Aion]

well I think we kinda agree FF XVI lack on sense of journey/progression/immersion or whatever you called it. Maybe because I missed rpg series on PSX....