Does instant transportation effect game immersion?

[DNO]

I think you put it nicely there. Playing a MMO really isn't about getting everything by pressing a button it's about the journey getting there.

When I think of my time in the world of Vana'diel that's literally how I think about it. My time in another world and place.

When I think about the time spent playing XIV there is no such connection to the place the game happens in. Nothing in the game makes you think about the locations or distances of the world and that's why they feel meaningless.

I guess in the future this aspect will only be more pronounced since the future focus is only on raids/levels instead of gameplay based on travelling.

Actually now that I think about it this is exactly what made the XI fetch quests more fun because you actually had to plan how to get to places with your character. In a game with anima a fetch quest has no gameplay design as the player will just zap there and feel like his time was wasted because of the quest.

this is all opinion that not many people share.

[Technolust]

Apparently it's only immersive if everyone suffers.

However, immersion is broken all the time in the game. If you can't accept teleportation as legitimate, then you can't accept weightless inventories and currency supplies; you can't accept getting chomped, burned, slashed, pierced, and bludgeoned by your foes with no permanent scars and no visible marks. When people die, they should stay dead. People shouldn't suddenly wear their armor poorly just because they picked up a wand when they normally use a sword. People shouldn't get smarter because they put on a hat of smartness or stronger because they put on a belt of strength.

I'm sure there are plenty of other examples, but if you want immersion, I would strongly recommend playing this game called Real Life. It's pretty intense.

/clap +1

Well said, well thought out, and a lot of great points made.

[PrettyPrincess]

no. noise/sound is something interpreted by your brain subjectively and therefore nothing "really" makes a noise, it just emits certain waves or signals that we interpret in a way. Since no one is near the sun to interpret the noise, it is not making a noise.

Theres also the quantum mechanics Schrodinger's cat type argument which says that all events are random on a sub-atomic scale so unless we observe them we can't be sure they happened. Thus the sun even emitting a wave that can be interpreted as a sound is unknown. As such we say it is both emitting and not emitting a sound.

my...MY MIND IS BLOWN

[Griss]

I'm sure there are plenty of other examples, but if you want immersion, I would strongly recommend playing this game called Real Life. It's pretty intense.

That game sucks, Its totally unbalanced, buggy and the developers has absolutely no idea how to communicate with the player base or take feedback.

[Len]

• Implement a 10 minute mediocre, uninspired airship ride nobody will enjoy (a la Limsa Lominsa ferry).
  
  
• Players whine endlessly on the forums about length of flight, mediocrity.
  
  
• Yoshi-P apologizes, makes plans to improve said mediocrity, promises to shorten airship ride.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

That being said, I'm not fond of this streamlined, instant gratification content.

[Seif]

That game sucks, Its totally unbalanced, buggy and the developers has absolutely no idea how to communicate with the player base or take feedback.

Real life has way too much grinding and the level design is just awful. Well at least I can use an AH and have proper player housing...

[Eekiki]

I don't have a clue about this but I'm wondering if the whole anima thing + now the "instant airship travel" is going to ruin any possible sense of immersion that this game could have.

** So based on your experience with other MMOs and games, do you feel more immersed in a game world when you have to run around everywhere and when airships and ships take time (ex. ffxi), or do you think that instant transportation doesn't effect immersion? **

here are my thoughts (feel free to skip them and just post your opinion):

Anima allows you to instantly port to the important spots in the game (leve crystals). So you don't really have to run around the pointlessly large world. It basically results in people only really utilizing maybe 20% of the world or less on a regular basis. As such the entire game to -me- feels kind of instanced and focused around small areas (leves).

FFXI had instant port but it wasn't to the "important" spots in a zone and was often out of the way. And you often had to run past agro mobs to get where you wanted to go. I found that to be a lot more immersive than just porting directly to leves.

Instant airships really destroys the sense of immersion for me because it essentially lets you travel to wherever you wanna go instantly for a fee.

Put another way, this game doesn't seem like a massive dynamic world I have to explore, but like a series of instances inside a massive world that you can warp to with anima or buy your way to.

And while I understand there will be an -option- to travel on the airship, it still makes the game seem more like a series of instances rather than a dynamic world.

To me FFXI was blended perfectly. You could warp to some places but they were usually in the middle of the zone and you still had to run or chocobo to where you wanted to go. It was like a warp would take you out to the wilderness, surrounded by agro mobs and such, and then you'd have to run from there past things that can actually kill you to get to your parties camp, or the town you wanted to go to, etc.

Your concern is well-founded.

The instant airship thing is temporary, meant to quell of the "GIV US CHOCBS N ARSHPS NOW OR I QIT" minority. Once more of the core of the game is fixed, little nice things like actual airship rides and personal chocobos will be added.

Whenever you have questions like these, the answer is usually three simple words:

work
in
progress

And the answer to any questions regarding Kiki is usually three simpler words:

in
my
pants

[Eekiki]

Real life has way too much grinding and the level design is just awful. Well at least I can use an AH and have proper player housing...

Yeah, but Chinese RMT bots have ruined the economy, and we still don't have a reraise spell.

[Falcus]

It didn't affect my immersion in Guild Wars and I had a total of about 650 hours playtime in that and you can instantly warp to any outpost you've already been to at any time.

[Xatsh]

Instant teleport (Anima) does not bother me because it is limited, Instant everything else does (airship, ferry, etc).

If the devs want to make everything instant just give us unlimited anima then (giving the option for instant and a wait = forcing instant.... no one will wait). It would have the same effect to gameplay instead of developing unneeded content that does the same exact thing.

People without time have Anima to get anywhere in the game. It makes no sense at all to have everything else be instance as well. If a 3-4 min airship ride is too much well then use your anima.

A mmo should not be about being instant everything, what is the point of a huge world if everything is instant.