Quote Originally Posted by Lucifer View Post
This is why you implement a system where you force people to venture to these areas. It is that simple. If exploration is such a short-lived experience, why not just remove all areas completely? Make one big city and players will simply queue up for the dungeon they need to visit. This is what you're defending, am I wrong?
You are defending instanced-dungeons by pointing out negative features found in FFXI. Finding groups is up to the community. The medium they utilize is up to the developers.
If there's one thing I despise more when discussing video games other than the phrase "But in the real world...", it's slippery slope arguments.

"If exploration is such a short-lived experience, why not just remove all areas completely? Make one big city and players will simply queue up for the dungeon they need to visit."

This can go on and on and on. Why not just remove the city and have people log on in a dungeon? Why not just get rid of the dungeon and have people log in to a boss battle? Why not skip the boss battle and have the people pay for a picture of a character they design holding the loot?

SE has said dungeons will be instanced, not the entire world. There still will be things like strongholds and roaming NMs.

The whole point of instancing dungeons is to have a controlled environment for more challenging game design. XI's biggest problem was that every single end game event was just a matter of throwing bodies at a problem.

The medium they utilize is up to the developers.
This is exactly the whole point. Instances give SE more control, and thus, the ability to make things more challenging. That way, dungeons can still be just as expansive, and they can make the whole experience much more specific and unique because there won't be anyone to step on your toes.

I'm not arguing to instance the game or to detract from the open world. Just a happy balance.