Open up the world, please! Part I

[Naunet]

So you're asking me to choose between long tunnels to act as loading between zones or a black screen with the name of the zone splashed on it? I'm going to choose the black screen.

Personally I prefer when zones are completely seamless and you can freely cross over borders - a la WoW, Rift, TERA, WildStar, etc.

I'm not against instanced zones, per se, but you have to make use of them well... Guild Wars 2 zones are absolutely massive and rich. FFXIV zones are stifled by invisible walls and feel very isolated from each other. It's especially bad in the ARR zones, but even HW and SB zones suffer from this. It feels like we don't really get any of the supposed benefits that come with instanced zones.