Open up the world, please! Part I

[Skivvy]

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?

Why are long tunnels our only option? That's how they chose to do it in 1.0, but it's possible to have an open world without weird transitions like that.

Most recent open world game I've played is Archeage, and it's so refreshing when you go exploring the world. It's a beautiful world, and the zones blend together seamlessly. "Open world" is not synonymous with bad zone transitions/tunnels - SE just chose to implement it poorly.