Do you think that there's a lack of focus on our open world areas?

[XxZellousxX]

Chalk me up as one of the old MMO players who wants more open world content. It's interesting to see people describe open world content as hollow, because I feel the same way about instancing. when everything important that I do takes place in an alternate reality where only I and 3 to 23 friends exist... it feels removed from the universe that i am playing in... which is suppose is exactly what it is.

But yeah, I get that the open world feels hollow too. But the reason for that is that no one is there.

Back in the day one of the MMOs I played had a fixed number of mobs that would exist on a map at any given time. This meant that if you killed something, a new one would appear to replace it at a random location on the map. Now on the first level of several dungeons in that game there would permanently be a large number of people. All killing things almost as quickly as they spawned, all over the map. This made it quite hectic and exciting as you could very quickly be overwhelmed if too large a number of respawns appeared where you were fighting. BUT because the map was full of people, there would always be others to help you out.

Then there would be people who far out leveled the map just hanging out. Sat in corners, or standing around, chatting with their friends. So newbies in trouble could run and wipe off the adds on them, or get rezzed by them when they died. You would even have characters playing merchants setting up shop in the danger zone, selling potions and what not.

It was anything thing but hollow. But if I go back to that game now, some fifteen years later. Now those maps are hollow. People moved on. There is no one there. Its sad.

So yeah. I miss open world content. Is that just nostalgia? I don't think that's all it is.

Totally feel you on that, i play as an escape and the boxed in feel of some zones really doesnt help. Open world maps offer the opportunity to explore from the comfort of your own home. KIDS these days lack imagination plus they are likely so accustomed to being locked in a box that for them the feel of an open world probably scares them because it requires to have to make decisions on where to go next instead of having to be told where to go all the time. With the number of players in this game, more open areas would really be amazing.

[Shurrikhan]

I feel like alot if the regions in the game feel under utilized. They have hunts and FATEs but I can't see reasons outside of nice scenery to go out into the world. Do you think that it's something the devs should address at some point or is it not as big a deal to you all? Like to hear your thoughts!

I would hope for more reason to go into the open world, but only if the dev team were capable of coming up with ways of actually making the open world intrinsically interesting. Frankly, FATEs and Hunts alone don't cut it for me, even if they were rewarding enough to plentifully encourage their use.

[Shurrikhan]

This game's weird gathering/crafting system might be part of it. In most other MMOs you can go out exploring and killing monsters and grab any materials (herbs/ore/fish/etc) you might pass. Elder Scrolls Online, for example, the overworld is full of people swarming around gathering mats or doing guild quests (Thieve's/Assassin's etc)or just fighting hard monsters and keeping eyes out for chests. Or, lately, doing archaeology.

In FFXIV you CAN do all of those things but you have to be specifically going for just one. If you are collecting ore you cannot see herbs and can't fight for example. Treasure chests require a subquest and maps.

I'm not saying that's a problem with the game, mind you. It's just how things are.

True, by ensuring that there was no connection between truly rare loot to be had (outside of extremely limited commodities during overcrowding, like wool back during ARR's launch) and the dangers of the open world, all as part of the game's featured 'unique gatherer experience', huge swaths of potential kind of just vanished from the start.