Linear, linear, linear

[Shurrikhan]

Congratulations, you realize the problem is the sum of their parts. I'm not digging on just flying. I'm saying it's a form of social separation and risk reduction, as all of our systems tend to be.

Where XIV has avoided all possible risk, they've avoided most social engagement. We're to the point we need night clubs to invent that engagement.

Then let's get back to that core problem, instead of reflections ultimately irrelevant to it?

We'll skip the whole discussion on the joy of movement or such, as that's mostly related only to flight*. In its place, let's consider just how we might better populate the world and distribute player activities as to increase the chances of player interaction in the open world without it feeling forced.

(You might consider this to be finding, for instance, a happy medium between maximizing the availability of player meetings and minimizing the chance that those meetings are of no note [just passing by each other or merely traveling to the next node of significance].)

* Note that while ground mounts aren't as crippled by a lack of physics as are flying mounts, they could have still have significant opportunity for improvement. Apart from the obvious example of GW2 mounts or the like, just think of what might be accomplished with terrain that features fewer invisible walls and, instead, more gaps to leap, or revised mob camps or dynamic mob packs through which one might, alternatively, dismount and sneak or simply ride at full tilt (think of Witcher 3's double-sprint on mount, with accordant Stamina limitations).

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A thread that might be of interest to you: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...9-Zone-for-7.0