Quote Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi View Post
That's a different RPG entirely.

Basically I'm pointing at things like the House Fortemps in Ishgard, the Ocular in the Crystarium, where there is just "a guy" outside that you have to talk to that acts as a story roadcone to entering the location. Why is this guy there. Why are they OUTSIDE. These places are not a royal palace with a guard booth. It's just a noble's house, or the equivalent of the mayor's office. Why do the doors not automatically open? Why are the NPC's not just standing inside?

Because that is about conserving memory. The same reason why we'll never see Ul'dah returned to a single map. These rooms and houses are closed off because they are expensive in memory, so there is just "nothing" there.

If the developers cared enough to allow people to explore, they would probably go back to the ARR maps and make sure there isn't a single "no entry" door. Either it opens, or it stops being a door. Likewise all the "unnamed" mender and junkmonger NPC's. They don't have names. They're just there, you aren't supposed to care. Some of the worst "immersion destroying" parts of the game are small things that feel thoughtless. Shop NPC's that have no names and no flavortext. Doors that are visible, but on the map show they go nowhere. Doors in duties that just "exist" but the map shows there's nothing behind them. All they really need to fix the NPC names is just give them a lore-accurate name and a tiny piece of flavor text that can just be "Welcome to (npc name)'s general store, How can I be of service?", the maps really just need to look like there is more to the zone/duty. If the door exists, it either needs to open, or it needs to have a reason to be locked.

"Maybe they're not home"
"This door says storage. It is locked"
"Emergency exit. In case of fire, break glass."
But why WoW can do it?