Will 1999 ever happen again?

[Feanol]

I was reading through this thread and trying to pinpoint the real reasons why modern games have such a hard time bottling the lightning that was Everquest and I came to a few conclusions.

First, these other games aren't Everquest and this isn't 1999. We're all just going to have to deal with that as best we can I suppose.


Second put bluntly is fast-travel. Bear with me here.

For me, a lot of modern MMORPGs began to lose their sparkle once game developers decided they were pissing everyone off by making them walk everywhere and introduced instantaneous player transmission.

I find the games I enjoy these days all have a firm limit to how fast and far the player may move in a given time. Adventure is had by walking the roads and paths and meeting other travelers doing the same. These encounters are unscripted and emergent unlike the formulaic "missions" or "raids" or whatever predescribed encounters apply.

Worlds that were designed with massive landscapes and geographical regions became reduced to a genre variation on "open map" and "click". Sure you could go off into the countryside and travel by foot but there was nothing to compel you to do this. For most players this was simply a waste of time when they knew their peers were clicking between locations moving instantly.

Everquest has Druids, Wizards, and a host of items that teleport you to be sure. I would argue that none of these methods are 100% reliable all of the time and that is the key point. We each have to run from place to place and that's what gives the "in-between" zones their life and the world a sense of scope. Without that scale the whole landscape is reduced to "Town A" "Dungeon B" "Tradehouse C".