While it’s frustrating when it doesn’t work, I actually think that doing the least amount of instancing in the Living Story/Personal Story is better. Instancing has nothing to do with what I think MMORPGs are all about – Connecting with other people.
What I think makes it weird is that the major zerg fests were people are so busy making the events in time nobody has time to look at all the changes – In Ascalon, in Hoelbrak, there were new NPCs, new voice acting for backdrop characters. Lots of cool stuff, but I just noticed everyone rushing to make the events in time because people don’t want to wait or risk it getting broken.
This is really too bad. But what open world events give us is a progression in the world. Kessex Hills is forever changed, hopefully in two weeks time, the Norn and Charr starting zones will also feel different. Like they are entering a new chapter. The world is moving forward, all the zones are being updated to reflect on that Zhaitan has been beaten and Modremoth is the new threat. Time to retire the Svanir and Ghosts a bit.
A changing living world is what it’s all about. Instancing ignores all these things.
The only problem is the zerg aspect. When I did the event today, there was only 10 of us in the Ascalon portions of the events, and it worked perfectly. Felt right, tight and great. It just doesn’t feel right or tight with 80-120 players though. Difficulty, lag, skill latency, low framerate. It’s just too many people for these types of events.
So I say yes; More open world, but it would be better if the story could spread people out wider apart. If we need to do an event, can’t we sent randomly to 4-5 different maps to do the same activity? Or maybe simply choose one of multiple destinations within the same map?
So if we need to help a guard with fighting Mordrems the player can go to a couple of different places! That way you can at least spread up the players and make the experience more comfortable.
Lastly; I know some people say they want instancing because they want it to be “their story”. They want to be the main hero and all other players are just breaking the immersion.
I never liked this argument. I think the player character should be a significant foot soldier in the war, but not the hero. there are many nameless heroes and bands of fighters, and it has to be that way in a MMO connotation. It’s not even like it makes a story more interesting by all the NPCs referring to the player character as some god-like superman infallible being. That’s boring. It’s much more interesting playing a character with a sense of urgency and vulnerability. All of that relate-ability to me flies out the window once the game treats me, the player character as some god.
Not to mention it is basically in every single player video game that the player character is the dude who saves the world. Its superman syndrom. It’s boring, its childish and you don’t feel the threat of the world at all.