MMO-GAF, which MMO do you think has the best world exploration?

Mondai

Mondai

Member
While I love FFXIV, even I have to admit that the world exploration in XIV is pretty caca, no incentive to explore the world when you can fast travel anywhere and the areas seem pretty much lifeless to me. After playing a lot of WoW lately, I really appreciate the vast world to explore that actually feels like a real world (to me at least).

MMO-GAF I mean :P
 
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MMO-ERA
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Calling us ERA? Them's fightin' words.
Threaten Walter White GIF by Breaking Bad


*edit*

As for my thoughts, FFXI had the best. It was legitimate dangerous. It was a meme that you could still get killed at pretty much any stage of the game by a bunny somewhere. It had a proper day/night cycle, day of week, real time travel methods. I could go on and on, but it was the only MMO I ever got the feeling of being there because of all of the immersive details.
 
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Brigandier said:
FFXI Vanadiel... great world to explore.
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Yes, but like for scenery, the zones are all very unique and beautiful, but to try and find coffers with the rotating spawns... I hated that. Also lots of one-way paths and maze like set ups. You really needed to learn by memory how to get around some places, especially Sky/Sea.
Even though I think WoW looks like shit (the characters in particular) the world in WoW is more open to explore with treasure chests everywhere
 
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Old-school EverQuest for sure. Steep death penalty and extremely limited fast travel (two classes out of 14 could teleport) made traveling a serious undertaking.
 
Guild Wars 2, hands down. Obtaining new mounts and abilities that let you access new areas, as well as dynamic events that change or unlock different locations, are really cool features.
 
Imru' al-Qays said:
Old-school EverQuest for sure. Steep death penalty and extremely limited fast travel (two classes out of 14 could teleport) made traveling a serious undertaking.
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Came to post this. Early 2000s EQ is still my favorite MMO to date. Norrath is a huge, detailed, dangerous world to explore. Wandering off the beaten path can often result in running into rare named monsters and rare drops. The lack of fast travel meant that actually getting from point a to point b could be a serious trial. It could take an hour easily to run from one city to another, and unless you were high enough level or properly prepared, you could get your shit kicked in FAST.

Monsters never stop chasing you once they aggro, either, so you couldn't just run away for a few seconds and then okay fine you were safe again.

Yeah. EQ definitely has "hostile, living world" down.

As a player, I appreciated the teleport books from the Planes of Power expansion, of course, I mean, who wouldn't. It's an insanely convenient feature; but it really does neuter the sense of journey and discovery.
 
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I lived in WoW for doing shit like this. I think I have 100s of screenshots being in similar "out of bounds" area's. So my vote goes to WoW.
 
Nothing tops FFXI's world building and the fear of death it instilled in you. Other contenders are probably Everquest and maybe LOTRO.

GW2 is mixed for me....exploration is great but also just feels like a checklist of things to do...instead of self-discovery.
 
FF XIV is barely an MMORPG, i loved and played a lot, but they obsession with not trying to frustrate the player base leaved an empty game. Im not kidding that I saw people complaining that the "stealth" mission of Dawntrail were difficult.

Which is a shame on how Yoshi-P destroyed the original ideal: an updated FFXI, which in my opinion has a great world exploration: there is enough "fast travel" to help you, but not as much so that you can feel the "weight" of the world. It is a dangerous world too, you can get jumped and killed if you are not careful and that is not cheap: you lose EXP. Overall a way more "adventure" than many today MMO.

Other alternative is EvE. Not a world, but an universe with many dangerous moment and no fast travel. you live on them.
 
Wow. classic wow though when you couldn't just see literally everything on the map. Imagine still calling rare mobs rare when there's 20 of them in an area and marked on the map.
 
Brigandier said:
FFXI Vanadiel... great world to explore.
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Vanadiel is amazing and FFXI is my favorite game ever made, but ffxi world exploration is not its strength.

Zones have absurd enemies way over the level of other things, tons of aggro mobs that will instantly kill you, and there's 0 reason to explore. You don't get exp or anything for risking going off the beaten path. All places you want to go are predetermined for safe travel and leveling.

Is it the best world with amazing atmosphere, design, etc? Yes. Will you see a good chunk of it as you level and do story missions? Yep. But explore? No.

Exploring goes to WoW or ESO. Both reward players for going off the beaten path.
 
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Comandr said:
Came to post this. Early 2000s EQ is still my favorite MMO to date. Norrath is a huge, detailed, dangerous world to explore. Wandering off the beaten path can often result in running into rare named monsters and rare drops. The lack of fast travel meant that actually getting from point a to point b could be a serious trial. It could take an hour easily to run from one city to another, and unless you were high enough level or properly prepared, you could get your shit kicked in FAST.

Monsters never stop chasing you once they aggro, either, so you couldn't just run away for a few seconds and then okay fine you were safe again.

Yeah. EQ definitely has "hostile, living world" down.

As a player, I appreciated the teleport books from the Planes of Power expansion, of course, I mean, who wouldn't. It's an insanely convenient feature; but it really does neuter the sense of journey and discovery.
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Asking Shamans and Druids for SoW or the very least a Bard to get you through a zone. Good times.
 
Old School: FFXI, the air of mystery of some of these zones and the music was divine, although wow classic was also good. Never played EQ.

Current: ESO. Running off in any direction and finding delves, public dungeons, sky shards, crafting mats, and random quests is very rewarding.
 
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even though i spent too much time play WoW when younger.

FFXIV holds a spot in my heart for being the best MMO in general. I always want to go back to it but i just don't have that time Like i use to as a young punk.
 
Imru' al-Qays said:
Old-school EverQuest for sure. Steep death penalty and extremely limited fast travel (two classes out of 14 could teleport) made traveling a serious undertaking.
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I only played EverQuest Online Adventures on PS2, not sure how similar that was to PC but I remember it being the same deal with the death penalty and the very limited ways to teleport. But yeah it really felt like a high risk trying to travel out far to grind or make it to another city. First MMO I played before FFXI.
 
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Anyway... In OG Everquest every area you got to visit was interesting because there was intense danger involved. At one point I got lost alone in South Karana without a clue where I was. That's scary as hell as I wouldn't have any idea of how to retrieve my corpse and gear if I died.

Games today mollycoddle the user and have neat avoidable playpens with monsters and detailed maps, plugins and lots of websites explaining everything.
In EQ it was an adventure to make the trip from Kelethin to Qeynos.
 
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