SickleSigh said: No offense but thats a semantic distinction lol. I understand the minor difference that an instance is separate from other players instances and a non seamless zone allows all players to congregate in the area, it doesn't detract from the game not being "open world" in the sense that people expect. |
its a big difference, not a minor one. I think the word instance is being wrongly used so let me break this down.
Areas are split into zones that load when you reach the end of them. However, this doesnt mean it is instanced.
Everyone share the same areas.
The dungeons are instanced.
Also the chat window doesn't disappear while we zone.
FFXIV is a persistant world divided into discrete zones with instanced dungeons.
WoW is open world because it is seamless, and it has instance dungeons. FFXIV 1.0 with its open world dungeons was seamless like WoW, but it was full of boring copy pasted landscapes, and that was all traded away for better looking zones filled with content in them. If FFXIV:ARR was seamless, it would be exactly like WoW with flying mounts..and maybe look less better looking. Anyways I think its a good trade off.