Why Can't I... Teleport In MMOs?

News Reader · Post by **News Reader** » June 27th, 2009, 7:00

Why Can't I... Teleport In MMOs?
I have a bunch of questions about gaming that tend to begin, "Why can't I..." Today I was wondering such a thought. Here's the thing about videogames: they're games. Let's just make sure we're all clear on this. They're games. Not work. Not obligations. But games. So just exactly why is it so many of [...]

Author: John Walker
Category: RockPaperShotgun feature MMO rant why can't I
Publish Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:35:08 +0000

I have a bunch of questions about gaming that tend to begin, "Why can't I..." Today I was wondering such a thought. Here's the thing about videogames: they're games. Let's just make sure we're all clear on this. They're games. Not work. Not obligations. But games. So just exactly why is it so many of them behave like some sort of strict teacher who will only let me run around in the playground once all my work is finished? If I want to go hit the Giant Elves of Elvington on the other side of the Countryland, why the bleeding heck can't I just be there?

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MORDETH LESTOK · Post by **MORDETH LESTOK** » June 27th, 2009, 13:07

hmm...seems like most of the MMO's I play/played have a system of porting. I can't believe he bitched about a 15sec run across a CoX map. You can port to every city.

Matrix you could. SWG you could. Everquest you could. Eve...you can't but has a clone telelport thingy 1/day and the whole game is about travel.

Guildwars way overdid the porting. I swear I saw every city in 1 day. Then I was like...wtf do I do now?

What's this guy ranting about...1 specific MMO he plays or is he just an ass?

Baliame · Post by **Baliame** » June 27th, 2009, 14:50

MMO designers want you to see as much of their world as possible. I noticed this in Might and Magic: 6, 7 and 8 are much the same in terms of gameplay (even though it's not an MMO, it is an open-world RPG), but the point is, in the latter two I just rushed to getting my Town Portal and Fly spells and I was done with the main story a lot faster than if I actually explored the world, and that is exactly what the MMO developers want to avoid, if everyone just rushes through the whole game, there's less revenue because they get bored of it faster.

Sure, travelling is boring, but I remember my first WoW character and those extremely long flights from Orgrimmar to Tanaris or Undercity to Badlands, each taking at least 5 minutes if not more, now if you're soloing, especially as a casual player who maybe has only 6 hours of playtime a week, with a slow but reasonable travelling time, it will be a fraction of it, and it eventually adds up.

However, as Mordeth said, most MMOs have a system of instant travelling, if we take WoW, you can summon with a warlock or to instances, open portals as a mage, hearthstone or use a cross-city teleport. An obvious exception is Eve (even though there are jump clones), but that's more about the dangers of travelling.

/my 3.93 HUF.

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » June 27th, 2009, 15:07

You could extend Freelancer into your categories Bubbles, open-ish world space game, no teleports as such for shortcuts (okay, there are a few, not many).

I think the problem with it is you need to make travelling not boring or worthwhile otherwise it becomes a chore.

Eve gets away with it because you have to be on the guard in >0.5 or you can go afk and let it autopilot in empire space where there is no danger.
Doing empire manually was boring as fuck unless you were on the look out for war targets.

MORDETH LESTOK · Post by **MORDETH LESTOK** » June 27th, 2009, 15:24

Baliame wrote:a casual player who maybe has only 6 hours of playtime a week

Most MMO's just aren't geared to casual players. And, if you're limited to a short amount of hours...you really shouldn't play an MMO or expect instant gratification if you do.

Baliame · Post by **Baliame** » June 27th, 2009, 15:41

MORDETH LESTOK wrote: Most MMO's just aren't geared to casual players. And, if you're limited to a short amount of hours...you really shouldn't play an MMO or expect instant gratification if you do.

You might have missed the word "especially". They're not exactly non-existant even though the games are not geared towards them.

Post by **Grimmie** » June 27th, 2009, 16:14

There are plenty of MMOs with teleport spells. Hurrdurr.

Post by **Dog Pants** » June 27th, 2009, 17:47

MORDETH LESTOK wrote: Most MMO's just aren't geared to casual players. And, if you're limited to a short amount of hours...you really shouldn't play an MMO or expect instant gratification if you do.

Bollocks. Why shouldn't I be able to enjoy a persistent multiplayer world just because I have a job/wife/child? I'll never get to play the end game content, but that's fine. I want a game I can play about in, that can keep me occupied, and which has other people doing the same. I don't know why it makes a difference to me that othere there, but it does. The amount of time you have to play shouldn't restrict what you do, only the amount of time it takes to be in a position to do it.

In fact, I do know why it makes a difference whether other people are there. It's the same reason you laugh at a joke in a live standup, but wouldn't if you watched the same show on TV. The same reason that when you say something funny you look around to see if anyone else heard it. It's nice having other people around to nitice what you're doing. Even if deep down you know they don't give a shit, it's that little moment of achievement that you know you're not alone in witnessing.

MORDETH LESTOK · Post by **MORDETH LESTOK** » June 27th, 2009, 20:50

Dog Pants wrote:Bollocks.

Actually, I take everything back. I was talking about the old days of Everquest and really only EVE atm that I know of. All the recent MMO's are catered to the casual/family players. In the end, all the companies just want $$$ so the more the subscribers the better.

My point about not playing a MMO was that if you don't have enough time to enjoy it...play something else...don't rant about super-teleports.

Post by **Dog Pants** » June 27th, 2009, 21:58

Well yeah, that's fair enough. bali pretty much nailed it for me - why play an MMO if you're just going to teleport from place to place spanging monsters? Especially Warcraft, which the picture hints he's talking about. You only have to run until it gets boring, after that you get flight points, mounts, hearthstones, portals, summoning stones, and probably several other methods I've missed with which to get about.

However, not all games do it that well, and one of my gripes with WAR was that it was too tedious to get about. Want to get ot another area? You had to run across the entire map to a flight point, then go to your capitol, then go to someone else's capitol, then another flight point, then walk somewhere else. Similar to Warcraft, but not nearly as intuitive. It got very dull very quickly. Eve on the other hand, as you've mentioned, relies on having to travel. It's integral to the game that you have to run blockades of gankers, it's part of the thrill of it.

Post by **HereComesPete** » June 27th, 2009, 22:48

They did open more flight points in war after a while because everyone told them the levels of running were fucking stupid, plus the mounts weren't much faster than walking really. I recall having a gyrocopter that was a bit faster, mainly I used it because it was silly.

Post by **FatherJack** » June 27th, 2009, 23:13

I think WoW has it about right - everything has to be earned (or bought). Portals, flight points, hearthstones, teleport spells/abilities and mounts. They constantly lower the entry points for a few of these, so soon hardly anyone would be complaining.

As for the long flight paths, they could go the LoTRO route, where only relatively short journeys give you the full animated tour, longer ones have a teleport in the middle. I don't know about everyone, but I felt a little cheated by those - sometimes I like to just sit back and enjoy the ride, but maybe not always.

I think WoW does it because it can more than anything, Moonglade to Tanaris is probably the longest without a loading screen, and they like to show off. For the most part, I enjoy them - the paths are well-thought-out and give good views of players questing below.

Eve and Freelancer take the complete opposite approach, in that even auto-travel can be interrupted at any time by pirates - and PvP WoW servers would lose a lot of PvP opportunities if no-one had to run/ride to the next flight point at least the first time.

Post by **Grimmie** » June 28th, 2009, 0:38

Ragnarok Online had an interesting system.

Once you'd reached the second-tier job for the acolyte and become a priest you could learn the Teleport skill.
You can place markers around the entire gameworld and then call portals to them by spending items (a red gem or something).

It meant that only high level players could call them, and they had to work at it.
It also meant that only one job class could do it, so it was pretty specialist.
Priests could make a living trading things for red gems, and charging randoms for teleports (usually the gem cost plus a tip).

Baliame · Post by **Baliame** » June 28th, 2009, 6:59

Dog Pants wrote:Especially Warcraft, which the picture hints he's talking about.

Yep, given it's the MMO I wasted most of my time on it's the best I got to compare others with, and besides, everything else wants to be WoW.

centerededgedesign · Post by **centerededgedesign** » July 7th, 2009, 0:52

The one I thought you'd all bring up is "Why don't we have teleports where we NEED THEM, like getting to work or the bar?" This would create LOTS more time for us to game, making the whole lot of us happier. And it would only take ONCE for somebody to teleport drunk and instead of materialzing properly, form a chum slick in the Atlantic.....

I predice MMO designers will be the ones to put the money into real teleports, so we'll have more time to be their bitches.....

Baliame · Post by **Baliame** » July 7th, 2009, 0:58

I can teleport home. Just need three bottles of vodka and if it works you'll wake up at home.

Post by **Dog Pants** » July 7th, 2009, 7:11

I'd love a real teleporter. I hate travelling.

Back on tangent, I read a vaguely interesting article yesterday. It was introduced as the rise of free to play vs the fall of subscription games. What it actually said was that recent subscription releases have been suffering because of how difficult to play they are, amongst other things. It cited Warcraft as the most recent big success because it bucked the trend, and that catering to the vocal hardcore on the forums will only alienate the silent majority of your customer base. The travel/teleport thing would support that.