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Originally Posted by etchazz  so what's wrong with making a game with 8 or more similar dungeons that all have great loot, great exp and are non linear? hell, you could still have scripted events, and plenty of things to do besides camp and make it fun as hell. |
Making dungeons "with great loot, great exp, and [that] are non linear" is the goal in both instanced and non-instanced content. If it's done correctly both approaches benefit from a great dungeon design. A great dungeon will be used both if its instanced or of its a global asset. Likewise, bad design will bury an instanced dungeon, while making a global dungeon a barren wasteland, acerbating problems in other dungeons.
The point of instancing is to regulate social interaction. Even if good design can arguably regulate social interaction it further complicates the design itself. Instancing removes the concept of social interaction, thus simplifying the overall design. A simpler design is one that can be produced with more consistent results and on a faster schedule.
Global dungeons also create an additional burden on design, since dungeons are interdependent on one another. If say there are 8 dungeons, then a failing in any one of those dungeons affects the remaining dungeons. Like for example, overcrowding may occur in the remaining dungeons.
Additionally, instancing scales perfectly with server population and level progression. Whereas global dungeons don't, they also have to be both massive to accommodate large populations while still accessible to smaller populations. All of those provide additional design complications.
So from a designer's point of view instancing provides clear benefits. It's not because designers are obsessively sucking Blizzard's teat. Most games face time and budget constraints, and instancing can help reduce the workload.