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Originally Posted by Utnayan I guess that leaves the question then, why did developers move away from zones? This is going to be subjective as hell, but I didn't mind zoning, and I would gladly trade zoning for huge graphical performance - especially on raids. |
I think it all depends on what direction a developer wants to go. WoW, for instance, is very much a "world," but it is a "gamey world." It has zones that allow for interesting landscapes and sudden contrasts that are very fun. EverQuest was the same way. Zelda worlds are also very similar in that regard. They are very cool in a "gamey" way.
Some companies (Sigil and Bethesda being two that do a realistic looking non-gamey world, and NC Soft in Lineage 2 being a sylistic version of a non-gamey world) seem to want to translate the real world into a game. They are willing to suffer through the increased inconvenience (both technical and gameplay) of seemlessness in an effort to make the world as close to realistic as it can get.
Just as an aside, folks interested in this stuff should take a look at
this article. It is a white paper on some of the technical and design hurdles that Gas Powered Games ran into when trying to make Dungeon Siege. Its a good read.
I think there will always be places for both. Final Fantasy isn't going realism all of a sudden, neither is Super Mario Brothers. Zelda switches each release, with Windwalker being about as stylistic and compartmentalized as you can get, but the Twilight Princess looks like it has jumped back to full scale realism. /shrug. It's all good and change is nice.