I know this isn’t strictly related to patient gaming, but I think it fits the ethos of this community and I can’t think of a better choir to preach to.
The director of Dragon’s Dogma II made the following statement regarding limiting or removing fast travel
Just give it a try. Travel is boring? That’s not true. It’s only an issue because your game is boring. All you have to do is make travel fun
I think this is fairly compelling. Though I will say, I don’t think the answer is to limit fast travel. The real limitations developers should be placing should be on filler quests that have you traveling from point a to point b and then back with some slight pretext as to why you’re doing so. It’s not fast travel that’s the issue so much as mission design and the manners in which the player is compelled to cross the game world.
Metroidvanias are a great example of how to allow for fast travel while still making traveling around the game world compelling. The latest Metroid, Metroid Dread, was really fantastic in this aspect. You have this sense of progression and exploration even as you’re backtracking.
Would removing fast travel from Metroid Dread have made it any better? I don’t think so. The inclusion of fast travel feels thematic. You have to work for it so it feels like an achievement to unlock. It augments the game.
So in short, I agree with some of the sentiment expressed, with regards to lazy gameplay design being boring. I disagree with the opinion that fast travel necessarily is boring, or causes lazy desing.
Fast travel is useful when a player needs to get to a specific location to progress and the alternative is a route that doesn’t pose any challenges or offer any opportunities for something interesting or unexpected to happen.
Conversely, you can remove fast travel (and potentially improve your game) if you can meet some of that criteria to make travel interesting. Is it just taking time to get there, or is there some sort of encounter along the way? Red Dead Redemption does a good job of this where a stranger on the road might strike up a conversation or some bandits might ambush you. Sure you could fast travel, but there are tons of events like that so even going back through the same areas will usually yield some sort of unique experience.
Alternatively, traversal itself should be interesting. The Insomniac Spider-Man games allow you to fast travel to various subway points on the map but swinging around the city is such a joy that I rarely ever fast travel. Death Stranding is built entirely around traversal, and at least in the early parts of the game you need to plot a route, pick appropriate gear and balance your load carefully. If anything the game gets less interesting when traversal is trivialized by zip lines or vehicles you can just drive between deliveries.
Valheim is a good example of a game that limits fast travel in an intelligent way that enhances the game. You can build point-to-point teleporters that allow for instant travel but there are certain resources that can’t be teleported. This allows for a lot of freedom of movement across a very large map but also ensures that you must still periodically load up your ship with valuable ore and make the long and dangerous journey back home to process it.
The Valheim implementation sounds clever!