And once again I find myself having to bring up GLIDING :) (I seem to have to do this a lot, as a LOT of people seem to miss or skip this in AoC) The walking will turn into riding, but then that too will turn into Gliding. Like Archeage, Gliding will provide a much faster than just riding (not to mention avoiding terrain) method of travel and will make the map feel smaller. Also, with the various tiers of mounts, riding and gliding speeds (and gliding distances) will change and perhaps even be augmented by barding or other equipment for your mount. AoC will certainly NOT be a walking simulator, and I believe the size of the map is to make remote areas feel remote, even though you can ride fast, glide far and set naval speed records (not to mention MAGIC). The key to Ashes is not just how Diverse it will be, but how diverse it will continue to be with its' expansions and evolution. Steven is a great DM (just you all wait and see)

In every single MMO I have ever played moving from place to place is an opportunity to explore, harvest and kill mobs for resources/exp. Even after I obtain a mount I will still run places to harvest etc and ashes will just reinforce that play style for me.

Intro on point! That was unexpected 😂. Keep that content coming!

When i hear the oblivion theme, i only think about the npc meme nowadays

If the world is interesting in between quests/towns/dungeons then no it’s not, hell I’ve never heard in old MMOs called running simulators, this must be a new term for people who don’t like to explore. Then again what it’ll come down to is how much the world is populated with things to do.

I hope they keep instant travel super limited. It shrinks the world. Distance needs to matter.

Yep, there are lots of reasons Ashes will likely not be a running simulator, but as always, we've gotta get in this damn game to find out!

no pain no valuable gain/memory. i think one core aspect of mmo is running around and feel the world

One major flaw of New World at launch was the large number of quests, the MSQ in particular, which simply required you to travel half way across the map, talk to a a guy, kill a mob, or interact with something, AND THEN RUN ALL THE WAY BACK! to to talk to the quest giver. It was a dodge, a lazy time sink used to fill in for lack of content. That was the reason I heard most often for NW being called a running simulator. I expect AoC, as you have outlined, to have something to do every step of the way...

I think alot of people dont relise the ashes will play different from other MMO where u go to quest hub to quest hub, Ashes seems like u will be sticking around the node you call home and not realy going to far from homenode wwith occasonal expeitions for resources and thing u dont have

I'd prefer a running simulator than a portal, flight, simulator... at least you can explore and do something between places. I really loved the way new world was... that part wasn't bad ... but everything was.... If AoC can do it right i realy won't mind the exploration/runing around

My take on this is that many ask for a sandbox and/or 'different' but when you give them what they ask for they complain that it isn't like what they are used to. It is very annoying. In NW the run time to get across the map was not that long (what was actually annoying was the run quests, they just felt like time sinks) and I think most who complained simply wanted mounts, because most players like mounts. Even if you could run faster in NW for travel, it would not appease the need for mounts. Now NW has mounts and they are fun but add so little to the overall gameplay, other than the complaining has ended.

ppl cry and complain about everything today in every game, some of them should play shooters or other short time invest things where u get a reward. So dumb it sometimes hurts ^^

LOL....

More like Raid Shadow Losers

My opinion is "no." In most other mmos, your goal is to travel from point a to point b, and there is little in between. With Ashes, content is king, where the goal is to explore and not just travel to your set destination.

Like New World? Not again....