One really memorable gaming experience for me was taking acid and then playing Black Desert Online. I went out questing for around 7 hours, visiting different towns and generally progressing the MSQ, no fast travel just me my friend and our horses to get us across the land.

Upon finally returning to what was my home city at that time I had a genuine feeling of delight for being back ‘home’. Not only had we put in work on the quests but we had travelled to far flung unknown places with the journey’s being interesting as well as time consuming. We had to plan where to go so as to not waste our time with unnecessary travelling and overall it just gave a sense of adventure that I don’t think I have had before or since that day.

I fucking love that game but it was also a life consuming addiction that I don’t wish to return to any time soon but I will still always fondly remember that sense of wonder and adventure that was nurtured by having to travel everywhere for our selves rather than just fast travelling around the map in seconds.

Always offer options. Make travel interesting to incentivize people to travel, offer fast travel for those who don‘t want to or don‘t have the time to travel the same route for the seventh time.

Although I do think that if in an RPG I had the choice between absolutely stuffed and detailed event hubs or everything spread thinner across hubs and travel routes (they do take a lot of ressources to make, after all), I‘d probably choose the former.

I always think back to the original two Fallout games vs the ones that came later.

Scenes were set pieces, and travel was something that occurred on a map, with random encounters that occurred along the way as you moved from one location to another. It wasn’t fast travel, but nor was it “experience every mile of your journey in real time”. And depending on the path you took, you could still stumble across secrets, unique locations etc.

That remains my favourite travel method in games, and though it’s rare, it is still done well in some more recent games. Owlcat is particularly good at it, and their Pathfinder games did it really well, and as does Rogue Trader (though it isn’t a game for this sub yet). Solasta: Crown of the Magister also does it well

At the very least, the world has to interesting enough that travel from point A to point B is not boring. Good examples are RDR2, where the world has enough activity that it was fun to just travel. Another one is Cyberpunk 2077. Night City is so beautifully realized that I cannot help but not use fast travel and instead drive everywhere.

Also as others have pointed out. Spider-man’s traversal is so much fun that it is almost criminal to use fast travel.

I grew to dislike it in the later Bethesda games (and open world games themselves as a genre), although in their third TES game they made it right. There were multiple paid or magical systems like teleports, transportation and spells, all not ideal, but when you go from A to B you start to chain them like you do while commuting to the other side of a city IRL. Not only that doesn’t harm immersion, it makes the world feel more connected and makes you obey the rules of that world. Some of them are accessible right from the start, some are unlockable by buying a scroll\spell or finding an item. Sometimes it feels even rewarding when you find an efficient way to cross these ash deserts. Not to say that gamedevs can add to worldbuilding by adding this or that traveling hub on the map and repeatedly put you in places they want you to stay in more and notice quests, shops, factions to join.

I think fast travel is fine. I play games to wander so I don’t get the point but whatever.

My favorite result of purposefully not having fast travel/teleporting is on the nerd.nu Minecraft server. Most Minecraft servers just have teleports set up to get get everywhere, but this Minecraft server has none so people build huge minecart subways and nether highways to connect cities and towns into an organic transit network. It is a joy to just grab a minecart and just punch random city names in to go for a ride and see where it takes you.

None of it would have happened if the server had fast travel and it just makes the world so much more interesting.

The guy’s got a point, but I don’t think it can be fully generalized as that “you don’t need fast travel, otherwise your game is boring.” I think there are legitimate instances where you just need to get to places quickly. I think the problem is less that fast travel exists, and more that a lot of games nowadays put so many fast travel points that you can go through the entire game without having stepped foot in 99% of the map.

I like the concept of “limited fast travel.” Witcher 3 is a good one, where you can fast travel, but only if you’re at a signpost and you can only travel to other signposts. Hollow Knight does this as well. I’m also pretty partial to how Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom does it, where you can fast travel to any shrine at any time, but shrines are never perfectly where you want to go - you’ll still need to make a 1 minute jog to get to the town/point of interest that you’re trying to get to.

I didn’t learn that Red Dead Redemption 2 had a fast travel system until after my first playthrough. I completed a second playthrough shortly after and still didn’t use it. Im glad the game had the feature still because I know not everyone has 5-10 minutes to ride everywhere or are not as interested in that aspect of the game. The world was plenty compelling for me, personally, to not use it. I liberally use fast travel in other games. Sometimes I want immersion, sometimes I want to progress the story. I don’t think it’s indictive of lazy design. I really appreciate the option when I have it.