Grimix said:Thats kind of a bummer....I remember back to my days on ffxi as a new player. Asking questions and learning about the game and people kept telling me "Wait till you get to Jeuno!"
Then I got to Jeuno....the big city...one of the major hubs for players to gather and form parties. Me barely surviving my journey to this city and seeing all these high level players in gear that was just amazing to look at, so many people in one city...not a rinky dink starting town but a place that felt so active with life where players from all over the game world had traveled to sell wares, or form parties, or recruit for guilds or whatever. I hope to see a major hub city(or cities) like this where all players head to in oder to perform business.
I feel the same way about finally getting to Freeport from my starting city of Highbourne back in EQOA. I had no idea that I had chosen a race with a starting city that was as far as possible from the hub where everyone hung out, so when I finally completed the perilous journey across the map, I felt a great sense of accomplishment. It was so cool looking around at all the level 50's in their sweet armor and huge swords...much cooler than the rusty crap I had on! At the time, I had wished that I just made a Human from the East so I would have started in Freeport, but looking back, I'm happy I had to make the long trek. Then again, this was prior to the days when you could look up everything online, so I had no idea what to expect at higher levels. Only had Allakhazam and random pictures they posted of higher level toons ;-)
I guess we don't really know how big these race specific cities end up being, but I fear with too many "hubs" only the ones in close proximity to what ends up being the most popular camps or otherwise PoI's, will end up particularly populated down the road. I would hate to see so much effort and passion being put into locations that'll turn into future ghost towns. Though I guess that's part of the challenge for VR - to make sure that won't happen.
My guess is that's part of the reason behind the caravan system - give people an option to not always stay within reach of the most convenient hub with offline traveling.