There are loading screens between waypoints when you map teleport, this is because the game has to load the area all at once. Otherwise it gradually loads. Asura gates allow for travel between cities and so it's a similar thing. I think it's just the cities that are broken up into loading areas, though many can be avoided by going a longer route around...just what i have noticed watching the game play videos.
Originally posted by cali59 After the first time you go into a new zone, you're going to teleport there every future time anyway, so it's not like not being seamless will affect much of anything. If your game is based on teleportation, then it can't preload. GW2 is said to be as big as GW1 plus all three of its expansions. It's a little muddled because it's not directly talking about size of landmass as much as amount of content, but we should be able to gather that GW2's zones are very large. In GW2, there's 25 zones. In GW1, just the first three expansions have 120 explorable areas. In GW1, you could run directly across a sizeable area in only a few minutes if the mobs didn't bother you. I'm never going to be able to find it, but I'm pretty sure the quote was something like "15 minutes to run across but that was stopping for all the fights I couldn't avoid." Whatever that means. The point is that it's not like you're going to be hitting loading screens all the time. With this new Overflow idea, I don't think they could make it seamless anyway. It's going to stop and ask you if you want to travel to the overflow server or if you're going to want to wait and be notified when that zone in your server is below the limit.
I don't know why this is so contentious. Sure, seamless is good, and adds to the world, but it isn't the most important thing. If there is a good reason to not have seamlessness in the same was as a game like WoW, then we shouldn't have it. There are any number of reasons why that might be the case. How the information for DEs and their states is used and stored. The overflow system is also a great reason to not have this seamlessness, and I think it is a much better thing to have, because it means you will never be forced to wait to play. How many times has that happened to you in WoW, for queues or server downtime. That won't happen in GW2, just as it didn't in GW1.
I do want to add, about the interview in your link, they say "From a sheer content perspective, volume of game space and stuff you can do, the first Guild Wars with all the expansion packs is about the same size as Guild Wars 2 will be on release its massive." Think, "volume of game space." Guild Wars was at the beginning a very, very large game. I imagine GW2 will be one of the largest game worlds, if not the largest game world, we've yet seen. With perhaps the most content.
"There are two great powers, and they've been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit."
John Parry, to his son Will; "The Subtle Knife," by Phillip Pullman
The zones are absolutely huge, and there are so many of them it will take hundreds of hours to fully explore everything. But before you ask, no… Tyria is not seamless like Azeroth. It’s far less instanced and “walled in” than something like SWTOR, but you’ll still have to “zone” between zones. The good news is that you won’t be doing this often at first, as the zones are absolutely huge.
The zones are absolutely huge, and there are so many of them it will take hundreds of hours to fully explore everything. But before you ask, no… Tyria is not seamless like Azeroth. It’s far less instanced and “walled in” than something like SWTOR, but you’ll still have to “zone” between zones. The good news is that you won’t be doing this often at first, as the zones are absolutely huge.
I'd take zoning from time to time and have actually dynamic content in a live world than not zone and have a pathetic, static world any day of the week.
The zones are absolutely huge, and there are so many of them it will take hundreds of hours to fully explore everything. But before you ask, no… Tyria is not seamless like Azeroth. It’s far less instanced and “walled in” than something like SWTOR, but you’ll still have to “zone” between zones. The good news is that you won’t be doing this often at first, as the zones are absolutely huge.
I'd take zoning from time to time and have actually dynamic content in a live world than not zone and have a pathetic, static world any day of the week.
Yes we all have our preferences. I just saw a lot of pages about if it was seamless or not and the answer was on this very website.
Originally posted by cali59 After the first time you go into a new zone, you're going to teleport there every future time anyway, so it's not like not being seamless will affect much of anything. If your game is based on teleportation, then it can't preload. GW2 is said to be as big as GW1 plus all three of its expansions. It's a little muddled because it's not directly talking about size of landmass as much as amount of content, but we should be able to gather that GW2's zones are very large. In GW2, there's 25 zones. In GW1, just the first three expansions have 120 explorable areas. In GW1, you could run directly across a sizeable area in only a few minutes if the mobs didn't bother you. I'm never going to be able to find it, but I'm pretty sure the quote was something like "15 minutes to run across but that was stopping for all the fights I couldn't avoid." Whatever that means. The point is that it's not like you're going to be hitting loading screens all the time. With this new Overflow idea, I don't think they could make it seamless anyway. It's going to stop and ask you if you want to travel to the overflow server or if you're going to want to wait and be notified when that zone in your server is below the limit.
I don't know why this is so contentious. Sure, seamless is good, and adds to the world, but it isn't the most important thing. If there is a good reason to not have seamlessness in the same was as a game like WoW, then we shouldn't have it. There are any number of reasons why that might be the case. How the information for DEs and their states is used and stored. The overflow system is also a great reason to not have this seamlessness, and I think it is a much better thing to have, because it means you will never be forced to wait to play. How many times has that happened to you in WoW, for queues or server downtime. That won't happen in GW2, just as it didn't in GW1.
I do want to add, about the interview in your link, they say "From a sheer content perspective, volume of game space and stuff you can do, the first Guild Wars with all the expansion packs is about the same size as Guild Wars 2 will be on release its massive." Think, "volume of game space." Guild Wars was at the beginning a very, very large game. I imagine GW2 will be one of the largest game worlds, if not the largest game world, we've yet seen. With perhaps the most content.
I think that 'as big as GW + expansions' referred to the amount of content and things to do, if I read that link correct, not the size of the world. WHich I immediately believe, seeing how much there's to do in GW2. I recall reading on I think the GW2Guru forums a while back that GW2's world is as large as GW or slightly larger. I also saw overlays of the old lay of the land in GW and the new lay of the land in GW2 for a number of areas, which was pretty neatly done, and it matched 1 on 1.
This thread has become the site of a tragic spill of highly concentrated and toxic stupidity. I highly recommend people stay clear of the area and suggest the moderators contact OSHA and a company specializing in hazmat containment.
Thank you so much for this it brightened my day. The sad thing about it is you are absolutely correct. Here we are at the point in which open beta begins, the game's not out yet and the SWTOR lovers have decided to post vitriol misinformation threads to try to get people to flame and convince them of what anyone who's played at the cons and any video one can watch for 20 minutes on youtube of a random player running around not using portals will tell everyone who has a brain. It's just trolls who are mad at those of us who pointed out the flaws of their game, at least GW2 players won't have to pay a monthly fee for their beta and Anet won't call their final beta test a Launch. It's all just misdirected anger, these people should be mad at EA/BW and not the rest of us.
Originally posted by itgrowls Thank you so much for this it brightened my day. The sad thing about it is you are absolutely correct. Here we are at the point in which open beta begins, the game's not out yet and the SWTOR lovers have decided to post vitriol misinformation threads to try to get people to flame and convince them of what anyone who's played at the cons and any video one can watch for 20 minutes on youtube of a random player running around not using portals will tell everyone who has a brain. It's just trolls who are mad at those of us who pointed out the flaws of their game, at least GW2 players won't have to pay a monthly fee for their beta and Anet won't call their final beta test a Launch. It's all just misdirected anger, these people should be mad at EA/BW and not the rest of us.
This sounds kinda shortsighted and prejudiced. Granted, I don't feel like going through all the pages of this thread, but from what I read of the last couple of pages, there isn't as much vitriol misinformation going on nor trolling. Main recurring discussion from what I could read was the question whether there's loading screens between zones or not, and in what frequency, and people feeling it to be an immersion downer or being indifferent about it.
As for the videos, if people stay in one area or region, then it doesn't really matter if they're 20 min in it or dozens of hours, you won't see any portal. It gets interesting when you have videos from players traveling across areas and wandering the world. I haven't seen anyone linking to videos where people do that, so if you have videos about that I'd be interested to see, and I think a lot of other people too, so feel free to post.
Personally, I see it as nothing more than a nice-to-have, it'd be nice if a whole ingame world is seamless but it doesn't ruin my gaming fun if it isn't. I had a great time in games like GW, EQ2 and AoC even while they were zoned/instanced.
You can demand a lot but you're not a realist if you demand the same. Are you honestly expecting the same performance from a car that costs $1000 and a car that costs $100.000?
The difference between B2P and P2P during launch is zero. You pay for both a box price. The similarities end there, simply because the subscription fees for a year's worth of gaming add up to three times the box price minimum. So by the end of the first year, one game still cost you $50 while the other cost you $200.
Do you still have the same expectations from both those products?
That's a fair question.
If i buy a car with 1k $ i ll expect to take me to work and back home. I wont expect it to get fan speeds or have nice performance unless ofc it was a super duper bargain. Gw2 with some of its elements gave that impression up to a point.
Back to a game with sub fee now. Dont forget that if i decide to pay a fee for 1 or 2 years it means that this game worths its money and im having loads of fun with it. None is forcing us to pay subs for products. Its a decision we customers make.
Same goes for Gw2 .none is forcing us to give 40 bucks/euros to buy it. Since we have to give money though hell yeah we have demands from that product. Thats normal. Would i have more grins of gw2 had a sub and i saw the game taking wrong directions from what i think it should? Surely but my grins wouldnt change a thing anyway.
Thank you so much for this it brightened my day. The sad thing about it is you are absolutely correct. Here we are at the point in which open beta begins, the game's not out yet and the SWTOR lovers have decided to post vitriol misinformation threads to try to get people to flame and convince them of what anyone who's played at the cons and any video one can watch for 20 minutes on youtube of a random player running around not using portals will tell everyone who has a brain. It's just trolls who are mad at those of us who pointed out the flaws of their game, at least GW2 players won't have to pay a monthly fee for their beta and Anet won't call their final beta test a Launch. It's all just misdirected anger, these people should be mad at EA/BW and not the rest of us.
Too many assumptions going on in here and us vs them mentality. I never played SWTOR, the longest i lasted was one day in beta and i realised that game isn't for me. But i am also concerned about this issue does that by default makes me an angry SWTOR fan boy looking for revenge? since when we gamers became tribal people and divided in these camps? whatever happened to being just a a 'gamer'? sorry but msot of you guys sound like fanatics and not gamers.
Originally posted by smh_alot I think that 'as big as GW + expansions' referred to the amount of content and things to do, if I read that link correct, not the size of the world. WHich I immediately believe, seeing how much there's to do in GW2. I recall reading on I think the GW2Guru forums a while back that GW2's world is as large as GW or slightly larger. I also saw overlays of the old lay of the land in GW and the new lay of the land in GW2 for a number of areas, which was pretty neatly done, and it matched 1 on 1.
So, you think volume of game space means something other than the volume of game space? I think that's pretty clear. I am sure they are probably including underwater areas, but I am also sure the landmass for Tyria is still larger than the landmass for Tyira in GW1. Just because the maps match up doesn't mean one is not larger than the other. It just means they paid attention to the shape of landmasses, taking into account the awful things that have happened to change the face of the landscape.
CJ: From a sheer content perspective, volume of game space and stuff you can do, the first Guild Wars with all the expansion packs is about the same size as Guild Wars 2 will be on release its massive.
Yes, he says content, but volume of game space can't mean anything other than how big the playable areas are. And from what I saw at demos, the zones are huge. Ridiculously so.
"There are two great powers, and they've been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit."
John Parry, to his son Will; "The Subtle Knife," by Phillip Pullman
ANet are without a doubt skilled coders & designers, so it puzzle me that they kinda choose to have loading screen between zones: why not a seamless world like WoW, Terra etc. ?
Is it because of some kind of limitations with the dynamic events or something ?
Personally I like having zones, as long as there are no long loading screens.
Having zones gives more of a variety of environments.
Seamless worlds are really only nessecery for games with world PvP.
(>^_^)> MMO Veteran <(^_^<) Currently Playing: Tera Online
One of the great things about WoW, for all its faults, is how seamless the world is. One of the major things I didn't like in SWTOR was the load screens. Granted, they didn't really have much choice since their "world" was fragmented through being split up in many different planets. But it was still a contributor to me not playing it anymore. This just makes it all the more disappointing that GW2's world isn't seamless since they're not facing that obstacle, especially when another game did it in 2004 (and other games are doing it now with comparable graphics).
What's hilarious is that previous games were torn apart on these very boards for not having seamless worlds. But now that it's Guild Wars 2, it's seen as a positive thing. What the Hell? Some serious Twilight Zone stuff going on right there.
It's also a major reason why I'll always think more highly of Ultima VII than Baldur's Gate or Skyrim. Ultima VII was completely seamless. They managed to code that back in '92. Is it an engine limitation in GW2? A design decision? Who cares? Seamless worlds are cool as heck. That's why we want them.
That being said, still looking forward to trying the game. The fact that the game doesn't require a monthly sub could make me more willing to accept the load screens, as could the more innovative game play structure. Enough positives can sometimes outweigh a negative, even if it's a big one to some of us.
(I can live with them instancing a special PvP area or a capital here and there).
One of the great things about WoW, for all its faults, is how seamless the world is. One of the major things I didn't like in SWTOR was the load screens. Granted, they didn't really have much choice since their "world" was fragmented through being split up in many different planets. But it was still a contributor to me not playing it anymore. This just makes it all the more disappointing that GW2's world isn't seamless since they're not facing that obstacle, especially when another game did it in 2004 (and other games are doing it now with comparable graphics).
What's hilarious is that previous games were torn apart on these very boards for not having seamless worlds. But now that it's Guild Wars 2, it's seen as a positive thing. What the Hell? Some serious Twilight Zone stuff going on right there.
It's also a major reason why I'll always think more highly of Ultima VII than Baldur's Gate or Skyrim. Ultima VII was completely seamless. They managed to code that back in '92. Is it an engine limitation in GW2? A design decision? Who cares? Seamless worlds are cool as heck. That's why we want them.
That being said, still looking forward to trying the game. The fact that the game doesn't require a monthly sub could make me more willing to accept the load screens, as could the more innovative game play structure. Enough positives can sometimes outweigh a negative, even if it's a big one to some of us.
Nah, it is not a positive thing. The more loading screens and the longer they take to load the worse.
But it isn´t a huge thing to me, the technology today allows you to minimize the time of loading screens with the wonders of SSDs so at least for me loading screens is not as bad as they were a few years ago.
TOR do have far to many of them and rumors are that GW2s are a lot fewer, lets hope it is so.
Wow still have one zone for each continent though so even it ain´t totally seamless.
Waiting for loading do suck. But unless it gets too often it doesn´t suck enough for me to get discouraged.
If the zones are huge enough (I mean BIG!) it definitely has less of a negative impact than if they're small, as long as you don't have to travel between them a lot. Planets in SWTOR with an orbital space station were Hell for me.
ANet are without a doubt skilled coders & designers, so it puzzle me that they kinda choose to have loading screen between zones: why not a seamless world like WoW, Terra etc. ?
Is it because of some kind of limitations with the dynamic events or something ?
It could be they tried and failed, it's not uncommon in MMO's and Vanguard is a great example you notice when you cross the zones even though there is no loading. WoW and Fallen Earth also had this issue but it was ironed out, still it is possible for a zone to crash in WoW when this happens you get a rubber band effect when trying to cross into the zone that's down. The safe and easy way is just to have a loading screen as you don't have to spend time ironing out the sync issues which again can be seen in Vanguard with the stutter effect. Seemless loading is still not that common in MMO's but larger zones are becoming far more common which can help to reduce the loading screen shock.
Because flying a Minmatar ship is like going down a flight of stairs on an office chair while firing an Uzi.
If the zones are huge enough (I mean BIG!) it definitely has less of a negative impact than if they're small, as long as you don't have to travel between them a lot. Planets in SWTOR with an orbital space station were Hell for me.
I've been watching as much of the WvW videos as I can and that map looks pretty damn big. I don't think it will be as bad as SWTOR. Having to go all the way back to the space station of each planet, just so you could leave, was horrible. Perhaps I have just been spoiled by the open worlds of TES and WoW.
Comments
There are loading screens between waypoints when you map teleport, this is because the game has to load the area all at once. Otherwise it gradually loads. Asura gates allow for travel between cities and so it's a similar thing. I think it's just the cities that are broken up into loading areas, though many can be avoided by going a longer route around...just what i have noticed watching the game play videos.
Archlinux ftw
I don't know why this is so contentious. Sure, seamless is good, and adds to the world, but it isn't the most important thing. If there is a good reason to not have seamlessness in the same was as a game like WoW, then we shouldn't have it. There are any number of reasons why that might be the case. How the information for DEs and their states is used and stored. The overflow system is also a great reason to not have this seamlessness, and I think it is a much better thing to have, because it means you will never be forced to wait to play. How many times has that happened to you in WoW, for queues or server downtime. That won't happen in GW2, just as it didn't in GW1.
I do want to add, about the interview in your link, they say "From a sheer content perspective, volume of game space and stuff you can do, the first Guild Wars with all the expansion packs is about the same size as Guild Wars 2 will be on release its massive."
Think, "volume of game space." Guild Wars was at the beginning a very, very large game. I imagine GW2 will be one of the largest game worlds, if not the largest game world, we've yet seen. With perhaps the most content.
"There are two great powers, and they've been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit."
John Parry, to his son Will; "The Subtle Knife," by Phillip Pullman
3.) Massive World, But Not Seamless
The zones are absolutely huge, and there are so many of them it will take hundreds of hours to fully explore everything. But before you ask, no… Tyria is not seamless like Azeroth. It’s far less instanced and “walled in” than something like SWTOR, but you’ll still have to “zone” between zones. The good news is that you won’t be doing this often at first, as the zones are absolutely huge.
I'd take zoning from time to time and have actually dynamic content in a live world than not zone and have a pathetic, static world any day of the week.
Executive Editor (Games) http://www.wccftech.com
Yes we all have our preferences. I just saw a lot of pages about if it was seamless or not and the answer was on this very website.
just so I got this straight, is there anything OTHER than the lack of oxygen that ruins breathing for you?
- Just a way of saying being 'immersed' in a simulated world is kinda the point of mmo's.
I don't know why this is so contentious. Sure, seamless is good, and adds to the world, but it isn't the most important thing. If there is a good reason to not have seamlessness in the same was as a game like WoW, then we shouldn't have it. There are any number of reasons why that might be the case. How the information for DEs and their states is used and stored. The overflow system is also a great reason to not have this seamlessness, and I think it is a much better thing to have, because it means you will never be forced to wait to play. How many times has that happened to you in WoW, for queues or server downtime. That won't happen in GW2, just as it didn't in GW1.
I do want to add, about the interview in your link, they say "From a sheer content perspective, volume of game space and stuff you can do, the first Guild Wars with all the expansion packs is about the same size as Guild Wars 2 will be on release its massive."
Think, "volume of game space." Guild Wars was at the beginning a very, very large game. I imagine GW2 will be one of the largest game worlds, if not the largest game world, we've yet seen. With perhaps the most content.
I think that 'as big as GW + expansions' referred to the amount of content and things to do, if I read that link correct, not the size of the world. WHich I immediately believe, seeing how much there's to do in GW2. I recall reading on I think the GW2Guru forums a while back that GW2's world is as large as GW or slightly larger. I also saw overlays of the old lay of the land in GW and the new lay of the land in GW2 for a number of areas, which was pretty neatly done, and it matched 1 on 1.Thank you so much for this it brightened my day. The sad thing about it is you are absolutely correct. Here we are at the point in which open beta begins, the game's not out yet and the SWTOR lovers have decided to post vitriol misinformation threads to try to get people to flame and convince them of what anyone who's played at the cons and any video one can watch for 20 minutes on youtube of a random player running around not using portals will tell everyone who has a brain. It's just trolls who are mad at those of us who pointed out the flaws of their game, at least GW2 players won't have to pay a monthly fee for their beta and Anet won't call their final beta test a Launch. It's all just misdirected anger, these people should be mad at EA/BW and not the rest of us.
This sounds kinda shortsighted and prejudiced. Granted, I don't feel like going through all the pages of this thread, but from what I read of the last couple of pages, there isn't as much vitriol misinformation going on nor trolling. Main recurring discussion from what I could read was the question whether there's loading screens between zones or not, and in what frequency, and people feeling it to be an immersion downer or being indifferent about it.
As for the videos, if people stay in one area or region, then it doesn't really matter if they're 20 min in it or dozens of hours, you won't see any portal. It gets interesting when you have videos from players traveling across areas and wandering the world. I haven't seen anyone linking to videos where people do that, so if you have videos about that I'd be interested to see, and I think a lot of other people too, so feel free to post.Personally, I see it as nothing more than a nice-to-have, it'd be nice if a whole ingame world is seamless but it doesn't ruin my gaming fun if it isn't. I had a great time in games like GW, EQ2 and AoC even while they were zoned/instanced.
That's a fair question.
If i buy a car with 1k $ i ll expect to take me to work and back home. I wont expect it to get fan speeds or have nice performance unless ofc it was a super duper bargain. Gw2 with some of its elements gave that impression up to a point.
Back to a game with sub fee now. Dont forget that if i decide to pay a fee for 1 or 2 years it means that this game worths its money and im having loads of fun with it. None is forcing us to pay subs for products. Its a decision we customers make.
Same goes for Gw2 .none is forcing us to give 40 bucks/euros to buy it. Since we have to give money though hell yeah we have demands from that product. Thats normal. Would i have more grins of gw2 had a sub and i saw the game taking wrong directions from what i think it should? Surely but my grins wouldnt change a thing anyway.
Too many assumptions going on in here and us vs them mentality. I never played SWTOR, the longest i lasted was one day in beta and i realised that game isn't for me. But i am also concerned about this issue does that by default makes me an angry SWTOR fan boy looking for revenge? since when we gamers became tribal people and divided in these camps? whatever happened to being just a a 'gamer'? sorry but msot of you guys sound like fanatics and not gamers.
So, you think volume of game space means something other than the volume of game space? I think that's pretty clear. I am sure they are probably including underwater areas, but I am also sure the landmass for Tyria is still larger than the landmass for Tyira in GW1. Just because the maps match up doesn't mean one is not larger than the other. It just means they paid attention to the shape of landmasses, taking into account the awful things that have happened to change the face of the landscape.
Yes, he says content, but volume of game space can't mean anything other than how big the playable areas are. And from what I saw at demos, the zones are huge. Ridiculously so.
"There are two great powers, and they've been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit."
John Parry, to his son Will; "The Subtle Knife," by Phillip Pullman
Personally I like having zones, as long as there are no long loading screens.
Having zones gives more of a variety of environments.
Seamless worlds are really only nessecery for games with world PvP.
(>^_^)> MMO Veteran <(^_^<)
Currently Playing: Tera Online
One of the great things about WoW, for all its faults, is how seamless the world is. One of the major things I didn't like in SWTOR was the load screens. Granted, they didn't really have much choice since their "world" was fragmented through being split up in many different planets. But it was still a contributor to me not playing it anymore. This just makes it all the more disappointing that GW2's world isn't seamless since they're not facing that obstacle, especially when another game did it in 2004 (and other games are doing it now with comparable graphics).
What's hilarious is that previous games were torn apart on these very boards for not having seamless worlds. But now that it's Guild Wars 2, it's seen as a positive thing. What the Hell? Some serious Twilight Zone stuff going on right there.
It's also a major reason why I'll always think more highly of Ultima VII than Baldur's Gate or Skyrim. Ultima VII was completely seamless. They managed to code that back in '92. Is it an engine limitation in GW2? A design decision? Who cares? Seamless worlds are cool as heck. That's why we want them.
That being said, still looking forward to trying the game. The fact that the game doesn't require a monthly sub could make me more willing to accept the load screens, as could the more innovative game play structure. Enough positives can sometimes outweigh a negative, even if it's a big one to some of us.
(I can live with them instancing a special PvP area or a capital here and there).
Nah, it is not a positive thing. The more loading screens and the longer they take to load the worse.
But it isn´t a huge thing to me, the technology today allows you to minimize the time of loading screens with the wonders of SSDs so at least for me loading screens is not as bad as they were a few years ago.
TOR do have far to many of them and rumors are that GW2s are a lot fewer, lets hope it is so.
Wow still have one zone for each continent though so even it ain´t totally seamless.
Waiting for loading do suck. But unless it gets too often it doesn´t suck enough for me to get discouraged.
If the zones are huge enough (I mean BIG!) it definitely has less of a negative impact than if they're small, as long as you don't have to travel between them a lot. Planets in SWTOR with an orbital space station were Hell for me.
It could be they tried and failed, it's not uncommon in MMO's and Vanguard is a great example you notice when you cross the zones even though there is no loading. WoW and Fallen Earth also had this issue but it was ironed out, still it is possible for a zone to crash in WoW when this happens you get a rubber band effect when trying to cross into the zone that's down. The safe and easy way is just to have a loading screen as you don't have to spend time ironing out the sync issues which again can be seen in Vanguard with the stutter effect. Seemless loading is still not that common in MMO's but larger zones are becoming far more common which can help to reduce the loading screen shock.
Because flying a Minmatar ship is like going down a flight of stairs on an office chair while firing an Uzi.
I've been watching as much of the WvW videos as I can and that map looks pretty damn big. I don't think it will be as bad as SWTOR. Having to go all the way back to the space station of each planet, just so you could leave, was horrible. Perhaps I have just been spoiled by the open worlds of TES and WoW.