Popularized along with World of Warcraft, instanced content is now a staple of MMORPGs. In just about every second generation game it can be expected that the most important content, along with the best rewards, are locked behind the private gates of an instance. Even PvP is no exception, with WoW battlegrounds being the prime locals for  taking on the opposing faction. So pervasive is such content that the word “instance” has become synonymous with “dungeon.”  Nowadays, most World of Warcraft players are sitting in town while they wait for their group queue to pop, leaving the non-instanced world the domain of lowbies and gatherers (save a few daily quest hubs). The massive world that was so painstakingly created sits largely unused once maximum level is attained, largely irrelevant.

This is exactly why the instance needs to go away.

This may seem like a fairly shocking thought from a person who has played WoW for over six years, as well as other games that have instanced content. Especially since instanced dungeons were one of the reasons I preferred the game over EverQuest. Indeed, instances served a purpose back in 2004. In older games that didn’t have instanced content, having multiple groups camping the same spawns and trying to kill the same raid bosses was problematic, to say the least. I need not go into details, but griefing was fairly rampant. The concept of an instanced dungeon came about as a band aid to the problem. It was easier to put the most rewarding content in a private instance so each group had their own “copy” of the content to deal with. I feel the in this respect, the instance was successful, and at the time it was probably the most technically feasible solution.

Unfortunately, times have changed. Instances have lead way to problems of their own. Not only does heavy reliance on instanced content make the non-instanced world trivial, making the game feel more and more like a “small group” game than a massive game, but it has also damaged the game community in ways that should be obvious to anyone who has spent more than five minutes in an MMO’s forums. An MMO world shouldn’t feel like a ghost town, but even the popular ones tend to feel empty when the majority of the players are holed up in their own instances. Such content has, over time, stripped MMOs of their sense of vastness and wonder. Instead, loading up a second generation game feels very similar to loading up Final Fantasy. Many times if I am outside a big city, it feels like I’m playing a single player game. Newer concepts such as “phasing” add to the issue, because they further partition the population of the non-instanced world.

I believe the time has come for developers to really address the problems that non-instanced content by making their worlds and encounters more reactive to the actions of players, instead of totally sidestepping the issue. While RIFT is taking baby steps by using rift and invasion events to give the non-instanced areas some purpose, the best rewards and most challenging content is still walled away in instances. This is a bit of a disappointment because I can imagine what it would be like if they were to completely shift focus away from private dungeons and onto making the world events truly awesome. I also am not impressed with The Old Republic on the grounds that it seems like it will be a worse offender than WoW in the area of making an MMO feel like a single player game.

This does not mean that everyone needs to go the route of Darkfall. Most players still require direction to enjoy their play time. Instead developers should be working on ways of making the game truly Player versus Environment, and not Player vs. Scripted Boss Encounter. The world should react, ensuring that the the encounters and challenges are self-tuning based on both the numbers and actions of players in the vicinity. Ultimately, the world of an MMO should feel dynamic and alive to where people would prefer exploring it versus being isolated in an instance.