Truly you are the voice of reason Necro. I couldn't agree more. For me I'm having the most fun in RPGs when I'm making progress. I don't like backtracking or being involved in hunting down certain items over a sometimes HUGE possible area talking to every possible NPC and searching every possible location incase I missed a secret chest or switch or Jade Monkey. I agree that it's lazy writing/design from the games creators, and servers merely to pad out and re-use areas that the game designers have already covered over again and extend the life of the game beyond what it would usually be. If it were up to me I'd rather have a five minute talk with someone over getting a ferry than an hour or so legging it through a desert, library, castle and thief's hideout.