Remove blimp/ship travel already

"Around the world in 20 minutes"

It doesn't sound so bad to me. World of Warcraft, like many MMOs and even some single player games attempts to recreate the feeling that your character actually exists in a world. That if you want to get from point A to point B you need to take the time to travel there, because this is the recreation of a world. In most single player games, which I'm sure you're accustomed to, you talk to someone or visit a point, press a button, and your travel is alluded to with a fade to black. That works fine for those games as they aren't attempting to provide the illusion of a fully realized world.

The feeling of being in an environment and limited to some degree by the factors in that world actually help create a sense of involvement and immersion. That may sound ridiculous, that it's just a limiting factor, that the time you're spending in-transit is completely worthless and annoying. That may be true for you, but we're still going to attempt to create a cohesive world that draws everyone else in and lets them experience the game with a sense that they're in a living and breathing landscape.

The speed at which boats and blimps travel and the amount of distance they cover already approaches ludicrous, and that's about as far as we're willing to go. Allowing everyone to just teleport everywhere not only compromises the feeling of a cohesive world but really jeopardizes a lot of the sub systems that take into account the need for travel to remote locations. From specific viewpoints on how a game is perceived and played, such rules and ideas seem ridiculous and unnecessary, but we want and need to develop the game for more than just those with those viewpoints.