Instanced vs Noninstanced world Thread

So obviously hot debate among sapling projects is the decision to cut server costs and have a lot of instanced areas, or to have no instances and bite the bullet on cost. I'm wondering what you guys think is the best balance between instance and noninstance in order to have best gameplay experience, and a relatively reasonable server cost? Also, if you guys know anything about server costs, that would be great since I don't really know where to start looking.

I'm not entirely sure that cutting your game down into instances necessarily cuts down server costs, I'd expect it just allows more players to access the same content simultaneously (as is reasonable to expect in an online game), which renders it easier to manage loads and prevents unecessary instances of overcrowding or multiple groups attempting the same thing simultaneously.

Really, its all up to the game.
If your game is suppose to be an MMO *open world then probably go with Non-instanced, else you could probably make due with instances. (Example: Global Agenda)

Edited by: ShiftedDesign

Try limiting the use of instances to times the player really needs to be isolated from the rest of the world. Personally, I'd be thrilled to see more games with no instances at all.

Or you can do it the EVE way where you make instances that exist in normal space that can be easily scanned by others in the system so that uninvited guests can go mess this them (I used to grief people doing this, its hilarious)

I would really love to have a game entirely instanceless (except for 1p quest areas). However, having a huge world without any instances makes it so fewer people can connect to the server, and if you do decide to have loads of people, you'd have to have a damn powerful server running all this.

From a game design point of view the
use instances saves a huge amount of time but should always used sparingly. It really depends on the game the engine the use

I think instancing or non instancing really depends on how much you want to control what happens in a game. Usually in mmorpgs like WoW instances are capped to a certain quantity of players so it doesn't become THAT easy to defeat someone or something. So the instancing decision should really come on how much you want to control what players do and how.