I sometimes use it, either when I don't feel like walking and seeing the same corpses or when I don't have a lot of time to play. It's simply an uneventful trip that my character took.

Seems like Beth games were ruined since Arena.

This is why I like "back doors" to dungeons in Skyrim and Oblivion.

it is voluntary to use. I can't see how it in any way ruins the game. I rarely use it, with the exception of selling junk (if vendors run out of cash), or leveling smithing/enchanting in skyrim. Other than that, the game is better when not using the feature. Both FO 3 and NV, as well as Skyrim has a lot of hidden gems across the map.

Indeed. The lack of fast travel was the biggest flaw of the original Dragon's Dogma. Having no random events or random enemy placement certainly didn't help either. No matter how good a game is, you eventually tire of traversing the same territory for the umteenth time.

I don't Fast Travel myself, although I like having the option. Feels more immersive to me to use my legs to get through the world every single time, rather than my personal time-delayed teleport.

Not saying that anyone else shouldn't fast travel because it "Ruins the game" or something terrible like that. Walking the entire distance every time is very obviously not for everyone.

I try to avoid 'warp' fast travel where possible, however I am massively in favour of the carriage system in Skyrim. Sincerely hope they include something similar in Fo4

Completely agree. Fast travel takes away from the rp of the game for me unless there are in game mechanics like carriages. Having the game designed in a way that makes avoiding fast travel very painful is often the downside of having the option to fast travel, but I think it is a bit much to expect fast travel to be removed from the vanilla game.

I usually tried to avoid fast traveling too much because I would occasionally notice after a couple of fast travels in too short a time that it seemed like some encounter zones seemed to double up on the random encounters the next time I walked into them. Coincidentally I noticed the same thing when playing Skyrim.

Usually it didn't turn tragic but occasionally it got very tight when faced off with two random mobs, particularly if it was something like super mutants that murdered the Outcast mob then grabbed their heavy weapons before charging me.

Lord of the Rings is full of fast-travel, actually.

He describes the important parts and any adventures they may encounter along the way, but he doesn't detail every day of each leg of the trip - there are many instances where the traveling parts are glossed over.

I mean, what about the end of The Hobbit where Bilbo travels back to the Shire? Getting to the Lonely Mountain was a good two-thirds of the book, sure (they hadn't visited those locations yet, their world map still had too much fog of war.) But describing the journey back took a handful of paragraphs. If that's not literary fast-travel, I don't know what is.

Typically I dont use it unless im doing a quest that requires me to travel back and forth a lot and then I st least make the trip once. I will however use fast travel services.

It does indeed. I never use fast travel.

Fast travel also ruins a part of the game for me, plus it makes it feel much smaller. However! When I disable fast travel in Bethesda's games, I also add a mod that adds many random encounters, events and POIs, making every trip unique and exciting. If the game lacks these then it is indeed a waste of time.

Not even slightly. I'd rather have it when I dont feel like traveling the same path for the 10th time than not have it because Im supposed to feel "hardcoe" without it.

I enjoy walking everywhere until I've uncovered all or most of the map. At that point I enjoy being able to fast travel. I put an enormous amount of time into games like this and after walking somewhere a couple of times I tire of the journey and like having fast travel available to me. I imagine I would tire of the game far quicker without the ability to fast travel.

For me it doesn't, if I been there and seen it I should be able to skip the area as it can get boring going through the same location over and over. I think this is good for the gameplay and keeping the interest/fun of the game going. Yet it may take away from the experience factor a little if you do decide to skip journeys all the time it's still an optional thing. You can decide to use it if you so choose, it's just a tool for the player to make life that little bit easier completing those game chores.

Got to come back to this. Frodo had not been to Mordor before, so he could not fast travel there.

I guess a better question would be:

Would the end of those books been better if the fast traveled back to the Shire when they finished the quest?

I think many people would say yes.

In most of my play-troughs i play with the least amount of fast travel that i can. I find that it enriches the universe you find yourself in and come across many interesting characters, places and little hidden shacks and treasure.. not to mention it immerses me better in the game.

I only fast travel when its a route that is too long that i already travelled several times.. say when i'm doing something insignificant and i have to check a store for a certain item on the other end off the map.

Skyrim had a good solution to fast travel.. the carriages at stables.. i used those from time to time since it didn't feel out of place. If my goals was to go from Whiterun to Riften for urgent business i didnt mind useing them