My best guess would be that’s it’s a computationally cheap way to add surprise and variety to the gameplay. Or is it simply one of those conventions, like giant robots in manga, that’s so entrenched that it’s simply expected by now?
What?
Teleportation is a really good way to disorient the player. Pop 'em to somewhere random and they have to figure out where they are and if they’ve been in this part of the map before, and if they actually are somewhere new, how the hell they get back to where they were (or which way to go to finish the map, if the port got them closer to the end boss).
It’s also a good way to introduce and explain the bad guys, who can be from hell/another planet/another dimension.
Same as in HOMM.
The nature of the games makes teleportation much easier to implement then other methods of getting the player from one board to the next. Also, it’s easier to set up a teleporter in games like Unreal Tournament 2004 than it is to place a ladder or an elevator/mover; it takes fewer steps to set up.
For example, all I need for a teleport platform are a model of the platform, a teleport “actor”, and a special effect (for the teleport visual effect and sound.) On the other hand, to place a ladder, I need to take a few more steps- choosing the right model, add a guide for the bottom of the ladder, one for the top, a special volume needs to be fitted just right or the ladder won’t work…)
You never walk everywhere in a game; if it has more than one board or level there needs to be some transition. This is usually done by using an exit point on the previous board and a spawn point on the new one. Since this is virtually the same as teleportation, the player becomes used to it and the designer can go on to disorient and surprise, like mentioned above by another poster.
Of course, the historical use of teleportation dates back to the earliest decades of computer gaming, when the first users were digitized and uploaded into the game grid.
