Delaying Players And Taking Advantage
Players could go to the first city on their own of course, but that was not the official way of going there.
Plus, it would also be risky for them as they would have to face the dangers all on their own as well as have a great possibility of getting lost. As such, the game provided a standard method of reaching a city.
When a sufficient amount of quests were fulfilled in a town, a new mission would be issued. This was a mission to escort surplus goods that were gathered through the players to the nearest city.
This way, not only would the players learn the way, they would also progress.
Of course, there were towns where players had already figured out how to go to the city, but these were mostly towns with higher ranked players who had good skills. There were other towns that didn't have players that were as skilled and they would be stuck without being able to go out for too long.