Not going to lie; expansions and DLC could be done fairly well with the whole island-hopping format. One of my chief complaints is usually that modern-day expansions and DLC:s often feel "glued on to the side", and White March, in spite of what good it had, suffered immeasurably from this too. In a roleplaying game, you shouldn't have to engineer reasons to deviate from the most pressing concerns that are being conveyed to you as a character as immediate and pressing concerns, just so you get to play the game. In White March, for example, you travel completely out of the Dyrwood while literally going insane (which was really poorly conveyed) and a cult is snatching souls. It makes no sense whatsoever, and it feels incredibly out of place.
Fallout: New Vegas was the same thing, but worse. Completely isolated areas, sometimes way off course, with little-to-no interaction with the established game world as it was. Playing a Fallout: NV DLC had zero impact on anything, and apart from the experience itself, in relation to the overall game, it was pretty much like hitting a loot pinata and then carrying on. Don't get me wrong, some of those DLC:s were good, I'm just addressing a very specific (and as far as I'm concerned, major) issue.
But with the island-hopping format already established, throwing the player a map to something and having him travel there can make perfect sense, provided that the core narrative isn't rushing you - which is always a really shitty way to try to keep the player "invested". Oblivion did it, Skyrim did it, PoE tried (somewhat unsuccessfully) to do it. More Fallout/2, Fallout: New Vegas, Morrowind and Arcanum, and less of those other, shitty games, please.
) and with quality like TWM (minus the size), I'm fine with them doing it like that.
