About Dragonriding and Obligatory Systems

Blizzard, We Have a Problem

(That’s an Apollo 13 reference, for those who didn’t catch it.)

Let me preface this by stating that I am fully aware that I am not an “average gamer”, if such a creature can be said to even exist anymore and presuming that it ever truly did to begin with. Gamers defy even the expectations of those who are, themselves, players of video games in all their myriad forms. I am aware that my experience is not universal, but there are aspects of it that are far wider ranging than might be understood.

And this is causing a problem.

I am neurodiverse. This includes a condition called Pathological Demand Avoidance. It is a known comorbid condition with either my ADHD or my Autism. This means that the more I need to do something, the less I am able to do it. Even if I want to do it. Even if it would make my life easier, better, safer. Even if it’s supposed to be the easiest thing in the world. If I am required to do it, or even FEEL like I am required to do it, the effort the task requires multiplies tenfold or more.

Hell, the mere act of needing to make this post so that I am certain that my voice CAN be heard by those in a position to make decisions is making the task so strenuous and difficult that I likely won’t be able to manage much of anything else for at least the rest of the day, if not several days. Anyway, on to the matter at hand.

I want to enjoy playing World of Warcraft. I desperately want to enjoy this game. I love the Dwarves. I love some of the NPCs. I love that I have finally managed to find a community of players that I can actually play the game with, all helping each other in a casual, friendly manner. But for the sake of all that is born of Life and Azeroth, we have a Problem with Dragonriding, or Dynamic Flying as it seems to be called.

I simply canNOT do it. And that is making the game inhospitable and unplayable to more players than just me.

That it exists is a beautiful addition to the game, for those who enjoy it and want to interact with the system. But the fact that it is required in order to reach quest and event objectives is abominable and is actively making the game inhospitable to players.

Did you know that there are players with visual impairments who play World of Warcraft? Because they exist and some of them are scary-good at it. But Dragonriding is physically impossible for them to manage. Did you know that there are players with physical impairments in their hands that play the game? Dragonriding is a literal nightmare for them.

And then there’s me. With Pathological Demand Avoidance. Whose entire experience of Dragonflight, a story I have been told is very worth playing and that I want to play with all my heart, has been absolutely poisoned by Dragonriding being the only form of flight available to me in the Dragonflight zones. I don’t know that I can overstate the effect Dragonriding has on my ability to even quest on foot in Dragonflight zones. I step into the Waking Shores and my motivation to play just drops faster than my ground mounts off the edge of cliffsides.

Dragonriding is beautiful, but as with all beautiful systems, it cannot be required, nor can it ever be forbidden. If any form of flying is available, then both forms must be. And all content must be able to be completed using either form as preferred by the player in question. The irony of PDA is that if I had the freedom to interact with the system, or NOT as the case may be, I would be much more likely to put more time and effort into learning it. There’s enough there that I can see why it would be fun for some people. But being obligatory absolutely kills my ability to even want to try.

And I actually want to try. Please, Blizzard, let me try. But let me do it in my own way on my own schedule. My learning curve is long, but I’ll get there, eventually, if you don’t try to force me to go faster than I’m able.

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thankfully, once The War Within releases, you will be able to freely swap between both flying modes in all areas.

Currently, The Dragon Isles and Quel’Thalas are the only open-world areas that you cannot use both flying methods, and you cannot fly at all in Quel’Thalas.

Pathfinder does seem thoroughly redundant at this point. “Fulfill these requirements for the privilege of slower flight/the version of flight that doesn’t affect many physical ailments.” It’s especially silly that it’s still planned to be a thing in TWW.

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This late in life it’s chorefinder it shouldn’t exist. It should have both options there day 1

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They’ll never give TBC flying from day 1 because then their metrics will show the majority prefers TBC flying vs DF flying. But wait, what’s that you say? People prefer DF? Sure they do. People do. Bots on the other hand much prefer TBC flying and bots make up the majority of the game world these days it seems.

Can Dragonflight pathfinder not be done without Dragonriding?

Has anyone tried it? What quests for the achievement require DR?

First, let me say that I agree with you. Regular flying should be available as soon as you can do dragonflying.

But I’m just curious for your learning curve; are you a keyboard turner? Like do you use keyboard keys to turn your camera?

If so, don’t do that for dragonflying. You actually only need to press two things to dragonride successfully: the jump button and holding down the right mouse button to steer. You don’t need to worry about any of those other buttons on the bar. The jump button triggers the ascent skill that launches you upward if you aren’t on the ground… doing that 3 times with a short pause between each will get you into the air and flying fast enough to gain vigor, then you just steer with the mouse and continue to press jump as you gain vigor back. That’s it.

Again, I’m not dismissing your issue or saying it should be easy for you, but I’m willing to bed that you could learn easy enough if you are willing to try different control methods. You shouldn’t have to and you should be able to just regular fly… but sadly since that isn’t the case, may as well try to enjoy what you have.

While I personally love dragonriding and use it as my preferred method of travel whenever I’m not lagging out (old pc probably), I understand not everyone likes it or is even able to use it. While the passenger system blizzard implemented for the dragons is good, it doesn’t really help if you don’t have friends that can carry you around. I 100% agree that players should be able to choose the style of flight they want to use from the get-go.

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Yes. That’s why they’ve been adding accessibility options and continue to do so:

I attempted this. I didn’t take notes on where I ran into trouble and had to use the mount, but here’s what I remember:

I was able to do most of the questing from the ground. There were a couple times where I couldn’t see how to get somewhere without some Dragonriding. (I also spent about an hour in Thaldraszus trying to figure out the path to the Bronze Dragon area from Valdrakken only to see no way up onto the platform itself without it.) Unless I missed an accessibility NPC mount option (like the Emerald Dream quests have) there was a quest in Zaralek Caverns that required dragonriding through hoops.

I have lag issues and I’m not entirely certain why. My computer isn’t that old and the area I’m in I shouldn’t be dealing with this many issues maintaining a connection, but it’s what I have to deal with. I also have severe anxiety and an absolute horror of doing anything new where other people can see me, and the expectation in-game is always that other people can see me looking like buffoon.

Also, the resentment from being forced into the system has set in and it’s making even trying it out that much more difficult, which, I actually want to try it. I want to enjoy it. I can’t and it’s actively poisoned my ability to enjoy or do anything post-60 in-game.

So in the meantime, I’m pushed out of the current event because it’s now associated with stress and I spend most of my time in BfA and earlier zones. I go back to trying to do ANY questing in Dragonflight every couple of weeks and just… being there drains my motivation to the point that I end up logging out and watching subtitled C-Dramas on YouTube because I can’t even focus anymore to do anything else.

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You are a valued member of the WoW community. Your post reveals a lot and speaks to the heart of the matter. Thank you!

:surfing_woman: :man_surfing:

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I hate “flying through hoops just out of your range of vision at breakneck speed” quests. and I’m awful at them due to some sort of visual tracking issue that doesn’t affect me in real life. That “do dragonriding or else” thing totally rubbed me the wrong way. So I figure I’ll start working on it sometime after I am done with Shadowlands, which I haven’t started yet.

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im legit not going to read a single quest. just gonna do what i have to as fast as possible to get regular flying. sorry i dont want to deal with a dragon that has asthma its a downgrade from infinite flight we have had since bc

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So exactly how most of us have been playing the game for years!