3rd option, he’s operating under a higher up that’s dictating how he handles some things.
He’s the lead dev, so the higher up would be like, the CEO of Blizzard, J. Allen Brack or Bobby Kotick. I really doubt J. Allen Brack cares about flying (considering he worked on WoW when flying was totally fine), and with that said, it’s pretty much impossible that Bobby Kotick has ever even had a discussion with Ion Hazzikostas about flying in World of Warcraft. It’s definitely a purposeful design decision made by the devs on the WoW team and approved by the lead dev, Ion Hazzikostas.
Some quotes from Ion about flying:
Newman: Why restrict flying at all?
Hazzikostas: That’s a big part of what we’ve found when we evaluated how world-building and story-telling unfold when flying is available, versus when it’s not. There is something more intimidating about a looming mountain, or a giant enemy base that you have to find a way into, when it’s not something you can just fly over, scout out from the air, and land exactly where your quest objective is, or in the most convenient location.
In many ways you get a sense of a place but exploring it from the ground. And so it’s more about encouraging and then rewarding that exploration with unfettered flight.
In a post on the official World of Warcraft blog, Hazzikostas reiterates much of what he told Polygon in our interview. " World of Warcraft is full of memorable moments that are only possible when players explore the world by ground," he writes.
At the end of the day, it’s Ion Hazzikostas signing off on Pathfinder and making players wait a year for flying. It will never change unless he somehow changes his mind (which I doubt considering he clearly sees all the mountains of player feedback about it and hasn’t changed his mind yet), or if he is not the lead dev anymore. So unfortunately we’re pretty doomed on that front.
5 Likes
As lead developer and the face of the development team he would feel compelled to defend decisions made by his superiors. I don’t think it would be as simple as get rid of Ion and the next lead will sign off on flight at max level.
Regardless, I don’t see it as improving our odds to assign specific blame, the whole system seems broken at this point.
Normally I would agree with you, but it’s been 2-3 expansions now of people complaining about it and people are just left scratching their heads about it because the devs have completely dismissed it, including Ion Hazzikostas. People are literally leaving the game over it, it just completely boggles the mind on how any of the devs can see the mountains of player feedback about it and be like “yep, this is fine” unless the one single person at the top is super adamant about what flying should be like this in this game and is unwilling to change their mind.
Like I really hope that’s not the case, because that really sucks and I want to believe maybe the devs just aren’t seeing all the mountains of player feedback for 2-3 expansions now. But it’s really hard to think that anymore, it is kind of unbelievable at this point that they haven’t seen it, including Ion, especially because he’s straight up said he pays attention to these forums sometimes more than the community managers.
It’s hard not to draw the conclusion anymore that the devs (or lead dev specifically) are doing this on purpose because they believe that Pathfinder and waiting over a year for flying are truly what is best for the game. Completely ignoring the giant mountain of player feedback that says otherwise along with people leaving the game over it.
6 Likes
They’d need to be complete idiots to believe that, which is why I think there must be something driving it. Something they’re afraid to say.
I know when the current CEO was brought in he said that he thought the future was in mobile games (something like that).
Right? Like here’s the thing, even if all the devs besides Ion are completely against it, I don’t think Ion Hazzikostas is that dumb, either. Clearly he would see all the feedback and be like “maybe we should take another look at Pathfinder” or something.
There is no way this guy got promoted to lead dev by completely ignoring feedback from the other devs and the players. It is so completely mind boggling about why the WoW team and Ion are so adamant about this one specific thing that has so many player complaints going on 2-3 expansions now. Maybe someday we’ll figure out why, but until then we’re all just completely clueless as to why the WoW team continues going forward with this awful decision about waiting to fly a whole year despite mountains of player complaints about it for years now and hasn’t said anything about said complaints or made any kind of signals that they’ll even look into it or change it.
4 Likes
Yup, that’s my conclusion as well. Something else going on.
An illusion! What are they hiding?
EDIT: It’s like when everyone wanted to blame Holinka for what was happening in PvP, but when he was removed things just got worse. I suspect there’s broken communications and general business silliness going on.
2 Likes
But that’s what makes it extra confusing, because like I said, I really doubt people higher up than Ion care about flying, like J. Allen Brack (who def seemed in support of flying during his time on the WoW team) or Bobby Kotick. So who the hell is the one making this decision then? It’s just so mind boggling.
2 Likes
It doesn’t have to be a higher up. If decisions are made in committee then no single person needs to take the blame.
Like within the WoW team? I’m pretty sure at that point the lead dev, Ion, would have said something then after noticing all the huge amounts of player feedback about flying since he says he pays pretty close attention to these forums.
Or he just doesn’t care about the feedback he sees about it and thinks Pathfinder and waiting a whole year for flying are best for the game. I mean he has directly said that in interviews. That’s what leads me to believe it probably stems from him. There’s no way people higher up than him care about flying in WoW, and if anyone on the WoW team did try to speak out about the player feedback they’re seeing about flying, ultimately it comes down to Ion Hazzikostas to decide to do anything about it. And as we’ve seen, they’ve done nothing about it, not even a “we’ll look into it” or anything. I think he just genuinely thinks it is what’s best for the game and that’s why he’s willing to ignore player feedback about it.
2 Likes
It’s probably true, but he did argue at one point that flight needed to be removed completely and that was reversed. I think there’s some weird politics going on.
One thing, though, I don’t think they’re a company by gamers for gamers now.
1 Like
I leave the game whenever there is no flying. When flying can finally be obtained, I return. It’s definitely something to leave the game over if it’s a big part of why you enjoy the game. I would’ve thought that’d be common sense.
However, now that unlocking flying involves seeing most of the content for an expansion on one character, I also leave once it’s unlocked. I get burnt out a lot faster.
Flying was 250 gold in Cata and available first day of the expansion. Where in the world did you get 30k to fly from? It wasn’t even 10k for MoP; I believe it was 5k.
8 Likes
You have to remember when that happened they had a huge amount of backlash from it (including lots of bad press), and tons of people were unsubscribing. I would not be surprised if they got a call from someone higher up that told them to reverse their decision on that because of it, and came up with Pathfinder as a “compromise” (and it’s a terrible “compromise”, flying was never a problem until they made it one). Especially because no flying would also mean no more selling flying mounts in the store which would also cut into their profits.
5 Likes
Why would my post that you quoted prompt you to type this sentence?
I play the game. I play the heck out of it until I run out of things to do (after the storyline, as many achievements as I could get, all the pets and mounts reasonably acquired, enough gold to be able to buy anything) then I stay subbed and flit off to play something else til new patch/xpac.
That’s how I play. I don’t need Blizzard to accommodate my playstyle. I don’t need flying front-loaded cuz I like exploring on the ground and riding my 3486739487 ground mounts.
I’m having fun with this game every day…until I’m not, then I find other fun. That’s just reasonable. Whining on the forums that I’m bored, that WoW needs more fun content, that this game should keep me entertained 24/7 for years on end is not reasonable.
How do you think world content has been improved over Legion?
Because here’s the thing: I like world content. I love world quests and this expac I pushed to level cap quickly not for instanced content, but to unlock world quests. I am, in theory, the exact sort of player this content is intended for.
But the complaint I’ve had ever since unlocking world quests is that BfA’s world quests are less diverse than what we had in Legion, and especially early in the expansion, all we got was the same small handful of quests over and over. Even now, in 8.2, the only unique quests we’ve gotten are the leylocked and runelocked chests in Nazjatar, and the jumping jellies quest that I actually haven’t seen since they got it working consistently.
So please, tell me where you think the “improvement” is, unless you’re just referring to the fact that world content has been made “more important” thanks to the removal of any other options for advancement.
7 Likes
The only backlash to rival flight removal was the RealID fiasco. Blizzard suffered personal on that one. People had found the real life data for some major players in blizzard and made it public. It was quite the show. They backed down there too. I think those are the only two things that the community has managed to stop Blizzards plans on.
I don’t think that went over well with the company either. It feels like they have a bit of a grudge with the player base after those issues.
3 Likes
Of course, what would be even MORE intimidating is flying in to scout the area, being shot down because of course the enemy has defenses against flight, and then having to fight my way to safety and come up with an actual plan, evaluating when and where to use my few precious seconds of flight around the enemy base and figuring out the safe approaches.
I mean, there could even be alternative scenarios for opening the questing in the area, based on whether you ride in and encounter your allies on the ground, or fly in, get blasted, and have an NPC rescue you to take you back to base.
That sort of design would add logic to the world design and actually add to the “immersion” that they keep talking about.
2 Likes
They messed with an AA idea with Ogrila back in TBC. It was effective but they never really followed through with the concept it seems.
1 Like
I remember back in WoD they said something about not wanting to have AA emplacements on every wall, but…why the heck would they? Conversely, why wouldn’t the BBEG of the expansion have every defense around his main base? It’s not like flying only exists as a game mechanic and nobody would ever imagine being attacked from the air; it’s a world with dragons, harpies, and all manner of aggressive flying wildlife.
2 Likes
of course it didn’t go over well Watcher and the developers had a vision for how we are supposed to play and it didn’t matter what the players thought but when whole thing blew up in their collective faces it left them having to eat crow when their bosses overrode their decision and ordered them to fix the mess they caused
1 Like