Greatest thread in WoW history.
Anti flying is anti freedom.
Within the small context of the WoW universe, I agree.
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ew
In fact, this is the first and only statement by Blizzard regarding their “decision” on the fate of flight in Draenor.
Players had been waiting since launch to hear when flight would be unlocked. It was originally promised in 6.1 but all we got instead was Twitter compatibility and a “selfie” cam.
With players continuing to hang on daily waiting for word on flight in Draenor, it never came.
There was no announcement on Blizzard’s website.
There was no blue post in the forums.
Instead, Ion gave an interview to a third party magazine, Polygon, in which he announced that there would be no flight in Draenor (despite CE having a flying mount and despite the $25 Runesaber, advertised to fly in Draenor) and there would be no flight “going forward.”
This interview was published on Friday at the start of Labor Day weekend.
This is not just “old article from back when they first started this gated flying thing” – it is the one and only information that was provided on the subject.
When a player happened to notice this article and the back-door, sneaky way the information about flying in Draenor was given, they started the forum thread “Watcher says no flight ever.”
That thread became the starting point for the 19 days of unsub – when WoW lost 1/2 of its playerbase.
Loss of flight was not even the only reason, but the underhanded way the “announcement” was made was a very close #2 reason.
After stringing players along for months, this is how they did it.
“Old article” indeed.
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It’s like this with a lot of stuff in the game imo. One of the reasons Retail became really stale. Now that Classic is out I like to go back and forth between the two and it brings new life to Retail. Logging in just to do the mission board, some WQs, weekly LFG/R, and a handful of normal+ raids, with BGs mixed in just got really old and it’s all just speed runs anyway. Trying to progress and get better gear gets nowhere it seems. No guilds are really entertaining as it all seems like mass invites just to talk and have a tag under your name.
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Couldn’t have said it better myself.
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Great summary (the whole post, I mean) and it’s exactly what happened. I was there to witness the carnage and outrage. You’d think they’d learn.
Cata zones were created for flight in mind. The quests were terrific. Storylines were great. I went through each one a couple times on alts.
After Pathfinder on my main do you know how many storylines I went through and re-experienced on my alts? Zero. As in – none. At all.
I don’t have unlimited time. All my play time was spent in the pursuit to unlock pathfinder – zipping through quests, not even understanding the story. And I didn’t care. I don’t know if I will stomach that again in another xpac so I hope to God that they have a softer pathfinder in mind or I’m out.
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I was flying a guildmate over Nazmir, and paused on a tree branch to watch a brutasaur. It went through all the motions of biting the branch, tearing leaves off the tree, and chewing them. I’d never seen that before, and certainly not from right there where it was happening—and not possible without flying.
For the person who said all we can see when flying is a ‘bip-map’, I still point to poor Torga. When grounded, I see misty hulking shapes the same color as the trees and roots nearby. From the air, it’s apparent just how horrific the attack on the poor turtle was, and I can only hope it died swiftly.
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I saw that in WoD beta when they were cutting corners on everything. In fact they had Tanaan ready to go and held off releasing Tanaan much later for the second patch. Had they spent effort on WoD and not had so much cut content who knows ? The fact that they moved the capital cities was the first telling sign that something was wrong with WoD.
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Good gods some people take their mounts seriously. I barely ever mount in general, and I don’t think I’ve flown since Northrend. But then, I’m a mage so I can just instant-pop most mobs I encounter. Maybe they’re just salty tanks or healers?
Whatever. Flight is a really silly hill to die on when the rest of the hills to die on (story, characters, the faction divide) is so much more appealing and impressive. Even if flight could be bought and I had the gold for flight, that gold is for heirlooms instead 'cause that’s money.
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I just had an interesting exercise in my head. Explaining why you have the stance you do without saying the word “flying”, “flight”, “fly”, etc. and without trying to substitute them with similar words or phrases.
Already bought the heirlooms. One or two pieces of every armor type and category, one or two of each style of weapon, came with a neat mount. Funny how I don’t need to buy them again and again—oops, hope Blizzard didn’t hear that.
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I mean, great? I however, do not have all of the heirlooms because I don’t have the gold to boost them all to 120 nor a Guild at Exalted with profession practicioners to get the leg heirlooms.
I mean, I’ll toss a /clap at your flex there, I suppose.
My point is that we’re not all limited to a single hill. Some of us are dying on multiple hills, and once you have all your heirlooms, are you going to stay on that hill?
Considering the sheer amount of money necessary to grind it out, I don’t really think I’d ever be done on that hill, truth be told. 12,750 gold per weapon, 8,500 gold per armor. Times however many. Is, uh, a lot. Panda-math fails me right now but that’s a hoo-boy amount of gold.
Ah, you raise the levels on your heirlooms? I’ve been lazy and left them solely as leveling gear.
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They’re costly to level lol
I remember during MoP, the big question on chat was where to go and how much it costs for flying. Almost ever time you looked at chat somebody was asking. I do not recall anybody being negative about it, and saying that flying shouldn’t be in the game.
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maybe not but the fact is 98% of those that left NEVER would’ve done it if Blizzard hadn’t been such a jerk and tried to force the issue and even now still refuses to accept the truth that it was THIER companies fault for driving so many players away with their ego and hubris basically blaming the players for enjoying the game wrong
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the only people who complained about there not being enough content are the people who only did one thing it had nothing to do with flying, you could have flying and still not complete everything , there is always something to do in a expansion time. It’s the people who only raided and got geared out on one character and then started complaining about content while everyone else was gearing alts, farming and pvping along with working up professions and other things.
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