Not sure if everyone is aware but there are a substantial number of portals being pruned from the game in 8.1.5, namely those in old and new dalaran and shrine meaning getting to places like caverns of time will be a real pain.
Many may think “so what” and that’s fair but for players like me that also like to farm mounts and such this is a huge turn off.
I think BfA has been a massive pile of Dyno dump but a decision like this is really a slap in the face. Constantly, players take to the forums to complain about class design, class balance, pvp balance, etc. and blizzard chooses to focus resources for the next “major” patch on … pruning portals???
You can bash tin foil theories or hyperbolic statements, sure, but this is yet another one of those moves where you can’t help but think has no real strategic planning outside of keeping players logged in just a little bit longer.
They will call it “making the world feel larger” but let’s address the obvious - this is nothing but an illusion. Addition by subtraction. If they wanted a bigger world, they would have made it. Not remove portals that have been in the game for like 8 years.
Anyway, again I know this doesn’t affect many of you directly but honestly the decision as a whole and the fabricated lie of an explanation really makes me lose a lot of respect for the people charging me $15 a month for this ish hole and I just wanted to share my frustrations with you wonderful people.
Happy Friday and have a great weekend.
Edit: Blizzard ASKED for feedback - there are about 10k responses to this, mostly negative, and they are essentially giving us the finger and proceeding anyway. Links:
There’s no logical response to it and they just keep pouring gas on the flames. Our vision >>> you plebs type of thing. We know what’s best for the game - Blizzard.
And the icing on the cake is that they asked for player feedback, received over 6k (more?) Responses that were overwhelmingly negative, and are still proceeding.
Why even ask??? Illusion.
Did you miss the part where I said they are removing portals INSTEAD of fixing PvP?
The funny part is that they said it would make the world feel more immersive. Legit just gonna be people at the portal room now. You aren’t gonna suddenly fill up the zones. If anything, you’ve just killed more areas that had portals and converged it to one. Can’t even call it an illusion anymore, outright lying at that point.
Well, the problem is they aren’t adding anything substantially to make the world feel bigger, as you pointed out. Like it just feels bad, because the world- the old world is barely usable outside leveling or very seldom random turn-ins. So, them removing portals just feels out of place and a bit annoying than anything. We aren’t really rewarded at max level for going out in the world besides for xmog/mount farming.
In addition, communication- meaningful communication feels at an all time low, and firing many of the vocal devs that used to actually talk to us, felt like a kick in the teeth. Content comes in small pieces and doesn’t really feel meaningful for months.
Itemization and class development feels bad, the worst it’s ever been this expansion.
Garrisons could have been so much better. Wish they actually made them like customizable player housing rather than forced content. Kind of like Ashran- it could’ve been a fun little wintergrasp-like area to do every once in a while. It sucks when they make things like this and FORCE you to do it by making it the only meaningful way to farm for stuff/gear easily.
I see their point tho, whats the point in having this entire world if you just take portals to everything. Makes it feel like a bunch of rooms instead of a living breathing environment to explore.
Granted this isn’t 10 years ago when the game was alive and had deep immersion
I feel like this is long overdue to be honest. Is it a big deal? I don’t think so. I don’t remember the last time I even went though portals that wasn’t Org or Zuld.
I do see your point, and I think there’s merit to it too, Rodent.
Where I don’t see the point in this change is there’s still absolutely no reason to go to the old content places. None. If there were a real incentive to do so, I think this might come across as positive, I honestly don’t know. But I do remember (as I’m sure most of you do too, the sheer mass of WoW, and how connected it felt. This fades away again, with the lack of incentive) being in awe of going somewhere. Or people you’d run into along the way.
And lets be real, the portal system as it stands is weird. They’re all over place.
I’m just wanting to look at the positive in it. I’m not trying to argue with your stance - I do think there are more pressing complaints that should be a higher priority.
Already left the game although I have 2-3 months of sub left. This expansion and leadership is the biggest disaster in WoW history.
Hopefully with the population and activity declining they will fire those monkeys and we will see a better future in the next xpac.
Atm it feels like an abandoned indie project (pvp) and it’s worth zero time and money investment at this point.
Not to be “that guy” but the game is a dumpster fire, players are unsubbing left and right, this game desperately needs class design improvements across the board.
But instead Blizzard is like “yeah let’s spend man hours having meetings about and actually removing portals to make getting to outdated content take more time”
It just makes absolutely no sense to dedicate time to pissing off your players in this manner for zero gain.