I am curious about the rotating villain’s gallery. That’s a feature from the BFA islands I really enjoyed as it really helped with replayability.
Variety is the spice of life afterall and enemy variety could go a long way in keeping areas fresh. Particularly if you switch up what they bring to the party. Like maybe the Vyrkul have harpoons that apply that anti air debuff that knocks you out of the sky if you get too many stacks. While the pirates could have offshore canons that AoE bombard you.
You just answered your question. (Emphasis added.)
I am one of the most cynical folks around when it comes to the horrors of capitalism and while shareholders likely do demand increases in time played, or more likely sub retention through keeping things artificially difficult to obtain, removal or prevention of flying, even if temporarily, forces players to engage with the detail and world developers put into the game.
It forces us to notice the small nooks and crannies, the odd NPC off in the corner with some fun dialog, a nice place to just relax or afk, allows us to appreciate the art and geography with different angles and lighting. God forbid they make spots to discover for us RPers.
It also changes entire gameplay mechanics. It forces you to rethink how you get from A to B. Do you sprint through the spooky forest with elite mobs or do you go all the way around? You can put breadcrumb quests between A and B that helps tell a greater story that you’re far more likely to notice and grab.
Changes things for War Mode and WPvP too. No longer is it just people flying around who drop down on unsuspecting questers for a quick gank and leave, you see them coming from miles away. Conversely, its no longer run mount, soar, and fly away at the speed of light if you’re attacked. You want to escape you need to get creative. Learn how to use more of your abilities and environment.
Developers typically have their own reasons for removing one functionality or another for actual gameplay reasons, not just (or even mostly) shareholder value.
Can’t develop content fast enough to sate the appetite of the playerbase, because every new patch comes with a mandate to make obsolete virtually everything that comes before. Flying vs. Ground is largely just another symptom of that.
The solution has always been evergreen content, but this game is utterly obsessed with following a formula. Ion has mentioned on several occasions that they need to stop stubbornly clinging to old philosophies, but the followup on that sentiment has been at a glacial pace.
They actually do sometimes. Arathi is loaded with them and for a region in which nothing is done, a hell of a lot of work was put into Amirdrassil which has a gold mine of rp material, especially for Night Elf , Druid, and Alliance players.
Priorities are priorities, and making money will always be top of the list.
We don’t know if Undermine will be a mega dungeon. Could be a zone with a dungeon and a raid.
Assuming it shows up at all and wasn’t cut for whatever reason.
Or was even planned the Goblin Raid might be tied to Beledar which would also be the Ethereal Raid considering Locus Walker mentions the Radiant Song(which Anduin claims comes from Beledar) appeared just before his World of K’aresh was destroyed by Dimensius.
Undermine better not show up. Save it for a time it can become the expansion hub and a real city.
This gift is a curse.
That’s pretty funny though lol
We’re getting an entire Goblin city in 11.1 and I’m pretty sure they said we’ll have Haranir will be involved in some way too
i’m boutta say what’s probably a bad take that few horde players have, but i don’t know how much i hate the idea of killing gallywix. unlike sylvanas, who had a cool character at one time and had a downturn that felt like a spit in the face to the faction(s) she led, i don’t remember ever loving gallywix or even thinking he was more than a symptom of the disease afflicting the goblin race
He is the personification of goblin culture at its most excessive. Excision of that will ultimately lead to the same problem the Forsaken have, where the things that made them unique and interesting are eroded away. At least Gazlowe is older and cooler than Calia, I guess.
Technically, Calia is older than Gazlowe (in terms of who came first in the story) as Calia first appears in the Day of the Dragon novel. Gazlowe was in WC3: TFT. And being an undead, Calia is cooler than Gazlowe, who is alive and kicking 
Obviously in terms of body temperature.
At least Gazlowe has been more present in the story before arising to a power of more apparent authority*
Would that work better? 