Besides the compromise of keeping flight in the game despite Blizzard’s desire to remove it entirely, I believe Pathfinder was also created to curb most players’ appetite to consume content quickly, only to be bored because there’s “nothing left to do.” That sentiment has been expressed many times, both on the forums and in the game, and I understand Blizzard’s reasoning to resolve that issue.
Having said that, I also believe that Pathfinder can be improved by Blizzard removing the time-gating element of earning reps. Instead of using WQs as the exclusive means to gain rep points, Blizzard should allow rep to also be earned every time an enemy is killed in a relevant zone.
Also, faction reps should also be earned towards Pathfinder in other non-BfA zones in the game. For example, there should be incursions that happen in, say, Elwynn Forest, and the rep earned from those kills would be added to 7th Legion or The Honorbound factions, as appropriate. Plus, lower-leveled characters in those non-BfA zones should also be able to participate in those incursions so they can earn rep towards those factions as early as possible before they enter zones of the latest expansion.
Nonetheless, Blizzard knows that players have the capacity to consume content too quickly, even faster than the devs can create new content. So they have to use Pathfinder as a buffer to give their staff time to create new content while doing their best to keep players engaged. And, yes, I’m sure time-played metrics are involved with the institution of Pathfinder, as well. But I don’t think that’s the entire reason for it.
No, pathfinder was designed to make flight less and less appealing, by making it more and more difficult to get, so that eventually they can look and say “see, less than 50% of players got pathfinder, this proves no one really wants to fly.”
It exists to artificially extend content, I agree. If the plan was no flying, they would have no flying; yet we still have flying. As for content lifespans, Blizzard needs to ignore the poop socks players to keep the game fun.
pathfinder has ruined the game when it comes to having fun and playing THE WAY YOU WANT to play but instead blizzard is now forcing us to do pretty much everything world wise and its not fun or engaging cause if you wanna fly YOU HAVE TO DO it. go ahead people tell me content isn’t being forced on you if you wanna fly?
Nazjatar is nearly unplayable till you can fly. So yeah, its practically forced on you. I mean, I got it asap because I prefer to fly rather than try to navigate a 3d maze of cliffs and elites.
im close to being able to fly got 6 bars left for nazj then just to finish mechagon and once that is done im never going back unless im on an alt an that’s it. maybe my main if im really bored
I can see that a possible motivation, too, but it seems too conspiratorial to accuse the devs of being that petty about flight. So I think it’s safer to assume there are other less devious reasons for keeping Pathfinder in the game, based on tip messages in loading screens coupled with player sentiments, in the past, about the lack of endgame content.
Sorry, but it had the opposite effect with me. I sped up consuming content. My whole goal was to do whatever it took to get path finder done as quickly as possible. If I had the option to obtain flight at max level or even at expansion launch, then I would not even be 1/4 the way through the content. The acquisition of flight and the completion of pathfinder is the number 1 top priority, nothing else matters. Once that happens I can then go back to my preferred play style and not be the hoop chasing monkey that Ion and his team expect players to be.
I agree that we’re being forced to do content in order to earn flight, but that goes without saying because there will always be conditions for flying. If there was a price to gain flight, then there would also be people who say, “Blizzard is forcing us to pay gold in order to fly” (especially if the price was extremely high, say, 100K gold).
I think gauging the fun aspect of earning flight is subjective, though. I had fun doing WQs to earn rep for flight, but that’s because I’m one of those players who likes to do WQs and read the quest narratives. So, to me (and other players like me), it was fun, and the added bonus was I got to achieve flight once I earned “Revered” status with the new factions.
My Mother made great chili. She would make a big pot of it and us kids would gobble it down in a day or two.
After it was gone, we didn’t cry to Mom that she needed to make MORE for us. It was alot of work, and we were grateful that she did it. We always had the option to take our time and enjoy it. If we didn’t, it was our fault, not Mom’s.
And because WE accepted the responsibility and consequences of our gluttony, Mom had no need to take any actions to slow down our consumption. When it was gone, it was gone. Until the next time. So we would patiently wait. All the while wishing we had slowed down just a little.
Mom has been gone for 20 years. My wife makes excellent chili. But it’s not Mom’s chili.
The problem is it cost more to make the world 3d than 2d. They trying to eliminate flying to save more money. That the reason for pathfinder. They will keep making harder and harder till everyone who wants it gone. then they just do away with it.
That’s not true. I enjoy playing in Nazjatar–the entire map makes you think about travel, and there’s a real sense of danger there. The non-ability of flight has nothing to do with its playability; all you’re saying is that you don’t enjoy the zone without being on a flying mount, which is understandable, but it’s not a real metric to test the gameplay of the zone.
So in other words, instead of creating more engaging and meaningful content, they artificially extend shallow, uncreative, and lazy content so they have less work to do.
Well I’m glad you have evolved past the entire idea of people being “entitled” for wanting their options and former ways of grinding reps back.
Agreed because as it stands now, there is hardly no reason to visit any other zone except whatever max level zone is currently in vogue.
I know that! I would kill to have my Dad’s spaghetti again.
You are right in this case though the Ion and his team made the chili and did not give us spoons. They said once you drink the chili then we will give you a spoon.