Pathfinder Exists Because of Players' Lack of Moderation

Community General Discussion
296

Exactly. This is also what I always did before I got flying at cap unless the exploration points were out in nowhere.
No flying caused a big backlash and millions dropping their subs at once, with Pathfinder they just slip away slowly. Of cause there are other problems with the game which causes this loss.

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297

Your opinion that Blizzard doesn’t share is hardly a fact. You don’t have any clue as to why this feature was removed but you come across pretty pompous so I am done with you. Have a nice day!

298

Have a nice day :+1:

299

Don’t get it if you have an issue with it, and stop bothering those that find it useful. UR OPINION is just that… sit on it and spin for all I care.

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300

Slippery slope, red herring, and strawman. Lol the trifecta.

Also you are basically confirming what I said about asking for 5k gold is basically asking for it given away at max level.

301

I think they accidentally discovered it’s a major re-subbing event.

Say half a million people fit this description. They’ve cancelled and otherwise wouldn’t come back until the next expansion but they will come back for flight. Zero sum, that’s 7-14 million dollars. Hard for a corporation to leave that on the table.

The hard to answer question is how much do design decision like this lead to needing re-sub events.

302

But is that worth loosing players in between PF1 and PF2 and players who don’t even start with the new xpac before PF2 and possibly don’t play/pay at all until then.
I personally haven’t bought any xpac with PF and just played 1 month WOD and another Legion. So they got $30 from me to play through these xpacs when they could have gotten $300.

It might look good on paper that so many pleyers come back for .2 updates, but patches always get players back since they already paid for the content and want to at least see it.

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303

I’d say it definitely cost them more than they earned, the question is more whether the cost of implementing flight is greater than the aforementioned loss.

304

Imagine the salt from the anti-flying group if flying was released quicker. One has to wonder how many more players they’d see return if flying was able to unlock quicker :thinking:

305

Undercity and Silvermoon would like to talk to you.

It’s been literally years but I have been lost in both. Heck, I once helped someone escape the Undercity from sheer memory while I was in Orgrimmmar.

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306

Cuts both ways. People also used DVs to get rid of the false or otherwise ridiculous posts, at least those from the playerbase’s POV.

Like OP’s “moderation” premise. People have played video games without “moderation” ever since games became available. Players who play MMOs should be different?

The ‘lack of moderation’ excuse is something pushed by game publishers who want to keep players online for as long as possible in a subscription-based game.

307

According to some sources there are 50 MILLION Chinese subs over on the WoW Chinese servers. With the largest population in the world it represents that largest chance to gain subs and therefore money.

Now you think of when we were talking about 2+ million subs left in the Western world for WoW, down from a top of around 12 million and you would think 50M is crazy. But that only represents 3-4% of the total population, not so big now is it?

Even if that was an additional zero too many, even just 5 million is a lot of subs. That plus what there may or may not be on the western servers and you are looking at around $100M US each month.

There is a good reason companies bow down to China like WoW did with their censorship, otherwise they face to lose a lot of income.

308

Except until Blizzard decided to go on an power trip and try to remove Flying from the game, people didn’t really mind paying gold every expansion. Some may have grumbled about the costs, but they still paid the gold because gaining access to flying was 100% under their control.

EDIT: Clarified text a bit.

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309

You forgot “do all the stuff and THEN wait for months on end, with no confirmed date on when we could gain access to the rewards.”

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310

That frustration and exhaustion was created by Blizzard for being a spoiled petulant little brat and trying to take away the toys we enjoyed for years on end.

Had they made it simply “part 1 unlocks flying on kul tiras / zandalar” and was available the INSTANT you completed the achievement, people wouldn’t have been as frustrated or exhausted.

Had they then made part 2 “see the story, explore the zone, unlock flying on mechagon and nazjatar” people would be less annoyed & frustrated because they know that gaining access to flying in the new zones is ONE HUNDRED percent under Player Control.

But, Blizzard had to be a petulant whiny little brat and try and take away the toys. And now they’re wondering why everyone is treating them like pond scum.

EDIT: Clarified what achievements granted.

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311

Seems to me Pathfinder was the devs’ revenge for players wanting flight, while also extending time played. Two birds with one stone.

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312

Eventually they’ll discover that enough players have caught the stone and are ready to throw it back.

Whether its Pathfinder, or excessive time gating / grinding, or lord knows what, if you engage in hostile behavior toward your customers (the players in this case), you’re going to see them find ways to retaliate.

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313

I think Pathfinder was an offset. The dev calculated/guesstimated/pulled-out-of-their-you-know-where how much time the typical player would save in-game by flying up to a certain point in the xpac. Then they established rep requirements and quest lines to take up time to offset that time which would have been saved.

The net result is players more or less subbing for the targeted number/range of weeks or months. lol

314

I really feel like the players are honestly fed up with this dev team. If MAJOR core design decision don’t change with the next expansion I wouldn’t be surprised if you see an exodus similar to the “no flying going forward” incident.

I know if they announce another disposable expansion wide system, no tuning to the scaling that made the start of BFA feel so bad to play, and push flying back to the .2 patch again I will NOT be coming back.

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315

I’m expecting they’ll triple down on the stupid.

No flying until 9.2
Another AP grind (since it apparently works!)
Level squish (they’ve heavily implied its going to happen)

Now I’m not AGAINST a level squish, but the problem isn’t the number of levels, its the lack of rewards while levelling that is the issue. You could have levels exceeding 9000 (pun fully intended), but so long as levels feel rewarding, there’s nothing wrong with having that many levels.

1 Like