WoD was pre-sold with flying coming after release, no details except after release.
WoD came out and people started asking where is flight.
In an interview on a 3rd party site the devs announced that there would be no flight going forward and the reason given was the resources to put flight in the game was expensive.
The devs were called on “coming later” and now “no flight”
Subs started to get cancelled.
The devs never, NEVER, came to the forums and apologized for the bait and switch.
The devs after more than 2 months then announced they would introduce pathfinder to give us flight back and make true the promise in pre-sales.
The devs have continued pathfinder with new reasons, no longer is it the expense to design but time gating to slow down content. (I play more content now that I am allowed to fly again).
The devs have still not addressed the issue official on the website or in the forums, discussing it with their customers.
The devs have kept PF in old expansions after they have become irrelevant content for no other reason then to punish people.
The devs took PF in WoD and increased it into PF 1 and PF 2 to make the time played metrics longer to show their bosses people love playing. The fallicy in that reasoning is playing longer = playing enjoyably.
The myth that PF is here because it helps world PVP has been debunked so is the reason that the art team works real hard and they want you to enjoy the art work longer.
There has never been a compromise since the devs have never had open dialog and communication with their customers on the matter, the devs simply added PF and then PF 1 and PF 2 and called it a compromise without dialog.
Kinda funny that I was embarrassed when I first beat Final Fantasy 7, and my played time was 40 hours. I never showed that to my friends.
Now? 120 hours to unlock 1 feature in a game that I had before, and will lose next expansion again, and everyone here is acting like its reasonable lol.
PF is anything but any of the above. HAHA you don’t even know what the PF requirements will be from xpac to xpac. That is the opposite of “fixed.”
EDIT: It was actually 19 days from the “no flight ever” announcement to the reversal. It took the devs 2 months to develop the details of PF but PF was first “announced” 19 days after “no flight ever.” Here are the facts:
5/22/2015
Blizzard announces no flight ever again.
During that 19 day interval, servers emptied, guilds folded, long-time veteran players left the game in droves. For the first time, Blizzard employees solicited, online, cancellation reasons from departing players. These forums were flooded with over 150,000 posts, hundreds of threads in protest.
Your OP was a bit confusing on the point, especially since it is a point many people have already made (now that I see your point). The actual work that goes into PF is minimal. The timegating is extreme.
It’s not conjecture at all. Blizzard did an about face in 19 days because it was bleeding subs like a hemophiliac. It became very clear that xpacs without flight would be no-sales.
Hey the sub pays the bills and when people unsub, bills don’t get paid. Whether you’re a basement dweller or not it’s the same 15 bucks.
I maintain a year round sub because I play a lot of alts. Many players do not. I don’t play every day or even every week. But because 15 is a miniscule amount, I pay it so I can enjoy WoW whenever I feel like it. You don’t have to be someone “with money” to enjoy a 15 dollar a month sub.
If you can’t afford it, then you can’t. But you needn’t be wealthy to play.
But changing the game ruined retail. I have seen more players on my Classic servers than I have in retail for well over a year. And I play on 6 retail servers, two of them (formerly) huge.
I know plenty of things Blizzard did wrong. But even if they outright removed flight I wouldn’t hold it against them. It’s just a form of travel convenience.
Sorry, lol. I’m at my parents’ house for the holiday, and there are 13 children under 10 here. I’m pretty sure I just double tapped the “p” and never proofread the post.
No, Wod lost it’s subs based on the flight non sense as the exodus happened quickly, rather than after the lack luster patches staggered in. The forums were also dominated more than anything ever before with people stating this is why they were quitting. We also got flying back due to this fact. You were either not around for this or disingenuous.
Having the same people post multiple times on why they are quitting isn’t a good argument on your behalf.
Again, people were posting quiting threads during the first few months of MoP too (which had flight), but we don’t hear much of that anymore apparently.
You people can continue calling the lies facts but it changes nothing. They do say if you repeat a lie over and over people will eventually believe it. It’s no surprise the the forums are the way they are.