Rearranging and Removing Portals

[Rankin-shandris (Rankin)]

I have 100 exalted so Keepers of Time must be one of them.

But you’d need Revered with them on every character that you want to take to the Caverns.

What portal under Legion Dalaran?..it’s floating over the ocean. If you mean Northrend Dalaran, that one for the mage quest? The ones we used before Northrend flying when we had to go down there for cooking quests? People use that one??

The portal room underneath Legion Dalaran. If you run into the very center, it teleports you to an underground chamber where the Pillars of Creation were stored. It also (currently) has portals to CoT, Shattrath, Wyrmrest Temple, Dalaran Crater, and Karazhan. Those are all being made invisible unless you’re on a quest to one of those areas.

[Elenstelle-moon-guard (Elenstelle)]

Way to ignore feedback. Bravo.

[Lorethelin-emerald-dream]

I never claimed it was …

the end-all be-all reason

… at any point. It’s not, but it is very important in keeping players engaged with the game and the universe.

[Taienna-aerie-peak (Taienna)]

Goddam limited like numbers.

gotta keep you controlled. No portals or likes. sorry.

[Praetorian-senjin (Praetorian)]

Thanks for taking the time to explain why this is being done but I would kindly disagree with the removal of portals. It doesnt hurt old content to have all the current portals remain and if the devs are looking to clean up the clutter in the cleft of shadows could they not have just made a portal room in the cleft? Caverns of time would be a major portal I would like to keep since I do farm that old content for mog and mounts and it would be an unnecessary pain to port to Uldum then have to afk fly to the closest fp then fly again to the cavern and take the winding path down.

Remember people they asked for feed back in this thread after explaining why they are doing what they are doing so less whining and more explaining not hur hur you dumb gimme portals.

[Taélyn-aerie-peak]

As we read most everything posted here (and elsewhere) about next week’s content update, we can’t help but be impacted by the subject of transportation portal removal. It’s a subject that’s approaching 5000 replies in one thread alone, and the question raised there, repeatedly, has been, “why?” Here’s the answer to that question.

From the beginnings of World of Warcraft, game designers have had a number of guiding principles. Sometimes these notions change quickly, and sometimes they evolve slowly, but a few guiding principles have remained more or less the same throughout WoW’s history. One such lodestar has been “don’t overuse portals between locations in the world”. Too many eliminations of the distances between places can diminish a sense of the world having a meaningful size.

Of course there’s an equal and opposite design consideration—“don’t make it too inconvenient to get from most places to most other places”. Some amount of convenience is vital. Not every visit to a wondrous landscape is your first. We know when it’s your 100th visit, you don’t want the flight over to be the bulk of your time spent. And of course, some players have chosen to play as Warlocks or Mages specifically because those classes offer unique means of transport.

With new expansions, we’ve made a tradition of removing some of the portals from the previous expansion’s cities. The goal with that is to encourage transportation flow through newer places where players are more likely to interact with other players. We neglected to do that initially following Legion (and we never did that following Mists of Pandaria for various reasons), but we feel that we should have. We’re correcting that now.

Boralus and Dazar’alor will continue to offer portals to a full range of capital cities, as well as to Silithus. The portals to Cataclysm zones will remain intact, and many other modes of transportation, such as Dalaran Signet Rings, Karazhan’s ring, the Timeless Isle trinket, Coordination Cloaks, and boats and zeppelins between many regions, will all be retained and functional.

However, we’ve seen how updates to the game can leave the means of accessing different areas feeling increasingly chaotic. For example— today if you go to the Cleft of Shadows in Orgrimmar, you’ll find it dotted with portals in a way that almost looks sporadic. We’re cleaning that up, and we see this as an opportunity to consolidate a lot of travel into a consistent venue with a consistent look and feel, and room for future growth when needed.

We’ve processed a lot of feedback on this, especially feedback about specific locations that feel like they’re going to become disproportionately inconvenient to reach, and we’ve followed that feedback through to the conclusion that you’re seeing on the PTR. We believe that the numerous remaining means of quick access in the game make most locations quite reachable.

If there are any specific locations that feel as though they’re about to become unreasonably inaccessible, we’re certainly open to adding additional means of travel in the future.

Clueless, simply clueless.

[anon1268335]

Too many eliminations of the distances between places can diminish a sense of the world having a meaningful size.

1st the portals I wish you’d keep are primarily the Legion Dalaran basement portals. They still serve a purpose of Legion content and are, for the most part, to areas not easily accessible otherwise - northern EK for alliance for 1.

Addressing this quote 2 things stuck out.

1st - the fact that portals remain for leveling for nightelf and forsaken capitals. To me, this diminishes the argument you are trying to make here. If it’s about keeping the world big that needs to be done when leveling though it - not just as an obstacle to folks who have leveled past it. If this is indeed a design principle actually design things that way - don’t just add portals where they weren’t before because it’s an easy fix and remove the ones designed to serve a purpose now for reasons - honestly - very few of us believe.

2nd - the world has a meaningful size - making less accessible makes the size essentially meaningless.

I mean that. There is very little reason to explore the past expansion content once you outlevel it - another design philosophy you guys have followed - and making it less accessible actually makes it less meaningful. If I have to spend a good amount of time getting somewhere in the limited amount of time I play, I’m probably not going to do it.

I used this comparison in the other thread - but making the world seem big doesn’t make it any bigger. It’s an illusion of inconvenience.

I can fly to the west coast in 3-5 hrs. I do it 3 or 4 times a year. If I had to drive I might do it 2 or 3 times in my lifetime.

Portals serve the same purpose as real world flight. It’s great when you need it, but it’s mostly for the tourists. If I can’t get around easy, why bother to get around.

Removing portals actually makes the world smaller - because it is less accessible, and therefore even more irrelevant than you guys have made it by nerfing it and removing questlines and other meaningful continent.

The lack of consistency between how you address the 1st and 2nd points I made is the really concerning thing - you say you want the world to feel bigger and mort meaningful - then you remove the meaning, nerf it, and make it less accessible.

It’s hard to see your statement here as anything other than bs when it doesn’t add up.

Either you want the old world to be meaningful and give us a reason to go there and the means to do it - or the old world is irrelevant and you want to make it a pain to travel there.

Which is it?

[Trainfan-khaz-modan]

At least consider giving mages a portal spell to some of the places removed so that people still have an easier option to get there?

[Rankin-shandris (Rankin)]

Sometimes that is the best thing to do with it. Heavens, I wish they did it with more things that people complain about in the forums. Maybe we wouldn’t have Titanforging or Personal Loot in the game if they didn’t bow to the forums’ entitlement crowd. The game would be all the better for it in my opinion.

Nobody on the forums asked for Titanforging or Personal Loot. Those are things Blizzard came up with, just like they came up with removing these portals. So what you really want them to do is run everything by you first.

[Zendiagram-rexxar]

Stop making changes nobody wants. This adds nothing to the game. The game will be worse off than it was before this change. Please stop. You have time to revert this, do it. And think about what people enjoy about wow.

[anon23092290]

Ignoring a 5000 post feedback thread is not a good sign.

[Grognog-wyrmrest-accord]

From the beginnings of World of Warcraft, game designers have had a number of guiding principles. Sometimes these notions change quickly, and sometimes they evolve slowly, but a few guiding principles have remained more or less the same throughout WoW’s history. One such lodestar has been “don’t overuse portals between locations in the world”. Too many eliminations of the distances between places can diminish a sense of the world having a meaningful size.

Another one, to paraphrase Rob Pardo, was “microtransactions have no place in a subscription game.”

As long as you’re being sticklers to O.G. WoW principles, it would be nice if you observed that one as well. Thanks.

[Lorethelin-emerald-dream]

I disagree with you, but this is the right way to give feedback. I hope all the people raging take a deep breath and read this post. THIS is the right way to give dissenting feedback.

[Taienna-aerie-peak (Taienna)]

I never claimed it was …

the end-all be-all reason

… at any point. It’s not, but it is very important in keeping players engaged with the game and the universe.

uh…yeah…so lets just shut down the airports and let them walk so they can interact with the world

[Antheralus-proudmoore]

I’ve been behind on the situation. How many portals did they remove? Which ones are gone? If anyone could please fill me in

[Jose-blackwater-raiders (Jose)]

Good thing, in the case of the portals, that if immersion is so important to you you can simply not use them, and allow others who feel it doesn’t break immersion continue using them.

To me, having those portals there makes sense. I’ve got archmages traveling through time/dimensions, raising ships from the bottom of the sea and nuking stuff. I think having some portals open is the least of our immersion worries. In fact, it makes sense in context. Child’s play for magic.

[anon44207803]

Maybe we wouldn’t have Titanforging or Personal Loot in the game if they didn’t bow to the forums’ entitlement crowd.

You are assuming that one had anything to do with the other, and there were no other factors involved.

[Bims-moon-guard]

I like the portal room honestly, it’s really really pretty. I don’t think adding it is the problem, please do, the room is really beautiful. Just don’t take away the portals, instead just add the room. It’s really well made, kudos to the designers behind it.

[Verdre-silvermoon (Verdre)]

Oh lord, Blizzard needs some serious ointment for a burn like that.

[Taienna-aerie-peak (Taienna)]

I disagree with you, but this is the right way to give feedback. I hope all the people raging take a deep breath and read this post. THIS is the right way to give dissenting feedback.

Nice try, but the ONLY reason they didnt take flight, no thanks to the more sedate among us, is that player tossed fits and quit over it in WoD.
they dont hear ‘polite’, sadly enough. As proven by this very thread.