It’s almost as though, yanno, they’ve been removing content, access, story, and rewards for so many years, they’ve convinced themselves that this way of thinking is what has brought the game to its pinnacle of success.
But just imagine if the reality was that the game had continued to have what success it has currently got to in spite of the constant shrinkage rather than because of it.
How in the world is this supposed to keep the world alive, when your world doesn’t grow to begin with (warfronts don’t count)? This is just one very ugly punishment for the sake of keeping people on rails for no rhyme or reason, other than to waste more time via travel.
There’s been plenty of points already made about why this is a bad idea, on top of the condescending outlook YOU continue to display to justify it. Pandaria will be a continent-long slog for people that want to farm the mounts and old raids, Legion content will just be a mess for new players (shocking, I know, they DO exist), and those that want to embark on their class hall quests.
As for how convenient they’ll be? You added a ring with this last patch that lets people teleport to BfA capital cities. People still have their toys and other items that allow them to warp about, and not just Engineers. Don’t talk about convenience, when you continue to contribute to the problem.
If players don’t want to take the portals, that should be their choice. But there’s no need to punish the community that has grown comfortable with their existence.
I hate that.
Every change lately is just throwing inconveniences at players. I cannot remember a positive global change or new system since the start of Legion. Things are going in the wrong direction.
You know what, I was really looking forward to the new portal rooms in 8.1.5, but now it just feels like it was another slimey excuse to make the game less enjoyable and less convenient for its players. Well done Blizzard, you’ve turned yet another feature into a disappointment.
I’ll give you the skinny on how it went down.
“Hey guys whats on the agenda today? Um nothing? O.k, well lets see here… Hmm…how about we remove the convenient portals we have spread out around the old world in favor of condensing them all into one place/room. That should go over well with our players at this point in time”.
Mage here. We’re fine even with all these portals. Stop using our feelings as a scapegoat for your company’s bad game design.
No, I don’t. Time is money, and I’m being arbitrarily forced to spend more of it. Forcing me to enjoy the environment is not going to make me enjoy the environment. This is the same logic that went into almost completely tossing flying in Draenor, and Blizz got an insane public outcry for that.
Acknowledging is not the same as doing something. It’s easy to acknowledge something, but it doesn’t mean something is being or will be addressed further.
I acknowledge the presence of an empty can in my yard.
I do leave it there for the grass crew to deal with.
Yeah. Um.
There is a method of business that some businesses have been using that focuses on ROI and SVA. Essentially gaining efficiency in your processes and cutting costs, to save money and make a more profitable business.
The problem is, most businesses that started this have realized that you can’t keep cutting and also expect to expand your business. You lose too much in R&D and innovation, and as a result people dislike working for you, and people buy less of what you have as a product.
ATVI must not be at the point yet where they haven’t learned this lesson yet. Maybe this is the last vestiges before being swallowed by Activision? Because there isn’t anything in this change that will result in more people playing WoW or enjoying WoW.
As a developer if you aren’t asking how this will make my product better, you’re not good at your job. If you’re in leadership and making that decision…well you aren’t much of a leader either.
I don’t think every class needs an ability to portal to every place, but more things like the Druid’s “Teleport:Moonglade” would be nice.
I wouldn’t mind seeing a usable abilty on the legacy Artifacts that would take us to the class halls directly.
Mabye include an ability for classes to go to locations relevant to their classes or more items like croll of Teleport: Ravenholdt.
Honestly? No.
It feels like you’re punishing us for not liking BFA.
“Oh, here’s a system from Legion that people preferred, which we haven’t killed yet. Better get rid of that! Can’t have systems reminding people of how much better the last expansion was!”
If the portals had never been there, people wouldn’t be upset if they were never added. That isn’t what this is. You’ve already added them, they’ve become the norm, and now you’re taking them away. It’s an action that has direct consequences on how the game feels, on how people progress through Legion content, and it’s part of the transportation toolkit many players have built up that you’re taking away.
Also, the smug response definitely makes it feel like you aren’t taking complaints about this seriously.
The world feels smaller with less convenient travel options because there are less places for me to get to easily.
This is why most modern games have fast travel options so that people can spend time playing where they want instead of travelling to where they want to go.
Take a look at Breath of the Wild, a game about exploring a giant world. It has plenty of fast travel options and fun modes of transportation. On top of that, unlike WoW, while you are in route you might run across something fun, unexpected or useful.
In wow that’s not the case. Nothing I’ve already leveled through in old content is going to be fun or useful. It’s just wasting my time. Sorry.
Really instead of whining about portals we should be asking for the flight masters whistle to be handed out at level 10 and for all flight paths we’ve already travelled on have an instant option. While flight paths are a great opportunity to tab out of WoW I’d much rather be playing the checking Facebook.
I understand that changes can throw people off a bit at first, but I also think they help keep the office of Blizzard feeling alive. When there are fewer people, does the office feel a bit bigger to you? Do you like that? How difficult is it to get to the breakroom you mentioned without 5 conversations along the way (talking to everybody who isn’t the supervisor here ![:wink:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/wink.png?v=6" ":wink:")
) ?
Taking away convenience that we’ve already been provided for no logical reason is akin to taking a toy away from your child moments after you bought it for them simply to show them you’re in control. Or taking away your pet’s toy for no reason other than to assert dominance. It’s a douche move and only fosters resentment.
And no, no one thinks that everyone should have teleport abilities that a mage has - portals that currently exist in game that you have to travel to =/= a mage’s ability to port from any location. In fact, I think mages should actually be given more portals that don’t currently exist to unique & obscure world locations, but that certainly doesn’t mean that QoL features should be taken away from players.
And just so you know being sarcastic/condescending to your customer/player base generally isn’t a good idea when they’re expressing dissatisfaction… It doesn’t make you seem more intelligent or witty, or fun & engaging, it’s just gives the impression of contempt for your players/customers…
Damn, that’s spicy!
I really, really hate it when blue posts appear that basically say “You think you do but you don’t”.
Spending time and resources on removing portals is just insane to me. Why are you spending time on changes that are basically guaranteed to elicit outcry rather than things that are likely to elicit joy? it just doesn’t make sense to me. Players have been doing the same transmog runs for years and have become used to how all the teleports are laid up. I imagine they are going to log in and become incredibly frustrated with this needless change.
Of course he’s not. The blizzard mouthpieces have no stakes, remember when Watcher said managing the community was in fact NOT part of his job as a CM?The new one is reading off a script and laughing
Making travel more tedious does not make the game feel bigger.
If it takes longer for me to get to “X” then I will stop bothering altogether.
I need the Karazhan mythic pony. That Kara portal was helpful to me and it is being removed. Back when I needed the original Kara pony I used to use the port to blasted lands thing… really this is just wasting more time.
Leave Legion Dalaran alone for gods sake. It is a mage city it makes sense to have portals and legion quests still exist.
These three portals are very useful to me to get around for certain quests/holidays/farming old stuff
Please don’t pretend you are doing me a favour by removing the portals. The fact that CATA portals are still off on own is funny.
Stupid unnecessary change that does only harm to the game. Restore all removed portals.
Traveling is already so slow in current expansion due to absence of flying. No need to slow down old content as well…
makes me less interested in doing older content…which is all im doing atm.