In my more cynical moments, I suspect they don’t want us comparing the current expansion to older expansions. Strip out major storylines (MoP, WoD), remove convenience features like portals, and suddenly the current content doesn’t fare as badly in comparison.
1 Like
I’m not convinced. I think there’s more to it that they’re not saying. It’s too easy to hate on the “time played” meme. I want a real conversation with them. I don’t want to jump to conclusions. I want them to give us the facts instead of silence and then supposition.
3 Likes
Yeah. We’ll have to wait and see, I guess. ![:confused:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/confused.png?v=6" ":confused:")
This is basically the same kind of bogus answer as EA’s Pride and accomplishment answer.
3 Likes
You may be correct but conversations like that rarely occur.
I would like to see it as well but i won’t hold my breath.
#portalgate
What side of history will you be on?
1 Like
My mages will only be playing in “show as offline” mode.
I’ve tried to help too many people with ports who’d ask me to travel to where they were, promising to pay for the port, and they’d either not be there or would refuse to pay when they payment - and amount - had been their suggestion in the first place.
I’m always busy, I play this game to do things, not to hang around like a taxi waiting for someone I can drive around.
As a mage, making portals for strangers after this portal removal will be against my principles, as mages who do so will be enablers*, helping Blizzard to get away with game-destructive behaviour.
*one that enables another to achieve an end especially : one who enables another to persist in self-destructive behavior (as substance abuse) by providing excuses or by helping that individual avoid the consequences of such behavior.
~https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enabler
2 Likes
lol
Don’t fool yourself. The world will not remember this.
1 Like
If the real reason for removing access to portals is something which might drive even more players away, they would definitely not tell us.
Instead, they would send an intermediary or two in an attempt to soften us up and convince us either that we really, really want this other change, or at least that other players do.
If that didn’t work they’d send in their minions to shut up the objections by belittling posters and trying to halt the conversation.
2 Likes
Here’s the problem with this. A lot of the portals removed are to content that are for the most part, out of date. Rarely do I ever do anything in CoT with any guildies, because it’s just stuff to do to kill time when nobody’s on and I can’t sleep.
The idea that we become disconnected from the world if we can just warp everywhere is a valid concern, but not when that part of the world is already insomnia content or braindead farm content.
Even WITH portals now, there are times where I can barely be arsed to make my way to the portals. There has been more than one time where I go to Dalaran with the intention of doing Ulduar…and then afking out because I turned on youtube or whatever while on the flight path and simply got distracted.
And that’s the point. None of the content you removed portals from are really relevant at max level. To add an arbitrary commute to these would make these things feel even MORE of a job than a game. I can’t speak for everyone, but I do not go to Dragon Soul to one shot bosses because it’s amazingly engaging gameplay to press one button and watch things fall over only to not get the transmog you wanted. I’ve fallen asleep during the Ultraxion trash before.
And to your point, NONE of this makes the world feel alive, because again, it’s just a bloody commute at this point. Forcing me on a flight point for five minutes while I watch videos on a second monitor doesn’t make the world feel any bigger, any more alive, or any more interactive, and if anything, any focus on trying to make the world more alive should be focused on the content that’s relevant to the expansion at hand.
4 Likes
Good thing I collect teleport items (and am an Engineer to boot lol)
How long until we see Bornakk’s response to the weekend flurry?
Next year they’ll issue a response saying that they didn’t really know what we wanted but instead thought it was a good idea to go ahead with this plan of removing portals, or something like that.
2 Likes
It’s early yet…but it also wouldn’t be the first thread where a Blue was “listening and collecting our feedback” and then just vanished, never to touch the thread again. Only time will tell if Bornakk’s going to continue to engage in the conversation, or if his posts were attempts at pre-weekend damage control.
1 Like
What’s there to say, really? He can’t argue on behalf of Blizzard, he can only give his personal opinion and ask us for “more” or “specific” feedback, which has already been presented. At this point we’d be lucky if he camps the thread, summarizes the feedback, and at a weekly dev meeting when the devs pretend to be interested in community feedback, he pipes up, “General discussion doesn’t like the portal change!” and everybody has a laugh and then goes back to whatever pipeline stuff is coming through.
9 Likes
Taking longer to traverse an empty and boring world doesn’t make it any less empty or boring.
The world itself lacks many things. mysterium tremendum et fascinans
That which is mysterious, tremendous and fascinating draws us like moths to a flame.
The world needs a mysterious edge. It needs to be tremendous (read: dangerous and awe inspiring). If it can attain those then it will be fascinating.
Currently the game world offers no challenge anywhere. There’s no interesting and unique engagement because there’s no patrols and few spawn camps that challenge the player. World Quests are designed to be repetitive and trivial in nature. It’s the worst possible combination for evoking fascination from the player in the world.
1 Like
I agree with your points, and I agree that this isn’t how you “make the world feel alive”. I’ve seen other ideas thrown around. If that is the genuine reason for this change then they should entertain some of those ideas to better minimize the impact to players while achieving their stated goal.
Making the world feel alive or big doesn’t necessarily require changing portals at all and in fact I’m convinced quite the opposite. So if this change doesn’t achieve the stated goal then what does it achieve?
Surely they would be receptive to community input if that’s their true intent? I mean that would be great community outreach. What we have now is a questionnaire after the decisions have already been made.
3 Likes
Pre-weekend damage control would be next weekend, since the patch that brings this portal fiasco is on the 12th. TBH I don’t expect a further reply today because it’ll take the day to catch up on the 2000+ posts since Friday.
All 2800+ posts with almost all of them saying the same thing? It would take me about 30 seconds to realize no one wants this change and to get the word out to put it back the way it was.
7 Likes
Blue L-I-T-E-R-A-L-L-Y gets paid to play. Their opinion on what does and doesn’t take more time is completely irrelevant.
Holy hannah I still can’t believe how snooty and tone-deaf they are about flight and portals.
6 Likes