That was literally the most head-scratching post I’ve read in this thread yet. Of course Bornakk is going to have an opinion. He’s a human being. When the Devs/CMs don’t give opinions, then they are accused of being robot Blizz shills who give lawyer-speak and non-answers. You can’t have it both ways.
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I don’t like this at all. Imagine that the highway you normally take to work every day was suddenly removed. Doesn’t the world seem larger when you have to spend 20 extra minutes on back roads and sitting at stop lights? Why not take a moment to relax and enjoy the scenery?
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NO, the world does not feel a bit bigger. No, I don’t like it. Stop taking things like this away from us. And yes, I’m still mad about flying, you lost my cash for 2 expansions because of that nonsense.
Give us a fun reason to log in. Not just more time-sinking nonsense. Or your players will leave for other games.
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I’m just flabbergasted that you guys didn’t expect an outcry to this. Everything this expansion feels like one step forward, two steps back and you trip on your own messaging.
I’m not enjoying BfA but I stay subbed because I mount farm, do old raids & content. Removing these portals makes me spend more time traveling (AKA not playing the game) and makes me more likely to join my friends in unsubbing.
Call that petty, but you’re destorying the last thing keeping me around and for no discernible benefit to anyone
Like folks above have said, every expansion you guys find ways to take features away from players and express dismay that we react badly to this. Old dogs don’t learn, I guess.
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The white elephant in the room is
taking away things that players have had in game always feelsbadman.
Pruning spells - real bad
Taking away artifact weapons and traits and giving zip in return and no simple path to quality weapons on par with artifacts at the current content max level feelsrealbadman
Taking away portals that were available and after figured out let people get to awkward places where they seldom went and didn’t want to spend a half an hour to get there feelsbadman. (Maybe give the ability to cast portals to those places for mages? Then mages could sell the occasional needed portals for gold source?
In short it isn’t one thing, it is feeling like that big ol’ hairy hand just keeps reaching out and taking away from our characters, then trickling out small things that in no way replace what was taken.
Think if someone reached into your wallet and pulled out a 100 dollar bill and told ya it was for your own good, then over a few months gives you a few quarters at random moment for doing jobs that you wouldn’t do for that origional 100.
Even with its skinnerian habits WOW exhibits and seeking to addict everyone to rng gambling one would think someone would understand this basic player psychology: Taking away things always feels like you were robbed and no one likes that feeling.
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Car makers dont get to have an opinion about their cars, friend.
They make the car and make money from selling the car. They dont get to have a relevant opinion BECAUSE they are the ones making the $$$ selling it.
NOTHING they say is unbiased. EVERY positive praise of their product is subject to suspicion.
Frankly its hard to comprehend why this would be hard to comprehend.
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That lot of text, And I don’t see you point sir… So it just fine, OP
That’s just it - it’s not about having the freedom of choice, it’s about having freedom from choice. It’s not enough that they choose to take the longer scenic route, you must be barred from your choice of doing it quicker.
![:cookie:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/cookie.png?v=6" ":cookie:")
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How do multiple portal hubs turn the game into less of a sandbox mmo rpg? I’m genuinely curious because one of my complaints about the game is that it’s less sandboxy than it used to be when there were multiple ways to play and progress, and yet I’m in favor of multiple portal hubs.
In my opinion, it’s removing gameplay options that make the game less of an open sandbox. One always has the option to not use portals even if they’re there; however, once they’re removed, the option to use them is obviously taken away.
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I’m sorry bro but that’s not what time gating is. What you are referring to is the passage of time. Time gating relates to content that is already ready and prepared but being held out til some abitrary time to increase how long people play. It does not refer to anything else.
The impact on my gameplay? Real simple. I spent hours farming Karazhan for both mounts. I farm old transmog and gold out of the CoT dungeons and raids. I use the Wyrmrest portal for farming Northrend raids.
Why on earth do you need to have it explained to you why people go to these places, is this for real? You know full well why people hate it when you guys remove things, you’ve been doing it all expansion. Apparently the feedback hasn’t sunk in yet after flying, GCD, pruning, tier sets, etc, etc, etc…
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I like this idea. It will probably please everyone.
The perceived issue is simple: give then take away = QQ
Maybe carefully consider the ramifications of adding and subtracting before adding?
When they were first developing Legion, the zones went in the usual linear order. Azuna was first, with Val’sharah next, and so on. Though that was scrapped pretty quickly in favor of the level-scaled approach. It appears the developers who worked on this were never made aware of that design change…
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Reading this post again made me think of another question. Regarding the bolded, what is the problem that’s supposed to be solved by removing portals without moving them to the new portal hubs?
Perhaps if the players knew that, we’d be more in a position to offer relevant solutions and would be less inclined to jump to the “increased time played metrics” response. If that’s the problem trying to be solved, well, shame on all of you. There are far better ways to get players to spend more time in the game that don’t risk alienating what’s left of your player base.
I’m also not buying the “make the world seem bigger” argument. Some of the portals being removed have been in place for a decade. Clearly, their presence isn’t that much of a problem or they would have been “fixed” ages ago.
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Hey man, I totally agree with you. You guys really are expanding the world of Azeroth with this change. Couple of thoughts; why not remove mounts entirely? I’ve always felt it’s unbelievable to pull a horse out of my pocket, and hot damn will the world feel big if we get to run everywhere.
I was also thinking that flightpaths in general seem a bit unfair. If I fly from Tanaris all the way up to Winterspring, I only have to go afk for ten minutes. If you remove flightpaths, it’ll take the much more reasonable two hours to travel there. Just imagine how living and breathing the world will feel!
You’re also quite right that mages seem to have a monopoly on convenience so uh… why not just remove those portal spells? I know you guys get the sort of carnal thrill you can’t show off in public every time you prune a spell and this is like a twenty spells in one. Living, breathing, world.
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@OP That honestly seems like the norm for most situations in BFA. Blizz wont even consider the idea of giving without taking something away.
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At this point I think Blizzard are just making these changes with the sole purpose of making the game more cumbersome so that people are forced to take longer to do what should be short, simple tasks. More time to complete task = more time people spend playing.
Who needs engaging gameplay when you can just force players to spend their time traveling to said gameplay?
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NOT EVERYONE HAS THE TIME TO SIT AND ‘RELAX’ DURING THE GAME! People have jobs, families, other hobbies to attend. If that is your priority, that is all fine, however I prefer to get things done.
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Just because you keep repeating yourself doesn’t mean everyone else is.
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