Traveling should be a part of WoW

Community General Discussion
1

I am sick of players and even editors from corrupted sites like Kotaku complaining about the portal issue. I support Blizzard’s stance on this because players forget that traveling is a huge part of any MMORPG.

I want to take you all back to the days of the original Everquest. If you wanted to go anywhere, you had to walk. If this desitination was on another continent, you took a boat, and when you took the boat, you didn’t just arrive at the other continent, you where on the boat while the boat was going through the ocean. I can imagine players saying how “boring” and “tedious” it is, but the result was that it make the world seem huge and epic, and that is what MMORPGs are all about. The true roots of MMORPGs was never about convenience, and since 2009, I really believe that blizzard should have taken steps into moving World of Warcraft back to the roots of what MMORPGs were all about.

If there is one thing that really ruined Everquest, it was the introduction of the Planes of Knowledge, which was a portal hub that lead to anywhere. The result was that it changed Everquest from a virtual world, to a list of “zones”.

When constant portals were made in WoW, it was a similar result compared to Everquest’s Planes of Knowledge where the world seemed smaller and dumbed down. It’s not as bad, because there are still situations where players have to use flight paths, but tragically boats are never used anymore.

On the topic of boats, I really liked how there were boats in World of Warcraft, sure there was a loading screen, but the existence of boats in vanilla reminded players they were in a world. There is something relaxing about going on boats and meeting new people, it reminds you that you are in a world. Now a common argument I hear is “if you like boats, use boats, but let me use portals”, but these players forget that community is another fundamental part of MMORPGs. Players will always use the more convenient option A, and option B will be obsolete, and I don’t like seeing things go obsolete, including boats. It won’t kill the community to put players in a position to use boats, it actually might strengthen the community where players meet each other, and learn patience.

People need to realize that World of Warcraft is not a hack and slash game, and playing the game just doesn’t involve fighting or constant action. Sometimes it involves chilling out in a city, riding your mount or a public Gryphon, or even on a boat.

The other argument I constantly hear is how players complain how they seen the landscape multiple times. The fact is that it doesn’t matter that you seen the range of mountains, or path numerous times, just because you already seen it, doesn’t mean you don’t have to see it again. MMORPGs are different than other games, and one difference is that you constantly have to go back to the same place you have been before, even if the place isn’t challenging. You complain how you already seen the landscapes, but you don’t make that same complaint when you go back to the same raids over again.

Lastly I am sick to death of players complaining about Battle for Azeroth. I am having a great time in this expansion. Island Expeditions and Warfronts are extremely fun, and dynamic. When I am on Island Expeditions, I never know what will come up or happen. World Quests bring players out into the world, and with iLevel scaling, it brings a healthy challenge in the outdoor environment which is what WoW needs. I really don’t mind RNG, because WoW should never be about the loot, it should be about the experience.

To summarize everything:

When players are put in a position to travel the world, instead of being teleported everywhere, it makes the world and game seem more epic. MMORPGs were never about convenience, they were about epic experiences in a living world.

8 Likes
2

Tell that to Final Fantasy XIV, where I can easily get around via teleports for a small monetary fee. The game doesn’t have to be tedious to be fun and fulfilling, and the world in FFXIV still feels huge, even though I can teleport on a whim to any zone I’ve already visited.

20 Likes
3

I agree but there isn’t much to do in parts of the world where we travel, it dead.

4

The problem is Blizzard has systematically been removing RPG elements since Wrath. The playerbase has thus adapted.

It’s blizzards fault for opening the pandora’s box.

10 Likes
5
  1. Talk to gryphonmaster
  2. Alt + tab to google chrome
  3. Browse crap for some minutes
  4. Alt + tab to wow

Such enjoyment, impressive travel, will repeat.

Why does it say I am replying to Malvalen…?

19 Likes
6

I agree…thats why Blizz should just pull the trigger and close the open world. They should replace them with portals to dungeons and raids and that is all we do…I mean they opened this box right (obviously a sarcastic reply)

7

Clicked the wrong reply button?

8

That sucks, maybe you should avoid the forums and social media if you don’t like people complaining about something.

Long ago, like you, I thought that posting a comment complaining about complainers would get me somewhere but I quickly learned a lesson that it’s better to just let it run its course.

2 Likes
9

I don’t think so, I started to type before he posted in this thread lol

10

When players are put in a position to travel the world, instead of being teleported everywhere, it makes the world and game seem more epic. MMORPGs were never about convenience, they were about epic experiences in a living world.

There can be no epic experiences in a world that isn’t relevant to you, though. That’s the thing that people who are making your argument completely miss.

I’m not going to have an epic fight for my life, or a struggle over some valuable loot, or even a novel encounter, in an older zone. Nothing in prior expansions is challenging, novel, or relevant to the gameplan of modern WoW.

As a result, forcing us to travel the old fashioned way creates a problem. That problem is that there’s nothing to do out there. It’s just one big expanse between myself and my goal, but nothing will happen along the way. Nothing of note, nothing interesting, etc.

Something that people tend to forget is that our memories of how alive the world felt when we had to travel through it are intimately linked to when that content was relevant. Wrath felt immersive to travel around because there were things to do then. Vanilla felt immersive to explore and travel because there were things to do then.

The world provided a viable experience to be had, and there were always things to look out for and acquire. This is not true today, because we’ve moved on from that content.

Some rares, some azerite to mine, some little chests to loot. The gameplay of Island Expeditions and Warfronts is approximately the same every time without changing (barring the relatively rare times that event rares spawn and don’t even have to be done to finish).

The way you say you’re sick of us talking about it what we don’t like? It’s like you think that we’re stupid and wrong, and we can’t possibly have our own opinion.

Most people seem to agree that, regardless of whether or not some people are having fun, the game seems to be in a bad place. The dev team is overhauling their flagship feature of the expansion because of it’s poor reception, even. Guilds are bleeding members, friends lists are shrinking, and the gameplay isn’t fundamentally distinct from when it launched.

You might be having fun, but it’s clear that lots of people are not. Enough so that I’d argue that there’s merit to the complaints.

14 Likes
11

That is true, especially during Wrath of the Lich King and Mist of Pandaria, and I didn’t like that. This is why I think that Blizzard should takes steps to go back to the core values of what MMORPGs are all about. Sure players will get upset, but either they will adapt again, or leave. It’s like the spoiled child that was constantly fed chicken McNuggets for everyday in his life, he gets upset when you learn to cook health foods, but eventually he will adapt.

Just how Pandora’s box can be opened it can be closed, and everything that escaped can be put back in the box.

12

Or we can just keep the portals we have to popular old world hubs that are inconvient to get to.

2 Likes
13

you’re right we should be immersed in the world! no running RP walk only.

6 Likes
14

Not trolling. Serious question but how often in the last 6 yrs have you created an actual in game friendship via meeting someone at a boat? I mean, the airships in Orgrimmar are still used regularly I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone /s chatting with other players on the ship and they sit there for a good bit befor moving.

3 Likes
15

Are you sure that child is not dead already? :thinking:

1 Like
16

Good question! I was also confused about that based on the response you gave, hahaha.

All good! :heart:

1 Like
17

There can be no epic experiences in a world that isn’t relevant to you, though. That’s the thing that people who are making your argument completely miss.

I’m not going to have an epic fight for my life, or a struggle over some valuable loot, or even a novel encounter, in an older zone. Nothing in prior expansions is challenging, novel, or relevant to the gameplan of modern WoW.

The part where you are wrong is that the content doesn’t need to be challenging, a threat, or offer rewards for the content to be relevant. ALL outdoor zones are relevant regardless of level. When I am standing around in Stormwind, the fact that I am close of Westfall, and if I go south enough I end of in Stranglethorn Vale, means both of those zones are relevant. Your problem is that you look at zones of what they can give you, but zones don’t need to offer anything to you for them to exist.

18

Pandora didn’t put everything back in the box, though. She closed it quickly enough to keep “hope” inside of it. All the evils remained in the world, because you can not put things back inside the box, you can only close it again to prevent it from getting worse.

The thing about an angry child with McNuggets is that he needs to eat food. We do not need to play this game. If you make it unpleasant enough for us then we can, and many have, leave entirely. The child with the McNuggets has to eat what you give because he has no options.

That’s the thing about this idea that you can push unpleasantry on players for their own good. They have to want to change that themselves, or they won’t tolerate the unpleasantry. All you’ll end up with is a smaller player base who never minded the change in the first place, and a few straggler’s who didn’t mind it enough to leave.

The problem with “they’ll adapt or leave” mentality is that it absolutely kills industries.

4 Likes
19

THIS.

Until Blizz fixes the world and makes it feel like a living/breathing WORLD, the OP while correct, is unfortunately pointless.

3 Likes
20

I’d buy their excuse of wanting the world to be bigger if you had to click on a meeting stone to queue for every instance. Dungeon, holiday event, battleground, arena, and raid. Instead, you can do it from anywhere in the world.