During Blizzcon, Ion Hazzikostas shared that Dynamic Flight is available from the start, with “Static” flight being unlocked after completing the main story. Ion also acknowledged that Static Flight is an accessibility thing. How do these two things work together?
What’s the point of locking static flight behind some achievement while we have dynamic flight from the get go? The exact quote is:
We also understand there are some folks for accessibility reasons, personal preference reasons, maybe you just like being able to afk in mid air, that dragonriding isnt your favourite. We don’t want to take anything away. These mounts that concurrently you do the old school flying mode to toggle between dragonriding or, let’s call it TBC flying. Up to you. Whatever you prefer.
Again, Dynamic Flight will be available from the start when you get to Khaz Algar in the Isle of Dorne, just as it was in Dragonflight. Old school TBC flying, pathfinder style, will not be available right away but will be unlocked shortly after reaching max level with no reputation grind requirements. Just play through the campaign, explore the continent then you can fly that way as well.
Source: [BlizzCon | The War Within: Deep Dive Panel | World of Warcraft https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPqZ7LSGjSU&t=2170s
This all being said, I prefer Dynamic Flight. I’m just curious to what the logic is behind it, if there is any to begin with.
To incentivize the use of dynamic flight, I’m guessing. I do agree that the restriction is arbitrary, however. If the “better” version is the default anyway, and doesn’t suffer from any restrictions, then locking the old one seems pointless.
I wouldn’t mind the pathfinder as much if there was some reward besides just static flying, such as a mount or toy. We saw this with the mechanical parrot mount.
did they sign a contract with the devil or something which demands pathfinders? Like, why? I dont even use the old fly 99% of the time but its sooo wierd lol.
If the main story is like the typical zone-to-zone railroad track bit we have had the last few expansions, big deal. I can handle the wait. If they lock it behind some type of campaign, then I have issues with it.
Yes, but why do they contradict themselves within a few sentences? They acknowledge it’s an accessibility thing for some people, so their solution is to just make those people suffer?
Sounds like it’ll require finishing the four main zones, maybe a little bit more after that upon reaching max level.
I don’t see it as a contradiction. They acknowledge it is for some. Doesn’t mean it is for everyone. And there are solutions for some of those who have accessibility issues. So it’s more a “Hey, we know it’s like this for some, so the requirements won’t be waiting until the end of the expansion now, we’ll release it right away, but yes there are still requirements.”
I may not agree that static flying should be locked due to accessibility… but I do understand why it is locked for the rest of us.
Regrettably, unlike previous expansion features, which got retired once their expansion concluded, this one appears to be continuing… Zaralek Caverns just felt pathetically small with Dragonflying, and therefore if Warthin is effectively just a series of ZC…
Acknowledging it’s an accessibility issue for some people, and then making those same people look for other solutions or simply suffer, isn’t an acceptable solution. It’s ableism.
Engagement metrics with a feature isn’t a good enough reason to just make people with accessibility issues work harder or figure it out for themselves. It’s 2024, these reasons aren’t acceptable.
Blizzard isn’t prejudice against those with accessibility issues. It’s why they continue to add accessibility options to dynamic flying.
And Blizzard has the numbers from 2023 to know what they need to do for whom and where that acceptable margin is.
We can’t accommodate every single accessibility issue. As someone with neurological disorders from COVID, I can’t expect Blizzard to cater to me and everyone else.
Yea. You’re right, it’s not new. I’m not surprised, I just kind of hoped they were past making flight … I don’t want to say the term.
Others, are right, above, as well. It seems it may not be locked away as deep, so I suppose that is progress.
and now I’m mad y’all tricked me into using logic when I wanted to be mad! I wasn’t in the dang mood to be all understanding and stuff. I’m going to go antagonize some night elves to make myself feel better.
No you can’t, but if you have the ability to accommodate an accessibility issue by not locking a form of flight behind some achievement just to get engagement numbers then you’re actively choosing to make someone’s life more difficult for the sake of profit. No matter how you spin it, it’s ableism. There is no acceptable number for discrimination.
I understand you don’t agree. No need to repeat it. We’re here to have a discussion.
I understand having accesibility issues. But before you accuse Blizzard of Ableism, how about you make a suggestion of how to fix the problem that caused them to lock static flying behind pathfinder, without locking static flying? It’s not about metrics it’s about the fact that people used Static flying to cheese content and then complained to Blizzard about how there wasn’t enough content when they got done taking shortcuts around the content. How does Blizzard fix this?
Yeah i dont get this either. Dragon riding is better in every way except for afking.
It seems petty frankly. I dont understand why everything this company gives us comes with a caveat. I just do not understand the logic at all.
And if it is really just hit 80 and get tbc flight then yeah… thats barely a requirement. Why do they feel the need to continue a system that everyone hates? You have nerfed pathfinder to the point where it almost auto completes. But we still need to do it, because reasons???