I know saying Final Fantasy around here is a crime, but players in Endwalker unlocked flying within the first week of the expansion. Flying is only locked there, as far as I can see, because places you’d be able to otherwise fly to right off the bat haven’t had their story relevance revealed yet, so they just gate flying behind the main scenario quest, which you can just do at your own pace instead of piece by piece every week.
I think Blizz just regrets ever adding flying, which I can understand to a point, but you can’t keep trying to put that genie back in the bottle. It just makes them look silly.
It’s so ridiculous, it’s largely hated by the enlisted from what I’ve seen. And they have to make people come by threatening them with having to stand duty and losing a day of their weekend if they don’t come. But it’s organized by the FRO and the FRO is of course married to a Colonel so everyone is on their best behavior but soon as they are told they can leave everyone vanishes. Why make people come to something they don’t want to be at and call it a Fun Day
You act like we’re asking for flying as we level. Nobody’s asking that. That’s why we’re on the ground the first time we level. To see everything you’re talking about. There’s literally no reason to keep us grounded after the first time through.
You’re exactly right. Once you’ve finished the story in that zone you can fly. If the story takes you back to certain zones in later patches you can fly there. Blizzard is so selfish and insecure in their own content they have to pad it out because they’re so afraid of people playing less and subbing less.
on the first 1 or 2 times through perhaps, thats why its called exploring, however when i get in the car and go to the shops for the thousandth time, Im no longer exploring, its not engaging or an adventure. Its a procedure, a sequence of the same events as always.
Exactly like it is traveling through the same zone in a video game you do it and you do it and you do it and you do it - over and over and over. It becomes memory which by its nature is so far removed from the concept of “exploration”.
I guess we have to repeat this until everyone gets it.
This is in response to someone not understanding the massive unsubbing that happened during WoD when Blizz announced in a polygon interview there’d be no more flying going forward (link is visible in the post I responded to, followed by a link to the response from Blizzard 19 days later apologizing that they didn’t understand how important flying was to the players so they’d be putting in Pathfinder.)
That happened. The numbers are out there and you can see for yourself. And it happened only 6 months after the launch of WoD, almost to the day.
There’s also a link in my post to a Forbes article how WoW lost almost half of its subs in only 6 months.
He was literally the Lead Encounter Designer. So… this doesn’t really make sense to promote someone to Game Director is they weren’t the best fit for role.
It’s possible that they’re all so incompetent that he was the least bad choice It’s hard to find gold in a pile of
Also, a while ago, when he was asked about something he was proud to have worked on, he mentioned WoW token… not any encounters whatsoever… but WoW token. Let that sink in.
Considering raids had really never been a flop, it’s possible but unlikely. (SOD sucks because of Dom Shards, SOD is pretty average though.) If you were a Lead for arguably the best content for WoW for a decade, you’ve earned some trust with someone.
But I’m sure nothing with convince you otherwise.
EDIT: Since you made a comment on the WoW Token.
The WoW Token did a lot of good for the game. It put a monetary value on everything, and that feels terrible. Though, being able to pay for a sub with gold is neat. People don’t seem to understand that this doesn’t inject gold into the economy. You don’t vendor a wow token for 200k+, you’re selling it to other players. It’s actively removing gold from the economy. There wasn’t a reliable gold sink in the game, a few mounts with static costs isn’t a gold sink, especially with WoW’s inflation because you can just wait an expansion and it’s usually cheaper (Longboi being removed was unprecedented. So consider the Yak or Mammoth’s vendor cost).
Raids haven’t been a flop in the game’s history. They get the most art support, they offer the best rewards (usually), and it’s fair to say it’s common knowledge that a many “seasonal players” come back specifically to complete the raid and dip out again.
Using participation rates is the same as using Twitch’s viewership numbers at any given time. RWF as a community-driven event has been wildly successful as well. Individual bosses can be letdowns, sure. But there are some gems every tier. Mythic Painsmith was amazing to watch, even 100 wipes in. Sylvanas “dying” at 45% was a cruel twist, but it made for a great viewing experience.
I think nearly every single raid has something special, or created an experience that will live on a good memory. Whether it;'s seeing Ragnaros for the first time…and with legs, or defeating the Lich King. WoW raids set a standard that other games wanted to aspire to be.
The Devs wanted to slow down content consumption as much as possible. They tried to remove flight and people unsubbed at a high rate so they gave in and forced the players to jump thru hoops to get it back.
This form of punishment has continued since that date.
But I’m not looking at that when I’m forced on the ground anyways, when I’m leveling this is what my eyes are on
and once I arrive my eyes are glued on nameplates because that’s where the relevant information is (unless it’s a collect quest then I look for sparklies )
See the 8 and the bag? That means I need to loot 8 of something (idk what because I don’t read quests) from bears, there’s a skull for quests where I just need to kill and not loot.
It’s the same at max level. There is no relevant information in the game world, I’m not looking at trees or majestic archways or buildings or anything like that. I pay attention to what’s relevant in order for me to complete whatever goal I’m currently working on.
Because all you whiney babies keep crying about it. The more you beg and demand to have things the more satisfaction there is in denying it or making you jump through hoops. Parents do it all the time.
It’s hard to find gold in a pile of 
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