I don’t think we're taking it far enough. We need full immersion and these are my suggested changes:
- Provide a Stamina/Energy bar that will be maintained by two separate stats: Thirst and Hunger. Food and Drink will no longer provide bonuses, but work to fill these constantly degrading stats. Every action in the game will draw from this resource. We need to remove the Run/Walk toggle from the game and force people to walk only. Running from place to place for the smallest things is simply idiotic. We need repercussions if we’re going to sprint across an entire continent to get where we’re going. Our characters should be able to die from exhaustion if they run too far for too long, especially without food or water. Additionally, my character never seems to have the need for sleep, yet there are beds everywhere. Characters should be forced to /sleep to help refill their Exhaustion bar, and it should be for at least 4-6 hours of in game time of sleep before they are ready for a new day.
- Temperature should be a real and apparent threat! I’ve seen half-naked women cross Winterspring with showing little more than vapored breath as side effects. I’ve seen Paladins cross the desert sands of Tanaris in full plate gear and not get cooked alive. We should have a temperature gauge that affects our character’s statistics. This is ruining immersion!
- Swimming needs to be redone entirely. I can park my full geared Warrior in full-plate with bags overflowing with heavy ore in a lake and he will tread water indefinitely. This needs to be tied into Stamina/Energy consumption and my character should have to constantly fight to keep himself afloat. This uncanny ability ruins immersion!
- Death has no consequence anymore. Death should be a real threat, not just merely a setback. When I die, I should have to go through an epic journey through the underworld to return to life—or at the very least my friends should have to embark on one to bring me back if I can’t do so. At the very least, I should have to reincarnate my spirit into a new level 1 character and start over from there if I can’t get resurrected.
- I seem to never have to care for my pets and mounts. They never get hungry, thirsty, or tired like I do. This should be changed. There should also be a relationship bar for each NPC I interact with. I can’t fathom how I can smack my pet around and starve them, yet they do exactly what I tell them to every time. Same thing with those Innkeepers. I come in and sit in their establishment for hours on end, never ordering a thing, and they always greet me with that perpetual smile. They should be getting angry and kicking me out for loitering at some point!
- Sure my weapons have durability. But they are never damaged beyond the point where a blacksmith can fully repair them; they never simply just break and become completely unusable. Furthermore, how is it that any blacksmith, regardless of their level, knows how to repair my legendary weapon? One would think that they should all have different knowledge and skill sets for maintaining different types of equipment. I should have to go to a tailor to fix my cloak and an armor smith to bang out a few dents in my shield. Also, why does it not take him hours or days to repair this equipment? I’m going toe-to-toe with epic monsters and getting kicked all over the continent with these guys. It should take some time to repair my epic gear.
- The economy is in a complete mess. I’ve spent thousands of gold coins in repairs to one particular blacksmith in town, yet he never appears to benefit from this wealth. No change in clothes, no improvements to his store, no additional staff on hand, what’s with that?
- Inventory in this game is completely out of balance. It’s so ridiculous that I can carry all these bags on me and not be encumbered, or that I can carry Onyxia’s head in my bag and still have room for 21 other items as big, or sometimes bigger, than her head. This ruins immersion for me.
- Languages aren't used enough. I refuse to speak anything but my native language and others never bother to even attempt to learn it. Why must we be confined to one common tongue and our own native language? It’s ridiculous.
There are plenty of issues that people just don’t address or refuse to acknowledge. The anti-flying and anti-LFG are only a small part of it, and quite frankly, they don’t go far enough. This is merely the first few problems I can see with the immersion of the game. We must reclaim this game for those of us who want to spend the majority of our play times, regardless of how busy our lives are outside the game, devoting ourselves to menial tasks for the sake of immersion!!!