Blizzard's excessive use of Portals

[Gimlix]

Vanilla WoW: We got no portals mostly, everything was done by foot.
TBC WoW: Big giant portal towards the continent
Wotlk Wow: We had a ship going towards the continent (best thing they ever did.)
Cata WoW: They used a portal towards each zone you went to.
MoP Wow: a whole new island to explore, yet we take this by a portal not a boat.
WoD WoW: we taking a portal once again.

Wouldn't be surprised if legion had a portal too instead of a boat. (haven't been checking beta)

There are few things that break WoW's immersion. Portals are one of the big ones on the list.

[Nakotsu]

A trend I've been noticing increasingly over the expansions is that blizzard tends to use portals a lot more. Now call me crazy but I find that incredibly uncreative and lazy.

Let's not forget that wow is an mmo-rpg, and while fast travel might be available in most rpgs, atleast it requires you to go discover the location first.

In the Legion-prepatch quest where we go to Dalaran (Over Deadwind Pass) and witness Jaina's betrayal of the Kirin Tor, we talk to Brann Bronzebeard, who has some urgent business in Ulduar. Instead of telling us (The player) to meet with him in Ulduar, he just happens to conveniently have a spare teleporter to the place.

Now I know that a lot of you have been to Northrend and Ulduar countless times in the past, you've probably seen every nook and cranny and you'd much rather have a teleport, but look at this from a new player's perspective. Chances are he's leveled up with a friend through dungeon spam, he probably hasn't even seen half, if even a third of the world Azeroth has to offer. For him or her, going on a journey to Ulduar could offer scenery they've never seen before, which adds to the rpg feeling of the game. With a teleporter they just go and do their business, then hearthstone back to Stormwind to afk. It's so unimaginative!

Uh what type of fool talks like this. Portals are a convenience you dont want to use them then dont. Everyone else in the world does thou why because we dont like havng to travel extra vast distance its just like Real life thats why Air planes were made and cars and trains.... convenience ...

[Wrathonia]

There are few things that break WoW's immersion. Portals are one of the big ones on the list.

How? Portals are canon to WoW's lore. Not sure how something that has always been in the game and part of the lore breaks your immersion.

[Derpleton]

I don't have a problem with portals in situations like the one in the pre-patch quest. But having it so that the only way to Pandaria is via portal instead of boat or zeppelin is just lazy and makes the world feel smaller. Similarly with WoD having the crossing through the Dark Portal be via a cinematic was kind of a bummer for me, remembering back to how I physically moved my character through the portal in TBC and to get back to Azeroth you either had to get to Shattrath or journey back through the portal. Nowadays the Dark Portal doesn't even work. The Outland side does nothing and the Azeroth side takes you to Ashran which is complete immersion breaker. tbh though this just a biproduct of WoD's terrible design from a story perspective and the whole alt reality bs

[Gimlix]

How? Portals are canon to WoW's lore. Not sure how something that has always been in the game and part of the lore breaks your immersion.

Instead of taking a zeplin or boat, we use a portal. Tell me how that is more immersive?

[Wrathonia]

Instead of taking a zeplin or boat, we use a portal. Tell me how that is more immersive?

Tell me how it's less immersive? They are both a part of the game. How are any of them more or less immersive if they all belong in the world?

[melodramocracy]

Vanilla WoW: We got no portals mostly, everything was done by foot.
TBC WoW: Big giant portal towards the continent
Wotlk Wow: We had a ship going towards the continent (best thing they ever did.)
Cata WoW: They used a portal towards each zone you went to.
MoP Wow: a whole new island to explore, yet we take this by a portal not a boat.
WoD WoW: we taking a portal once again.

Wouldn't be surprised if legion had a portal too instead of a boat. (haven't been checking beta)

There are few things that break WoW's immersion. Portals are one of the big ones on the list.

You arrived in Twilight Highlands and Vash by boat / airship, Uldum via ground mount, and Hy'jal via flying mount.
You arrive in Pandaria via boat or airship as well, the first few quests you have revolve around them.
You also arrive at the Broken shore by boat initially as well, hopefully there's some continuity there once the expansion is official.

[Sykol]

First people were saying they don't want flying, now it's portals. How about we remove ground mounts and eliminate running, too? RP walk everywhere because running for hours without rest is immersion-breaking.

[Gob]

Portals are terribly detrimental to the RPG feeling of the game, and "just don't use them" isn't a solution. The vast majority of people aren't strong enough to resist fast travel tools that detract from the charm of the game. It's the burden of optimal play.

[Netherspark]

You arrived in Twilight Highlands and Vash by boat / airship, Uldum via ground mount, and Hy'jal via flying mount.
You arrive in Pandaria via boat or airship as well, the first few quests you have revolve around them.
You also arrive at the Broken shore by boat initially as well, hopefully there's some continuity there once the expansion is official.

Right, but only the first time. After the intitial quest there is no option but to use a portal.

I for one, miss actually travelling through the world, rather than being forced to teleport around it. It's a real immersion killer.

Portals are terribly detrimental to the RPG feeling of the game, and "just don't use them" isn't a solution. The vast majority of people aren't strong enough to resist fast travel tools that detract from the charm of the game. It's the burden of optimal play.

Quite a few quest won't even let you complete them unless you use the portal/teleport provided.

[IIamaKing]

This mission is of extreme import, we dont have time to schlep all over the world looking for stuff.

[Wrathonia]

This mission is of extreme import, we dont have time to schlep all over the world looking for stuff.

Seriously this. Demons were invading Karazhan for very important knowledge. Khadgar doesn't have time for you to hope on a mount and fly over. Just suck it up or stop playing.

[Tenjen]

Remember what happened to draenor because of too many portals?!

[Deleted]

Oh come on.

Without portals everyone would either use afk flightpaths or afk flying mounts, especially for longer distances. Portals just speed up the process, doesn’t mean removing them will add immersion.

I’d rather have more portals, like linking the different capitals together instead of having a hs bound to the shrine in order to reach all in a decent amount of time.

[Wrathonia]

I’d rather have more portals, like linking the different capitals together instead of having a hs bound to the shrine in order to reach all in a decent amount of time.

I honestly hate the shrines. I only have my hearth there for convenience. If I could put my heart any other location and still have access to handy portals to speed up travel, especially when doing old raids, I would be ever so happy.

[Deleted]

I honestly hate the shrines. I only have my hearth there for convenience. If I could put my heart any other location and still have access to handy portals to speed up travel, especially when doing old raids, I would be ever so happy.

I know. I know. We all do.

Edit: It seems like the other capitals lack of space to add portals /sarcasm

[Deleted]

A trend I've been noticing increasingly over the expansions is that blizzard tends to use portals a lot more. Now call me crazy but I find that incredibly uncreative and lazy.

Let's not forget that wow is an mmo-rpg, and while fast travel might be available in most rpgs, atleast it requires you to go discover the location first.

In MoP it did bother me but in WoD and these events less since it's Dalaran and Ulduar are doing it. Some powerhouse magic their.

But they could introduce the following method:
A dialogue where they ask you to travel with them to point x and after you talk to the person you have a nice image of the travel and voila your their. Bascially your not actually doing the manual travel but it tells you you did.

In the Legion-prepatch quest where we go to Dalaran (Over Deadwind Pass) and witness Jaina's betrayal of the Kirin Tor,

Please dont be an idiot your derailing your own topic.

[Idoru]

Strange? Fast traveling have no place in mmorpg games. For current Q yes. It is areldy too short and befor you even think about what is happening stoy line is over. All those portals everywhere kinda makes world seems very small and it destroys alredy weak imerssion.

Could you post a link to this MMORPG rule book you are quoting?

[Danthon]

Nah dude SCREW moving around. You think I play a Massive Multiply Player Online RPG to travel around a a Massive world? FUCK THAT. Please Blizz just give me a rock or sum shit that tp's me to my current objective k thanks. I don't wanna WASTE MY TIME going places, just make every quest a scenario i can queue for so i don't have to actually do anything besides pew pew mobs and queue for the next 1!

[Deleted]

I fail to see how them giving you a portal is "uncreative" when the other option is to let you fly their yourself which you've probably done countless times before, not like they would have had to create extra assets if they made you fly there so not lazy either and this is an emergency so ain't no one got time for flying.

If you want to waste your time flying to Northrend (assuming they don't force the TP on you) then go ahead and let the rest of us who value our time more highly skip that journey we've made countless times before and take the TP.