Blizzard's excessive use of Portals

[Grahamington]

The rate at which players consume content is a well know problem of WoW (any game) and you're right in pointing out that some automation, whilst improving quality of life, kinda ruined immersion. However, I don't really think this is the case. Artificially slowing us down by forcing us to travel to old places we've been a thousand times in order to be able to experience new content (quite the paradox) won't do any good to the game. Why? Because it's not fun (and fun is subjective, I know).

I might enjoy the quick walk down memory lane, as long as I don't have to go through the hassle of travelling there by myself! It's not laziness, it's just that I have already done that a million times. Granted, it wouldn't be a problem if it was something Blizzard asked of us once in a while for a new expansion, event or major patch. Removing/restricting portals in general? No, thanks.

I understand completely.

I mean, for a quest here and there, people should not complain about having to actually fly there.
I mean, we have all these mounts, why not actually use them?

[Kathranis]

It's not a huge deal to me, but being completely honest, I would prefer ships or zeppelins for traveling to Pandaria and the Broken Isles.

[Jakisuaki]

Since when did Jaina betray the Kirin Tor? They just happen to have different views.

So not only do you change the subject, you also fail to provide spoiler tags. Nice man.

[Bigbazz]

I see your point, I just don't care either way. I think Pandaria and Broken Shore could use traditional transport for the immersion factor, but It's not even something I think about during normal play.

[Conscious]

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!

I can tell you never played during Wrath.

[Jakisuaki]

I can tell you never played during Wrath.

Yeah, started in very late wrath.

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You know what else WoW is? Fantasy. With magic portals and pseudo-science portals, and portal portals. It's strange we don't have more of them around, like GW waypoint system.

Sure, portals are cool with mages and stuff. An npc just conveniently opening one ruins that fantasy imo.

[A dot Ham]

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!

This conversation usually comes up when we talk about flying... or the lack of flying.

The utility and ease of travel that flying provides is seen as necessity only because an alternative doesn't exist.

Blizzard has yet to provide their own alternative (besides portals) and have expressed themselves that they don't really care for it either, but don't have a better idea in place. So we have portals and flying.

If you have a better idea I encourage you to share it. Blizzard encourages you to share it. Or charge them for it... fuck them don't work for free.

[Frood]

Zones such as Ulduar are largely unknown to many people who started playing recently. They would have no idea where to go, and perhaps won't even have any flightpaths to use. Just imagine trying to explain them they need to go to OLD Dalaran so they can fly from there to Storm Peaks.

[Jakisuaki]

don't use them? if u don't want lets say a Portal from Sw to hyjal just fly there..no one is forcing u to take them

Read my post, it's integrated in a main quest.

[Cæli]

Of course people will not want less portal. Ask them if they want free xp, they will say yes. Easier gold, yes. More power, yes. No limit, yes. It's Blizzard's call to design a real game, not non professional players who have, overall, no clue but what they enjoy themselves.

[Jakisuaki]

Uh what type of fool talks like this. Portals are a convenience you dont want to use them then dont.

Read my example, it forces the use of portals.

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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?

Click -> Loading Screen -> You're there

Go up a tower -> semi-Cinematic take off -> loading screen -> semi-cinematic arrival

[Stiyx]

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.

Well see, Blizzard was supposed to be working on making leveling more meaningful, but really all they have done is made it even easier to level with pre-patch. Maybe if 90% of their questing experience wasn't player x going to do some bullshit y, then people wouldn't just dungeon spam. Dungeon's should be a complement to leveling, not the main source of exp for vets to exploit. Also heirlooms are a shit design as well, because they take most leveling gear choices which makes the leveling experience even more bland.


The questing in this game excluding pre-legion content is bad. Its bad because yes as you grow in level you should get stronger abilities, you should fight stronger mobs, and you should get cooler looking gear. Blizzard hits some of these points every now and then, but mostly your character is getting "stronger" and then hes still running around doing pointless ass kill quests that some lesser powerful character really should be taking care of. If they shortened all the lower level zones 1-100 and kept just the main story quests of each zone to have around 30 quests max per zone (whatever it takes to complete the zones story), you would get the feeling of epicness and you could cut out all the extra garbage quests that you get. Hell you could even have some "side quests" that give some pretty cool transmogs depending on the level of the side quest.

Its time for blizzard to do another leveling revamp because these revamped zones are as old as they were when they were redone the first time. Honestly, who knows if its even worth it for them to do it though because I feel like the constant trickle of new players has long stopped.

[Jakisuaki]

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

Yeah, I know, but this is just one example.

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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.

Flight paths and flying mounts have (ok, had) to be unlocked.

[dyzz]

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!

Im not trying to be a negative nancy, but the "new players" thing is old and tiresome. I would wager a lot of gold that "new players" are less than .01% of the population as this game is over 10 years old. There is also a ton of "new players" that are just new accounts, and people pretending to be new to get freebies. You don't see that many new players at this age of life cycle. Maybe new to the xpac, but certainly not new to the places you mentioned.

[Jakisuaki]

Please dont be an idiot your derailing your own topic.

I was merely using it as a example, but it's understandable if you disagree.

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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.

I can totally see your point, but atleast you have to tab in to avoid the occasional mountain. This is a different topic entirely, but I do feel that flying needs to be harder to obtain.

[Golden Yak]

Talk to your children about Portal Abuse.

[Jakisuaki]

15 years ago when I had no job, I might've agreed. Now, with limited play time, I want to actually do the content when I'm logged in, not spend what time I have stuck waiting for a boat / zeppelin.


A certain amount of flying is fine, understandable. But when you start considering having to wait for the slower transport, then flying, then hearthing or porting back, then flying again, it all adds up. I don't want to spend more time travelling to content, then I do actually doing the content; it doesn't make sense nor is it fun.

Understandable, but the vast majority of the playerbase can spare 10-15 minutes extra of their time.

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Don't know, but it is kinda the point of Warcraft lore. After all, it all started with the Dark Portal.

A portal essential to the plot that serves as a gateway between dimensions, and yet you can easily take a regular portal back to SW when you're on the other side. You're missing the point entirely.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I don't consider slow travel and waiting for boats/zeppelins "engaging RPG aspects". Never have, never will. I'll fly on the back of a DRAGON on my own whenever I can, just as how I prefer to always ride on my own in Red Dead Redemption even on my 11th playthrough, but going between continents in this MMO where others might be depending on my arrival, I'm completely fine with portals over zeppelins and ships.

[Jakisuaki]

The world in WoW is so big now after all those expansions that a portal here and there is good otherwise you would get bored going from one end to another. Its one thing to travel on foot or mount while leveling but once you are done..yeah you want a quick way.

That's why we have boats and zeppelins, atleast they're somewhat immersive (And super cool). Still convenient, but cool.

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I would suggest quitting the game. This seems game breaking for you.

I'm simply addressing something I believe would better the game, or you know, participating in the wow community. Fuck me, right?

Stop derailing the topic.

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Zones such as Ulduar are largely unknown to many people who started playing recently. They would have no idea where to go, and perhaps won't even have any flightpaths to use. Just imagine trying to explain them they need to go to OLD Dalaran so they can fly from there to Storm Peaks.

That's what we have quest text for.

[tru]

OP do you use mounts? Doesnt seem fair to much of a QoL thing I would just walk everywhere .