Flying in Draenor: First impressions

[Raelbo]

Why do I keep seeing the term "anti-flight people" as if such a group exists?

Because it exists. There is a vocal, toxic minority in this game who seem to believe that flying is bad for the game and want it to be removed for everyone. The key points to their argument are:

1) It kills WPvP
2) It ruins immersion

They believe that this justifies forcing their demands on everyone

There are 2 camps on this issue, people that lost their shit over not being able to fly in Draenor, and people that didn't. The vast majority don't care

That's a gross oversimplification.

I think there are a lot of people who care about flying but were quite content to wait. We generally saw the merit in the arguments for witholding flying from new content and were generally content with the way WoD was handling it, operating under the flawed assumption that at some point flying would be introduced. And so we didn't really say much on the topic.

What we didn't count on was how the anti-flying camp was actively working to try and push Blizzard to keep Draenor flight free. Hence the "losing our shit" moment when Blizzard made that particular announcement.

And no, I don't think it was really a case of "losing our shit". It was a case of waking up and realising that our silence on the issue was to be taken as tacit approval of the crap being fed to Blizzard by the anti-flying crowd. A lot of people felt that the decision to not introduce flying was a bad one, and made their opinion known.

So much so that Blizzard quickly changed their minds. I honestly don't think Blizzard had any idea of how the majority of players actually felt until we spoke up.

If they'd have just dropped it at level 100 like every other expansion you definitely wouldn't see people exclaiming just how amazingly fun it is, although I assume those are just the people that made a big deal over the issue trying to make it seem like they were right.

My take on it is that the anti-flyer crowd are butthurt over losing this one and are continually asking these questions in the hope for some vindication.

And no, it's not that flying is a feature that is "amazingly fun" for most of us, any more than getting into your car to drive to work is, or the ability to flick a switch in your house and have light, or running water, or toilets or any of the other myriad mundane things we have that make our lives easier. Sometimes you need to take something away to realise the impact it makes in your life.

[velde046]

Gonna laugh when subs drop next quarter all the same and it really was just a very loud, obnoxious, and ignorant minority!

It wasn't what you call it out, but thanks for (mis)framing a whole bunch of people....

[Jessicka]

Gonna laugh when subs drop next quarter all the same and it really was just a very loud, obnoxious, and ignorant minority!

Lack of anything new for the next 6 months is going to cause that. Ascribing it to the flying argument is pointless, when overwhelmingly the fact of the matter is that WoD simply lacks content.

[JustRob]

The problem is, you get to 100 with said alt... and then what?

- - - Updated - - -



People complained they want to buy flying with gold. You can buy the rep with gold.

You get their gear where you want it to be, min-max your garrison + shipyard for maximum gold profit and minimal daily effort, then you either do old content (transmog gear, old raids, etc) or you level another one.

I've never had more than two lvl 100 characters, now I have three, and already know the next couple of characters I'm gonna level. Now is the perfect time for it.

If none of that appeals to you, /unsub I guess.

[Pua]

I like pet battles, archaeology, toy collecting, mount collecting, achievement chasing, completing stuff, raiding AND pvp.

To be honest with you, I reckon most players are a bit like that.

As in, I think most players do a bit of everything. They might not jump into all of it (toy collecting, pet battles and achievements don't interest me), but I think most try their hand at several things rather than "I just raid" or "I just PvP".

The problem is that the content provided is sorely lacking in any depth. Yes, you can do lots of things; but you can't do a couple of things without running out of stuff to do. Ashran has been a problem all expansion long, dungeoneering is a complete waste of time at this point, and the showering in people of Baleful gear actually ruined LFR for the overwhelmingly larger chunk of the raiding community.

I suppose the problem is that Blizzard are providing things to do, when that's not what people necessarily mean when they say they want more content. What they mean, is that they want meaningful character advancement.

To me, that is what Warlords of Draenor is woefully short on. Worse, taking flying out until now was just a cynical way of covering that fact up.