Welcome to the discussion.
I agree that players today have it easier, but that's because things are naturally supposed to be easier as time progresses. It happens in real life as well, it's called evolving.
Of all of the things that have become easier in WoW, from faster mount cast animations, poisons being applied, reagents for buffs, to cutting the fishing time, the ability to travel is the greatest of them all, because the world is so large.
For every expansion since TBC was launched you have been able to fly at max level or sooner, with nothing but your money to impede you. The lack of tomes for you account from Wrath (not needed in Cataclysm), has been a change, and I haven't liked it. That doesn't mean that some don't. But I don't. I get loremaster on my main in every expansion, doing every quest I can do in the new zones. When it comes to leveling alts, I do it for professions, not because I want to experience it again and again and again.
Removal of flight isn't going to increase my enjoyment, or the amount of time I play.
And here comes the hyperbole.
Vanilla jumped from 8M to 10M with TBC
TBC jumped from 10M to 12.5M with Wrath
Both expansions brought flying at max level, showed an increase in subs, and brought fans in from everywhere.
Cataclysm brought Deathwing who was NOT comparable to Arthas.
Pandaria gives us Garrosh, again, NOT comparable to Arthas.
WoD AGAIN gives us Garrosh, STILL not comparable to Arthas.
But removing flying will fix all this. Yeah, and removing Raiding will improve participation in 5M dungeons. [/sarcasm]
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An apology is customary when you put people through stress for no reason, only to roll back your change to what it was before, which had it been left alone would not have caused any stress at all. Then again, they are a corporation, not a personal friend, so they are immune to the words "I'm sorry".
That question was not there before, so I will answer it now.
Yes. If there were no raids, dungeons, arenas, or BGs, people would still Role Play on mounts, or fly out to collect pets, do pet battles, farm materials, out to favorite fishing spots, level archaeology, etc. Some people play the game just to enjoy their Ashes, or Frostbrood Vanquisher while going out and farming old raids/dungeons for pets/transmog gear.
People are under the misconception that end game content = instances. To many people, myself included, there is so much more than just instances, and all of those things are enjoyed through the speed, convenience, and freedom of flying.
Your version of WoW =/= Other people's version of WoW.
I don't know about that though.
I mean blizzard already stated that it will be makiing this next xpac based around ground mounts, with travel not being too tedious, because they state that it can be reasonably assumed that the current content IS created with flying in mind, and that you'd have to fly to not completely waste your time farming, and get the most out of the content, and finish tasks in a reasonable time frame.
Problem is, once they base travel around ground mounts (timeless isle style) flying makes it trivial, VERY trivial, so they had to take it out.
I'm not for or against the change, i just hate the whole 'your not FORCED to use it' bullshit excuse
Technically, in WoD, since your perks are based on your garrison, and the bots from that garrison, and the farming they do for you while you are asleep and not even logged in, having a Tier 3 Garrison > Flying mounts. So, why remove something that no longer affects farming at level cap?
My favorite part is where you focused on just farming. I said timeless isle style because it encompassed dailies, rares, pet collecting, worlds bosses or any other task in the game (ie. getting the most out of the content)
But i'll bite on just farming since you wanted laser focus on it.
I dont know about you but i'm going to a fair bit of farming just to get my garrisons up. I'm not 100% sure how they work but i'm sitting on like 600g right now and have no intention of returning till WoD.
You clearly cannot objectively look at things.
System A you can travel to ANY unobstructed point X,Y,Z
System B you can travel to ANY unobstructed point X,Y,0
System B is "gimped" when compared to System A.
Ground is "gimped" to Flying.
Hell that's one of the "selling" points people try and use. It doesn't let you avoid things as easily because it is limited.
I wasn't aware of that custom. It was my understanding that apologizing is customary when you have wronged someone and you regret having done so.
Testing out no flight in WoD only to find that it didn't work as planned and then re-implementing it is not wronging anyone. It is Blizzard's game and they are free to experiment as they wish. They don't owe you anything. You are not entitled to anything.
Not seeing it.
Maybe I misunderstood because you used more ambiguous wording. If you meant why are they obligated too...they aren't. But the reason is the part that is bolded.
Apologizing for making a mistake.At which point, they could have just done that in the first place to avoid most of the chaos in 4 different threads. I suspect they will be too busy making an omlette from the egg on their face to even offer any sort of apology if it falls REALLY hard.
To a fair # of people it isn't the change to flight per se, but Blizzard's tactics surrounding it all. At Blizzcon they merely said that the gate to get flying had been modified. They didn't even hint at anything like its total disappearance from the upcoming xpac.
Then, 4 months later, Afrasiabi's GamePlanet interview got "discovered" on YouTube and suddenly the entire face of things changed. Flight was on the chopping block, possibly permanently. There were no other announcements, no communication anywhere else whether on the main Battle.net site, here, WoWInsider... nowhere. It looked, smelled, felt, etc., like a sneaky end-run. They used a 2nd rate E-zine (at best) to try slipping it past (on a weekend no less) as unnoticed as possible.
In the interim (between Blizzcon and that 'discovery') they opened up advanced sales for the digital collector's edition... which contained a flying mount designed for WoD... that wouldn't be useable for flight in that content when it dropped. They sold roughly a million copies before Afrasiabi's video hit. At $60 @, that means they made $60-million off of player ignorance. When the "truth" was exposed they were swamped with refund demands as angry players screamed WTF!?!?
Since then they've either done some fancy tap-dancing to avoid direct address of the topic as a whole (not to mention the specific 'dirty trick') or just remained mum.
That's why some people are saying Blizz owes an apology -- for what appears to have been a scam, or at minimum gross distrust and/or disrespect of the players. They feel wronged and want Blizz to "man up".
Well in that case I agree. The whole business with the pre-sales and WoD-themed flying mounts is ridiculous, I can't believe Blizzard thought that was a good idea. I think it would mean a lot to a lot of players if they would come right out and say that it wasn't a good idea, that they fucked up, and that they were sorry.