Should mailboxes be removed?

[Deleted]

I don't even have to walk to dungeons and raids anymore. Now we don't want to walk to mailboxes?

What next, we won't want to walk to quest objectives anymore? This is such a small thing that's barely an inconvenience, especially considering 90% of people sit in the main city waiting for queues anyway.

I don't think it's fair to compare those features.

I'm not against mailboxes per se. But it really is a relic by now. Blizzard have even added a ridiculous amount of mailboxes at every major hub, just to make sure you don't have to run far to get to them. What then, I ask, is the point?

It'd be one thing if mailboxes were actually immersive little elements of a cosy world, such as in the Lord of the Rings Online where hobbits have a quest to deliver mail and avoid the prying eyes of eavesdropping hobbits (if memory serves).

But in WoW, they are the one stupid little thing you have to go through a minor hassle to use, when all major features are overly easy to do.

It should be the other way around. Finding groups and travelling should be immersive, a bit demanding, and require that you travel around in the world. Instead they require nothing off you, while mail boxes demand that you find a major quest hub. Nonsense, I think.

[Adramalech]

They litter the mini-map and take up space around it. You can disable this on your tracking menu.
They are everywhere in towns nowadays, which is not only illogical but also looks daft. Illogical, I'll grant you. However, you don't really see them that much unless you're specifically looking at/for them.
They force you to go somewhere just to trade with your alt or receive some money from the Auction House, or when you receive a letter from an NPC. I'm not sure where you're getting with this one. What's the issue again?

My thoughts in underlined bold.


I mean, I wouldn't care if they were made into a bag object or interface option, but really, is there anything really that wrong with mailboxes right now, other than there being too many in some cities? No offense intended, but this sounds like a whole lot of making a big deal out of a huge pile of nothing. It's both immersive (again, except their amount in some cities) and convenient (you don't actually have to move that much to access one, unless you're in the world's rear end), so really... why, what's the point?

[hrugner]

I like that mailboxes encourage players to cluster in areas around the convenient mailboxes. It's a good place to log out, and gives a touch point where players see each other.

Unfortunately, Blizzard hasn't used mailboxes as an opportunity to move characters into interesting locations in the game and just sort of plops them down where they should be instead. If Blizzard decides to use mailboxes better, and put them places where it's cool to see a bunch of people, then they should remain. If they are just going to crap them out all over the place, then why bother giving them a location.

[Last Starfighter]

What ho,

I'm usually against conveniences in games. I want there to be a bit of an effort to do things, as well as immersion in the game world.

But lately, mailboxes have started bugging me.

• They litter the mini-map and take up space around it.
• They are everywhere in towns nowadays, which is not only illogical but also looks daft.
• They force you to go somewhere just to trade with your alt or receive some money from the Auction House, or when you receive a letter from an NPC.

Why not take the Guild Wars 2 route and place the mailbox in the interface? If you want it to make sense lore-wise, just say the Ethereals did it.

You know that you can click the mini map mailbox off right? ANd they don't really "Litter" the mm anyway. They aren't all over the place. Click pets for mm littering. And it's a world. In the world there are mailboxes. They're fine the way they are. They aren't an inconvenience. If you're looking at it that way, then having alts is an inconvenience. And if you really think mailboxes "look daaaft" then you're just being weird about them. If they were 50 feet high and had teenage mutant ninja turtle stickers all over them, then yeah. I'd say they look daft. but they don't. And in many places they take on the look of the architecture.

[Deleted]

How does flying mounts ruin immersion? I don't get it.

It makes the world smaller and less dangerous by allowing you to take to the sky and fly past everything at great speed. Same issue with portals and general teleportation through stuff like dungeon finder, raid finder etc.

[Zeromus]

Running to the mailbox is about the only immersive thing left in the game.

[Tart]

What ho,

I'm usually against conveniences in games. I want there to be a bit of an effort to do things, as well as immersion in the game world.

But lately, mailboxes have started bugging me.

• They litter the mini-map and take up space around it.
• They are everywhere in towns nowadays, which is not only illogical but also looks daft.
• They force you to go somewhere just to trade with your alt or receive some money from the Auction House, or when you receive a letter from an NPC.

Why not take the Guild Wars 2 route and place the mailbox in the interface? If you want it to make sense lore-wise, just say the Ethereals did it.

You do know you can hide that right?

[Last Starfighter]

People that make petty things like this into issues aren't really concerned about mailboxes themselves. They just sift for things to complain about and want to change. Mailboxes aren't even close to being an inconvenience.

[Wilian]

A lot of times convenience is at odds with immersion. Immersion is better for a game than convenience.

Just because something is convenient doesn't make it better. Go see what Chris Roberts has to say about immersion, it is probably the most important aspect of gaming.

Blizzard has actively been removing everything that could be considered immersive in this game so this would not really be a big change in big picture.

[Tart]

People that make petty things like this into issues aren't really concerned about mailboxes themselves. They just sift for things to complain about and want to change. Mailboxes aren't even close to being an inconvenience.

Look at the poll results mate, its a nothing thread.

Twisty chops like him are in the minority.

[Last Starfighter]

This forum confuses me sometimes.

Me:
"Hey, what do you think of flying mounts? Sort of ruins immersion, right?

Everybody else:
"NO! I love convenience, and flying mounts are awesome cause it means I don't have to run everywhere to do stuff!"

Me:
"Hey, what do you think of mailboxes? Sort of of a hassle, right?"

Everybody else:
"NO! I hate convenience, and mail boxes are great cause it's nice to have the little immersive things in the world!"

Except mailboxes aren't "sort of a hassle". If you think mailboxes are sort of a hassle, then everything in an mmo is going to be a hassle for you. One of the reasons you gave can be fixed by yourself. Clicking off mailboxes on your mm. The 2nd, having them look foolish, well that's not even opinion, that's just flat out exaggeration. That would be like me saying "that bush over by the pond in org looks daft". And the 3rd, they're right by the AH. If walking 8 ft is an inconvenience then so will using the AH be and inconvenience.

[Shampro]

What on earth is wrong with people....

[Louis CK]

Except mailboxes aren't "sort of a hassle". If you think mailboxes are sort of a hassle, then everything in an mmo is going to be a hassle for you. One of the reasons you gave can be fixed by yourself. Clicking off mailboxes on your mm. The 2nd, having them look foolish, well that's not even opinion, that's just flat out exaggeration. That would be like me saying "that bush over by the pond in org looks daft". And the 3rd, they're right by the AH. If walking 8 ft is an inconvenience then so will using the AH be and inconvenience.

Sir, some of us don't have have lives and play casually and don't have the time to run to mailboxes all the time. We're not all hardcore elitists like you.


...Why do I keep doing this? Sorry. It's just too easy.

[oplawlz]

What next, we won't want to walk to quest objectives anymore? This is such a small thing that's barely an inconvenience, especially considering 90% of people sit in the main city waiting for queues anyway.

Lol, they already removed walking to quest objectives for a bunch of multi-leg quests.

Idk, it would be hard for me to justify this kind of change, considering the other ui changes I would find far more beneficial to the game, such as a separate free wardrobe, separate inventories for flavor items, etc. I also agree with the posters who mention that the portable mailbox is a pretty cool engi item I'd rather not see made irrelevant.

[Deleted]

Might be different people saying those things.

[Tzalix]

You do know you can hide that right?

I think what he means is the fact that, typically, you'll want to track "common stuff" on the minimap all the time. You know, innkeepers, food vendors, etc. You dont' want to toggle off and on stuff that you visit regularly.

Now, you might be a person who doesn't pick up mail regularly. But some people do. And it's quite annoying having to toggle mailbox tracking on and off all the time, whenever I need one, because if I just leave it on, it clutters the minimap in cities.

It's the little things...

[Deleted]

Of course I bloody well know that I can disable the mail icons on the mini-map. But sometimes I need to find one, and having to switch between tracking and not; alternatively looking for the physical object at a quest hub; alternatively always going to a location where I know I can find one, is not ideal.

It's not immersive, it's just an annoying chore.

This is very unlike finding groups or travelling across Azeroth. I love immersion, I dislike conveniences for the sake of being convenient, and I really enjoy travelling.

This is why I dislike flying mounts and group finder tools, but am questioning the mailboxes. Finding players and travelling the world to face a new adventure in a dungeon is something I enjoy doing, and miss having to do.

Going through three or four different steps (however simple) just to look at my in-game mail, is not something I enjoy.

[Orcindauh]

What on earth is wrong with people....

Some men....just want to watch the world burn.


Leave Mailboxes alone, gosh.

[Lumineus]

This forum confuses me sometimes.

Me:
"Hey, what do you think of flying mounts? Sort of ruins immersion, right?

Everybody else:
"NO! I love convenience, and flying mounts are awesome cause it means I don't have to run everywhere to do stuff!"

Me:
"Hey, what do you think of mailboxes? Sort of of a hassle, right?"

Everybody else:
"NO! I hate convenience, and mail boxes are great cause it's nice to have the little immersive things in the world!"

Yes, flying around on my badass dragon totally ruins my immersion in this medieval fantasy setting.

The only people who hate flying mounts are gankers and masochists, and Blizzard needs to stop catering to them as if they are an important demographic.

[Crummy]

Your 2 last points contradict eachother, OP.
Sorry. If they were everywhere, why is there an issue to just turn around and click one to send your items?