If gameplay is compelling people will play it

[Barkloud]

If gameplay is compelling people will play it. If gameplay is not compelling people will not play it. MOP was not my cup of tea because it put such huge rewards on aspects of gameplay I dislike that I felt it was necessary. Point and case was the original dailies in mop.

Now blizzard is forcing us more so into open world end game content instead do instanced end game content with their overall design of WoD. People do not skip over content they find fun. Forcing players to participate in unfun content because it is cheaper to develop than say 10 more dungeons is bad policy. Removing flying so people do not skip content they find unenjoyable is dumb.

I have like every expansion up to mop which I hated. That makes sense because the second I dinged end level for each expansion I stopped playing open world and switched to instances. I can only hope Blizzard goes back to putting in 20 or so dungeons in WoD like they have in every other expansion. My gut however tells me we are going to get forced into open world bland content that will only be played because blizz forces it's community to play it

Blizz had such a winning recipe vanilla - cata. Let's face it cata was fine it just contained half as much content as other expansions. I can only hope blizz looks at MoP as a guideline of what not to do.

[Deleted]

What constitues as fun and unfun is generally subjective and I can safely say that there is something for everyone in MoP and will continue to be so for WoD. Your definition of what's compelling or fun does not set the standards of what should be considered compelling or fun.

The sooner people realise that their opinion against 7 million others doesn't have more merit, the better.

[Deleted]

While fun is subjective, it's pretty objective to say if people are entertained and engaged by a product sold to them as entertainment they will continue to pay for it until it stops being entertaining or engaging. It's also pretty much fallacy to state that it's ONE vs 7 million when it comes to opinions.

While I understand that a general consensus can be made concerning an opinion, people have a habit of then injecting more narrower and narrower sub levels of opinions until they use a general consensus to piggyback their personal bias.

[Iakhovas]

What constitutes as fun and unfun is generally subjective and I can safely say that there is something for everyone in MoP and will continue to be so for WoD. Your definition of what's compelling or fun does not set the standards of what should be considered compelling or fun.

The sooner people realize that their opinion against 7 million others doesn't have more merit, the better.

Pretty much this. I'll pick one negative thing from WoD and that's flying only because it's been so ridiculously over played in threads on mmo-c. I was talking to guildmates earlier this week and they all can't wait for no flying at the beginning. It is also important to note that most of the people in my guild do not frequent the MMO-C forums so most of them didn't even know the no flying thing was an issue because it has always been no flying every expansion. The only difference now is that it is lasting the duration of the first patch to see how people react to it.

What OP needs to realize and I'm sure many others that hound the forums is that millions of people either don't know about this site or don't care enough to visit the site because at the end of the day it's a game they like to play and the last thing those people need is a toxic environment like some of these threads on the forums.

Having said that, I'm big into change, that's probably why I've stuck around WoW since open beta. Sure I took breaks because honestly the grind does get to you and it does get unfun but that's why there's an unsub button!

[ComputerNerd]

And that is why people aren't out in the world, and would rather stand in a city and queue.
Content once you out level it, is often then tedious to traverse by ground.

Flying has not hurt the community as people often spew out endlessly, as the only reason people were at a dungeon entrance originally was because the dungeon was the draw, not the surrounding content.

The problem is making content that remains relevant to characters when they out-level it, but does not then penalise characters still levelling through it, either through difficulty or competition.
So far I have not seen that done.
Forcing people into interaction with flying restrictions is not solving the core problem, and nor do I think blizzard are even trying to.

[Kaganfindel]

I'm a prima donna. It takes more than compelling gameplay to get my business. I need a certain degree of customization and freedom to choose my path before I'll even engage in the gameplay.

I'm sure they can develop good gameplay that takes place on the ground, and is about a war hero taking a command position and raising an army for the Alliance/Horde. I don't care to play through that story, though. This game was a conduit to fantasy for me, and I don't fancy being an infantry commander. I don't want a story driven game on rails that you play with other people, and that's what the game has become.

[Deleted]

I don't want a story driven game on rails that you play with other people, and that's what the game has become.

...You've just used some fancy words to describe what an MMO actually is. What have you exactly been doing all this time?

[Low Hanging Fruit]

...You've just used some fancy words to describe what an MMO actually is. What have you exactly been doing all this time?

My thinking exactly. It is like 'the game has become'? What? Sounds like what it has been from the start. Each expansion has its start and stop and it progresses as content is released. Not much more to it. I mean some really old school MMO's were just a sandbox world you played in.. but WoW is and always has been a theme park MMO.

[mistahwilshire]

I'm a prima donna. It takes more than compelling gameplay to get my business. I need a certain degree of customization and freedom to choose my path before I'll even engage in the gameplay.

I'm sure they can develop good gameplay that takes place on the ground, and is about a war hero taking a command position and raising an army for the Alliance/Horde. I don't care to play through that story, though. This game was a conduit to fantasy for me, and I don't fancy being an infantry commander. I don't want a story driven game on rails that you play with other people, and that's what the game has become.

That's what it always was. You've never ever chosen your own path questing in this game. Every zone is 100% static and predetermined and always has been. You don't make the slightest bit of sense.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

As I think about it more.. doesn't this thread more or less boil down to:

"If game good -- - -- people play!"

[Deleted]

If gameplay is compelling people will play it.

I think this statement pretty much sums up 90% of the threads on these forums, and on the official forums :-)

Now blizzard is forcing us more so into open world end game content instead do instanced end game content with their overall design of WoD. People do not skip over content they find fun. Forcing players to participate in unfun content because it is cheaper to develop than say 10 more dungeons is bad policy. Removing flying so people do not skip content they find unenjoyable is dumb.

I refer you to your own statement, and the title of this thread

If the gameplay is compelling, then it doesn't matter whether the game has flying or any other conveniences, If Blizzard succeed in making fun and engaging gameplay for WoD, and they succeed in creating interesting, varied and replayable content, then the game will thrive and the majority of players will be happy. Players who frequent fansites and forums tend to have a lot more enthusiasm and emotional attachment to the game, which often means being more opinionated and/or resistant to change compared with the rest.

The majority of subscribers don't really have such strong opinions on the game, so long as it caters to their playstyle in some way or another. When it comes to conveniences, they're most likely to think "Oh I can't do X - that sucks, but never mind, I'll just carry on without it". People who threaten to unsubscribe over trivial matters like flying tend to be the same players who have fundamentally lost interest in the game or just burned out completely; Blizzard are never going to be able to keep those players happy, because they will just find 99 other reasons to unsubscribe.

The reality is that the majority of WoW's subscribers aren't dedicated/passionate fans, they probably don't even read patchnotes, and they're unlikely to really care whether flying is permitted or not - they just want to have fun playing the game, either on their own or with their friends :-)