Sending a message to Blizz about Pathfinder.

[Arenvalde]

I've been thinking of ways to send a clear message to Blizzard, and Ion in particular, about how annoying the 1 year wait for flight every expansion is. Complaining online seems to be something Ion is okay with, especially given his "isn't annoying everybody a little better than the alternative?" stance from Blizzcon. Straight up leaving the game isn't an appealing choice to those of us who still want to play. Besides, almost everyone willing to straight-up leave over this already has.

So here's what I've come up with: One month boycotts. For one month, we drop our subscriptions en masse. If you're monthly, you don't buy. If you're recurring, cancel your sub for that month and turn it back on afterwards. Play as little as possible to try to affect Blizzard's DAUs.

The idea is to create a blip on the Blizzard accounts spreadsheet that makes people in ActiBlizzard start questioning what's going on. Hopefully to the point Ion gets directed to just implement flying. Ion may be happy to ignore the fanbase, but irregularities in the bottom line will not be ignored. Especially if it becomes a recurring event every 4-6 months or so.

I'm thinking March, since 8.3 probably lands in January and February will be the month for raid progression.

[haediff]

No? The waiting period was put in for a reason to get you to actually play the landscape of the new zone instead of jumping from point A to B.

[Caprias]

I've been thinking of ways to send a clear message to Blizzard, and Ion in particular, about how annoying the 1 year wait for flight every expansion is. Complaining online seems to be something Ion is okay with, especially given his "isn't annoying everybody a little better than the alternative?" stance from Blizzcon. Straight up leaving the game isn't an appealing choice to those of us who still want to play. Besides, almost everyone willing to straight-up leave over this already has.

So here's what I've come up with: One month boycotts. For one month, we drop our subscriptions en masse. If you're monthly, you don't buy. If you're recurring, cancel your sub for that month and turn it back on afterwards. Play as little as possible to try to affect Blizzard's DAUs.

The idea is to create a blip on the Blizzard accounts spreadsheet that makes people in ActiBlizzard start questioning what's going on. Hopefully to the point Ion gets directed to just implement flying. Ion may be happy to ignore the fanbase, but irregularities in the bottom line will not be ignored. Especially if it becomes a recurring event every 4-6 months or so.

I'm thinking March, since 8.3 probably lands in January and February will be the month for raid progression.

You are naive, sir.

[lockblock]

If I hadn't abandoned retail for classic I'd totally be on board with that.

[Verdugo]

No? The waiting period was put in for a reason to get you to actually play the landscape of the new zone instead of jumping from point A to B.

They can do that by making pathfinder achievement avalaible since launch. Forcing me to the ground for over a year will not make me apreciate the content.

[silverlightning]

They can do that by making pathfinder achievement avalaible since launch. Forcing me to the ground for over a year will not make me apreciate the content.

It can help build resentment though.

[lockblock]

No? The waiting period was put in for a reason to get you to actually play the landscape of the new zone instead of jumping from point A to B.

Maybe so but it's safe to say that anyone who cares about that will have completed that in a month or less. There is no reason to cockblock those who completed it for an entire year.

[Relapses]

Oh dear God. I think he's serious.

Here's an idea: Start a change.org petition, get 800,000 signatures then print them out and hand them to Mike Morhaime. :^)

[Verdugo]

Oh dear God. I think he's serious.

Here's an idea: Start a change.org petition, get 800,000 signatures then print them out and hand them to Mike Morhaime. :^)

Handing it over to Mike Litoris would have about the same results.

[Relapses]

Handing it over to Mike Litoris would have about the same results.

Personally I'm a fan of his identical twin, Mike Hunt.

edit: In case it wasn't obvious I was referring to this:

[Fallen of Lordaeron]

The whole point behind the compromise is exactly what you said in the OP - everyone gets a little annoyed.

Some of us dislike flying and wouldn't mind seeing it removed entirely. The current system let's both sides of the coin experience the game their preferred away across the life of an expansion.

[KyngKawng]

waiting to fly isn't a big deal ... what's wrong with ground mounts ?

[Soon-TM]

I'm with OP, and I've had enough of the timegated flight BS. So I will buy SL once flight is enabled: if Blizzard timegates flight, I will timegate my money

[Lolites]

there was a poll recently and roughly only 10% wanted pathfinder changed or removed... so i think you will protest pretty much alone

not to mention, those people who do mind would have to be willing to DO something about it, which they arent, they just want to whine

[XDurionX]

Wait, you are serious?

[Chonar]

Everyone! Follow the 1-post throwaway account en masse to boycott Blizzard for doing something we all 100% every single one of us unanimously disagrees with!

Lollin' in my shorts.

[Throwme]

I won't be playing SL until flying is obtainable, but I am really really hoping the leveling revamp will do away with Pathfinder for older content. Here's why:

As a new player, or one without PF, should you chose to level through Vanilla, TBC, Wrath, Cata or MOP, you will not obtain PF for either WoD, Legion or BfA. That means you can freely fly in those regions at whatever level flying will unlock, but you will be stuck on the ground until you're done with PF if you chose the 3 latest expansions. That by itself is "unfair" and will most likely make a lot of people NOT pick those 3, even if they like the story, simply because they can fly straight away in the others. Yes, even the flying-haters will do so, not just the flying-lovers.
As it is right now, not having flying in WoD and Legion content is NOT a big deal, you level fast enough that you pretty much won't need it anyway. But once the new leveling system kicks in, there is no reason for us to have to work for flying in some expansions but not all. Right now we have "no choice" but to go through WoD and Legion to reach BfA and max level, but in SL, we will have that choice. And not having every leveling path allow flying at the same time, is just plain stupid.

I assume that the gold cost to unlock 280 and 310 speeds will be reduced. If leveling is going to take LESS time when SL hits, that's also LESS time to earn the gold needed. Getting to 5000 gold right now, even for those taking their time and not using heirlooms or getting any other kind of help from highlevel characters, is not easy if you want to do it before 80. It will be harder in SL. So all in all, I HOPE that things change with the leveling process AND Pathfinder. I HOPE that Blizzard has thought about this themselves and have concluded that OLD CONTENT Pathfinder needs to be REMOVED when that content is no longer current. They can, and most likely will, keep PF in CURRENT content, whatever that may be at any given point in time, but it reeeeeeeally should be removed from old content. When SL hits, BfA Pathfinder should be removed. When the expansion after SL hits, SL Pathfinder should be removed. And so on...

[Raelbo]

I've been thinking of ways to send a clear message to Blizzard, and Ion in particular, about how annoying the 1 year wait for flight every expansion is. Complaining online seems to be something Ion is okay with, especially given his "isn't annoying everybody a little better than the alternative?" stance from Blizzcon. Straight up leaving the game isn't an appealing choice to those of us who still want to play. Besides, almost everyone willing to straight-up leave over this already has.

So here's what I've come up with: One month boycotts. For one month, we drop our subscriptions en masse. If you're monthly, you don't buy. If you're recurring, cancel your sub for that month and turn it back on afterwards. Play as little as possible to try to affect Blizzard's DAUs.

The idea is to create a blip on the Blizzard accounts spreadsheet that makes people in ActiBlizzard start questioning what's going on. Hopefully to the point Ion gets directed to just implement flying. Ion may be happy to ignore the fanbase, but irregularities in the bottom line will not be ignored. Especially if it becomes a recurring event every 4-6 months or so.

I'm thinking March, since 8.3 probably lands in January and February will be the month for raid progression.

While I completely agree with you regarding the issue of having to wait sooooooooo very long to get flying, I completely disagree with your proposed solution.

The problem with mass boycotts like this is that they would set a dangerous precedent. Sure, you and I agree with this cause, but what happens when a group of players decides that they want to force Blizzard to comply with a demand that we (or even just you) don't agree with? For example, when the anti-flying brigade decides to organise a boycott to further restrict flying?

A mass boycott should only be a last resort for when the entire community is in agreement and when Blizzard have failed to listen to reason. The simple fact of the matter is that in the case of Pathfinder neither of these conditions hold true. The community is split on this issue, with some very vociferous and zealous opponents to flying. And Blizzard have listened to both sides of the argument before reaching the compromise that is pathfinder.

I think that a far more effective approach is to continue to provide proper feedback with well reasoned arguments to their CS dept. And if you're going to protest, do so by unsubbing at the point where the lack of flying has impacted your game enough that you no longer want to play without it, and then state that as the reason behind unsubbing.

Unsubbing for a month 6 months after they've added flying is simply going to elicit a "we don't negotiate with terrorists" response from Blizzard. It will divide the community with the anti-flying community threatening boycotts of their own. In the end I think it's going to end up doing a lot more harm than good to a game that (presumably) we all still love.

[schwarzkopf]

I too think that flying should be removed OP ... but accept pathfinder as a reasonable compromise to appease those who don't really want to play World of Warcraft, but prefer the whack-a-mole game instead.

[dacoolist]

I mean for most of us, just literally - you just grind out the reps..

Obviously people are always going to be mad about anything - but Pathfinder in the game currently isn't hard, it isn't even that grindy.. overall it's easy and if someone doesn't want to do it for flying: Just don't resub, and go to classic