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  1. #1

    Flying mounts have ruined the atmosphere in WoW

    I understand that flying mounts are a convenience for players who have no patience for the environment of this game, and would rather instazoom to their mining/herb/arch nodes, or can't be bothered spending an extra five seconds reaching an NPC. But it has become apparent that letting flying become the norm for all of Azeroth has killed the sense of scale that was once so incredible in this game.

    WoW has a beautiful art style, complimented by a huge draw distance that creates the feel of a large, comprehensive world that's completely open. One thing about WoW that's great is that nearly every environmental feature is accessible by the player. Now, some think flying seals that deal by letting you park your dragon on top of mountains and buildings you couldn't reach normally on ground. But while it's great that you have a freedom in accessing all parts of the game world, it kills the sense that the nature in the game is something immense and massive; what's the point of gigantic, imposing mountains, towering buildings and ziggurats, or vast oceans if you can just zoom on top or over them? Part of any atmosphere in a game is a sense that the player is smaller than the environment; when you can just instantly reach everything in the game, a sense of scale is destroyed. Plus, if you can just fly over ANYTHING in the game, there's no sense of a dynamic environment or any real danger in the game. World PvP is ruined.

    Not to mention that flying mounts are inherently boring; flying in WoW is the exact same as swimming in the sky. I understand that the engine can't accommodate more visceral flying in, say, Aion, where you can glide and thrust rather than just fly in a complete straight line with an absurdly unrealistic ability of precision. If flying is really so big a convenience for players, I'd like to see Blizzard make attempts to have it be more fun--flying mounts are far more monotonous than ground mounts.

    I know the common response would be to just stay on your ground mount and STFU. But the problem is that nobody else will do this, including enemy players; thus, social interaction and WoW's famous world PvP is going to be hindered because players are incentivized to hop onto their mounts and derp around in the sky. Random, spontaneous player interaction in the game world is killed, all for the sake of "convenience."

    The bottom line is that I'd like to see flying mounts removed all together from Azeroth, and at least confine them to Outland or Northrend; they limit player interaction and reduce the sense of scale in WoW, two negative impacts that make this game less and less of a social MMO experience.

  2. #2
    The Unstoppable Force Resentful's Avatar
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    No thanks OP, and that game hasn't been ''Incredible'' in a long... long time

  3. #3
    On a side note, out of all upcoming MMOs I'm really hyped for Guild Wars 2 because it has an incredible architecture and grandiose sense of scale that exceeds even WoW. Moreover, ArenaNet has no intention of ever adding flying mounts to the game, preserving that atmosphere and wonder. I wish Blizzard would realize that adding features designed to achieve convenience for players in turn make this game more of a job, instead of a huge, open game world that's free to explore.

  4. #4
    eeeeh no? Don't need to fix something thats not broken you might be one of the few that hates the ideal of flying in Azeroth, but lets say blizz makes the change. More than just a hand full will be mad about that, so your 2 cents is just that 2 cents.
    Quote Originally Posted by slappy102 View Post
    I believe you have the option to either run back to your corpse and continue living, or you can take a penalty on your physical body through the consultation of a spirit healer.

  5. #5
    So now you want to FORCE people to look at pwetty trees?
    I think I can see well enough when I fly, and if I need a ZOMG good view, I can actually LAND.
    Yeah, you heard right. LAND. Without hacks or anything.
    Yeah.

  6. #6
    Oh great, another "X has killed WoW, Z MMO looks so much better and doesn't have X feature to kill it!!1!" thread.

    So having to travel long distances over flight paths instead of flyers is so much better...? I don't see a difference.

    Also, GL getting people to world PvP when there's no rewards for it.
    Quote Originally Posted by Precursor View Post
    "Fall of therzane....." ....um what? if that woman fell , god help us it will be the second cataclysm
    Words that lots of people don't seem to know the definition of:
    "Troll", "Rehash", "Casual", "Dead", "Dying", "Exploit".

  7. #7
    stay on your ground mount and STFU
    You said it perfectly, OP.

  8. #8
    I know, all those flying mounts are putting out gas that is destroying the atmosphere.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Dominating View Post
    On a side note, out of all upcoming MMOs I'm really hyped for Guild Wars 2 because it has an incredible architecture and grandiose sense of scale that exceeds even WoW. Moreover, ArenaNet has no intention of ever adding flying mounts to the game, preserving that atmosphere and wonder. I wish Blizzard would realize that adding features designed to achieve convenience for players in turn make this game more of a job, instead of a huge, open game world that's free to explore.
    "We will never add flying mounts!"
    *two years later*
    "After much QQing on the for... erh, I mean, after must constructive feedback, we have chosen to allow people to fly in our world!"

  10. #10


    Yeah, these pollute the ozone with their awful gases.

    OT: No, not really at all. They made it more conveinent.

  11. #11
    Deleted
    Once and for all, World PvP died at the moment they introduced Battlegrounds. There is no World PvP because it's not rewarding.

  12. #12
    Deleted
    I didn't like the paths the gryphons took when the game first came out, not sure why I would now.

  13. #13
    To encourage world PvP they should copy every other MMO and have more open world PvP objectives for capturing keeps in different zones. To encourage players to participate they could have it so in each keep there is a boss that the winning faction is allowed to kill, the boss can drop some PvP loot and perhaps a low % of a mount.

    The way they changed Azaroth in Cataclysm would of suited this idea, with all the different zones that now have proper horde vs alliance "battles".

  14. #14

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Arrowstorm View Post
    So now you want to FORCE people to look at pwetty trees?
    I think I can see well enough when I fly, and if I need a ZOMG good view, I can actually LAND.
    Yeah, you heard right. LAND. Without hacks or anything.
    Yeah.
    Good job on misunderstanding my post completely. It's not just about looking at the environment, it's about having some areas of the game be inaccessible by the player and thus creating that notion that the environment is bigger than the player. It's underwhelming to be able to just fucking fly to any point in the game and feel like the game world is a dollhouse: immersion is broken. Stranglethorn Vale is awesome when you're walking through it on the ground; fly above the trees and it looks like shit, the magic of the zone lost in the process. The idea that you can do that to any zone literally breaks the game.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Dominating View Post
    Good job on misunderstanding my post completely. It's not just about looking at the environment, it's about having some areas of the game be inaccessible by the player and thus creating that notion that the environment is bigger than the player. It's underwhelming to be able to just fucking fly to any point in the game and feel like the game world is a dollhouse: immersion is broken. Stranglethorn Vale is awesome when you're walking through it on the ground; fly above the trees and it looks like shit, the magic of the zone lost in the process. The idea that you can do that to any zone literally breaks the game.
    Then don't fly? Not Blizz's problem that you don't like how the world looks from above. And imo, being to fly atop a mountain doesn't make it smaller.
    Quote Originally Posted by Precursor View Post
    "Fall of therzane....." ....um what? if that woman fell , god help us it will be the second cataclysm
    Words that lots of people don't seem to know the definition of:
    "Troll", "Rehash", "Casual", "Dead", "Dying", "Exploit".

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Vook View Post
    Oh great, another "X has killed WoW, Z MMO looks so much better and doesn't have X feature to kill it!!1!" thread.

    So having to travel long distances over flight paths instead of flyers is so much better...? I don't see a difference.

    Also, GL getting people to world PvP when there's no rewards for it.
    WTB some reading comprehension for people incapable of it, seriously.

    I'm not saying flying mounts have killed WoW as a whole, I'm saying they've ruined the atmosphere in the game to a large point and caused world PvP to go extinct.

    And if you're not getting why flight paths are different from flying mounts, you haven't bothered to read my post at all. There's a definite difference between the two, one so glaringly obvious that I'm sure even you can figure out easily.

    ---------- Post added 2011-05-07 at 09:34 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Vook View Post
    Then don't fly? Not Blizz's problem that you don't like how the world looks from above. And imo, being to fly atop a mountain doesn't make it smaller.
    I fucking SAID why me not flying isn't going to change anything when the rest of the players are incentivized to get on the fliers anyway.

    Being able to zip right on top of a mountain DOES make that mountain appear less imposing and massive, because you can just instantly reach the very top of it without any effort. It makes the environment appear far less imposing and realistic.

  18. #18
    The Lightbringer Snes's Avatar
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    Pilot Wings totally ruins the game atmosphere with flying mounts

    OT: I agree that flyers have ruined the sense of exploration and given unskilled griefers/gankers a safe haven in the sky.
    Take a break from politics once in awhile, it's good for you.

  19. #19
    You seem to forget that most world PvP happens while leveling, when most people don't have flying mounts. And lets say there weren't any flying mounts, and you ran by an alliance while both of you are on your ground mount. No PvP. Now say you ran into that same alliance while you were doing a daily quest. Chances are, you'd fight that alliance--whether he dismounted a ground mount to do that quest or a flying mount. And world PvP still happens, albeit infrequently, when a raid on an enemy city is organized. Flying mounts help make that raid infinitely easier to organize and mobilize.

    As for environment image issues, zones like Deepholm, with its sheer rock faces, or even beautiful Nagrand, would never have looked so amazing. Deepholm from the ground is just purple dust, and Nagrand without flight looks like a bumpier Mulgore.

    Granted, Stranglethorn loses its image when you fly over it, but that's what's going to happen with a jungle. Have you ever been in an airplane flying over a forest? Same shit.

    My friend and I regularly duel on the highest mountain in Mulgore. A tiny platform, towering above a rolling plain, it's beautiful and makes our duels so much more epic. Despite the fact that we both flew up there, we still get the sense that we're in a special and awesome part of the game world.
    Last edited by The Juicer; 2011-05-07 at 09:40 PM.

  20. #20
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Maklor View Post
    Plus, if you can just fly over ANYTHING in the game, there's no sense of a dynamic environment or any real danger in the game.
    There is a reason for that, it's called Skettis.

    But as Juicer says, zones can be built already thinking about the flying mounts, the example being Deepholm. Storm Peaks and Icecrown are other examples.

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