🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mon, 6 Jul 2015 18:54:07 +0000 (UTC), Lewis wrote:
>  Catriona R <catrion...@totalise.co.uk> wrote:
> > On Mon, 6 Jul 2015 04:53:52 +0000 (UTC), Lewis wrote:
> 
> >>Obviously, they really do not want to allow anyone to fly. The
> >>requirements for it are... well, the phrase "user hostile" comes to
> >>mind.
> 
> > Not really, the idea is clearly that they want people to actually
> > experience the content they've designed,
> 
>  They want to FORCE players to play a specific way. It is not a way I am
>  at all interested in playing. No, I do not want to wander around
>  looking for chests. No, i do not care about exploring every corner of
>  the map after hitting level 100. No, I don not give a damn about
>  building faction rep with factions that are entirely meaningless to me.
> 
>  I also don't care about lore, and never have.

I think that is what it comes down to in the end.

There have always been two types of players. On the one hand those who
really like the immersion, enjoy the lore and see it as a story of which
they are part. On the other hand there are the people who don't care much
about the lore/immersion part but just enjoy the challenges of the multi
player game and the various things you can do in the world regardless of how
it inegrates into the story line.

It seems that Blizzard is taking the stance of "we spent so much time
creating all this content, we want our players to experience it fully" and
feel that players would miss out on a lot if the had flying from the start.

To the first group of players (Catriona and I certainly belong to that) this
decision makes sense and fulfilling the requirements for flying are probably
something we would have completed as part of our normal play anyway.

To the second group (Lewis belongs to it), this decision must appear as
Lewis describes it: An unfriendly attempt to force them into playing the
game in a way they don't enjoy.

While to me, this isn't the case, I can fully understand how annoying this
must be.

Ever since flying had been introduced, there had been complaints about it
being gated and those complaints became even louder with WotLK where
something we had grown used to was taken away.

Personally, I thought the requirement to get to max level and paying a hefty
fee (like in BC and WotLK) was ok. I also think it is enough to "force" the
first character to walk to max level and let alts fly from the start would
be the sensible compromise. This would allow the second group to reach max
level any way they like (e.g. by running dungeons exclusively) and then get
access to flying. And the first group - levelling by questing - would get it
the same way, by playing the game the way they play it.

Forcing people to play the game in "group 1" mode is certainly unfriendly to
group 2.

As to the dropping subscriptions, I think it might also be the case that the
novelty of WoW has just run its course. I played the game for over five
years and still enjoyed it (mostly by satisfying my completionist streak)
but in the end, it was just "more of the same" and I imagine at one point
this gets boring for everyone. Adding a new expansion to a game that should
integrate with it enough to be the same game but be new enough to attract
people for a prolonged time is no mean feat and I am impressed that Blizzard
has pulled it off so many times, I guess failing with WoD is just something
that had to happen...

Cheers
Urbin
-- 
Dun Morogh-EU (PvE)   | Taalas   (85), Shaman      | Juran      (65), Druid
Urbin  (100), Hunter  | Sunh     (81), Priest      | Vargal     (42), Warrior
Greeta  (90), Rogue   | Surana   (75), Mage        | Gera       (26), Paladin
Mymule  (85), Warlock | Kordosch (75), Deathknight | Tunyatgong (12), Monk