How do alliance het to tanaris now? I used to do theramore, but with that changing, CoT could be a pain...
There's a portal to Uldum in the Cataclysm portal areas, which isn't far away.
Anyway, my reaction is similar to many here...I think too much fast travel and the dungeon/raid finders were one of several causes of today's MMOs having little to no community or player interaction the way the older ones did, but they've been in place for far too long to try and do a full 180 on your game design strategy.
War mode; slower travel; even WoW classic, which I know a lot of people are looking forward to...I would much rather Blizzard shift resources to development of a whole new game in a new engine--even WoW 2 if they have no original ideas or don't want to use one of their other major IPs--and implement those older design philosophies there, rather than focus so much on remastering the games from their golden age.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
They got themselves in this mess by spreading random portals all over the world. Just have a mage(portal trainer) in every major city and let them teleport you to key locations on all continents.
There is a reason why only mages can have portals, but Blizz didn't think this through over a decade ago.
For those of you who seem too oblivious to 'get it' lemme explain it to you
I FARM. I DONT QUEST. I FARM.
These portals are HOW I FARM.
YOU may spend YOUR days sitting in town...or raiding or questing...but I FARM.
When you raiders QUIT during a raid drought...WE KEEP FARMING.
When you questers QUIT during a content drought...WE KEEP FARMING.
Basically while YOUR taking your crying break from the game FARMERS like myself are FAITHFULLY PAYING OUR SUBS to keep YOUR servers up and running.
Taking OUR portals affects OUR time to FARM.
You dont have to understand it. it doesnt matter that you dont.
But sitting her bashing US who ARE paying OUR subs while YOU take your breaks is pretty damned arrogant.
This was the last straw for me and my wife. We're done with WoW.
One too many damned childish games from Blizzard is enough.
You keep excusing this crap and just like they took YOUR master loot, something else YOU like will be on the block next.
I'll be the guy in the corner laughing my ass off playing FF14 instead while your game is being destroyed by the idiots @ Blizzard.
Everytime I read about a new patch for Wow, it just cements my reasons for never playing again. Just a flat out stupid move by a clueless development group.
There is an almost unmitigated fallacy when it comes to the argument of "taking teleports away makes the world feel bigger" in that if this is in any way true, then there is something seriously wrong with the game in the first place. There are plenty of games that allow instantaneous teleports to specific points ranging all the way back to Ultima Online where you could mark specific locations to the inch and be able to teleport there at any time you wish. With unlimited areas you can mark, provided you keep the runes in your bag or in a book that contains such. Likewise, a more modern take on this -- one that is also a themepark -- is Final Fantasy XIV whereby you can teleport anywhere, at any time, at specific save points or "Aetherytes" located all around the world. Some even directly to your houses, apartments and home points.
In the case of Ultima Online, the world never felt small to me; in fact, to this day there are places I've never been, even in Renaissance areas. It was always a sprawling game where adventure was the name of the game. Yet even still it allowed succinct teleportation. Similarly with FFXIV -- you teleport to content that is either there, something sends you there or randomly shows up there such as "S" class hunts and so on and so forth. The content is not how long it takes to get there, but rather what is there when you do. Or the game giving reasons for you to go there. Not just portal here, ride on a ground mount there, fly point from here to there to do static this or that. Flying is unlocked as soon as you explore the area in FFXIV, teleports get you to where you need to go, and content is developed and waiting for you regardless of if the journey takes a half hour or two minutes.
Note that the above only pertains to level 1-50. 50-70 Also have their own things, but that list would be too long for the purposes of this.
In my opinion this can only be seen as a failure in terms of game design to invoke the "it makes the world feel bigger" from a PvE perspective. Since they took time to separate them, it should not be an issue to maintain the status quo in instances that aren't in war mode. The key differences between Ultima Online and FFXIV versus WoW is that the content available, and how the content remains relevant in some ways even after new expansions release (especially with the new New Game Plus system soon to be implemented). With UO being a sandbox where you can do a lot of things, and FFXIV just throwing everything in the face and allowing you to get to it as soon as possible.
I could even go into detail with GW2 and GW with regards to this, but those who have played such likely already know the cases there.
The day a game limits such systems under the guise of "make the world feel bigger" is the day when you know they failed with their latest expansion or creation. It's just an argument for argument's sake to cover what is either gross incompetence or bad judgment in reaction to something that's going on beyond the curtain. It only sounds logical to those who don't really look at the issues at hand, the precedence offered and/or what is really going on. That or those who are overtly compliant to someone just because they have blue text.
A turtle has made it to the water.
...The rest were eaten because the mage didn't bother to give them a portal.
Addendum:
If the issue is player participation in the world and seeing others, then a proactive approach that gives players more is better than taking something away. Take for instance FFXIV and how they released and ENTIRE NEW JOB (class) in a patch that benefited from killing monsters in the open world. There was a flood of participation and even today I see the odd Blue Mage grinding or trying to acquire skills from monsters around the world.
Once again Blizzard trying to close Pandora's box, they've done it before and it always blows up in their faces. You can't add convenience for players then take it away after years and years. It just ends up pissing off your player base.
Was the same with WoTLK, they made heroics faceroll then in Cata when they upped the difficulty all the people who had got through the instances by tongue punching their key boards flipped out n they had to change it.
Seems to me like they spent years from WoTLK on trying to shrink their own world by adding various methods to bypass travel and now they realise that wasn't the best choice.
bilzzard should implement new flowchart 1) will this change make the game equal to or better than legion? 2) if no, dont do it. come up with a new thing to try 3) if yes, do it, grats on giving a shit! im fascinated how BFA crapped on itself, how they took the feedback from the previous expac, the hate towards the RNG of getting your leggos, some get the ones they need in a month, some in 10 months. they took that very core fuckup, and instead of fixing the RNG problem, some fucking idiots sitting in cushy california offices thought "hey lets get rid of the whole team, and come up with an entirely new armor tier system" when all the people wanted, was for Blizz to fix the RNG craziness. maybe come up with better bad luck protection, whatever. but nope, this is just blatant fucking mismanagement, stemming from the people who engage with the community being unable to properly communicate to their bosses what the real fucking problems in Legion were. thats what pisses me off the most. it comes down to analysts who are absolute dogshit at their job while every1 else at blizzard was putting out 110% last expac. its the same shit ive seen at so many diff companies, the ppl in quality control are assumed to know what the fuck they are doing, and never checked, and get into these companies and fuck everything up by 1) misunderstanding the actual problems or 2) properly communicating the importance or unimportance of whats wrong to the higher ups. i also think blizz set a really high bar in legion, and in trying to fix things that didnt need fixing, crapped out a mediocre offering. and how do you go from Nighthold as a first raid to that spectacularly boring garbage in Uldir? Nighthold fights were engaging with some complexity, the voice acting fucking superb, the whole storyline and aeshtetics were fucking bomb. they should have adjusted the RNG with a new leggo-like system and maybe the tier offering but NOT radically change it, and instead put that time and effort into polishing everything else. /former cutting edge healer in legion
Oh, I say it's a firestorm! My sis, a Mage, has been camping the 2 forum threads on the issue -- and driving me crazy talking about it! She really doesn't want to go back to the portal spam again. Mages have a right to play without being spammed for ports, too.
The very reason they reduced the number of buffs Paladins had was how Paladins hated having to buff all the time (especially in the pre-Cata days). Well, Mages hate being spammed for ports. Even if people offered them 25,000g to do it. Those who don't remember portal spam, and thinking, "Oh, I can make free gold!" will learn soon enough just how godawful being pestered and being ripped off when they don't pay, will become.
Was the same with WoTLK, they made heroics faceroll then in Cata when they upped the difficulty all the people who had got through the instances by tongue punching their key boards flipped out n they had to change it.
They protested by never coming back, which didn't help WoW.
Each change Blizzard takes away -- like taking the Caverns of Time portal from WotLK's Dalaran (there due to the Culling of Strathmore dungeon) -- people leave the game. These days people don't need much to leave forever.
The result is even a less "lived in" world, to the point that for WoW to function it'll have to connect all servers together.
People aren't realizing the world is huge (it takes 15 minutes to travel to Caverns of Time, by boat; by flight; or hearthing). Time better spent playing the game.
The game isn't vanilla anymore, it has multiple lands now. Each taking around 15 minutes to get across to even play. This in a game with corpse walking that developers put in games as time gates. Blizzard won't mention why we're still ghostwalking, but SOE did.
First mistake was expecting more from the same company who when fans were disappointed about a mobile game being their big announcement, their first response was a condescending "Don't you guys have phones?
Clearly there's a disconnect between blizzard and their fans. And unfortunately, their egos have gotten to the point where rather then try to resolve that disconnect, their just going to brute force their way forward to doing what they want to do.
Keep it up ActiBlizz, shooting yourself in the foot enough times is pretty much guaranteed to cripple yourself. Mobile is a HUGE market, but attempting to drive true MMO/RPG players to mobile will NOT work. FFXIV is enjoying the influx of players so much they are preparing for the possibility of new servers. While a few diehard MMO players mess around on mobile at times the vast majority will find a new game to call home, read a book, or even go tabletop. Sinking WoW via WoW is the WoW killer won't increase the bottom line for the shareholders. Someone needs to do lyrics for "Ion's got a gun..."
Well if you know me,i would be VERY quick to cal Blizzard a bunch of dumbasses.However in this case,it is a VERY good move,why,well because it is called immersion.Some if not all their portals have NO REASON for being there,just a mechanic to speed people around.If you want to have them in game,then at least put in some effort to give reason why the yare there,like maybe some magical idea left behind by some gods or something,put a story into them.Funny thought because auto dungeons are not enough immersion ruining,players want to turn Wow into what a non rpg?
There are a few things to look at however,like WHY now and if Blizzard is going for immersion where is the rest of their changes moving in the same direction,so perhaps they have another agenda and just giving us their B S reason.Just imagine how comical it would be if all a sudden they added a cash shop item to warp around...ROFLMAO and yet i would not be the least surprised.
So until i see more down the road,this is still a good move and reaffirms most players inside of Wow should gtfo of playing rpg's because obviously they don't want realism/immersion,they want SIMPLE fast mechanics to attain loot.If Blizzard was smart they could just sell all the top items,so many lazy whales they would make a killing because like i said,these players are not rpg gamers,just take their money and run. Blizzard has been on a movement,all those top execs want to keep their high salaries in the multipel millions,so you can bet they have an angle everyday on how to make more money.So don't be surprised if more news is incoming related to these changes.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Well if you know me,i would be VERY quick to cal Blizzard a bunch of dumbasses.However in this case,it is a VERY good move,why,well because it is called immersion.Some if not all their portals have NO REASON for being there,just a mechanic to speed people around.If you want to have them in game,then at least put in some effort to give reason why the yare there,like maybe some magical idea left behind by some gods or something,put a story into them.Funny thought because auto dungeons are not enough immersion ruining,players want to turn Wow into what a non rpg?
Portals are there because it takes 15 minutes to get across -- one way -- A continent.
Time gates like griffons and ghostwalking aren't there for "immersion", they're strictly there as time sinks for content to last.
As MMOs grow (taking 60GBs of precious SSD space with it), older content doesn't need time sinks (this is why there's a rush to "end game", so players experience NEW content). Especially for the nth time on the nth alt. Most people playing WoW aren't new players, and we've already done the rep grinds, the quests and explored the world for the nth time.
The real burden is going to be on Mages to shuttle people -- and since people can't trade gold cross-realm, they're not going to be paid for their time, either. There's NO immersion being spammed and bugged while you're playing in a time compressed real world called LIFE.
I agree removal of portals and major changes like this is what made me leave WOW in the first place, I want the old World OF Warcraft back to what it used to be when it was the original WOW.
wait..You don't like major changes like removing portals yet you want the old wow back like in vanilla where you spent most of your time running from point A to point B and unless you were a mage or had access to one you weren't using portals then either.
I'm not an IT Specialist, Game Developer, or Clairvoyant in real life, but like others on here, I play one on the internet.
Thinking about this more, I just can't see why people are mad about this change. Most of the QOL changes Blizzard made were geared towards keeping players in town for some reason. Dungeon finder = no longer have to travel to dungeons to enter, summoning stones are useless now. Added ability to port to and from dungeon / raid while inside, killing the need for Warlock portals. Added portals to every major city to port around to every possible location killing the need for zepplins, boats, and mage portals.
I always see players whining that all they do is sit in town and queue for dungeons and PvP, but then if Blizzard does anything to change this to make the world more active, players whine that they have to physically go places. It must be super hard to make any decisions for an MMORPG community, no matter what you do you get whining.
That's the issue when you start changing core systems in the name of "convenience": you can't put that back into Pandora's box once you take it out. Even if it's beneficial to the design philosophy you want, you're not going to remove convenience items or benefits without pissing people off. Just ask politicians how hard it is to take something away from the American people once given. It matters little how valid your justification for doing so is; folks don't want to hear it. They just want their convenience/benefits back.
That's not to say I think this is a bad or good move objectively. Whether or not it is is really irrelevant; take something away players have grown accustomed to, you get backlash.
I Agree with you. At this point, it isn't going to matter what blizz does, gamers are going to find some reason to whine about it. That is today's gaming and culture, in general.
I'm not an IT Specialist, Game Developer, or Clairvoyant in real life, but like others on here, I play one on the internet.
Comments
Anyway, my reaction is similar to many here...I think too much fast travel and the dungeon/raid finders were one of several causes of today's MMOs having little to no community or player interaction the way the older ones did, but they've been in place for far too long to try and do a full 180 on your game design strategy.
War mode; slower travel; even WoW classic, which I know a lot of people are looking forward to...I would much rather Blizzard shift resources to development of a whole new game in a new engine--even WoW 2 if they have no original ideas or don't want to use one of their other major IPs--and implement those older design philosophies there, rather than focus so much on remastering the games from their golden age.
Maybe they are just trying to prep the player base for Classic where a number of modern conveniences will likely not be included.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Now the main thing I wonder is how long are they going to stick to it before the backlash gets to epic proportions and they change their mind.
There is a reason why only mages can have portals, but Blizz didn't think this through over a decade ago.
I FARM. I DONT QUEST. I FARM.
These portals are HOW I FARM.
YOU may spend YOUR days sitting in town...or raiding or questing...but I FARM.
When you raiders QUIT during a raid drought...WE KEEP FARMING.
When you questers QUIT during a content drought...WE KEEP FARMING.
Basically while YOUR taking your crying break from the game FARMERS like myself are FAITHFULLY PAYING OUR SUBS to keep YOUR servers up and running.
Taking OUR portals affects OUR time to FARM.
You dont have to understand it. it doesnt matter that you dont.
But sitting her bashing US who ARE paying OUR subs while YOU take your breaks is pretty damned arrogant.
This was the last straw for me and my wife. We're done with WoW.
One too many damned childish games from Blizzard is enough.
You keep excusing this crap and just like they took YOUR master loot, something else YOU like will be on the block next.
I'll be the guy in the corner laughing my ass off playing FF14 instead while your game is being destroyed by the idiots @ Blizzard.
Was the same with WoTLK, they made heroics faceroll then in Cata when they upped the difficulty all the people who had got through the instances by tongue punching their key boards flipped out n they had to change it.
Seems to me like they spent years from WoTLK on trying to shrink their own world by adding various methods to bypass travel and now they realise that wasn't the best choice.
The very reason they reduced the number of buffs Paladins had was how Paladins hated having to buff all the time (especially in the pre-Cata days). Well, Mages hate being spammed for ports. Even if people offered them 25,000g to do it. Those who don't remember portal spam, and thinking, "Oh, I can make free gold!" will learn soon enough just how godawful being pestered and being ripped off when they don't pay, will become.
.:| Kevyne@Shandris - Armory |:. - When WoW was #1 - .:| I AM A HOLY PALADIN - Guild Theme |:.
.:| Kevyne@Shandris - Armory |:. - When WoW was #1 - .:| I AM A HOLY PALADIN - Guild Theme |:.
Clearly there's a disconnect between blizzard and their fans. And unfortunately, their egos have gotten to the point where rather then try to resolve that disconnect, their just going to brute force their way forward to doing what they want to do.
There are a few things to look at however,like WHY now and if Blizzard is going for immersion where is the rest of their changes moving in the same direction,so perhaps they have another agenda and just giving us their B S reason.Just imagine how comical it would be if all a sudden they added a cash shop item to warp around...ROFLMAO and yet i would not be the least surprised.
So until i see more down the road,this is still a good move and reaffirms most players inside of Wow should gtfo of playing rpg's because obviously they don't want realism/immersion,they want SIMPLE fast mechanics to attain loot.If Blizzard was smart they could just sell all the top items,so many lazy whales they would make a killing because like i said,these players are not rpg gamers,just take their money and run.
Blizzard has been on a movement,all those top execs want to keep their high salaries in the multipel millions,so you can bet they have an angle everyday on how to make more money.So don't be surprised if more news is incoming related to these changes.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
.:| Kevyne@Shandris - Armory |:. - When WoW was #1 - .:| I AM A HOLY PALADIN - Guild Theme |:.
I'm not an IT Specialist, Game Developer, or Clairvoyant in real life, but like others on here, I play one on the internet.
I'm not an IT Specialist, Game Developer, or Clairvoyant in real life, but like others on here, I play one on the internet.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
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