#1 - April 27, 2014, 12:19 p.m.
1) If everyone has the same info then it just helps conversations glide along, as you can expect everyone else knows what you know!
2) ---it’s important to first dissuade concerns that we’re looking to slow down the game (I’ve recently posted about this in another thread, but it bears repeating).
3) We’re going to be making sure flight paths and other forms of travel are quick and efficient, with a goal of getting you to the places you want to go. The flight paths in Draenor are not going to be loop-de-loop sightseeing tours, and we’re going to be looking to our beta testers to let us know if any are less than tip-top.Our goal is not to make travel time consuming or painful
4) BUT being able to lift off and fly over content compromises many of our goals in how the game world is approached, how it's played, how it's consumed, and how the content is designed to account for those factors.
5) As an example, let us consider a quest to assassinate an enemy leader. (blah blah blah). Alternatively, from a flying mount, you fly over the gate, see some guy whose name is highlighted, land on top of him, kill him, and then fly away.
6) how many of us have done the Tillers dailies up on the cliffside where the Hozen are, and waited for packs to pass by before setting down right where you’re supposed to, use whatever thingamabob you’re supposed to, and then lift off ASAP hoping-hoping-hoping nothing aggros?
7) How many of us have become furious when we actually have to fight something!? Is that clever gameplay? Is that being good at playing the game, or is it using a mechanic to avoid having to play it? Is that what the game should be, and what our expectations should be as gamers playing it?
8) I hope everyone can agree, regardless of personal opinion toward flight vs. non-flight, that flying fundamentally alters how content is approached in a world where the gameplay exists wholly on the ground.
9) In Draenor we’re designing max-level content, portions of zones or zones in their entirety that will be dedicated to max-level gameplay—and not just the top of a cliffside, or some dailies in the Vale.
10) There’s a harsh change in how the game plays between leveling, and when you hit max level. Hitting 100 and instantly switching everything you do to raiding or Arenas is pretty abrupt, and we want to try to keep that questing experience available at max level --- Even at level 100 there will be no small portions of the game world intended to provide relevant content even to max-level players.
11) Content has to be designed with the expectation that there either is or is not flight, and approaching ground-level content from the ground offers more compelling gameplay.
12) We’re not trying to create a slow and laborious game (hopefully people actually enjoy the content!),
13) ---it’s not unreasonable to see that combat and content exist on the ground, understand that, embrace that, and make decisions to support it.
14) In summary: It’s important to us that we integrate max-level questing into the expansion more thoroughly than designated daily locations on mountain tops, or only have the option of releasing new max level content in magically appearing islands where flight has different rules because reasons.
15) And lastly, that we’re not intending to slow anyone down, and we’re going to make sure that players can get where they want to go efficiently through more direct flight points, and potentially alternate travel methods.
16) And hopefully this has been at least marginally informative.
1) If you want people to all have the same information, why hide no-flight discussions in obscure Twitter feeds?Why not put it on the launcher? That way, people would all have the same information. Of course, we already know the answer to this: doing so would cause an immediate and massive sub loss. You are waiting, hiding this from the overwhelming majority of the players, until after they have bought the expac. This way, you already have their money, and people might be less likely to quit after shelling out money for the most expensive expac ever.
2) But you ARE slowing down the game. And you are doing so to make your jobs easier, and completely without any concern whatsoever to our enjoyment of the game.
3) Flight paths are a pale, pathetic facsimilie for player-controlled flight.
4) If the content was interesting and rewarding, we wouldn't fly over it and skip it. Conversely, if the content were interesting, fun, and rewarding, we wouldn't skip it. This is not a "lazy players" problem. It is a "lazy and creatively bankrupt development team" problem.
5) This ounds like a quest. Questing is done during leveling. No one is arguing for flight while questing. We are talking about flight at level-cap, when we stop questing (more on this in later points).
6) The packs are dull, pointless, and offer nothing substantive as a reward. If the daily included "Kill X Hozen" I would aggro just enough to satisfy the quest. Why aggro more? They were not fun or rewarding. You made them not fun or rewarding. This is a "you" problem.
7) Every time when the mob is pointless, worthless, and nothing more than an annoyance. I seek out and engage anything that offers a worthwhile reward.
8) Then get off your lazy dev-butts and don't design content JUST on the ground. You are limiting our game-play experience solely to limit the effort, time, and money you have to expend.
9) Neither raiders nor PvP'ers will bother with such pointless, boring, dull inanity.
10) There is a harsh change because most raiders HATE questing. It is a necessary, dull, pedantic chore that we burn through and dispense with as soon as our time played allows. Unless you are having them drop raid-level gear, then we won't bother at all. If it does, we will stop as soon as we get the gear. At no point will the majority of us enjoy it.
11) 2-dimensional play is not more interesting, more compelling, than 3-dimensional play. 2-dimensional play IS, however, cheaper and easier to design. Don't take things away from me and tell me I have more room in my pack, so things are wonderful.
12) And yet: you are.
13) Nor is it unreasonable to expect that the people we are purchasing from will design around our wants and desires, not their own convenience and profit margin. It is not unreasonable to desire content built around our continued use of our flying mounts that we worked for, farmed for, or spent real-life dollars for: and to use them in the air, as intended.
14) It is NOT important to US. And ours are the only opinions that matter when we decide to purchase--- or not.
15) Our own flying mounts can do the same thing, and we will enjoy using our own flying mounts.
16) It has been very informative. Us pro-flyers now know that this is not an expansion, but a contraction. We now know that this is an expansion designed for your convenience over our enjoyment.
