I far prefer how it is now.
If how it was was better they’d still be doing it wouldn’t they?
You kinda have your answer there.
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They go from extreme to extreme. From unnecessary keeping flying disabled for a whole year to fully restrictions-less.
City of Threads could have and should have been like Suramar.
I think it’s more a case of once the genie is out of the bottle. As in, it was a major feature for TBC at the time, because there was an obvious fantasy of being able to traverse the skies with flying, but in retrospect that fantasy hasn’t materialized into a reality that adds much value to the game experience itself. But you can’t really go back again (and Blizzard did try with WoD), because the precedent of flying has been established over the years. Many WoW players have only played WoW with flying.
But yeah, flying doesn’t do anything good for the adventure and journey of the game.
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I don’t really see the benefit in being grounded. It meant you ran through mobs until they untethered when grounded, it’s just a slowing you down mechanic.
In the old days we could buy flying at max level. This is kind of a compromise where you get skyriding from the start, zones are far bigger, dangers vary.
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if you were that honest and that bothered you would make the choice to use a ground mount . stop trying to make the game for your own needs.
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Here I am flying and exploring.
Think it depends on how it’s designed, tww is designed with useable flying in mind - with the speeds we have now, which is also important.
If it was a zone the size of say ghostlands, then flying would be a detrimate as it’d feel too small etc.
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I dont care flying-haters.
I’m love flying mounts. Since make me more play. If only grounded mount make me less play
If who dont like use flying mounts. When dont use it. Use own ground mount and be enjoy
The main problem with Pathfinder was it was too grindy and introduced too late. There never should have been reps to grind and x.0.5 or x.1 would have been fine. But it came in x.2 or x.3 (generally nigh-on a year into an expansion.
And flight free zones have always been a thing too, Quel Danas, Molten Front, Timeless Isle et al.
Flight is not an issue when implemented correctly. It serves a purpose at end game. Getting to dungeons, going out to gather materials, doing WQs, generally being out in the world.
Also the zones need to be designed correctly. Timeless Isle is perfectly fine without flying. It’s not too big. It’s not a maze (neither is it a flat disc) and there’s plenty going on there (or there was when MOP was current).
Of course they could give us another Maw or Argus and make us hate playing without flying and resent every inch we have to traverse there.
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I’d also spend an awful lot of dead time using flight masters, taking long scenic tours because many routes were unnecessarily inefficient.
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I was always pro locking flying till at least first month of expansion so people are on the ground doing exploration.
Game feels more like a OPEN world vs when you fly
Whoever tought it was a good idea to unlock flying day 1 was stupid.
DF had beautiful zones but day 1 they were empty
Remember when BFA was current and it launched it was so cool seeing people runing on their mounts.Using all kinds of tools to traverse the land like glider or those shoes…
I liked that gameplay more then this
This is more like go up fly there go down kill 10 or pick up stuff FLY up go back
Flying is bad for a OPEN world game
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But that was originally a point of design heralded as a stroke of genius, because it gave WoW an ebb and flow to its gameplay where you would have moments of hot action and moments of relaxed traveling. And especially the flight points had the knock-on effect of giving players the opportunity to take a small break and grab a drink or go to the bathroom, or talk in their guild chat.
By contrast, the modern WoW of today is a high-paced game where you’re going from one point of action to another almost instantly, constantly blasting.
I’m not sure if that’s equally praise-worthy, if only because it doesn’t enhance other parts of the game experience, but rather just boils it down to an almost ARPG-driven gameplay.
5 Likes
It also seems far more immersive to fly IMO than run around on the ground but people all have different ideas. I don’t struggle to see players in the open world.
In my case I don’t get on with skyriding, due to motion sickness but it’s probably a more immersive way to fly. However I do far more exploration once I can fly (in my case steady flight).
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I still use flight masters.
Who? Also what stops you playing on a ground mount or no mount at all?
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It’s a more action-driven gameplay experience than just auto piloting in a direction. But I wouldn’t say it’s immersive. People say the zones are bigger today, but you can zoom across them in less than a minute! That makes them actually feel like very small sandboxes. By contrast, running across Westfall on your level 10 character actually feels like a real journey and you get the sense that you’re traversing a lot of land.
So even though the individual zones are bigger today, the world feels smaller. And from an immersion point of view, you kind of want the sense that you’re in a huge world and it’s a real exploration and journey to get anywhere. Skyriding definitely doesn’t deliver that. It just gives you the action of the controls by having a speeder and a joystick.
3 Likes
It’s interactive flying which is why I said it’s more immersive. As someone who steady flight’s their way across the map, they are vast. And plenty of player’s can’t get across the map in time to kill Beledar etc even with skyriding so it’s not that fast.
I liked it as it was in wotlk. You explore the zones on ground first and you have that perspective, then u unlock flying later and its a different experience. Flying unlocked from start is bad for the game imo.
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My point is just to say that there’s a difference between a game experience in an RPG than emphasizes immersion versus action. WoW is increasingly an action-driven game experience. And the traveling leans into that. Because WoW is so much about quickly zooming from one objective to the other now, you obviously also need the means to do so. Hence we get Sky-riding. Not because it’s more immersion, but because it’s more action.
I started playing wow at the end of BFA and went straight into SL. At the time I looked at the flying requirements for BFA and decided it would be a complete waste of time, so just did SL instead and then they later unlocked it for everyone in BFA zones.
I find flying immersive, even if it’s steady flight. Others do not. They feel the only immersive way to travel is on the ground or flightpaths. It’s just opinions. People have different viewpoints. Just like some feel skyriding is the immersive way to fly.