Sure, I agree. I think it’s very much a matter of perspective.
I did some of my old raid farming yesterday, and traveling to the Caverns of Time is - for me - a story-driven experience. I don’t roleplay, but I love to immerse myself in the story. And when I go to Caverns of Time I want to feel that I’m far out into the desert. That the cave in the distance stands out because of the strange objects surrounding it - objects that seem out of place…and time. That the cave itself is full of mystery, contained in its own pocket of space and time.
For others it’s perhaps more of a robotic process of seeking a specific mount that drops from a specific boss in a specific raid, and then just funneling as many characters through that raid as fast as possible to increase the odds of getting that mount, all the while listening to a Spotify playlist, oblivious to anything in the game but the raw gameplay and loot.
Besides the AH, there is no reason to go to stormwind unless you want a portal to somewhere else for old content. Everything else current is already in Boralus, so calling SW “center of operations” is quite a stretch.
And if so, they still have to explain why just the heirloom vendor is in Ironforge.
I don’t see how the world can feel more alive when i’m flying over it barely seeing anything. It’s old content, old zones. I’m there to get item X, not to enjoy the scenery because i’ve already seen it countless time since 2007.
Also, it’s not that having portals prevents you to have this mystical travel experience, you can do it freely when you want.
Removing portals instead is just 100% more annoying because force me to spend more time for the same trip i’ve already done countless time each week to farm a mount that never drops, on multiple char.
And this is time that gets taken of current content i may be doing like a Bg, or an extra island, or a warfront.
Since for most of us play time is fixed across the week, making trips longers forces us either to not do them anymore and so forgetting about those zones that blizz want to make “more alive” or dropping current content.
Either way, it’s just plain stupid.
Nevertheless, there are a lot of people hanging out in Stormwind. Blizzard wants to emphasize that, so they do.
Well Heirloom items were introduced 11 years ago. If Blizzard had the foresight to predict 11 years of WoW development, then they would probably have placed the vendor in Stormwind as well. But they didn’t.
WoW has lots of design oddities and inconsistencies due to its age.
Maybe you’re not looking? Or listening?
I consider this to be quite the forum fallacy, no offense.
“You don’t like portals? Just ignore them then!” You don’t think the game is difficult enough? Unequip your gear then!" “You don’t like flying mounts? Why don’t you just walk then?” “You don’t want an I.W.I.N button? Don’t use it then!”
Ideally the developers should design the game so there is no conflict between what the player feels is the most enjoyable way to play the game and what the player feels is the most optimal way to play the game. Those two desires should always go together, because then you’re not forced to make a Sophie’s choice.
Ours are in Org now as we lost UC (you can go back to UC if you speak to the wibbly wobbly time people) so clearly you just need to lose IF to blight and you can have them in SW too
I would not put it past the Creative Development team to be looking at those other major faction cities with keen interest, considering the direction the story is taking.
Except for the fact heirloom vendor in IF is not 11 years old. Was introduced in 6.1. So your theory makes 0 sense. Also, if consistency was a thing, according to official position removal of portals in 4.0 counts as tradition. So changing something from 6.1 shouldn’t be a problem.
When the put they heirloom vendors in though they did choose the two other major hubs for players, it was an odd choice imo when they are never keen to allow all cities to have equal standing.
Considering the current WoW development “design”, losing both Exodar/Silvermoon and TB/IF to some “evil ex machina” event is not even remotely unrealistic.
They’re all in front of the AH, with the occasional lonely guy in another place for some old profession training, which is available in all the other city.
And we are all in SW ah because every place has a portal to stormwind, no other reason.
So again, they want to make the world feel larger by removing life to old cities.
Portals have pretty much the same age, yet they’re purging them. While it seems impossibile to move a vendor from IF to SW.
The only inconsistency here is in the dev ideas, and this is a well know fact proven by non necessary changes done every xpac.
Looking what? Top of a mountain or some top of trees? Wow, what a view!
It’s basic logic, not forum fallacy.
Having portals is not an obligation for you to use them, you’re free to travel as you please, while not having them forces us to travel in a way we are not happy with.
Yet because the player base is so wide in opinions, the only way to achieve what you’re saying, is by giving players the widest possibile range of options.
Purging stuff is the opposite.
Huh. I recall Heirlooms were introduced in Cata, I think, but the vendor in IF being introduced in MoP has evaded my memory, seemingly.
It’s besides the point though. The notion that every development decision in the game for the past 15 years derives 100% from today’s design principles is obviously not going to be the case.
But what is apparent is that Stormwind is the main faction city for the Alliance, and not Ironforge - in spite of the Heirloom vendor’s presence.
I understand that havin a big HUB for everything is a good thing. And probably the introduction of the classic experience is for all the ppl with saudade of the good old times when all the cities matter.
But i hope the next expansion devs wil focus on the “existing content” without adding new ones.
actually there is too much thing in need of fixing or totally forgotten. Things i used to love in the past. Things totally out of scope and outdated.
I wanna see ghostlands without the SCAR. Even in italy we do the works faster tan the belf!
plaguelands free from the scourge and now in the middle of the battle like in Andorhal.
Something like this. Adding portals just to fell the world alive isnt imho the solution. the old content is dead. like Mankrik’s wife.
Revamping Draenei and belf 1-20 would require some work, because they are on TBC servers, and would have to be totally remade to allow flying. Will probably lose a raid tier over this. Is far more easier to remove bits here and there and call it “augmenting and improving content”.
this means the end of something i have done since wotlk getting my alts to the capital for the newest expansion and setting their heartstones there and using that as a base for leveling even at really low levels.
Yes, I did that too. It seems it was unintended game behavior and should be glad Blizz removes it. Actually, maybe glad we didn’t got a temp ban or something for not playing 100% alongside the great design of the makers.
I don’t remember them being exclusive to Argent Tournament, but it’s so long ago I don’t actually remember where I went to spend my JP to buy them. I thought the AT ones were just for AT currency.
