Rearranging and Removing Portals

Community General Discussion
427

I haven’t seen anyone really request that. But if enough people request that the Heirloom vendor should be moved from Ironforge to Stormwind, then I don’t think it’s outside Blizzard’s powers or willingness to do so. :yum:

That’s because Blizzard are an iterative game development company. They iterate. That’s their thing.

StarCraft II: “Let’s have Carriers. No, let’s not. No wait, let’s anyway!”

WoW: “Let’s have 40 man raiding. Let’s also have 20 man raiding. No wait, let’s have 25 and 10 man raiding. No no, let’s have something called flex! No let’s have 20 and flex - but up to 30!”

HotS: “Let’s Call it Blizzard DotA! No let’s go with Blizzard All-Stars! On second thought, let’s change it to Heroes of the Storm! You know, we should actually have called it The Nexus…”

D3: “We’re not going to do a Necromancer, because we don’t think we can improve the D2 Necromancer. You know, in retrospect, we actually would have loved to have done a Necromancer… Ah screw it, we’re doing the Necromancer!”

Blizzard iterates. If you’re looking for design consistency, then look for another game company. :rofl:

Well I can only say how I play the game.

Let’s say I want to go to Karazhan, so I’ll fly down there from Stormwind.

The first thing that strikes me is that something is wrong. Deadwind Pass definitely lives up to its name, because it’s dead alright. There is not so much as a single green leaf in sight. That is quite strange given the surrounding zones…

The next thing that piques my interest is the tower itself, rising in the distance. An odd place for a Mage tower - far from Dalaran and anything else really. I wonder why it’s located here…

The appearance of various creatures is rather confusing as well. Some strike me as opportunists, maybe seeking the same secrets of the tower as myself? And what about the Arcane elementals, the ghosts, and all the burned-down buildings? And what has happened to the villagers?

And why is the tower itself half-crumbled and broken apart? What’s happened?

Those are some of the thoughts I like to indulge in when I go there. It gets me into the proper mood to enjoy the instance. Entertaining the lore part of the game is rather enjoyable I think. The strong leylines that run beneath Karazhan, what are they exactly? Arcane magic, yes, but what’s the origin of Arcane magic? The Titans? Is that related to Azeroth’s World Soul? Would Medivh have known? What was it he said to Khadgar last time? Hmm…

I enjoy that process when I do something in WoW. And I find that when I do LFR or LFD or something where I just get teleported straight to the action, then it doesn’t manifest as strongly. There has to be that build-up that allows the mind to speculate and wonder.

But that’s just me. Try it perhaps?

428

At was not the only source, yes. Heirlooms were also vendored in Dalaran for emblems iirc (did not played Wrath on retail and when I did was almost 6 y ago).

429

They came out in wotlk and was bought with justice points…as you said to me the other day…know the game you are playing :wink:

3 Likes
430

Sometimes it feels as if people on the forums are Rogues who have one button on their action bars - Expose Weakness.

And as soon as they find any fault or error in something being said, then they just spam that button for all it’s worth. :rofl:

“Finally! After 425 posts he said something about Heirloom items that was wrong! Let’s get him!”

But yes, I concede. My knowledge on the history of Heirloom items in WoW - in particular a vendor and its timely introduction - was incorrect.

That being said…

I don’t think it takes anything away from the point. Why there’s an Heirloom vendor in Ironforge may indeed be one of the universe’s great unsolved mysteries. But that doesn’t detract from the fact that Blizzard have decided to put the Portal Room in Stormwind, because that’s where they want people to go. If they wanted people to go to Ironforge, then they would probably focus their efforts on Ironforge. But they don’t.

431

Not really concidering its placed in “hall of explorers”
If you dont get the refernce then its a major face palm and btw i did put a wink at end of my post about looms but i see you are touchy .

432

I actually don’t. :blush:

Is it something with heirlooms being valuable, old objects and the Hall of Explorers being a place of old artifacts and relics?

I don’t know. I must admit I never gave much thought to the placement of the Heirloom vendor in the game, or the future design implications as it relates to the upcoming portal changes.
But maybe it’s because it doesn’t matter at all.

433

Doesnt matter to you but to others it does.

What do you do when you level ? You EXPLORE places to find quests.

434

I liked my explanation better. :yum:

435

Well you would as you are an egotist your words not mine :wink:

436

Well, then you won’t mind supporting me on the upcoming Portal Changes I assume. :wink:

437

I haven’t seen any request for portal purging, yet here we are.
Also, there are tons of request for a pvp vendor, but none in sight.
Clearly user request are not the unit of measure for changes.

Exactly. It’s how you play. Nothing wrong with it, but you can’t advocate as “good” a decision from blizz to move the game closer to your expectations screwing up everyone else idea of good gameplay.

2 Likes
438

That sounds about right :slight_smile:

439

This does not spark joy. Less and less things in game does nowadays, but that’s beside the point.

If transmog/mount/achievement runs get to cumbersome, or annoying, I’ll just stop doing them, just like other features I used to like, but was made annoying, by either playerbase or ‘fixes’.

I am fully aware that this post will not change anyone’s mind in either way, but I felt I should add, and vent, my dismay so it’d be on record.

4 Likes
440

I think Blizzard is mixing up time and space. Therefore for them Time = Space.

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441

Amusing enough, this measure will bite them in the rear. One of the moments when doing nothing would’ve been the better choice regarding old portals. I doubt this will bring more players in, but for sure will alienate quite a few.

I have 5 y since I started playing retail. Never took a break longer than 2 weeks. I consider I went through almost all types of content the game has to offer, except for high rated pvp, and enjoyed most of it. Almost 29k achiev on my main, 430 or so mounts, 1k+ pets, some mythic raiding, 50+ characters at 110+. Spent enough on stuff like shop mounts, pets, other Blizz games, because I thought is fair to support a company I (used to) love and a game I (used to) enjoy.

However, one by one, decisions blatantly aimed against players kind of piled up. The latest, regarding portals, had an explanation that has such a low credibility it’s almost ridiculous.

And, while drinking my coffee, the question arises : why should I keep paying someone that tries to manage my time by adding extra hoops to jump through instead of providing an extra incentive? How much can gain from me by removing portals? 1h /week? 2 at most? How much can lose if I simply uninstall Bnet, because paying someone to lie and trick you is close to masochism, and I’m really not into this.

Can I work around this change? Ofc, multiple accounts with mage portals, self summon, forcing permanent portals by never completing certain quests or scenarios, there is always some way. But, is it worth it? As a player I cannot win this dispute, if a company is bent to artificially increase your play time . Would be foolish to even try.

I’m not threatening to unsub after 8.1.5 goes live. Threats rarely solves problems, Blizz doesn’t care and the moment I would do this I won’t care about Blizz either. But from a rational point of view, that would be the best course of action, and frankly I strongly consider it. Nostalgia and fond memories can only sustain someone for a limited amount of time.

12 Likes
442

I think it is well put and sums sup what a lot of us think.

443

very well said.

444

You wrote all that but completely failed to mention that a lot of this relates to old content that is on farm, as has been the way of MMOs for a long time.
All those words and then I remind you that we have had CoT portals for OVER A DECADE without it being an issue.

3 Likes
445

Makes me sad that blizz makes just everything longer instead of giving actual content and then they throw that bull**** that they want to make world alive.If they would trully want it just add XP to crafting/fishing/cooking and bonus stats from profs and it would surelly drag ppl to old zones again

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446

This is very true, and it’s one part of what is discussed on the US forum is that since WoD Blizzard is making old content more and more irrelevant. Starting with toys we earn and are usable only on the zone we earn them from: the skinning knife is no more use in this expansion, although it’s still on the toy tab.
They wanted at some point that the strider mount would only work in the zone they had been earn (azure for MoP and crimson for WoD) thankfully they stepped back from that decision.
Our Artifacts got destroyed at the end of Legion…

Why would they want us to only focus on the latest expansion and ignore the rest?
Why not instead expanding the world and make it more alive.
Why reworking what is passed instead of working on what’ s to come?