Removing Flying Mounts Part II

01/16/2013 06:51 AMPosted by Barru

In spite of your firm belief that you feel flying mounts are detrimental to gameplay

No one ever said they are detrimental to gameplay, or they're being removed, or we hate flying mounts, or any of the other things people have inferred for no good reason. What I said was that experiencing a world directly from your character to the earth beneath it, and approaching questing content, is not served well by being able to lift off and set down wherever you like. In most cases we've relegated 'non-flying' to new characters experiencing an expansion for the first time, and then sometime later given them a way to give their alts flying in a quicker manner. In some cases, such as the Isle of Quel'danas back in BC, and now on the 5.2 Thunder King island, we've made a conscious effort to design a no-flying area to present that content in a different, and we believe, more intimate way. That's our job as game designers and world creators to define the restrictions and rules to create what we feel crafts the best experience. You can disagree with the restrictions and rules that define what World of Warcraft is, and we can have a conversation on the pros and cons (and certainly there are both), but let's be careful not to take things out of context and jump to extremes.

Can you start spending as much time making a conscious effort to make content that is based around FLYING characters, even though it may be more difficult?

It is very clear that there are atleast as many people who DESPISE travel by ground. The only reason that the "questing experience is better from the ground" is because that is the way you make it - so make it differently.

All of the level-cap content and locations (daily quests, hubs, etc.) are designed around the knowledge that you have a flying mount available.