On "The Instance," one of my favorite pod casts recently there was an interview with Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, (Whom apparently stopped monitoring Magilla's vent so he can wipe us when we are cocky for Blizzcon) and in the interview Ghostcrawler was asked about flying in the next expansion.
Ghostcrawler mentioned it had been DISCUSSED that they hold back flying until the first patch (6.1 respectfully) because they want to make sure everyone takes the time to explore the new content in the upcoming expansion. By forcing players to walk instead of flying, it makes them interact with the world more, and they don't skip areas or content while leveling, or after.
Of course, people blew up at this. Trolls came out in force on the forums threatening to quit the game, and even making passive aggressive comments like, "Well if Blizzard doesn't like flying mounts they should just take them out of the game" (Paraphrasing.) People started firing off their mouths (fingers?) in disgust, anger, and I think just for the fun of trolling because this apparently is a big deal.
Blizzard has since then come out and confirmed that flying is not likely to be available until that first patch, and of course that hasn't eased the anger at all. If you take the time to go through the forums right now, you can find enough righteous anger to feed power to an army of Paladins. I do suggest taking some heavy medication though before going into the forums. That place is scary.
How do I feel about this? Let me tell you!
I'm not a fan of this, but I'll get over it. I enjoy flying, I use it to work on my professions a lot once I get to max level. It sure is convenient when you want to get around and not get sucked into the mess of fighting bunch of mobs just to get your mining node ninja's by a hordie. I don't think I am among the people that they are choosing to do this for. I like to finish all the zones in an expansion at least once, so I can get all the story. Even after flying is in, I will go back, run through quests, and see what is going on in each area. I still haven't done this for the horde side in Pandaria, but as my need for LFR is lessening, and NaNoWriMo is over in a month or so, my rogue may get some play time to do the horde half of Krasarang Wilds and any other areas I've missed.
Will this break the game for me? No. Do I understand why they are doing it? Yes. Do I think they should? Not really. I think they have stressed "play the game the way you want to play it" enough that limiting people like this is not a smart thing to do. I don't think the people that skip through quests and ignore story lines are going to be any more invested because they are forced to run around for a month or two after the expansion drops. I know what Blizzard wants to accomplish, I don't think they will get anything but headache over it.
This brings me to a dilemma on my part. I normally think when Blizzard makes a decision they need to stick to their guns and see how it plays out. However, they have listened and changed things when the community rails against them before. I think if Blizzard has made this decision they do need to see how it has and effect on game play, because I could be completely wrong and this could get people tied even more deeply into the world. However, I predict that Blizzard will 180 on this if the shouting gets two loud and give us flying right when we hit 100, and the other part of me thinks they should do that instead. So, in my head I am split on this issue.
What do other people think about this? I would love to hear the feedback from other people who are more sane the forum trolls on how they feel about a delay on flying when they hit 100.
If you want to hear Ghostcrawler's interview it's on "The Instance" Show number 347. Also, on the most recent show 348 they discuss this a bit more and give you their take on the flying thing. I recommend you listen to this podcast anyway just because Scott Johnson, Willy "Dills" Gregory, and Mark "The Turpster" Turpin are just fun to listen to.
Lay/Dizzty/Lazyeye
