Blues - Why are portals removed?

Portals are removed as we don't want you to have your hearth in an old city from an expansion you've outgrown just so you can have quick and instant travel anywhere you like. Those expansions had content that was far removed from things like auction houses and class trainers, and thus, contained portals. They were removed from those things because we didn't want the expansion content (which would hold the bulk of the playerbase) to in turn also remove them from the classic Azeroth world. That's no longer the case. Cataclysm has content near your faction capitals, which have auction houses and class trainers.

And for new characters leveling, who will eventually hit Shattrath and Dalaran, they now have auction houses and class trainers in place of portals.

As soon as you can fly in Azeroth this really does cease to be an issue. It will not be much different than flying from Borean Tundra to Ulduar.

I can see that since the OP is buried that enough people disagree with this being an issue, and for that I'm at least thankful that I'm not fighting a complete uphill battle in explaining it. ;)

So I reply and then the thread drops off the front page. I get it.

Portals are removed as we don't want you to have your hearth in an old city from an expansion you've outgrown just so you can have quick and instant travel anywhere you like. Those expansions had content that was far removed from things like auction houses and class trainers, and thus, contained portals. They were removed from those things because we didn't want the expansion content (which would hold the bulk of the playerbase) to in turn also remove them from the classic Azeroth world. That's no longer the case. Cataclysm has content near your faction capitals, which have auction houses and class trainers.

And for new characters leveling, who will eventually hit Shattrath and Dalaran, they now have auction houses and class trainers in place of portals.

As soon as you can fly in Azeroth this really does cease to be an issue. It will not be much different than flying from Borean Tundra to Ulduar.

I can see that since the OP is buried that enough people disagree with this being an issue, and for that I'm at least thankful that I'm not fighting a complete uphill battle in explaining it. ;)

I'm sorry but did it ever occur to you that some people will not buy the expansion if at all? I for one won't be purchasing it for a long while if at all because I still have content thats has not been cleared in Wrath or even BC for achievements and respectfully I say that you have made it more of an inconvenience and a spam fest in trade chat, was that your intention?

If you took the number of the player base who does not have the luxury to spend 8 hours a day or even 2 hours it would out weigh the hard cores. Frankly leaving the portal up was not hurting anybody.

If you don't buy Cataclysm then, as I said, everything you would have needed from the cities (and for which the portals existed) has been added to both Shattrath and Dalaran for you.

Portals are removed as we don't want you to have your hearth in an old city from an expansion you've outgrown just so you can have quick and instant travel anywhere you like. ...

So we have to set our hearths to an even older city from an older expansion?

NYUK NYUK NYUK

the tears.

epic.

ask your magi for quick travel help. we'll do it, if you're nice, for a small fee.

What's that? You want hearthstones set back to an hour cooldown!? Well oooooooook....

If by means your talking AH or trainers that would only be a plus for players lvling my point your over looking is people regardless of being 80 or not who want to finish up content they didn't have a chance to complete for achievements. And yes its a nice thing you can fly, but some of us don't have alot time to be wasting making these trips and with what little time we have we would like to be able to get to these place sooner.

I came from vanilla wow and going from place to place by either flight or mount was a terrible waste of my time and i'm sure others feel the same way.

That's all well and good, but facilitating your completion of achievements is not a reason to keep portals in the game. I recommend planning out your trips beforehand. I used to use pieces of paper to plot out travel plans. Which I actually sort of enjoyed. But in any case, plan appropriately, and travel wisely with what you have at your disposal.

Portals are removed as we don't want you to have your hearth in an old city from an expansion you've outgrown just so you can have quick and instant travel anywhere you like. ...

So we have to set our hearths to an even older city from an older expansion?

NYUK NYUK NYUK

Woot! I'm immortalized in blue trackers. Unfortunately, I was being serious.

Yes. That is unfortunate.

I plan out vacation's I plan out my work day because it's my job however WoW is a game that's meant to be enjoyed not a chore or a job. People have enough stress to deal with then to put up with it in a game that is suppose to be relaxing.

I realize that nothing I say will make you like this change. I realize that quick instant travel has become something that players rely upon. I realize that even with dozens of travel improvements including new boat and zeppelin paths, flight path improvements, and shortening of hearthstones to 30min cooldowns that portals forever changed people's idea of travel. I realize that you've gone through three or four different reasons about why it's a bad change, jumping to the next as I refute the last, and that by continuing a conversation along these lines I'm simply driving myself closer to madness.

I realize all these things, but what I want to say is - Everything is going to be ok.

And I mean that sincerely from gamer to fellow gamer. This change is not going to ruin your time in the game. Just give it some time.

Yes. That is unfortunate.

While I have your attention, what about lowbies stuck in Shattrath and Dalaran? Will there be GM assistance?

Hoof it. If you don't have hooves then you chose the wrong race. ;)

Yes. That is unfortunate.

While I have your attention, what about lowbies stuck in Shattrath and Dalaran? Will there be GM assistance?

Hoof it. If you don't have hooves then you chose the wrong race. ;)

<3 U

I was talking about Draenei!

jk

Don't remember how to use a zeppelin? Not a fan of heights? Lazy? Never fear, the mages are here! <3 u blizz

Enjoy it while it lasts mages. Because it won't.

It's the first day, the first few HOURS, of course something new is going to be jarring.

But worse yet is that the entire plan isn't unveiled, there's no flying in the old world, there's none of the new content. The one thing I do agree with is that ideally portals shouldn't have been removed until the 7th, but that would have meant a ton of additional development time just to give an extra two weeks of insta-porting goodness.

One benefit is you don't encourage all of the current re-rollers to hearth in the Shattrath or Dalaran, and then pull it away on Cataclysm launch. That seems like a worse scenario, actually.

I don't doubt that this, like so many other topics that spring up day 1 of a patch, will die a quiet death once people actually play and see how it affects them instead of simply estimating. That's not going to happen until Cataclysm in this case, though. Such are the growing pains of expansion life.

When I would actually use the flight paths though, that's when it's time to go grab a drink, use the restroom, talk to your family, use the phone, get up and stretch your legs and engage in the real world again for a few minutes. I've driven to the store and back within an exceptionally long flight.

Well, to be accurate, such a thing would only be possible with connected flight points. Originally you had to talk to the flight master at each point to continue on to the next one. Connected flight points didn't come until almost a year and a half after launch of the game.

Lets see if we can alleviate some problems here...


YOU....

Are a new player / Lowbie / Alt / Casual in old world:

Great news! Blizzard has streamlined the leveling process. Gone are the days of running from continent to continent to turn in random quests or find new zones to level in. You can easily move from zone to zone in one region, getting all the way to 60 without leaving the continent if you wish. A capital city is nearby to give you access to your bank or auction house.

Haven’t bought Wotlk / Cata, and are still experiencing BC / Wotlk:

Bad news, blizzard took away your portals. But GREAT news, you don't need them! Blizzard added class trainers and auction houses to shatt and dal, and since they already head profession trainers and banks, Dal and Shatt now how everything the capitals in the old world could ever offer you! You may have a random quest that sends you back to the old world, but, being a smart, rational human being, you can make an educated decision based on how much the quest is worth vs the amount of time it would take to get to the old world and back.

Are a level 80 waiting for cata:

No portals may be a slight inconvenience for you. But fear not, you only have 13 days until cata hits! then you will be knee deep in naga and elementals and dragons, you will forget all about those silly portals. In fact, you will have NEW portals to attend to. That’s right! In both SW and Org, Blizzard has conveniently provided portals to all the new zones, as well as Tol Barrad! Didn't know that? Maybe you could spend some new found free time not in Dal exploring the changes to the world! Considering this portal change was announced 4 months age, and you are just now getting around to figuring it out, there is probably alot of other stuff you missed!

There, problem solved!

Too bad there's not a <frame> option. I'd like to hang this on the forum wall.

Give us back our portals and stop wasting our time. We play this game to actually play, not sit around AFK for 10 mins on a flightpath, where a portal could have gotten us there instantly.

I didn't play for that last four years to be screwed over like this.

If you actually played for the last four years, you would have started during the time of the game where you had to be there to click to the next flight path, as they were not interconnected.

Just a minor detail I'd like to point out to you.

Connected flightpaths is called a quality improvement and makes transportation easier. Removing portals makes travel more difficult and in no way improves the game. Just wanted to point that out to you.

Your name is Bistiny, and according to your character profile you have four items which do not have enchants, and in addition you chose the Oracles over the Frenzyheart. So, you know, there you go. Think about that for a while.

Give us back our portals and stop wasting our time. We play this game to actually play, not sit around AFK for 10 mins on a flightpath, where a portal could have gotten us there instantly.

I didn't play for that last four years to be screwed over like this.

If you actually played for the last four years, you would have started during the time of the game where you had to be there to click to the next flight path, as they were not interconnected.

Just a minor detail I'd like to point out to you.

Connected flightpaths is called a quality improvement and makes transportation easier. Removing portals makes travel more difficult and in no way improves the game. Just wanted to point that out to you.

Your name is Bistiny, and according to your character profile you have four items which do not have enchants, and in addition you chose the Oracles over the Frenzyheart. So, you know, there you go. Think about that for a while.

So because this particular char doesn't meet up to end game standards means that I am a worthless player. Thanks, makes me feel like your company really listens to its players.

No actually I was countering your "just pointing that out to you" snottyness with just something weird and unrelated. But it turns out you weren't quoting me, but someone else who was being snotty first!

I misread. Sorry. :(

Bashiok,

I wholeheartedly appreciate the way you've come onto the forums over the past several months and voiced your defenses to issues in what feels like a truly personal tone. It felt like something changed after the RealID situation where your posts in particular never seem to sound like just a company line anymore. Regardless of which side of an issue I've been on, your candor is welcome, and I'd always hoped to feel like the Blues are discussion/community participants with more insight, rather than a just a hollow voice representing a company.


For instance, I support the portals being removed and I've said as much on these very forums long before their removal was even announced. I also supported the zombie invasion and said as much on these very forums. I would personally love to analyze message traffic statistics from chat and forums logs to identify which players belong to which groups of supporters through keyword extraction, because I feel there is probably significant clustering of players behind groups of issues (a multi-party system, just not about politics).

To be frank myself, I understand that this game can't actually be everything to anyone, so the "good design choices" will come with some "bad design choices" from everyone's point of view. I do sometimes worry that you're designing for too broad a spectrum of interests, though. And while that may be an excellent business plan, it does feel like it diminishes a sense of theme within the game. Regardless of where I stand on each issue, things like a loss of city portals but instant teleports and short dungeons seem like they clash on a thematic level. Although I have to give you props that solutions you've designed to fix inherent difficulties (like the LFD tool in general) have been overall pretty spectacular.

I sometimes wonder if the Blizzard offices are filled with the same thematic arguments as the forums. Like if a portion of the Blizzard team gets up in arms about a change or design decision utilizing the same reasons that people on the forums echo in this chamber. Then I wonder which changes get called reactionary by the another percentage of the Blizzard offices the next time around. Anyways, I support the decision to remove portals, but I wasn't a fan of the decision to make the expansion invasion less invasive; I like moving PvP ratings back into battlegrounds, but I can't say I like Varian and Garrosh much. I wonder what commonalities I share with statistical percentages of the audience and how that audience is grouped behind separate issues?

So I was rambling; I think the obvious point of this post though, is that I appreciate your recent community interactions a lot.

Planeshaper

Thanks, I actually do appreciate that. After such a long absence on these forums (I had gone to a strict support of Diablo III for some time since being Drysc) that since my return I've felt that there's been some amount of people that have taken my tone as an insult, and I had been on a course of thinking that they'd perhaps prefer a yes-man that only nods and thanks them for their suggestion. That's certainly not my role, not our role as community managers, and while it's not to incite a riot either I feel like the task of interacting as a fellow player (and maybe more importantly human being) trumps any potential unpleasantness it may cause in having a company representative (which I reluctantly admit I'll always be) actually question or refute the customer requests and desires. It's certainly not a retail experience, and that's a good thing.

I do enjoy my job, and on that note I do like to have fun. Maybe that's interpreted as flippant, but I believe this to be a forum dedicate to a game, and I play games because I enjoy them. Not all issues are fun, but while I'm working I try to inject it where I can. I will also admit I have not made the best judgment calls as to when it's appropriate to joke, but I say what I think, and for that I cannot apologize.

I want people to enjoy the game. I think that's what we all want. Not as some sort of corporate shill looking for retention percentages based on customer satisfaction or some such, but because I enjoy the game, and truly love the company I work for. I know if I can help relate some inside knowledge and understanding of the intent that I can help relieve some of the pressure, some of the aggravation that comes with not knowing why things are done the way they're done.

/robble robble

Enjoy it while it lasts mages. Because it won't.

Bashiok,

Could you please clarify this?

Do you mean it won't last because of the way the economic stabilization will turn out (my interpretation) or that mage portals will be nerfed?

Meaning that portals are only super useful for now, and that usefulness will drop sharply on December 7th.

I just want everyone to know that we have now expended one thousand posts arguing about being inconvenienced in a video game.

IT'S AMAZING!

I love you guys. Like, seriously. If you didn't care you wouldn't be posting, and I appreciate you caring. Even if you're going kookoo-bananas.