Seeing Things in Context

Since the previous blizzcon when warlords of draenor was announced up until this one which happened on the door step of warlords of draenors release we have ran through a number of hot button topics.  I, like everyone else, had an opinion. 

Being I was able to experience a fair deal of the issues on beta my opinion on some of those hot button topics changed.  I am not one of those people that are set in stone and I can't or won't change my mind.  If I am shown that I am wrong I will freely admit it and change my opinion.  That is the beauty of opinions, they can be changed if there is reason to do so.

So as we knock on the dark portal and wait for someone to answer the door and let us through in less than 2 short days I want to revisit some of those hot button topics and see if my opinion changed, or has been reinforced even stronger.

Karabor / Bladespire Capitals:

When these were announced as our main cities on draenor I was very excited for it.  Admittedly as a player who mostly has alliance characters it was nice to be on the winning side for once.  We see horde favoritism in nearly every step of the game and anyone who denies that is willfully blind, so having the fabled black temple as our home city before it was known as the black temple was a bit of a reason for the alliance to shout out with joy.  We finally won one and get a little bit of the feeling of favoritism for once.

When they later announced they were, in fact, not going to be our capital cities it became a hot button topic.  I was firmly on the side that believed they should be.  Not only because I wanted that feeling like alliance got something special for once, but because two major cities sounded really freaking awesome.  To have those two major cities replaced by some outposts somewhere else seemed like such a let down.  We were prepared for this huge city and got tents and shacks and nothing much more instead.

My time on the beta allowed me to reevaluate my opinion and as it turns out, change my opinion.  I am now glad these cities are not our capitals.  Even if I most definitely would have liked them to be, they really seem mostly unnecessary now.  I found myself spending the vast majority of my free time in my garrison and not in the new main city at all.  If it were these huge buildings they would have went to waste.  So they might as well be some outposts in the middle of nowhere that are basically, if not exactly, a carbon copy of each other alliance or horde side.

I might miss having had the chance to call the black temple home for an expansion, but it is better they did not waste all the resources it would have taken to make it fully functional and vibrant because I really would not be spending any substantial time there anyway.  It would have been a complete waste.

Ashran Capitals:

Another hot button topic that came on the heels of the previous one was when we were told our new city hubs would be in the PvP zone, or the out skirts of it as it may be.  It felt, to most, as a way for blizzard to try to force PvP on the players by making their capital be, basically, part of a PvP battleground.  There was a lot of back and forth on this, mostly from PvE focused players and players on PvE realms that do not want to PvP.  I too was against it.

In practice they fixed a lot of the things I had issues with right away. They expanded the bases so it wasn't just a few tents, it was now a lot of tents and even a solid structure or two here and there.  They gave it some real space and filled it.  This made it feel more like a staging area and less like a rest stop.

They also changed another things I personally had an issue with at the get go which was the fact it was part of the PvP island.  While in the city you would not be flagged for PvP.  So no worries about going AFK for a toilet break or to heat up a coffee and coming back to a dead body.  It has happened to me before and it is no fun.  I don't mind dying in battle, but I hate being ganked while I am getting my coffee.  Only a coward kills a man getting his coffee fix.  This issue was solved.

Then on the beta I got to test it out.  There was no way to accidentally flag yourself, which helps because you won't just stumble into instant death, and the guards were a little beefier than you might expect so they can help keep the battlefield war from entering the outpost.

So while I was against the capitals being in a PvP zone it works out that I actually like them where they are.  Because of a few reasons, first of which is, like mentioned previously, I will be spending most of my time in my garrison anyway, so it is not like a really need a capital city, my garrison is my capital city.  The second reason I ended up liking it goes back to the previous post where I say that blizzard wants to get us PvE players into PvP and this helps ease us into it.  Being there is no waiting, you just step in and you are in world PvP, and you can step out at any time by retreating to your ashran capital city makes it just a little more welcoming, even if not perfect.  All part of blizzard effort to allow us to get into PvP if we were not previously into it.

This goes as the second thing I have changed my mind on once I saw it in context.  It is really true that your gut check response can sometimes be wrong when you do not have all the facts at hand and have yet to see the finished product.  This is one of those cases where I am glad I was wrong with my first opinion on this hot button topic.  The ashran bases are not exactly something I would say I like, but they most definitely something I do not dislike.  And I do like their placement even if I were against it at first.

No Flying:

This is still a huge hot button topic and it will not be going away anytime soon either if trade chat is any indication.  It seems like the vast majority of players still do not know that there is no flying on draenor.  Even some of the ones that do realize it don't fully understand it and seem to think that they will get flying when they reach max level or shortly after.  Yes, we might, just might, get it in 6.1, but it has never been said we will.  So working on that assumption is wrong.  It is best to believe we will not be having it at all, and then if they add it and you wanted it, congratulations.

I was against no flying from the get go.  I said I will live with it and that remains the same, I will live with it.  I've always been one of those people that would rather spend my time playing the game than traveling somewhere to play it.  Given the option of running to a flight path, taking the flight path, then running to the area I want to go to or just mounting up and flying directly there, it is a no brainer.  I would rather mount and fly directly there.  It allows me to spend more time playing the game and waste less time traveling.

After playing on the beta my opinion remains unchanged.  If anything is it even more so reinforced.  I seriously dislike the absence of flight and I beleive it will really hurt the game over all.  There is already so little reason to go out in the world of draenor that flying is the only thing that can salvage that.  At least if we could fly we might go out and explore or just fly around wasting time instead of sitting in our garrison wasting time.

I still believe that after I leveled up, then leveled up another character or two as well, I have done all the sight seeing I could ever want.  From that point on it becomes more about getting from point A to point B and flying just makes that easier.  Forgive me for wanting the easy way out but like I said, I would rather spend my time playing instead of traveling, and after playing on the beta with no flying for months, my opinion remains unchanged.  Flying should have never been removed.   I will live with it, no big deal, but I would be a much happier paying customer if it were still in game and they didn't completely disregard my, and many others, opinion on the matter.

Customizable Garrisons:

Well, customizable to some degree.  They never said garrisons would be customizable, they never even hinted they might be.  But they did say you could have one in multiple areas, which you can't, and they did say you can rename your followers, which you can't.  This was a major hot button topic for many and still remains so in some small circles.

Personally, I never really cared about placement of my garrison.  I would always put it wherever was closest to where I would want to be often.  Again it would be about time.  If the raid is in nagrand, then putting it in nagrand would make it easier to get to the raid.  It is about time playing vs time traveling and I would rather spend my time playing.  However, not being able to place it where I wanted did not matter to me.  Draenor is so damn small away, so I will leave 2 minutes earlier to get to the raid, not such a big deal, I can live with that I guess.

The other part was naming followers.  I was always against that.  If someone has a name, that is their name.  You can not change it.  These people are followers, not pets.  Heck, even as a hunter if I tame something that is a named mob I keep his name.  Like when I tamed Buru, he is Buru.  When I tamed Beast, he is Beast.  You get the idea.  It is not my place to change someones name and if I would not change the name of a pet, why would I even consider changing the name of a follower.

Nothing changed here from my original assessment.  Blizzard went back on their word, sure, but I did not care when they first went back on their word here and I still do not care.  I think garrisons being in one place is good and I sure as hell think you should not be able to rename a person.  How would you like if I renamed you Bob?  And if your name is bob I am now going to call you Walt, what do you think about them apples?

Some opinions change and some opinions stay the same.  I am sure some will disagree with me.  But I changed my opinion on some things after seeing them in context.  Maybe others might as well.  As time has gone by, have your changed any of your opinions on these or other hot button topics?  Maybe when the game comes out, you might.  Something to consider.