The full story on Blizzard’s decision and subsequent reappraisal of grounding flying mounts in World of Warcraft is still being revealed. In a new interview, Lead Game Designer Ion Hazzikostas denied that the move to institute Draenor flying was reluctantly done, although he did say that the topic’s been difficult from the start and grew worse when players revolted.
“We thought at the time that we had the right answer, but what we heard from the community is that once the word ‘never’ was out there, it changed the conversation a little bit,” Hazzikostas said. “There’s a certain terrible finality to the word ‘never.’ Before, people might have accepted not being able to fly in Draenor, but when they started to realise that, ‘Wow, I’ll never be able to use Invincible’s Reins or Mimiron’s Head’ or some other prized possession that they’ve worked for, suddenly that sparked an emotional response.”
He said that the team is happy with the proposed compromise and will continue to “do what’s right by the game as a whole and the majority of players” in the future.
