"...jealously guarding the skies for themselves."

You've likely seen it, but if not, head over to Kamalia et alia to read her post about her druid Kerisa getting flying back.

As Thaloc says in the comments "THIS would be the perfect introduction for the patchnotes."

To me it shows the passion and love fans can have for this game and their characters. The hunger for good story and character development in addition to the flying so many of us love.

I might not have liked the flying restriction (hint: I hated it) but this at least tried to give it some in-game justification.  Someone else (can't remember) also suggested that the Iron Horde was just too dominate and it was too dangerous to fly except to the very restricted flightpaths with expert flyers (? riders? not really pilots, flightmasters?).  It wouldn't have made me like the flying decision but it would have given some logical justification, which can make it more palatable.

It's something similar that Fiannor touched on when talking about her followers.

Yes, I know the entire game consists of wisps of imagination bound to 1’s and 0’s, but one of the things Blizz has always really excelled at is bringing depth and body to nearly every part of the game. Graphics, art, animation, programming, and dev imagination all come together to give us a wonderful, fun, interactive environment.

 
I know gameplay before story is how Blizzard, and WoW in particular, works but a little more imagination would really go a long way.

Two good reads, go check them out.

Witty Post Title About Flying!

Yeah I got nothing for this one.  I'm just happy to be flying again.

The sparkle pony rises

These are the only screenshots I got because I really just wanted to get out and do stuff.  I couldn't decide which mount to use, what background, or how to get a better shot.  Just let me fly!

For the first few minutes I actually forgot I could fly a few times. Riding around on the ground, like a scrub?  This will not stand!  (Note for readers: I actually like ground riding and choose to do it fairly often - this is just a semi-venting for me about having the CHOICE to do that.)

In addition to FREEDOM, there were a few other changes that were unexpected.  I love that the Safari Hat is finally a toy.  I've kvetched before about toys versus non-toys-that-should-probably-be-toys so I'm happy at least one got added.

Flying kitty returns!

There was also the new account wide Battle Pet Tamers: Warlords quest that was making an ugly yellow exclamation point in my garrison.  The spouse and I decided to head out and take care of that nonsense post haste.

And with flying, we could.

We FLEW around to the various pet masters in Draenor and did their battles and finished the quest in a reasonable amount of time.

We also both grabbed the occasional treasure with the proper expletives towards jumping puzzles shouted.

The Garrison, from above

It wasn't the most fun I've ever had on WoW, but it was probably one of the better experiences I've had on Draenor.  And it was all because I had the choice to fly.

Flying is coming but...

Last night while reading Grumpy's post about being let down I saw a comment that the flying patch was announced for September 1st.  There wasn't further detail in the comment so I wasn't sure if it was true.  So a quick bop over to Blizzard Watch and yup, patch 6.2.2 is planned for September 1st and will have flying in it.

And then I did something else.

It's not that I'm not happy flying is finally coming.  Or is it?  It will have been nearly 10 months since Warlords of Draenor came out and we've been grounded in current content since then.  How long has it been since "weeks, not months"?

Maybe this is just too early and others are writing up their thoughts in slower, more considered manner, but I haven't seen one celebratory post yet.  Hell, mine isn't celebratory.  Again, I'm happy it is finally here, but it just feels so anti-climatic.  Not "quite too little, too late" but, just lacking in any reason to be excited.

Perhaps all of the energy has been sucked up by talking about Legion.  Or the people that have the Pathfinder achievement are tired of waiting and those still working on it feel discouraged. Or that Blizzard is rolling it out but it's no more important to them than the racial bonus changes.

I feel like I won something that I wanted but in all the effort to get it, all the redtape or pointless barriers in my way, the joy of finally getting it has been tainted and some of the appeal has been tarnished.

Maybe all of the terrible PR bumbling and the toxic divisions it created have made things less enjoyable.

Or maybe I didn't get enough sleep.  :)