My Letter to Blizzard

Another gaming post. Not for you if you're not a gamer.


This morning I wrote a letter to Mike Morhaime at Blizzard. I'm not sure what his job title is, I only know that he was someone to contact to share my opinion with.

I wanted MY opinion heard. Not just the "I want to fly", but the "this is WHY I fly and how it impacts how I choose to play the game." I may be the only person out of seven million players who games the way I do, but I've still been a WoW player since BC launched.

My email:

Dear Mr. Morhaime,

I wish to voice my reasons for not resubscribing this month when my game time ran out. To put it simply: No flying.

I am not the typical gamer. I don't play for endgame content, I could care less about raiding or heroics unless I'm running with friends, and I only PVP to get enough honor/tokens to earn mounts. The only reason I quest is either because I have to in order to open up flight paths and/or new areas, or because there's a fun reward at the end of a chain.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE the fact that WoW has so many different options for people with different play styles.

All this talk about "immersion" makes no sense to me. I don't play the game for story content. I don't want to be railroaded along a specific path. I'd take up Assassin's Creed if I wanted that kind of game.

I struggle with depression, so I use WoW as a coping tool for bad days. I pet battle. I hop from archaeology node to node in the hopes that one day my alchemist will find that elusive canopic jar with the sandstone dragon recipe in it. Or sometimes I just fly around because I can and admire the view. Pandara is GORGEOUS and the mounts are beautiful.

In previous expansions, I leveled several toons just by pet battling for rare pets in every zone. I don't know how many pet battles I've done the world over, it stopped counting after 2000.

In WoD, I think I've done all of 700ish pet battles. Why? Because I cannot fly from point A to point B to get to where I specifically want to be, whether it's for pet collecting, pet dailies, or archaeology nodes. Even with the announcement of all the new pets in 6.2, that's not enough of a draw for me if I can't fly there to get them. :(

Yes, WoD is beautiful. Yes, you did some fun and very striking geography. And wow, is that geography a pain to navigate on foot.

I am so very sad that you will not be introducing flight into WoD or future expansions. I truly do believe you have a superior product compared to what's on the market, especially for players like me. I'm sure my game style is a very small minority when compared to the other millions of players and perhaps you won't miss my $15 a month.

I truly hope you change your minds on this stance.

Thank you,
Chris van Soolen
Vannesse - Kirin Tor

--
I received a response!  I was not only floored that I warranted a response, but that it came the same day I sent the email.  It's short, and my husband is convinced it's a canned letter, but it made me feel like I was heard. It doesn't make me want to resubscribe because my issues are still there and unresolved, but it made a difference emotionally.

His response:

Hi Chris,

Thank you very much for your feedback. I will share this with other folks as we discuss our future plans. This is very helpful.

-Mike

--

My husband was super excited when I stopped playing WoW. He quit a few years ago, and was hoping that maybe I'd start playing one of the free to play games that he loves. I told him what I was looking for in a game, and he was really sad that none of them had what I was looking for. They're all quest-based. Apparently Star Trek has mounts you can collect or pets? Something like that? But not the same.

Meh. At this point, I will admit that I miss having WoW available as a break from drawing or a rough day.

It's difficult for me to adjust to something new, but I am capable of adapting.