Grim Views

Developer Interview - No More Flying
Polygon has an interview with Ion Hazzikostas talking about Patch 6.2 and beyond.

Flying

• The team will not be adding flying to Draenor.
• Moving forward, new expansions are also unlikely to have flying outside of specific zones or expansion ideas.
• The team will continue to improve flight paths.
• Being able to fly added convenience, but removed the ability to add things like targeted exploration of the world and made the world feel smaller and less dangerous.

Thank god. I love the feather but forced ground life is his it needs to stay

But but but all my flying mounts garble garble!

Do not like. No sir, I don't like it.

I have really mixed feelings about this. I also wonder if they'll take away flying around the city capitals like Orgimmar and Stormwind. It would be interesting if city raids had to be done on foot. Then again, I guess that's how it was in the old days.

It'll force a lot more world PVP, that's for sure.

I would imagine that places that allow flying now would stay flyable.

I honestly don't see any big changes either way. 90% of all exploring is done pre-level cap when they typically don't allow flying anyways. It was kinda hypothesized earlier on that a lack of flying would increase world pvp, but if it has, I haven't seen it.

So long as they fix the friggin flight points, I'm cool. If I'm in northern stranglethorn I shouldn't have to fly all the way to God damn Booty Bay to get to the Blasted Lands on the other side of Zul Gurub!

There would be more world PvP with ground mounts if we didn't sit in the garrison all day long.

Removing content is a bad way to design. Add content. Mounted combat!

I am unhappy with this. I consider myself very skilled at in-flight combat. Now, I only get to use it to blast away the rare AFK Alliance player I find hovering in Northrend.
I've been chomping at the bit waiting for Draenor flight as it would make fleshing out my alts much easier. I'd leave my garrison a LOT more if I could fly. I really despise the twisting, confusing, and often treacherous terrain of most of the Draenor zones and thought they were designed that way with eventual flight in mind.
It seems to me that they could make the level-capped zones accessible by flying mount only, thus diverting higher-level players away from the lowbie sections of various zones. There are many dungeons and raids only accessible by flight, why not entire zones? This just seems lazy on their part.

Removing flight for good seems capricious. It obviously isn't going to change the experience in WoD. It's dubious that it would encourage any more exploration beyond what players do when they level their mains (and alts). Camping in cities/garrison during downtime isn't new, and doing it in the air did have PVP risk. So far, I haven't seen much more WPVP than I did in MoP, where we had Alliance glitching their way into the Shrine and using the upper ledge to snipe AFK people, and also using environment to do it on the balcony.

I agree with Malebrignon about being in the world more if we could fly. We'd be able to more fully appreciate the sheer scope of the zones if we could, though removing the option means future zones will designed accordingly. The first time I flew through Storm Peaks felt quite epic.

I also think that flyable zones will probably stay that way. Can't camp the TLPD if you can't fly.

Although if you can't fly, you have no reason to camp the TLPD :p

Aaaaaand we have lift-off again:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/19800551?page=1#1

That's fair. I'm actually surprised they're going to let level 90's fly (after you meet the requirements on one character.) But this might make me more likely to level Aureliya.

Hight Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

I wonder if flying will be allowed on the island of Ashran? Probably not. Maybe in Warspear and Stormshield?