The Daily Grind: How do you feel about flying mounts in MMOs?
When World of Warcraft introduced flying mounts with The Burning Crusade, I immediately saw it as a mistake, a viewpoint that I maintain until this day. For those that disagree, you have to address why the studio itself kept coming up with reasons to "ground" pilots in subsequent expansions. I think that even the devs know that it was a mistake but Pandora's Box was opened and there was no shutting it.
For the record, I'm not against flying mounts in general, just in games not designed from the ground-up to have them. They tend to trivialize and shrink the game world, since you can just fly over any obstacles and spend your time looking at featureless sky instead of hand-designed landscape. As in real life, I'm OK keeping my feet on the ground in games most of the time.
What's your position on flying mounts? Bonus points if you include examples of both bad and good flight implementation.
Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
