I went to this bar recently – one of those trendy – yuppy bar places, hidden down a dark ally, with no signage out the front, except a tacky 18 and over piece of paper sign, stuck in the window. Now that can mean a few things; doors in dark alleys. Who knows what you’re walking into?
So you get the courage to open up the door, and the wall of noise and dark meets you, and you see candles, and tables and this mutha of a cow head on the wall. You’re surprised, delighted, feel a little naughty perhaps, opening up this strange door to a secret den.
Unless you were looking for this place, or someone told you how to find it, or took you there – you would never find it, half of us walked past it several times not even knowing where the entrance was, and that makes it kind of magical, a mystery, a secret place.
There were a few places like that in Wow. Found by trial and error, investigating weird places, following rumors, or half baked directions.. “I’m sure it’s here someplace.. ”
The secret village and airstrip between Ironforge and Menethil. The night me and some guildies at the time went out our little pilgrimage via Loch Modan hills, over the snows near Ironforge, jumped and fell, and healed our way through the secret valleys, and we explored the village and all the sights, I had a lot of fun that night.
Another time we went to the dancing troll village and killed all the trolls until we got bored, again climbing over hills, and through the snows of winterspring this time, falling down hills, levitating, and so on ( including rezing, and summoning people that couldn’t quite make it)
There was a spot above stormwind a friend took me once, took a while to work out way through up the hills behind stormwind and above thunderfalls, it used to be one of his thinking places and I felt a little special that he shared it with me.
Half the fun of these places was the Journey, the adventure, the ” maybe we are somewhere where we shouldn’t be”
While there is certainly more to see by flying around places, the details on the roofs in the city, the little hatches, the little alcoves you could never get to before, things like blowing up Tekton ( and half of Agree Tylers sheep) and visiting what I think is the prettiest waterfall in all of Azeroth.
I couldn’t do that when I couldn’t fly in Azeroth, but now that I can now perch on the tallest flag pole in Stormwind and look down at the city in its entirety, and go wow, what a spectacular view from up here, it’s not so magical anymore.
If I want to see something I can fly there, there’s no mystery anymore, no more magical hidden places. Heck they even put a tunnel in the Dancing troll village so you can get there easier, From darkshore to Shatterspear vale.
I think being able to fly in Azeroth is great, but it’s also makes me a little sad for the adventures I once had.
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Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog 
Azeroth is like a small village; There just ain’t a whole lot to explore after you’ve spent a few years in it. At best, flying in Azeroth just makes you realize how much of the world you have seen already. By contrast, flying in the real world can overwhelm you with the knowledge of how much you haven’t explored.
I never did figure out Stormwind or make the run to the cow level. But at least I saw the airport and dancing trolls. Then they went and ruined it by letting us go there. I hate when they remove rules, then how do we break them?
Lots of new hidden places have been added with Cataclysm. Of course some of the old ones have become quest hubs and others removed altogether, but there are plenty of new easter eggs out there, fx Thunderstrike Mountain.
I loved this, it was nicely written.
I haven’t checked out to see if the old Night Elf port in Eastern Plaguelands or the farm east of Hinterlands are there yet. Those were always neat to swim too.
I like you when you are not talking about slaughtering all my friends and family!
Nice post.
Very well said, and I think its why I never clicked as well with outland or northrend and why I feel more distant in cataclysm. Being high above makes it hard to connect to the land and appreciate its scope.
That said, there are still hidden areas, while it was never hard to actually get to, Newman’s landing has been a favorite of mine since day 1. Literally, my first character stumbled upon when she decided her level 5 self was better suited for Dun Morough than Teldrassil. Its always been kinda special to me. As long as there are still places that are out of the way, you can still find secrets, they just aren’t as hard to get to.
I don’t think the loss is worth the gain from flying.
They could have made faster ground mounts and really fast griffins.
The quirky litte things I like are going away; the new stuff I do not like (linear twitchfest ftl)
oh wel. anyway, I agree with your well written post.
Thx
Places I’ve found since Cataclysm:
– A small farm where they breed robotic sheep strapped with dynamite.
– A random group of NPCs having a BBQ outside of a flaming tower.
– A lonely little poor gnome that doesn’t like it when you kill his livestock.
– An abandoned shack with some suspicious blood trails deep in Troll country.
– A downed Goblin War Bee.
Ultimately, I’ve had more fun exploring in Cataclysm than I’ve had doing anything else! 😀
Ohhh do share your finds! I used to love exploring, but just havn’t gotten around to it since Cata.
– A small farm where they breed robotic sheep strapped with dynamite.
If I recall, it’s along the eastern coast of the Eastern Kingdoms. Either in Arathi or Loch Modan if I recall.
– A random group of NPCs having a BBQ outside of a flaming tower.
Just north of the Dire Maul, they’re on a little island in the highlands.
– A lonely little poor gnome that doesn’t like it when you kill his livestock.
This is the little house near the waterfalls just above the Human Starter Area.
– An abandoned shack with some suspicious blood trails deep in Troll country.
Just east of Zul’Gurub, in the hills.
– A downed Goblin War Bee.
Right above Dun Modr. Dark Irons do not care for goblin War Bees apparently.