Blizzard have announced that they’re removing the keyring bag from the game in 4.2. I don’t get this. I don’t understand. It just doesn’t make any sense. It makes so little sense that I think we need to go through their announcement bit by bit to work out what’s going on. I’m cherry-picking;
“… World of Warcraft has evolved quite a bit since the day the Keyring bag slot was added in patch 1.11…”
Yes, it has. Shall we get rid of Arena now too?
“… In today’s Azeroth, keys don’t really serve much of a purpose except to take up physical storage space from the game (which could be used for other awesome stuff), and visual interface space on yours…”
That’s because you’ve taken all of the wonder, imagination, and immersion out of the game, so yeah, I suppose it doesn’t make much sense to keep them.
“… Because of this, we’ve decided to get rid of the Keyring in order to free up some user interface space for exciting new features…”
Yeah, because those two or three millimetres are so precious.
“… This change could also potentially allow us to play around with the amount of default storage space you’re allotted down the road…”
Is it just me or does it sound like we’re listening to a snake oil salesman?
“… So, what does this mean for you and the keys you might not have looked at in the last couple expansions or so? …”
I see what you did there.
“… We’re currently working on the implementation of a system in patch 4.2 which will handle the removal of the Keyring, while causing you as little hassle with keys as possible…”
That’s funny, because I don’t remember them being much hassle at all. It’s not like I was wandering around cursing the weight of my in-game key chain.
“… We are continuing to work on new ways of allowing you to better manage the storage of various items in the game, and it is our goal to make sure the removal of the Keyring causes as little inconvenience to you as possible…”
It just makes you want to scratch your own eyes out with toothpicks doesn’t it.
Like I said at the start, I don’t get it, because this doesn’t make any sense. Why go to all the trouble to remove this? Unless it was an actual daily visual reminder of what your game used to stand for, of what heights it attempted to achieve, and one whose continuing presence leaves you feeling a tad uncomfortable. And what does this mean to rogues? No key-bag means no keys. No keys mean no locks. And thus I suppose no locks means another class ability down the drain. Remember that rogue quest in Westfall where you had to pick the bad guys pocket at the tower to get the key to open the chest inside? Pretty awesome quest that one. Yep, that was pretty cool.
May 26, 2011 at 12:59 pm
I think it makes a lot of sense, actually. Keys are useless in WoW nowadays. So the keyring should not use up space in the UI.
Now, on the topic on whether keys should have been made useless in the first place: I certainly think not. And I absolutely agree with you that keys were great. I never ever had a problem with them. Not that I can remember, anyway.
Although .. I always thought that it’s a little strange that some locked doors cannot be broken down with my axe. But that’s yet another topic.
May 26, 2011 at 1:33 pm
I have an idea why they do this. The question “why we can have 26-slot illusion bags but our backpack is still 16-slot” was repeatedly pressed to the developers until they confessed that backpack is more or less “hardcoded” into game.
So I suspect that keyring slots may be used to “upgrade” backpack, bit before this keys must be (forcefully) ejected.
May 26, 2011 at 1:41 pm
P.S. And no, locks are not going away: they do not remove blacksmith skeleton keys, just place them in regular bags.
So there will be “conventional” locks, like ones on safes and lockboxes and some doors. (Did you know that instead of going throug electrical part of Nightmare in H Deadmines you can teleport to pirate ship from foundry, ride up to the door from behind, lockpick it and fight the robot – many groups used this tactics for Vigorous VanCleef Vindicator achievement.) Those lock will still be opened by rogues and blacksmiths.
What will disappear are special locks that require quest-obtained or drop-obtained keys (Key to the City, Arkatraz key etc.), and I suspect most of these are already gone (what is the point if LFD bypasses them anyway).
May 26, 2011 at 2:28 pm
I wish they would add a lot more “Pick Lock” opportunities. I’m tired of being used for dumb lockboxes only….and I’m a little irritated that I don’t have to level my lockpicking anymore. I can’t really charge anything to pick random lockboxes if every Joe Rogue has the same ability as me. I liked it back when only 50% (or less) of rogues took the time to level to max lockpicking.
I didn’t do DM enough to know about the portal trick, so I’ll be doing that for sure.
May 27, 2011 at 5:09 am
This has a flip side. This lock picking thing.
When I left before WotLK, rogues would advertising picking for tips, and I would happy lug my pile of lockboxes over and dump them all on the rogue, and give a higher than market rate tip for each box.
When I came back for Cataclysm, no rogues ever advertised lockpicking anymore, and it seemed to be a horrible imposition to ask a random PUG rogue to pick a lock while we were in a group. And way too much trouble, and too loud, to spam the trade channel saying I was looking for a lockpicker and would pay xG per box.
So I simply…
…threw all the boxes away.
And felt sad to the bottom of my packratty heart.
May 26, 2011 at 4:46 pm
“… Because of this, we’ve decided to get rid of the Keyring in order to free up some user interface space for exciting new features…”
Yeah, because those two or three millimetres are so precious.
Yeah, that made me lol.
May 28, 2011 at 3:00 am
Maybe they will use the freed up space to add a button leading to a bigger and more exciting cash shop…
May 26, 2011 at 4:52 pm
They’re probably going to put a tab with keys like they did for pets and mounts, but out of the way (and not directly on the UI like it is now).
May 26, 2011 at 6:18 pm
Hilarious
It’s a shame though, I actually enjoyed collecting keys. Last year they already removed the Keymaster achievement by the way.
May 27, 2011 at 8:30 am
Your comments made me chuckle and that’s always good.
I’m as mystified as you are as to the reason why they’re making this change. Do they have too many developers or designers and they’re trying to give them something to do rather than make them redundant ?
There are several examples of pointless changes they’ve made recently, one that comes immediately to mind is the fishing icon which so desperately needed changing from a fish to a hook right ?
I would be happy to ignore these cosmetic changes until I encounter a boss which is buggy and never seems to get fixed, then it truly pisses me off that they’re wasting development time on key rings and fishing hooks.
May 28, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Aye, another bit of game immersion gone I agree, I’ve felt so dis-immersed (new word ?) this expansion that I let my sub lapse in March, first time in 5yrs, no plan to go back either, I feel too bitter just now.
Funny I still read the WoW blogs though, just goes to show, deep down, I’m missing something, but I fear its gone for good.
Personally I think you crooked roguey types deserve shackles not sheckles, but of course a rogue isn’t a shady-backstabbing-thief-on-our-side any more, are they ?, they’re just wallop machines.
May 31, 2011 at 4:21 pm
This may be the most pointless change ever. It seems like just yesterday I was thinking about how great the keyring was. It kept all my keys in one place, not taking up bag space. Did we use the key ring much? In the sense of opening it to click a key, no, never. But when was the last time we used our spell books? Once to drag a spell onto a hotkey and never again. Maybe it’s time to ditch the cumbersome spell book button.
May 31, 2011 at 8:20 pm
[...] were removing the keyring, I was a little perturbed. I didn’t know why then I stumbled on The Noisy Rogue’s post which puts it all together for me, and states it way better than I can, but here are my thoughts on [...]
June 1, 2011 at 6:35 pm
Next step, bandages.
Seriously, when’s the last time you used one?
June 2, 2011 at 12:57 am
I suppose then we can just get rid of first aid too.
June 9, 2011 at 2:09 pm
Bandages are regularry used at Chimaeron collapse phase by classes without spammable self-heal (warrior, hunter).