http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2548839953
World of Warcraft has evolved quite a bit since the day the Keyring bag slot was added in patch 1.11. When implemented, the Keyring provided players with a convenient way of storing dungeon, quest, and other keys automatically. Back when the largest bag was a mind bottling 18 slots -- rumored to be bottomless -- the Keyring helped save precious bag space. But as things tend to do, time went on, bags got bigger, and designs for (literally and figuratively) gating content evolved through the years. 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 from you. Because of this, we?ve decided to get rid of the Keyring in order to free up that space for new features. This change could also potentially allow us to play around with the amount of default storage space you?re allotted down the road. So, what does this mean for you and the keys you might not have looked at in the last couple expansions or so?

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. Some keys which no longer serve a purpose in the game will automatically be removed from your inventory. In return, you?ll be compensated for them with their respective vendor sell prices in gold. You might also have random leftover quest keys from outdated quests, or quests which were removed in Cataclysm. Keys that fall into this category have no use and no sell price, as they are labeled as quest items, and will be automatically removed from your inventory. Any remaining keys that might still potentially serve some use in the game will be transferred into your regular inventory. If there is not enough space in your inventory to hold any leftover keys once patch 4.2 hits live realms, the keys will be placed in a backlogged storage system. Once space is made for a backlogged key, the key will take that space after you log out or switch to a new zone (i.e. changing continents, entering a dungeon or Battleground, etc.).

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.

Bashiok
Community Manager

Posted from WoW Vault

Congratulations on another solution in search of a problem, keep up the good work!

*sniff* I remember when they implemented keyrings. Best patch ever.

 

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So, my blacksmith gets screwed out of inventory slots now, for carrying crafted keys?


WTF for?

 

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because they hate inventory space

Is this really what they are spending their time on? I don't know about programming, I will admit, but is this maybe more about reducing their storage needs (as on the server for a character's keyring or something?) than ours?

I just don't see why this is a problem or has any cluttering effect on the UI. If anything, I always felt keys were a very immersive kind of attunement for content. A world without any locked doors, especially doors to where the bad guys are? Maybe it is just nostalgia too, but you can't take my Jump-a-tron and Shadowforge Keys without a few grumbles. Most of the time I don't even realize that keyring is there (clearly cluttering my UI), poor thing. I like to know it's there though, sometimes, like a safety blanket. Tell the youngsters of the new casual epoch how I worked my ass off to get that all these damn things just so we could do Blackrock Spire and wipe in the whelp room over and over. It's tangible proof that I played back in the day, that I'm an old timer, linked to fond memories. And I want to keep them.

 

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Not all keys are being removed from the game, they're going to have to be stored in your bags again.





The real question is what's the point? Hopefully they're freeing up space for something worthwhile like a larger backpack or some other sort of meaningful storage. I'm just not sure why they'd even announce this before they were ready to announce the feature that required this change.

It makes me wonder if they're trying to free up 'UI space' to incorporate another bag slot or something along those lines in a future patch/expansion.

 

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Don't you mean "another bag slot available via premium content"?

 

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QFT.

I foresee a micro transaction for the new bag slot.

 

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