Why Flight Is So Controversial in Online Games

The sky in Final Fantasy XIV is full of catgirls on broomsticks and elves on dragonback. In World of Warcraft, orcs glide along in giant metal rockets and humans steer horse-sized birds across miles of desert. In the decade-plus since flying first came to massively multiplayer online role-playing games, digital airspace has become as populated as the ground, maybe even more so. When game developers introduced mounted flying to online superhero game City of Heroes and World of Warcraft in the mid-aughts, it changed the MMORPG genre forever--both for better and for worse. One of humanity's greatest wishes, it turns out, has sparked major controversy in the world of video games.