Gamespot has a juicy interview with Jeff Kaplan (Tigole) about World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade. A lot of details were revealed.
Players do not need to walk through the Dark Portal every single time your guild or PUG Team needs you in Outland. Players without the expansion will still be able to buy socketed items from the Auction or linking to a jewelcrafter. You can dismount in midair in Outland. If you are 800 feet above the ground on your mount and click dismount you can fall to your death or if you are a priest or mage you can just slow fall and glide down. Sweet! Make sure to watch the video interview too. Read this 2-pages interview.
Gamespot: The Burning Crusade will open up a new Outlands area that isn't a part of Azeroth. How will players reach the Outlands?
Tigole: You'll travel through the Dark Portal, which is in the Blasted Lands. At one point the Blasted Lands and the Swamp of Sorrows were one zone called the Black Morass in the Warcraft 2 era. When Medivh opened the Dark Portal, it caused a huge crater to form and opened the world to the Hellfire Peninsula. Eventually as the expansion ages, you'll be able to port to one of the key cities, and if you have a warlock buddy and two friends, they can just summon you up. We're not going to force you to run through the portal every time.
Links
gamespot.com - Interview
