I don't give a crap about having wings so that I can fly.
I want wings so that my characters who have wings don't look so naked. I have an original species that FH recreates nearly perfectly, except for the lack of wings.
If Kovu wanted FH to be so realistic, there wouldn't be so much unrealistic about it.
Forget functional wings. I just want them for decoration. Can't someone who is close to Kov suggest non-functioning wings that are just there for customization/looks? He can have his realistic "having to use your head to get around, explore, find things, etc." all he wants. I just want wings so my characters are complete, NOT so that I can fly around.
Besides, Kovu's logic has one serious flaw, because one of the camera angles allows you to basically leave your character's body and set the camera angle high enough so that you can explore everything aerially anyway. Moot point.
Sorry to be so blunt; I love Kovu's work, don't get me wrong. I just disagree with his logic on wings is all. If they're non-functional and just there to complete characters, then it doesn't hurt his views on exploration at all. It seems to me that adding non-functional wings would make for a compromise that could please the majority, Kovu included. You can appreciate and love someone's work and still disagree with him/her. That's what being mature is all about. I just wanted to make that clear.
Also: I don't accept the "realism" argument, and I won't unless it comes from Kovu's mouth directly. Even if it did, I would still argue; There's too much evidence of unrealistic things in FH for me to believe that argument. Arguing for "realistic creativity" doesn't work either, because realistic felines don't have dragon ears, and canines don't have goblin ears, no matter how creative you want to be. A large portion of the markings are unrealistic; you'd never see them in nature. I can't think of a single animal out there that has Skeleton markings, except for the Death's-Head Moth, but is FH a moth roleplaying game? Not without wings!
You can't have it both ways. You can't have some unrealistic things and then tell other people you don't want one unrealistic thing because it's unrealistic. If you just flat-out say "I don't want wings, even non-functioning ones" then I'll accept that based on the fact that it's your game. But I will not accept it based on an invalid argument.