Character Level Boost to 90 priced at $60

Originally Posted by gaymer77

Am I the only one who doesn't have this listed in the shop? Not that I would pay $60 to get an instant 90 but I just don't see it in the shop at all.

I dont know either, i have asked multiple times on this site and noone has given an answer.

Originally Posted by Raunchy

I dont know either, i have asked multiple times on this site and noone has given an answer.

It was only in for a few minutes before being taken out again.

Price makes no sense unless they're actively attempting to force people to buy expansions if they want their level boost.

Originally Posted by Tempeste

I like to spend my income on actually playing a game, not on playing it less.

Buying characters with real money is pretty much where I draw the line and will not be purchasing any WoW related expansions from now on. And I'm going to wholeheartedly laugh at anyone who buys this under the guise of "I have a real life I don't have time to play this game that I pay $15 a month for so I'm going to spend extra money to play it less".

That's the thing. You don't play it less at all.

You just skip useless content that you don't like.

What makes you think that people will buy this boost and let the character in the char selection menu ? The time you don't waste by leveling will be for doing things you like at endgame (LFR or Raid, craft, gold challenge, pvp, etc).

Most of the things happen at end game, not during leveling. For those who still want to have the leveling experience, they can.

I don't have fun leveling, I don't have fun in low level dungeon because a class can kill you in 2 hits... but I have fun playing at max level. Why wouldn't I pay only 60$ and do what I like ?

Originally Posted by drakonblayde

They are. One of the key selling points to WoD to try and bring back old customers is the 'free' level 90.

So selling level 90's doesn't attract customers?

Another assertion without supporting evidence.

If I choose to pay Blizzard $60 bucks because for some reason I decided 'hey, I want to try a level 90 druid', how does that have any effect on you or any other player that's any different than me spending a few days leveling with guild perks and heirlooms. Unless you know me personally, you would never know the difference. So how would one way effect you in a manner that the other wouldn't?

I have yet to see anyone in this thread saying it would have an impact on the game be able to answer that.



Well, I guess I'm just dumb, because that advantage is not obvious to me. Again, please elaborate.

When people buy level 90s they are not leveling. That means you have longer queuing times for dungeons and BG's than when they would be leveling. This is simple logic.
Empty zones is kinda a lame argument since they are empty anyway but then again they are connecting realms right now.

You having 11 characters in 10 seconds and me having to spend 800 hours to get them. In what world is this not an advantage? You can farm gear and gold for 800 hours while I am leveling.
Did you try a BG recently with a character without decent pvp gear? It's really not fun at the moment. I could have gotten that gear a long time ago but I was spending my time on leveling characters.

But yes I will not notice when you buy a level 90 druid, duh. I will also not notice when there is one bot on my realm mining nodes.

p.s. Where is your evidence that this whole thing is any good? Other than Blizzard making more money.

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Originally Posted by hiveNzin0

That's the thing. You don't play it less at all.

You just skip useless content that you don't like.

What makes you think that people will buy this boost and let the character in the char selection menu ? The time you don't waste by leveling will be for doing things you like at endgame (LFR or Raid, craft, gold challenge, pvp, etc).

Most of the things happen at end game, not during leveling. For those who still want to have the leveling experience, they can.

I don't have fun leveling, I don't have fun in low level dungeon because a class can kill you in 2 hits... but I have fun playing at max level. Why wouldn't I pay only 60$ and do what I like ?

Keep kidding yourself.

I'm wondering when we can skip farming honor or VP for the same reasons. Grinding BG's and MoP dungeons is boring and I don't want to waste my time. For those who still want to have that experience, they can.

Well, I am a multi-class multi-glad, and I will be buying a 90 for the toon or two I don't have, and within one (maybe two) week(s) I will be better than 50% of the people playing that class normally.. Buying 90 doesn't mean anything, a shitty player will still be shit, and a good player will be good

Originally Posted by megasus

The theory is that if Blizzard makes more money, it will result in more content with higher quality. Do you think Blizzard simply sits on it's money and doesn't spend it?

Another thing I want to point out is, that based on inflation the subscription fee would be at about $18.49 today. But it isn't. That's 23.3% less money they're making of each subscriber today.

Dream on. They are not going to spend that money on WoW when they obviously don't have to since you are so happy to give them your money.

If they would start accounting for inflation that would be a big joke. Bet that will keep people subscribed. But thanks for the info, I have so much sympathy for a company making billions of dollars now that I am going to donate my money to them to make me a better game.

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Originally Posted by jellmoo

Could you make some attempt to explain then? What is your point?

An example:

Bill loves playing WoW with his friends Steve and Judy. They've been playing together for years, and it's a great way for Bill to relieve some stress. Bill has been playing a Warlock for these past few years, but finds it a little stale now. He wants to mix things up a bit and try something different. He's always been wanting to try out a Druid, and decides to give it a shot.

He wants to play with Steve and Judy at max level, where they all have fun. To get there, he has an option between two currencies:

Time or Money

As an experienced player, Bill thinks that he can get to max level in about 50 hours of played time.

Alternatively, he can use the service to spend $60 to achieve level 90.

Levels 1 to 90 are simply a grind. He's done it all before, and gets little value from doing it again. His sole goal is to get to max level with his new character so that he can play with his friends. To that end he has his choice, which does he value more. Time or money?

If Bill has a whole lot of time on his hands, maybe it's just simpler for him to level the character and use his currency of time. If Bill has very limited time to play the game, this option might be less appealing. It might make more sense for Bill to use monetary currency to bypass that and achieve his goal: endgame play with his friends.

Bill has a choice. Bill can take the solution that best fits his goals and lifestyle. He isn't forced into one path or another.

Everyone has a finite supply of time and money. Some have more of one and less of the other, and vice versa. This is simply a way to make it so that you can choose which of the two you wish to spend.

This whole scenario shouldn't even exist. You paid for the game and you pay for the subscription TO HAVE FUN playing the game. Leveling should either be fun or it shouldn't exist/be able to be skipped. It's just ridiculous that you want to pay even more for basically nothing.

Okay let me break this down for the very last time.

Basically, the risk of a cash shop is that, naturally, it brings profit to Blizzard. Blizzard being a company, I think we can all agree that they want profit. Profit, for a company, is good. I'm okay with this. I'm okay with paying for the expansions and for the monthly subscription.

The thing with the cash shop is that it's additional profit that they can milk by providing less content for the game you are already paying for. Obvious example would be that the cash shop mounts are the few mounts that look really original (and in my opinion are a lot more awesome than in game mounts). The question I ask you is, what incentive does Blizzard have to make cool in-game mounts when, if they make mediocre in-game mounts, they would stimulate you to pay additional money for the cool ones?


The same issue, and much more obviously, exists in the character boost. Now I think most people can agree that leveling can become a drag, especially after so many years. Despite the valiant efforts of the Cataclysm expansion, leveling is in short too boring, with little to no challenge. Leveling has many issues, again something I think many people can agree on. Be it from too few rewards from gaining a level since the talent system overhaul, to the challenge (or lack thereof). Dead world, too-crowded world, and so on. Over the course of the years, Blizzard has tried many approaches to vaguely remedy these issues. Connected realms have resulted in new problems (waiting for spawns, gankwars), while previously you were playing alone in the world. With the introduction of heirlooms to speed up the leveling process, leveling has become even more mind-numbing as a result of the ridiculous stats on the items. Even without heirlooms (I just did this), the leveling process is incredibly stale, boring and predictable. The Cataclysm overhaul has, in my personal opinion, reduced the replayvalue of most quests and almost all quests in an area are gated behind other quests, making questing very linear.


This is really a huge shame. MMOs are NOT only about end-game. MMOs are about experiencing an amazing big, open world with many other people, in which you have a variety of things to do. Endgame is but a part of that. By introducing boosts, Blizzard is essentially saying "we give up on improving leveling". What incentive does Blizzard now have to improve leveling beyond perhaps some minor convenience changes, now that the option is there to "just buy your 90". After all, making you buy that is more profit for Blizzard.


So, in conclusion in a hopefully not too long post (could have made it a lot longer, but I'll spare you guys): a cash shop is always going to cost the game in quality, as the company will want to maximize income from the cash shop, by providing things that are a) not available in-game with no additional purchases, or b) providing options to skip shitty content (which will always remain shitty, because that way more people will pay to skip it).

I don't personally understand how anyone can be fine with this model.

Unless WoW goes free to play, this is the most blatant case of (expensive!) pay-to-win I have ever seen.

Well that's the straw that breaks the camels back and I turn my back on Wow, playing non stop since TBC only to see it go downhill since activision took over. Goodbye and about time tbh, it's outlived it's lifespan that games of this ilk tend to last. 10 years is a hell of a long time for a game to last. Time to say goodbye and abandon ship. Onward to DArk Souls 2 and other games that don't charge me for every fart in the game. Sub & pay to win & pay for items & char xp boost. Fuck that.

They are just milking it before it dies out now, anyone who can't see that is blind.

Originally Posted by Facerockker

Unless WoW goes free to play, this is the most blatant case of (expensive!) pay-to-win I have ever seen.

How is this pay-to-win? You get a character in all greens at level 90. It's pay-to-skip-80-hours-of-leveling-that-means-nothing-at-max-level-anyways.

You can disagree with the boost as a concept, or the price of the boost all you want, but don't make it out to be something that it's not.

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Originally Posted by Excess

Well that's the straw that breaks the camels back and I turn my back on Wow, playing non stop since TBC only to see it go downhill since activision took over. Goodbye and about time tbh, it's outlived it's lifespan that games of this ilk tend to last. 10 years is a hell of a long time for a game to last. Time to say goodbye and abandon ship. Onward to DArk Souls 2 and other games that don't charge me for every fart in the game. Sub & pay to win & pay for items & char xp boost. Fuck that.

They are just milking it before it dies out now, anyone who can't see that is blind.

You really are looking at this wrong. From Vanilla (which I'm guessing you never played), they've done everything to make the game easier and easier t play. Originally leveling to 60 took forever, end game was full of ridiculous rep-grinds and gated fights with Resist gear. In PvP, to get Rank 14 people used to quit their jobs because they needed to be in WSG for 18 hours a day due to the stupid ladder system.

As time has gone on, they've made leveling easier and easier. First with reducing XP, then with Heirlooms, boosted rest XP, RAF, etc., etc. Yet despite how how easy Blizzard has made leveling, people still pay for leveling services, so they've added this service to counter that.

If Blizzard was truly milking it as you say, they'd make leveling harder, not easier to level to "force" people to buy the boost.

I just hope Blizzard will launch the expansion during the next 6 months. I'm starting to think this level 90 boost along with the free you'll get from pre-ordering WoD is being faced by Blizz like a new patch (in terms of lifespan)... something among the lines of "since they now have a new level 90 character they need to gear up...

I'll obviously cancel my subscription if that's the case... I already have 6 characters at level 90.

I'm glad some people are on board while $60 seems high I think it's a good price point. There won't be a drastic influx of level 90's while still presenting the opportunity to have one to someone who really does want to play that character. Contrary to what many presume leveling a character does not make you more skilled with that class, it lessens the learning curve is all. Your ability rests solely in your experience with the game and perseverance to improve. I've been wanting a mage for the longest time but I don't have the patience or the time to spend a few hundred hours (don't quote me on this) on leveling, which is painfully boring besides MOP content to me. That being said on the PvE side of things I'll be better than 90% of players in a matter of weeks, and at least 50% better in the PvP game. Not arrogant, just truth. If I play a class I invest myself in it. Sure we will see some crap 90's but I doubt we'll see many more (besides the presumed freebie from WoD). I maintain three 90's right now a shaman, warlock, and warrior. While my gear isn't the greatest (besides my shaman) I'm confident in my ability.

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Originally Posted by Facerockker

Unless WoW goes free to play, this is the most blatant case of (expensive!) pay-to-win I have ever seen.

How is this pay-to-win whatsoever? You don't get any advantage. If you're a shitty player you will most certainly be a shitty player with a boosted 90 if you go that route.

so is this active? Like I could log in today and boost someone?

Still think the paid leveling service was already planned before the free level 90 with the coming expansion was announced.
Politicians love to promise stuff even though they know its not going to happen or not even possible to begin with so why should a company be any different?

Originally Posted by lakers01

How is it under that bridge?

People will bitch and moan at anything they can. Leveling sucks in this game if you have done it more than 4 or 5 times it becomes so mundane that it is even hard to bring ones self to do it.

Pay to win, glad I quit before the panda shit and this cash shop nonsense

Originally Posted by stormich50

Pay to win, glad I quit before the panda shit and this cash shop nonsense

You do realize that if you don't want to use the FREE boost you get for ordering the expansion, you don't need to. You also don't need to use the ones that are on the store. So really, this in no way effects you what so ever.

Also, why do you care so much about a game you quit two years ago that you are posting on forums about it? I think the problem here might be you, not Blizzard.

Originally Posted by Nelle

The downfall has started.

You mean... the influx of new and returning players who want to try raiding and joining in at the same level with friends?

Man I love reading MMO-Champion posters, its how I stay certain of the lack of intelligence of an 'average human'.

"It's too high!"
"It's too low!"
"It shouldn't exist!"

Let's go ahead and skip the stupid things and just get right to the heart of it. If you believe this feature should not exist then you either A. Think that Warlords of Draenor should not include a free boost to a level that allows the character to get right into the WoD action (since, let's face it, getting a free 90 when 6.0 comes out will do you zero good as it goes to 'pay to win' because you'll be so far behind that 'winning' at 90 will be out of reach for anyone who has not already 'won' and has people to carry them through those means).
or
B. That a better alternative exists to prevent people from buying many expansion sets and transferring characters to get free 90s (I believe there are better alternatives but all of them have workarounds for a player who is REALLY willing to spend)

So, let's look at the facts. When this service becomes available, you'll be able to skip either to the current max level just before an expansion so you'll have enough time to get ready to level that new toon to 100, or the max level will already be 100 and you'll be ready to go ahead and level to that.

Now, let's look at some of the things people are saying:
"This is pay to win" - Really? I'm sorry but if you consider getting to max level and having all greens to be 'winning' then you're either exaggerating or you REALLY suck at this game. Making it to the max level is NOT winning. It gets you in a position where you can start pursuing those paths that allow you to 'win' at this game. You're paying to skip a time sink *that requires little to no skill*. One could argue that everything in WoW is a time sink, I'd agree, but doing any of those things that a reasonable person would consider 'winning' at WoW also requires skill, and not just time.
As a player who has only ever used the server transfer (and maybe race change, don't remember) paid extras of WoW, I still really don't care if someone wants to pay to skip a time sink.

Time is money my friends, and sometimes money can buy time. As long as it cannot buy SKILL or the things that skill (or a HUGE pile of gold, in some cases) obtains, the game is not pay to win.

"The price is just set to maximize their profit" - while I'd agree this would actually be the logical approach, I'm sorry but just.. really, wow, $60? No, that's not maximizing profit (at least from the 90 boost, one could argue end-game and them trying to retain subs by not making it too easy and all that BS but w/e) they'd definitely price it lower if they wanted to maximize profit. For e-products such as these the marginal cost is ridiculously near zero so any purchase is almost 100% profit, maximizing profit therefore is the price where Purchases*price= highest possible, and I really, REALLY doubt that they'll get even half as many purchases as they would at $30 or 1/3 as many as at $20. I'll admit this is speculation and I'm not an expert, but probably between $20-$30 is the sweet spot for if they really wanted to maximize. They DID set that price to prevent people using it all the time, and so that is it just a bit cheaper than buying boxed sets to do the same.

"This is Activision's doing!" - That may be, but considering just about every other major game company does microtransactions now, even for games that are not free, I'd say it's the industry that has changed. I know there are a LOT of 'purists' out there who think that video games should be purely for the sake of making a good game and that making money off that game should be a by-product of making a good game and not the other way around, but I'm sorry, the industry isn't run by artists and gamers, it's run by accountants, economists, boards of directors and shareholders. I know a lot of people still wish Blizzard was a bastion of gamer-centered development, but facts are that in ANY publicly traded company, you have to do your best to maximize profits, or your board and shareholders start making heads roll. Activision may have been involved, but if they hadn't done it than the people who actually own the company who don't give a crap about gamers and their 'feelings' would have done it anyway. Don't hate the player, hate the game.