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  1. #1
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    Level 90 boost for complete beginners - good idea?

    So continues this contentious issue. I don't really agree with it, but I want your opinions on something specific that is sort of bothering me about it.
    Blizzard have said you'll get a free 90 with WoD, so I assume anyone who buys the Battle Chest and every other expansion (i.e, a brand new player), will have access to a 90, which will either be max level or 10 levels off (depending when/if they buy it/it's available.)

    A lot of arguments seem to be focused on the player "not being very good", and "not learning anything 1 - 90".
    Can this really be said for brand new players?
    Please all remember back to when you started. Learning a rotation was not a concept to you.
    Having a decent gear standard, and starting the treadmill was not a concept to you.

    WoW is huge in all the knowledge you learn in it, and to pick a few examples I specifically remember for starting many years ago,
    daft stuff like how to type in party chat, what a tank even was, all the little abbreviations for words (LFG, BoM), how to loot things, what professions did, how battlegrounds worked, what cities and locations were where, how basic questing worked, what addons were (I thought they were cheating), what a buff was, what a debuff was...
    And even social things like, "wow, that guy took my gear. Why are there arseholes everywhere?" "Why is no one joining my group?" "Why can't I go on that level 70 raid? I AM level 70."
    Even further, it gives you SOME faction pride (or it did me), and give you a genuine fear/hate/competitiveness of the other faction (which is healthy.)

    I understand the desire to introduce someone to WoW and say "hey yeah, you can play with me straight off", but tbh, I imagine they'd quit a lot faster when, aside from not knowing their class which they picked because it sounded cool, they would be completely out of their depth with all the things that people take for granted, and, quite genuinely, while I love WoW atm, some of my best memories are being a wide eyed level 34 human Paladin trying to sneak into Orgrimmar and kill Thrall because I could damn well make it if I tried, surely. (I didn't.) And I don't think 10 levels of WoD is enough to teach you all this (and the much more I couldn't mention.)

    Sorry for the huge post. Sorry for not articulating well, I just think this is important. Yes it doesn't affect me. But it doesn't have to to discuss it.

    EDIT: I'm sorry but can people read the post? Seem to be acting like I am QQing about people not learning their class/rotation.

    I'm talking about every single other thing that we take for granted. Which is a whole load of stuff, especially if you've never played an MMO before.
    Last edited by mmocd7e429002a; 2014-02-15 at 08:17 AM. Reason: Edit lol

  2. #2
    If they want to learn, they will learn.

    One could somewhat argue they'd miss out on the learning from 1-90, I'm and most people would somewhat agree.

    But a fresh level 90 babby new to the game and friendly is an improvement from an awful person who leveled 1-90 and doesn't care to learn and is a shit about it.
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  3. #3
    Level 90 beginner quests like DK starting zone.
    I learnt more about DKs in that 3 level starting zone than I learnt about mages by leveling 1-38, 1-40 and 1-70something(72 i believe)
    Of those 4 characters, I leveled DK first
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  4. #4
    Legendary! Frolk's Avatar
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    I hope they make an bigger tutorial for NEW ppl that use the boost to 90, like a OPTIONAL 15-25min long scenario explaining a lot of stuff of how the game works at "max lvl"
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  5. #5
    Banned Shadee's Avatar
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    Doesn't really matter. Most people are bad at the game anyway even though they leveled their toons.

  6. #6
    The Patient Sygil's Avatar
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    Most people don't learn their toon til level 90. It won't change anything.

  7. #7
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    That's what I'm saying though. Don't they?
    Sure they don't learn to be a hardcore raider.

    But you literally cannot function in WoW if you don't learn all the little stuff.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by NoiseTank13 View Post
    If they want to learn, they will learn.

    One could somewhat argue they'd miss out on the learning from 1-90, I'm and most people would somewhat agree.

    But a fresh level 90 babby new to the game and friendly is an improvement from an awful person who leveled 1-90 and doesn't care to learn and is a shit about it.
    Yeah, I'd say a bigger problem in regards to bad players isn't that they don't have the option to learn, but when they don't want to learn, so in my mind '90 boost' means jack shit tome... It can only be a good thing. Gets eager new players, who might actually help reduce the 'toxic' nature of the community a bit, in and going strong....as long as us other players don't treat them like 'PAY TO WIN NOOBS'....

    Edit: Besides, outside of tip popups, the game has never been all to keen on showing you details in a tutorial manner for a lot of things. Most is learned with 'time, which just happens to be what makes leveling take so long... Details on professions, AH, what guilds offer a player, how to play your class(which doesn't really have much depth till you're high level anyways, and they can definitely stagger abilities over the 'introduction' period like with DKs), how to use a lot of the features of the game really. It might actually help them learn faster, playing higher level where more of that matters.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by AstroleonShadowflower View Post
    That's what I'm saying though. Don't they?
    Sure they don't learn to be a hardcore raider.

    But you literally cannot function in WoW if you don't learn all the little stuff.
    That's part of my point, leveling from 1-90 doesn't really teach you the little stuff, its just the game in general does, or rather time. There's no specified 'tutorial' that teaches you about half of the game's features at any determined point...No 'Congrats on level 15! Welcome to the Barrens. Today we're going to learn about professions".
    Last edited by Ilfayt; 2014-02-15 at 08:24 AM.

  9. #9
    Here is something to think about....imagine that this boost was OPTIONAL and if you really wanted you could have lvled from 1-90 on your own, for any reason whatsoever including the ones you mentioned....oh wait the boost will be OPTIONAL.

  10. #10
    Scarab Lord miffy23's Avatar
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    It's a necessary evil to keep new expansions attractive to new players.
    It has it's drawbacks of course - new players will literally be thrown into the fire and will have to adapt quickly. But there will surely be some form of tutorial, so i'm certain they will be no worse than the players that lvled in past expansions and never bothered to use the majority of their spells or learned how to not stand in the fire. If they have the ability and motivation to improve, they will.

    Also, it is optional. Those that wish for the full leveling experience and to see all the areas of the game will do so. In today's day and age it would be ludicrous to ask new players to level through 90 levels of content until they get to join the majority of the playerbase and actually engage in an MMO setting though. It will also appeal to returning players that are simply not interested in Cata or MoP content at all, which is always a good thing.

  11. #11
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    I think its a great idea, makes it alot easier to bring new people into the game.

  12. #12
    They still have 10 levels to play though to learn their character, and the better part of learning how to play a character at the end game does (and always has) happen at the end game anyway. Leveling up teaches you how to kill a series of monsters with largely ignorable abilities that die in a matter of seconds, and pick up and equip gear that's pre-selected for you as it comes. Max level is mostly about killing monsters that have abilities that can and will kill you and take several minutes to kill with a group of other players, and optimize your gear from hundreds of possible drops with no guidance (not to mention gem, enchant, and (for now) reforge it).

    Nobody that's a fresh 90 now (or a fresh 100 in WoD) knows what to do. You need to go to websites, talk to friends, and learn new concepts like DPS rotations and optimizing gear that were not relevant while leveling up. Those 10 levels will teach core concepts, and there's talk of a DK-like starting zone for boosted 90s to start them off into WoD which will help even more.

    As for playing WELL... well, you needed to be max level to learn that anyway, so there's very little difference between someone leveling 1-100 or 90-100.
    Last edited by Shamanberry; 2014-02-15 at 10:39 PM.

  13. #13
    Yes, it's fine. The game needs to lower the barrier to entry (and re-entry), so this is the perfect way of doing so.

    There's barely anyone entirely new to WoW and the MMO industry anyway. Anyone who is going to play WoW likely has already done so at some point in its life, so it's not like there's a risk of getting even less skilled/experienced players due to instant 90s.

    This is absolutely the best thing for the health of the game.

  14. #14
    Elemental Lord clevin's Avatar
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    No, it's a poor idea for a brand new play to skip the first 90 levels. The problem is that if we make them level a toon to 90 before they can unlock the boost that's ALSO a poor idea.

    What I'd do is something like this: a player needs to have one character leveled to X before the boost unlocks. X should be something reasonable that exposes them to the world but that isn't onerous. Say 40. So you have to level one character to 40 the traditional way (no RAF, etc). After that you can boost that character to 90 or a new one from 1 to 90.

    Why 40? Because to me that gives them a feel for the world and an intro to what leveling has to offer but it's not a huge burden. For returning players, they'll have a 40 or higher level character, so if they want to come back and play with friends they get the free 90 right off. Same for players who are subbed at the time (aside from people who JUST started before WoD).

  15. #15
    Yes. A Free level 90 with WoD is one of the best things they could have done in terms of player retention, they once mentioned that a vast majority of players who quit are those that never hit level cap in the first place. By giving everyone a free level 90, you do away with players quitting before getting to the "real" game, which should see a huge boost in retention rates. As a 10 year old game, the 1-100 grind is going to look extremely daunting so by allowing people who just want to play with their friends and family to skip the time investment it's really going to go far in terms of players sticking to their subscriptions. Is it a bandaid solution? Sure. But is it going to fix the problem regardless? Absolutely.

    As for the purchasable level 90 goes, I would like it if Blizzard restricts it to players who have already levelled a toon from 1-90 excluding the instant one from WoD. At least that way they'll have to suffer through it once before getting another shortcut.
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  16. #16
    The Patient
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    Level 90 boost will have 0 impact on the game. I already see level 90s who play like they are completely fresh to the game. It will not matter.

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by AstroleonShadowflower View Post
    But you literally cannot function in WoW if you don't learn all the little stuff.
    They'll know most of what they need to know about the non-grouping piece of the game by the time they get to 100. They'll possibly have a rougher time of it for the first level or so but they'll be fine and if they're really having issues they can slip into Pandaria for a bit to learn more safely. I don't see this as an issue.
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  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Shadee View Post
    Doesn't really matter. Most people are bad at the game anyway even though they leveled their toons.
    Quote Originally Posted by NoiseTank13 View Post
    If they want to learn, they will learn.
    If they don't want to learn, they will keep sucking at LFR, and whatever...

  19. #19
    Merely a Setback Kaleredar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by shoc View Post

    As for the purchasable level 90 goes, I would like it if Blizzard restricts it to players who have already levelled a toon from 1-90 excluding the instant one from WoD. At least that way they'll have to suffer through it once before getting another shortcut.
    I'm generally inclined to agree with this.

    Overwhelming new players with a bunch of new abilities and sticking them ahead of a bunch of things they know nothing about (I can already see "Where's 'the Blasting Lands'" coming from a lot of level 90s) might actually serve to be somewhat discouraging. This is anecdotal evidence to be sure, but every time I've let a non-wow playing person tinker around with one of my max level characters, they're just... overwhelmed.

    I've got absolutely no problem with the free level 90; I simply wish you had to have at least one level 90 toon already to use it. At least to give people a feel for the game so they aren't completely boggled by dropping into a fresh one. Hell, even something like needing a level 60 to use the boost would actually be okay. Most players have their core abilities by then, and 60 is fairly easy to reach and not tremendously daunting. You have a sense for the old world and how gameplay works.
    Last edited by Kaleredar; 2014-02-16 at 03:57 AM.
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  20. #20
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    wish people would shut up about you need to level to learn your class thats not even true cos how can you learn your class at a low level when wow is designed for end game not low level crap ive never played a monk but will use my free 90 to get a WW when the next patch comes

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