Blizzard's newest venture

[Uncle Julian]

If I could buy a 90 for $5, i'd be interested in coming back to the game. At the rate I have time to play, it takes 2-3 months to get there anyway. Saves me 3 months of subscription for leveling up.

[Sughs]

Those potential scenarios include a $39 or $49 price for the expansion with a free level 90 upgrade, and a $39 price that does not include the upgrade.

WTF?...

I don't like the idea of paying 35€ if the 90 upgrade is not included. It's not like i want to use it straight away, i like leveling and it's pretty fast nowadays with heirlooms and guild bonus, but they promised it at blizzcon.

I am already pissed enough that Horde will get another ugly city while Alliance gets temple of Karabor.



Maybe if they charge 25€ for the expansion without the 90 upgrade and 35€ with the upgrade, that i wouldn't mind at all. It would save me 10€.


About the stand alone service, i think 10€ would be ok for an instant 90. More than 13€ ( a month subscription worth ) is overkill, you can rise a level 90 in a weekend if you want to.

[Arbs]

They should just squash the Server Xfers and offer for the same price a starter set of gear and a 90 on w/e realm you want.

I wouldn't mind if they slash the Realm Transfer, Race / Faction Change stuff.

[jaakkeli]

I would pay $0 for a free 90. I mean seriously, who doesn't have a 90 by now? The issue isn't that it's too hard to level up anymore, and it's not hard for casuals to catch up, so why the 90?

Well that's just the point. It's not hard at all. It's so trivial now that the early leveling content is just an extremely boring grind and I love the opportunity to skip it.

Back when the game was new, the early leveling dungeons were actually mildly challenging to new players who didn't know the game yet. First Deadmines runs were exciting, there were some group bosses in the world that people actually did while leveling and so on. Now leveling is just either a mindless solo grind, a mindless dungeon zerg grind where heirloomed up people run through pulling a whole nerfed instance to the end or a ridiculously badly balanced pvp grind that's horrible for new heirloomless players.

They don't want to put a lot of resources in old content after Cataclysm and there's the constant danger that some class will become screwed up and unable to kill stuff at low levels when they fiddle with the spells for high level balancing, so they go with the easy solution of trivializing the low level content so that it just won't matter. A new player who only encounters this trivial rubbish is going to think the whole game sucks beyond belief because, frankly, for most of the part from 1 to 90 the game sucks beyond belief now.

Personally, I'd like to have this for free even though I already have all classes at least at level 80 so it won't really affect me. They should just make all the abandoned content skippable for everyone, even for new players.

[Pull My Finger]

As long as the usual clowns are bitching about it on the forums, Blizzard is doing something right.

[Novx]

If I could buy a 90 for $5, i'd be interested in coming back to the game. At the rate I have time to play, it takes 2-3 months to get there anyway. Saves me 3 months of subscription for leveling up.

I just leveled a character (2boxing) 1-85 with RAF and 85-90 solo in 3 days played time (and that includes time AFK). If you only manage to get 3 days played time in 3 months you probably shouldn't be subbing anyways. $5 for 1-85 RAF and let's assume you don't have MOP it is another $15. $20 for 3 months of super fast leveling isn't bad.

Inb4 this entire survey is a hoax and polygon jumped the gun on reporting it.

[Pann]

I wouldn't mind if they slash the Realm Transfer, Race / Faction Change stuff.

Limited realm transfers should have been free from the outset instead of Blizzard expecting those players on dead realms to pay them extra in order to play with other players.

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As long as the usual clowns are bitching about it on the forums, Blizzard is doing something right.

Yeah, as we all know upsetting existing and potential customers is the cornerstone of every successful business?!?

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I suspect that their data show that the least attractive thing about capturing former and/or new players might be their having to run thru 90 levels of old content.

And in typical Blizzard fashion instead of addressing the problem and improving the levelling experience they expect to paid extra for players to avoid the problem they have created.

[Hyve]

Never understood why people are against the Instant Level 90 Feature. By the time Warlords is released, the level cap will be 100, and you'll have 10 levels to learn about your class. People also seriously over-estimate the amount of education the leveling experience provides.

[Tzalix]

I don't see what's wrong with this.

They are actually asking us, the playerbase, how we feel about this stuff before they implement it. That's a good thing.

[Hyve]

And in typical Blizzard fashion instead of addressing the problem and improving the levelling experience they expect to paid extra for players to avoid the problem they have created.

Cataclysm massively improved the leveling experience from 1 - 60, and since then they've gone on to add more features and in-game tools to help speed up leveling. What more, other then an enormous game changing overhaul do you suggest they do?

[Novx]

Limited realm transfers should have been free from the outset instead of Blizzard expecting those players on dead realms to pay them extra in order to play with other players.

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Yeah, as we all know upsetting existing and potential customers is the cornerstone of every successful business?!?

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And in typical Blizzard fashion instead of addressing the problem and improving the levelling experience they expect to paid extra for players to avoid the problem they have created.

They just redid the zones from level 1-60. They DID improve the leveling experience (main abilities/talents at level 10) but after you have leveled a couple characters it is brutal. I am leveling my 12th 90 currently (2nd warlock, + 1 of every other class) and I dread leveling but that is to be expected and I just suck it up. It is unrealistic to expect Blizzard to redo the leveling for 1-90 every xpac.

[vitor210]

Purchasable Boosts-to-90s? Sounds reasonable, for 20 or 30 bucks. I'd be fine with that. The only thing I would like is to see that you actually have to level a toon to 90 first before being able to buy insta 90s for all your other toons.

Exactly my thought. Kinda like the DK restrition that you must have a lvl 55 char on any realm

[Zalraki]

If they really wanted people to come back they would provide this boost to 90 for free. Since you already pay for the box and the subscription

But now it's Box + subscription + boost payments

it's like a government taxing the same thing 3 times

[Pull My Finger]

Yeah, as we all know upsetting existing and potential customers is the cornerstone of every successful business?!?

The harsh truth - for you at least - is that your petty whining doesn't have a whole lot of impact on their business, as much as you like to imagine it otherwise.

[Novx]

If they really wanted people to come back they would provide this boost to 90 for free. Since you already pay for the box and the subscription

But now it's Box + subscription + boost payments

it's like a government taxing the same thing 3 times

I really hope this is a troll post.....I mean....really? They are doing that...

[constantduty]

I really hope this is a troll post.....I mean....really? They are doing that...

Exactly. And you can "buy" additional level 90s by purchasing another copy of the game and doing an account transfer. Even if the survey turns out to be a hoax I think the question is legitimate.

[Pann]

Cataclysm massively improved the leveling experience from 1 - 60, and since then they've gone on to add more features and in-game tools to help speed up leveling. What more, other then an enormous game changing overhaul do you suggest they do?

How did it improve the levelling experience? About 90% of the quests were exactly the same, all form of choice was removed, you out levelled a zone a before you completed it and its story and it caused the overall story to make no sense whatsoever.

It is not my job to suggest to Blizzard how they fix the problems they create and I do not think it is reasonable for them to charge extra to avoid the problem.

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I suppose they knew in advance that ist would cause these sort of topics on forums, because every move (and especially the RMAH in D3 and the In game store in WoW) have caused topics spanning many pages.

Yet, they keep exploring these possibilities and expanding it. They also are a sucessful business.

All your point goes to prove is how little they value their existing customers. It is clear that whatever decision they make, it will enflame some people and indeed drive some people away. That too is something they know.

They are a successful business but the fact of the matter is that they are a less successful business than they were in 2010 and more than likely they will less successful in coming years than they are now.

I am sure that improving their game rather than trying to charge players extra would not inflame players.

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The harsh truth - for you at least - is that your petty whining doesn't have a whole lot of impact on their business, as much as you like to imagine it otherwise.

I am fully aware that my opinion has little to no impact on how Blizzard conduct their business, although it does seem to upset you more than it should, however Blizzard need our money more than most of us will ever need Blizzard.

[Hyve]

How did it improve the levelling experience? About 90% of the quests were exactly the same, all form of choice was removed, you out levelled a zone a before you completed it and its story and it caused the overall story to make no sense whatsoever.

The questing experience was made far more smooth, it had a lot more to offer and the quality of the quests and stories were improved. Overall, the quests remained similar, but were updated and improved a lot.

To say it wasn't at all is just silly. There are only a handful of cases I can think of, where they didn't put in as much effort, but overall Cataclysm made the 1 - 60 experience faster, easier and more enjoyable.

It is not my job to suggest to Blizzard how they fix the problems they create and I do not think it is reasonable for them to charge extra to avoid the problem.

They're not demanding you pay, this is an option for players who've been away for a long time, people who (like me) don't enjoy the leveling experience, and want to get right into the end-game content. I've always wanted a Shaman & Hunter to raid with, but I've not had the nerve to go through the Quests or LFG again, as I've done it far too much.

[Zalraki]

Any other company would give discounts and free stuff just to get customers back. But not Blizzard. Here you'd actually have to pay more to overcome the things that made you leave in the first place.

[Ghaleon]

It doesn't mean they are hurting for cash it just is providing a much needed service for a price as any company does.

I hate leveling a new character and would gladly pay 30 to boost to 90