Character Level Boost to 90 priced at $60

[Zoneseek]

lol even though i havent been subbed since 2012 i was thinking i would check out wod, but man blizzard just keeps getting lamer and lamer and so does wow. so sad.

[Farora]

This service shouldn't be in the game at all. It ridicules people that level up by themselves.

[jellmoo]

No, you are not getting the point.

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.

[drakonblayde]

Yeah, again plenthora of arguments for increase of revenue. My opinion is that players should ask for better game. Stockholders should ask for more money. Why as a player do you ask for more money for Blizz I don't know. They make respectable amount of it and way more for the product they offer. So where does the incentive come from.

And you forget some ppl will just stop playing WoW as more and more of these cash shop items invade the game (on top of those who just leave the game because it's not fun) It's possible that the players that come will mitigate those who leave because of these services, but that does not change the fact that ppl will leave because of these changes.

And I am not saing it's unfair. I am saing it taints my experience in the game. Can't say I am happy about it.

Well, no, I'm not arguing for increase of Blizzard revenues. I'm simply not against it. I'm also able to separate the gaming side of it from the business side of it. I work in a similar industry, so I understand where Blizzard is coming from. While it would be nice if business didn't intrude on the game, it's a fact of life. I'm not exactly embracing it, but it's there whether or not I like it, so I accept it and move on.

And sure, some folks might stop playing.

But let me ask you this -

How many Iron Skyreavers do you see floating around on your server? Fey Enchanted Dragons?

Given the amount of the vanity items I see in game, it tells me that people are purchasing them. Since I haven't seen a noticeable population decrease, I make the assumption that the amount of people actually leaving the game over the micro-transactions is actually very small. I'm sure it's not zero, but I doubt the number registers.

Then I also think that there are plenty of folk who will holler and bleat about it, threaten to cancel, or say they're cancelling... but will never actually do it.

[Repefe]

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.

Yeah, but that's just a theory. Last year Acti-Blizz had around $4 billions lying around in banks. As for the inflation, don't forget that the price of servers and trafic went down. It used to be that the subscription was paid to keep the servers live. Now servers maintenance takes just fraction of the subscription.

[Thotor]

do not forget : Level 90 is NOT MAX LEVEL
This was made for people to catch up on WoD like SoR give a free level 80 already. This is nothing new.

They have said they want to avoid people buying multiple WoD just to extra level 90.
However let's be honest, that price tag is higher than the expansion which is contradictory to the reason that was put in place.
All this gonna change is the price of used account and power level service.

Leveling is boring and something that should have been reworked a long time ago. Sure it only takes like 40-90h of plays. But that's too much for anyone with a "normal" play time. It would not be problem if it was actually fun to do, but it is not.

And once again, I shall remind you : Level 90 is NOT MAX LEVEL
After WoD will be out, I am sure it will be cheaper to buy level 100 character from used account.

[Repefe]

Given the amount of the vanity items I see in game, it tells me that people are purchasing them. Since I haven't seen a noticeable population decrease, I make the assumption that the amount of people actually leaving the game over the micro-transactions is actually very small. I'm sure it's not zero, but I doubt the number registers.

Then I also think that there are plenty of folk who will holler and bleat about it, threaten to cancel, or say they're cancelling... but will never actually do it.

Yeah, but mounts are acceptable. This directly saves required grind time in game. It's much more rewarding/practical service. And don't forget that it's not the end of it. Blizz has made daily quest rewards available in cash shop in Asia and after that there is gold selling for $$ and alternatives for raid gear for $$. All viable options for cash shop. So ppl who will put up with this move may not put up with the next one. For the sake of profit.

[Deleted]

Hahaha and some still come here and try to defend this kind of crap blizzard is putting in the game. It has more in game store nonsense than swtor thats free to play. Another reason to stay away from wow. Milking players with subscriptions AND in game store, just pathetic. With that money alone you can buy some good games btw.

What makes you say we don't buy good games too ? Or even go out during the weekend and spend 2 or 3 times this amount in drinks ?

Do you think that people who will use this service won't eat food for a week ? Please, that's 60 bucks.

The WoW playerbase is not only students eating noodles.

People defends this because both point of views are worth being defended.

Could you guys give me examples about how it will affect your time in WoW if some people buy a 90lvl char ?
What are the advantages that someone who will use this service will have compared to someone who didn't use this service ?

[megasus]

It used to be that the subscription was paid to keep the servers live. Now servers maintenance takes just fraction of the subscription.

"Yeah, but that's just a theory."

[WyvernVin]

OMG! I thought them charging $25 for mounts and transfers was a bit over the top but this is utterly ridiculous! I would be ok paying $30 but $60 is just too much.

[drakonblayde]

Yeah, but that's just a theory. Last year Acti-Blizz had around $4 billions lying around in banks. As for the inflation, don't forget that the price of servers and trafic went down. It used to be that the subscription was paid to keep the servers live. Now servers maintenance takes just fraction of the subscription.

Well, folks need to keep in mind - there's no requirement for Blizzard to take all the of the revenue collected from WoW and sink it back into WoW. The subscription fees do more than just keep the lights on and the servers running and pay their employees. They also fund development of other products. They did have to pay to make Diablo 3, after all. They couldn't use revenue from Diablo 3 to make Diablo 3 when they didn't have a product to sell yet, and it's retarded to take out a loan or take in investment capital when you've already got a lucrative revenue stream. Same goes with Hearthstone, Heroes of the Swarm, Starcraft 2, etc etc etc.

I would hope that folks are aware that Blizzard makes games besides World of Warcraft.

[Repefe]

Well, folks need to keep in mind - there's no requirement for Blizzard to take all the of the revenue collected from WoW and sink it back into WoW. The subscription fees do more than just keep the lights on and the servers running and pay their employees. They also fund development of other products. They did have to pay to make Diablo 3, after all. They couldn't use revenue from Diablo 3 to make Diablo 3 when they didn't have a product to sell yet, and it's retarded to take out a loan or take in investment capital when you've already got a lucrative revenue stream. Same goes with Hearthstone, Heroes of the Swarm, Starcraft 2, etc etc etc.

I would hope that folks are aware that Blizzard makes games besides World of Warcraft.

The point is expecting Blizz to spend more money on the game is foolish. They just put the extra money aside for something else.

[Aildrik]

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.

So a few comments. First, it seems that Blizzard is acknowledging what most people know and that is that once you level a few characters to max level, it becomes a real slog to go through the motions again on alts. I *will* say that to become truly proficient in a class you should probably take the time to do that anyhow just so you get the hang of the class, but I digress. So if Blizzard is truly acknowledging this then why not put in some creative ways to help this out; for example, do something like what EQ does where you have an alternate XP bar you can turn on. So your max level character now still gets some XP, and that XP can be spent on alts. This gives you incentive to still do things on your main and help your alts at the same time.

For those of you making the time vs. money argument, I would just remind you that 2-3 years ago, if someone had said that Blizzard would let people buy levels, they would have been laughed off the forums. The same argument for short-circuiting grinds in the game by spending $$ opens a lot of other doors. For example, why not be able to buy packages of crafting mats from the ingame store? $9.99 for 500 ghost iron, etc. After all, if I only have 1 hour a night to play but someone else can play 8 hours a day, its not fair to me because I can't really go mine my own materials, I don't have time for that but maybe I have the income to drop $$ on such services. How about bypassing the crafting grind? $30 for max level in a tradeskill. Again, you aren't getting anything that someone else can't get if they just spend the time.

I will just close by saying I hate leveling alts, but I sucked it up and leveled some for tradeskills/crafting because I enjoy being self sufficient and not having to hit the AH for everything. I personally wouldn't mind saving time by spending $$. If I could pay a fee for a max level crafter that would be enticing to me. However, I can see how other players without the discretionary income would start to feel the pressure to have to do the same, especially if they play with friends making use of such services.

Blizzard is just dipping a toe into the water but once down that road it is hard to see how they won't find more ways to make $$ for what essentially costs them nothing to do.

[Repefe]

"Yeah, but that's just a theory."

Actually there was a thread about it ... on one of the Blizz expenses report server costs didn't make it on the list. The number was so low there was no point.

[drakonblayde]

Yeah, but mounts are acceptable. This directly saves required grind time in game. It's much more rewarding/practical service. And don't forget that it's not the end of it. Blizz has made daily quest rewards available in cash shop in Asia and after that there is gold selling for $$ and alternatives for raid gear for $$. All viable options for cash shop. So ppl who will put up with this move may not put up with the next one. For the sake of profit.

My understanding is that the only things Blizzard made available in the shop for Asia are items which were never available in Asia through the same means that other countries/regions were able to obtain them. Don't really see a problem with that.

And sure, I can see how you could see skipping the leveling time as a reward for the player who payed. But the reward only has meaning for that player, and doesn't effect any other players in the negative. That player trades some of their cash in order to gain back some of their time. It's not your time. Them gaining back some of their time doesn't mean there's less time for you.

I hope that made sense, been awake a long time now.

Anyway, I think I've reached the point where I'm just repeating myself, so I think I'm done with this subject, unless the other dude actually can come up with some evidence to support his arguments.

[Lucifer Morningstar]

That's actually pretty decently priced. I expected something around that figure, originally thought of 40 euros, but 60 us dollars doesn't sound bad at all.
I wish it was changeable / upgradable if you have a level 100 character in where the level becomes 100 instead of 90.

That would make $60 sound right.

[Deleted]

That's actually pretty decently priced. I expected something around that figure, originally thought of 40 euros, but 60 us dollars doesn't sound bad at all.
I wish it was changeable / upgradable if you have a level 100 character in where the level becomes 100 instead of 90.

That would make $60 sound right.

Would it make sense to reach 100 though ? The goal is to get rid of the old content leveling, not get rid of the leveling completely.

[Goron24]

Am I the only one who thinks leveling is pathetically easy and still actually enjoys it because I learn how to play my class and get to revisit content that I've not played since Vanilla/TBC/Wotlk etc? Its like a trip down memory lane. However If blizzard offered a profession only Boost for like $25-$30 I'd consider it. I have grinding professions in WoW. I did Engi in a week which was bad enough.

[Repefe]

My understanding is that the only things Blizzard made available in the shop for Asia are items which were never available in Asia through the same means that other countries/regions were able to obtain them. Don't really see a problem with that.

And sure, I can see how you could see skipping the leveling time as a reward for the player who payed. But the reward only has meaning for that player, and doesn't effect any other players in the negative. That player trades some of their cash in order to gain back some of their time. It's not your time. Them gaining back some of their time doesn't mean there's less time for you.

That's the fail safe for PvE game ... the only things that you can call P2W are items purchasable in cash shop with higher ilvl than what is available in heroic raids and world first achievements. Anything else is not p2w ... it only cost time for other ppl to get. And in asia they offered Lesser Charms of Good Fortune in cash shop, so you don't have to spend time doing daily quests.

[jellmoo]

So a few comments. First, it seems that Blizzard is acknowledging what most people know and that is that once you level a few characters to max level, it becomes a real slog to go through the motions again on alts. I *will* say that to become truly proficient in a class you should probably take the time to do that anyhow just so you get the hang of the class, but I digress. So if Blizzard is truly acknowledging this then why not put in some creative ways to help this out; for example, do something like what EQ does where you have an alternate XP bar you can turn on. So your max level character now still gets some XP, and that XP can be spent on alts. This gives you incentive to still do things on your main and help your alts at the same time.

No idea. It's possible that Blizzard went through a series of brainstorms on the subject and decided that this was the route that would:

1. Maximize profit
2. Best attract players that have left
3. Retain current subscribers
4. Attract new subscribers

Could they have gotten more creative than they did? Absolutely. Would a creative solution have been "better" than the direct solution they took? Hard to say.

For those of you making the time vs. money argument, I would just remind you that 2-3 years ago, if someone had said that Blizzard would let people buy levels, they would have been laughed off the forums. The same argument for short-circuiting grinds in the game by spending $$ opens a lot of other doors. For example, why not be able to buy packages of crafting mats from the ingame store? $9.99 for 500 ghost iron, etc. After all, if I only have 1 hour a night to play but someone else can play 8 hours a day, its not fair to me because I can't really go mine my own materials, I don't have time for that but maybe I have the income to drop $$ on such services. How about bypassing the crafting grind? $30 for max level in a tradeskill. Again, you aren't getting anything that someone else can't get if they just spend the time.

It's important to note just how much this game has changed, how much the industry has changed, and how much consumer attitude has changed in a very short period of time. Whether it's MMO gaming, PC gaming, console gaming, or mobile gaming, our attitudes towards spending and how transactions occur have changed dramatically in a very short amount of time. WoW has, in essence, been the prime mover of this in the MMO space.

That being said, the analysis of Time vs Money is something that isn't quite as simple as saying you can buy anything. Right now, the simple fact is that those that have more disposable time have a direct advantage over those with less disposable time. Is that fair? Should people with less time be able to offset that? I have no idea when it comes to things with farther reaching implications. It takes us to a discussion of Pay 2 Win, which I don't think is the case in this instance. Considering that leveling is nothing more than a pure time sink and that *real content* is described as purely at end game, I don't think it's quite the same thing.

I will just close by saying I hate leveling alts, but I sucked it up and leveled some for tradeskills/crafting because I enjoy being self sufficient and not having to hit the AH for everything. I personally wouldn't mind saving time by spending $$. If I could pay a fee for a max level crafter that would be enticing to me. However, I can see how other players without the discretionary income would start to feel the pressure to have to do the same, especially if they play with friends making use of such services.

I think it really depends on what you have more of though. Free time or discretionary income. Why is one considered a fair thing to use and the other taboo?

Blizzard is just dipping a toe into the water but once down that road it is hard to see how they won't find more ways to make $$ for what essentially costs them nothing to do.

And we should always expect them to do so. They are a public company who are ultimately responsible to share holders. We as consumers vote with our dollars. If Blizzard continually goes for upsells and money draws but doesn't invest profit back into the game, people will leave. If they don't continue to make money, they won't be able to attract or retain top talent. Quality will suffer and people will leave. Is it a slippery slope? Absolutely. Does that mean looking for additional revenue is bad? Not always. We always have the ultimate say, and I'm pretty sure that Blizzard is well aware of it.