Boosting communities gone?

[Cynical Asshole]

Boosting is 100% preventable and should be banned--both for gold and real-life currency. It cheapens raid achievements and it de-motivates players towards working to complete content when they can just pay for it.

Preventing boosting would cost Blizzard a lot of money because token sales would drop by 90%.

[Celista]

Do you actually think that players who buy raid boosts would instead go find raiding guilds if boosts were magically not a thing anymore? Do you even want to raid with players who used to buy boosts?

I think that they would be more likely to, yes. Human nature is to take the path of least resistance. When easier paths are removed, the ones who want the achievement will make the effort for it. Not all obviously.

You act like I don't remember what the game was like before WoW tokens, LFR and boosting took off. Boosting was nowhere near as common as it has become over the past few expansions. It has brought about a change for the worse.

[Cynical Asshole]

LOL. you can say what you want but the boosting community has been around since the game was around. If blizzard really wants to ban boost for real money they would have done it ages ago. Also, streamers have to open to them getting boosted on live yet nothing happens. Coz blizzard doesn't care. Most boosters are from top guilds doing it. I been on both sides boosting people during Warth and have been boosted. Blizzard well knows what is going on. They can literally ban most of the booster accounts overnight if they want to but won't. Too much money for blizzard to do anything.

If the token is removed, the whales and nooblords with money won't be able to afford boosting, and with very few customers, the boosters would be out of jobs as well, and the boosting market would shrink down to a fraction of what it currently is, same as before tokens even existed.

So NO, despite the fact that boosting indeed existed since the beginning of the world...of warcraft, it only exploded when the token was implemented. Remove the token, and boosting goes back to pre-WoD times when very few people could afford it on a regular basis, and it was pretty hush-hush anyway and not in your face.

[sponge5307]

Preventing boosting would cost Blizzard a lot of money because token sales would drop by 90%.

Instead of WoW tokens, they will just sell gear outright in loot boxes. To make it legit they would say something like you buy this loot box with a key that allows you to enter some single-person dungeons like Torghast and if you kill the elite there it drops a max item level at the current raid tier at random. That way EU can't ban them since selling loot boxes outright is banned since is gambling but if it requires additional steps but is not pure luck then it is allowed.

Just like in DI you buy the gems and use them to enter a rift and if you kill the rift guaridan in time it drops a ton of lengendary equip for you. If you don't kill the rift guardian in time you get your gems back and try again. Since they aren't outright selling you the drop, you need some skills to kill the rift guardian is not considered gambling.

Blizzard can do something like this. Sell an item in WOW you kill a boss that's most likely tank and spank and it drops an item for you. If you fail you can try again.

[Cyi]

Instead of WoW tokens, they will just sell gear outright in loot boxes. To make it legit they would say something like you buy this loot box with a key that allows you to enter some single-person dungeons like Torghast and if you kill the elite there it drops a max item level at the current raid tier at random. That way EU can't ban them since selling loot boxes outright is banned since is gambling but if it requires additional steps but is not pure luck then it is allowed.

Just like in DI you buy the gems and use them to enter a rift and if you kill the rift guaridan in time it drops a ton of lengendary equip for you. If you don't kill the rift guardian in time you get your gems back and try again. Since they aren't outright selling you the drop, you need some skills to kill the rift guardian is not considered gambling.

Blizzard can do something like this. Sell an item in WOW you kill a boss that's most likely tank and spank and it drops an item for you. If you fail you can try again.

That would assure I never resub again. DI is a cancer and we don't need that anywhere near WoW.

[Soikona]

Boosting is 100% preventable and should be banned--both for gold and real-life currency. It cheapens raid achievements and it de-motivates players towards working to complete content when they can just pay for it.

Not only that but as a raider, at least for SL and hopefully not for DF, I have to boost to afford raiding. To afford BOEs to stay ahead on our server, I need the gold which we get from boosting. There goes our guild social runs, cause we boost now instead. I cant miss them either or I wont have gold. Someone that until BFA could raid log + 1 additional night for a chill social run, and still be competing, can not do that now. It is frustrating.

Sure I could play at a lower level, but progressing slower is just as frustrating. Why swap one evil for another.

[Kokolums]

Instead of WoW tokens, they will just sell gear outright in loot boxes. To make it legit they would say something like you buy this loot box with a key that allows you to enter some single-person dungeons like Torghast and if you kill the elite there it drops a max item level at the current raid tier at random. That way EU can't ban them since selling loot boxes outright is banned since is gambling but if it requires additional steps but is not pure luck then it is allowed.

Just like in DI you buy the gems and use them to enter a rift and if you kill the rift guaridan in time it drops a ton of lengendary equip for you. If you don't kill the rift guardian in time you get your gems back and try again. Since they aren't outright selling you the drop, you need some skills to kill the rift guardian is not considered gambling.

Blizzard can do something like this. Sell an item in WOW you kill a boss that's most likely tank and spank and it drops an item for you. If you fail you can try again.

blizz already has the satchel system.

[Vorkreist]

Yes. I don't think WoW tokens should be in game either due to their effect on the server economy. Both harm raiding.

You want Bobby to starve ?

[Unholyground]

Preventing boosting would cost Blizzard a lot of money because token sales would drop by 90%.

Token sales are going to definitely drop once they're retired.

- - - Updated - - -

You want Bobby to starve ?

He's on his way out soon as Microsoft takes over Q1 of next yeat that's a rap for him.

If I had to guess part of the acquisition deal was allowing him to stay on the board until the next fiscal year and we're almost there.

It is all but a done deal considering Microsoft announced the Diablo 4 release date at their June event and just recently announced a bunch of old titles coming to gamepass from Activision and blizzard.

The writing has been on the wall for some time

[Relapses]

Token sales are going to definitely drop once they're retired.

Honest question, do you just use this forum to find topics where you can share with the world your super unique take about WoW tokens going away?

[Unholyground]

Honest question, do you just use this forum to find topics where you can share with the world your super unique take about WoW tokens going away?

No I just respond when people quote stuff I already talked about.

Plus it's pretty obvious tokens are going to hurt more than benefit in the coming months.

Once the game pass bnet merger happens Tokens will allow you to buy gamepass and ms games and I doubt Microsoft is going to want that to happen.

[Relapses]

No I just respond when people quote stuff I already talked about.

Plus it's pretty obvious tokens are going to hurt more than benefit in the coming months.

Once the game pass bnet merger happens Tokens will allow you to buy gamepass and ms games and I doubt Microsoft is going to want that to happen.

I actually agree with you that WoW's subscription will eventually be loaded into GP but I strongly disagree with your absurd notion that this is proof that the token is going to go away. If anything, it just gives the token even more value.

[Ashana Darkmoon]

There is no chance whatsoever they drop the token lmao.

Some of the takes here are so crazy it is genuinely impressive. They've cracked down harder on boosting recently than anyone probably thought, but it's also all they are ever likely to do. And I would love to have data on how much it has accomplished (if such a thing even exists)

[Sariengrey]

Boosting down? hit hard? such a shame...such a crying damn shame
LMAO

[Relapses]

There is no chance whatsoever they drop the token lmao.

Some of the takes here are so crazy it is genuinely impressive. They've cracked down harder on boosting recently than anyone probably thought, but it's also all they are ever likely to do. And I would love to have data on how much it has accomplished (if such a thing even exists)

The problem with the token is this community's weird obsession with pinning the blame for every boneheaded design decision Blizzard makes or doesn't make. Crafting materials too expensive? Oh. It's because Blizzard wants to sell tokens. Raiding too hard? Oh. It's because Blizzard is in bed with the boosting communities and wants to sell tokens. Raiding too easy? Oh. It's because Blizzard wants more people to boost so they can sell more tokens. It goes on and on. I've seen people claim that Blizzard intentionally makes some specs shittier than others so they can sell character boosts. The whole thing, on its surface, is completely ridiculous and fails when you apply even the tiniest amount of critical thinking to the situation.

Meanwhile, we have the admin of one of the largest boosting communities to ever exist admitting that even if 100% of their boosts were RMT'd they'd still only make a couple million per year. Compare that to the hundreds of millions of actual revenue Blizzard reports every year and you can see how impactful boosting really is on the game. (Fun fact: They probably make 20 times more off of sparkle ponies than they do from the entirety of token sales which get converted into boosting.) It's just low hanging fruit and an easy way for players to pretend they know how to solve all of the games' many ailments.

[sponge5307]

If the token is removed, the whales and nooblords with money won't be able to afford boosting, and with very few customers, the boosters would be out of jobs as well, and the boosting market would shrink down to a fraction of what it currently is, same as before tokens even existed.

So NO, despite the fact that boosting indeed existed since the beginning of the world...of warcraft, it only exploded when the token was implemented. Remove the token, and boosting goes back to pre-WoD times when very few people could afford it on a regular basis, and it was pretty hush-hush anyway and not in your face.

It will just be people buying boost with real money. Nothing will change. You might have less people posting for boost in trade but it will still be there. Just least people using the service. Blizzard will also never stop selling WoW tokens. Is a major revenue for them.

That would assure I never resub again. DI is a cancer and we don't need that anywhere near WoW.

Is been pretty much 99.999999% confirm that D4 will have some sort of battle pass system. I am sure blizzard will try to do something to increase revenue from WoW. WoW is/was never that profitable for blizzard and now with the raise of mobile games and microtransactions being the main source of income no doubt blizzard will in any way try to increase revenue. It takes a massive amount of investment to create and keep updating an MMO vs say a run of mills mobile game that uses far less investment and makes a lot more than an MMO. Heck, I bet even DI is making more money than WoW for the same period. The only difference is it most likely costs a lot less to develop DI vs just a WoW expansion.

Not only that but as a raider, at least for SL and hopefully not for DF, I have to boost to afford raiding. To afford BOEs to stay ahead on our server, I need the gold which we get from boosting. There goes our guild social runs, cause we boost now instead. I cant miss them either or I wont have gold. Someone that until BFA could raid log + 1 additional night for a chill social run, and still be competing, can not do that now. It is frustrating.

Sure I could play at a lower level, but progressing slower is just as frustrating. Why swap one evil for another.

As the game ages, there is more gold in circulation and without a gold sink, things will sell for more. Before in BC you had a major gold sink to get flying you have to pay 5k and that was a lot back then. But since WoD game, it got a lot worse as doing mission table nets you a ton of gold and gear. That's when inflation started and that's when WoW token is a thing. Blizzard needs another major gold sink soon otherwise rich players with gold will get richer and new players will have a hard time. Maybe add a 100k cost to get dragon flying to erase/remove some gold from the game.

Unfortunately that'll never happen either, from my understanding, Blizzard reports WoW token purchases to investors as subscriptions so they're possibly even maintaining the game's subscription status that we never see anymore afloat.

I decided to vote with my wallet after a false 30 day RMT suspension who's appeal was denied 6 times. I also can't expect to play a game correctly and within ToS yet be randomly robbed of a $12 subscription and be unable to determine how to prevent it in the future.

As we see now with the classic AV suspensions, you can be suspended for 30 days for playing the game 'wrong', which I guess is inclusive to my suspension which was probably based up on playing unique comps in arenas and pushing rating too fast because of it, with no regard to previous arena experience.

I'll clarify too that "Boosting is 100% preventable" isn't true in this context, its unlikely I was the only person to be hit with a false RMT suspension, and where they can justify false positives means there's also missing false negatives. RMT boosters usually have multiple accounts since they have a financial incentive to continue playing and those accounts get hit with suspensions all the time, and those accounts don't need experience to be used like an otherwise legitimate player would need to play at their respective tier because they're community based not character based.

Yup been following that on the blizzard forums. Seems like the system auto-ban you thinking people are AFK. But the fact in AV you stay in one place to hold and defend against the other faction and somehow the auto ban system thinks you are afking. Most likely different from you but back in when season 1 is over and 9.2 was about to drop, blizzard decided to add another system to grind (SoD and the armor slot for them and new currency) when they said they won't be adding new system. I happen to purchase a 6 month sub before. I contact support to have the charge reverse which they refuse( the 6 month sub haven't started yet as I still have game time left). I simply reply to the support ticket saying they said right at the right of SL there won't be any new system and they are putting a new system right in the first major patch. I also noted I have already file a chargeback with my CC and I don't care if my account is ban. After a few days GM reply they will reverse the 6 month sub as a one time courtesy.

The whole boosting situation is partly caused by blizzard and largely by the community.

Blizzard made the focus on gearing and put a focus on timing a key in m+. Other MMO such as FFXIV and GW2 their gearing is mostly horizontal so meaning even if your gear is higher level it won't be so much of a difference than say someone with a lower gear level than you. Blizzard uses a vertical patch for WoW so even a 5-item level could give you a lot more dps/hp/healing affect etc etc so the players have to keep chasing that gear. Then WoW put a timer on m+ to encourage players to run the dungeon as fast as possible. Then lastly WoW did not a good job to balance the different specs. Not really their fault since there are too many different activities in the game like raiding, m+, 2v2 3v3 battleground etc etc. But one major thing that really made it hard to balance is the AoE cap. Some classes have no AoE cap and others do. So in m+ class with AoE cap or class with short CD is a lot better even though their ST or average damage is not high. Then there is the DoT spec vs just straight out damage. DoT spec is great on long fights or ST but just not good AoE where mobs have to be killed really quickly.

Now the player base isn't great either. As always any spec can complete 90% of the content but since with m+ there is a timer people want to have a group with others who have better gear, higher io, and certain spec so the run is more successful. The attitude towards non-Meta and not FOTM spec is just bad. So even though an average person with decent can complete saying a m 15 people want an over gear player in their group when given the choice. It has become accepted as a requirement to have a higher item level and higher io than what the m+ key gives out. Just ask yourself if two players with a feral druid with ilvl 270 with 1400 io vs a SV hunter with ilvl 300 and 3k io apply for your group. No doubt people are going to pick the SV hunter every single time. If a mistake is made everyone just start pointing fingers and instead of just chilling, you now have people cussing and leaving.

sorry for the typo this is way too long lol.

[Cyi]

Is been pretty much 99.999999% confirm that D4 will have some sort of battle pass system. I am sure blizzard will try to do something to increase revenue from WoW. WoW is/was never that profitable for blizzard and now with the raise of mobile games and microtransactions being the main source of income no doubt blizzard will in any way try to increase revenue. It takes a massive amount of investment to create and keep updating an MMO vs say a run of mills mobile game that uses far less investment and makes a lot more than an MMO. Heck, I bet even DI is making more money than WoW for the same period. The only difference is it most likely costs a lot less to develop DI vs just a WoW expansion.

With estimates calling for nearly 10 Billion dollars since its inception, I think WoW has most mobile games, including DI, beaten. That's billion with a B, so DI would have to continue its current earning potential for long time to even come close. If they keep making a million a day, that's what 27 years before they catch up? Its getting late so math may be off but its a long way to go.

[munkeyinorbit]

Not only that but as a raider, at least for SL and hopefully not for DF, I have to boost to afford raiding. To afford BOEs to stay ahead on our server, I need the gold which we get from boosting. There goes our guild social runs, cause we boost now instead. I cant miss them either or I wont have gold. Someone that until BFA could raid log + 1 additional night for a chill social run, and still be competing, can not do that now. It is frustrating.

Sure I could play at a lower level, but progressing slower is just as frustrating. Why swap one evil for another.

If you're not able to boost then no one is able to boost. Problem solved.

[Relapses]

If you're not able to boost then no one is able to boost. Problem solved.

Boosting will always exist. It might get called something other than boosting, but it'll always exist. The minute Blizzard outlaws boosting I could easily see guilds suddenly offering "paid trials" for anybody who applies. As long as the ability to trade a virtual currency for a service exists so will boosting in some capacity.

[Coldkil]

-snip-

So you want to play an MMO without putting the time commitment needed to play it.

To me it's more like an issue of "i want everything immediately without putting any actual effort on it". I'm not bashing you, you're free to do whatever you want and if it's allowed it's just what it is.

The side effect is that most people do the same, and it means more and more less skilled players are obtaining rewards they shouldn't get giving the impression that stuff is baseline when it actually isn't. Plus most people playing through boosts are not staying, they just get to whatever goal they set their eyes on and the leave, meaning they don't bring anything useful or relevant to the community and/or game.

As i said in another post, we reap what we sow. The only thing you bring to the game is skewing the data Blizzard bases its game development on.

- - - Updated - - -

Boosting will always exist. It might get called something other than boosting, but it'll always exist. The minute Blizzard outlaws boosting I could easily see guilds suddenly offering "paid trials" for anybody who applies. As long as the ability to trade a virtual currency for a service exists so will boosting in some capacity.

That's basically it. In the end it's up to Blizzard to enforce whatever policy they want. If boosting was against their game design, and don't want it to happen, they should take the matter in their hands and actually make it so through bans or whatever.

The fact the only measure they took was to limit boosting to a server scope (with mixed results) and creating a dedicated chat channel for offering these services, makes me think they actually know most people do that and removing the practice would net to a loss overall. So they try to "hide" that into specific channels you can opt-out of so the experience isn't "tainted" for players who don't like boosts. Basically "if i don't see it it doesn't exist".

Fortunately i have actual friends i play with and that's the biggest driver for me. If i had to play solo/pug all the time i would have stopped playing along time ago (but that's just my opinion).