Blizzard's newest venture

[Deleted]

It's a fact that the game truly starts at level cap.

I'd expect to pay the same amount as their more expensive services, around $25, for a level 90 character. Perhaps some sort of limitation should be put in place though, like you have to level a character to a certain level before purchasing a level 90 is available?

I don't see why they'd have to do that. There's no requirement for me to play through Assassin's Creed 1-3 to play Assassin's Creed 4.

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God damn this horrid logic strikes again. I won't buy it, but you know what happens? I still share my LFR, LFD, Battlegrounds and everything with kids who borrowed mommies credit card and have no idea how to play as they run around a level cap with next to no experience making the game worse for everyone else.

I have to ask if you've leveled a character recently. You learn next to nothing about your class from leveling and LFD, and nearly everyone skips battlegrounds if they're not kitted out in heirlooms. Most of the nuance of any classes I've played, I picked up at max level.

[hakujinbakasama]

you guys need to understand that the older the game gets the harder it is to start from scratch.
we allready reaching lvl 100 next xpac and they got xpac concepts for several more after that,

its only reasonable to think that at some point it would be rediculus to start from lvl 1 when the end game is lvl 130,
and you just cant keep narrowing down the xp bar to a point you ding after 1 quest or 2 mobs or by the next quest hub
you will have to move to another xpac zone...

at some point you will have to think about a way to skip outdated content that was current a decade ago

those who dont care spending weeks untill they can get to max lvl - fine,
those who do - give them a service for no more then 10$.

This and more of this. The thing that gets me is the lack of perspective towards NEW players. Frankly the game is fucking awful 1-90. Most of the zones are dead and when you do see someone they ignore you. If you're brand new to the game good luck not getting the worst horse shit flack ever if you que to tank or heal, so fuck you new guy! RAF isn't even a good system because so rarely do you actually play at the same pace as ANYONE else. The whole selling point of "Pay all this money and after x hours you can finally experience the MM part of the MMO" is pretty stupid.

And as I and others have tried to point out. $15 a month for WoW vs $15 a month to Steam is pretty lopsided.

[rda]

at some point you will have to think about a way to skip outdated content that was current a decade ago

We have heirlooms. We can have other things as well.

My issues with the boost are that, first, it's offered in a way in which you can get it for money (and they even had a poll gauging whether the community would be OK with it being a paid service), and, second, it's available to new players. The first issue is more important than the second one, obviously.

[Dooney]

Yes... and to be honest, I don't get why they changed their stance on this.
During Blizzcon, it was a free lvl 90 and now they are actually changing their stance to selling a lvl 90!
Sad to see this happen.

I think they are looking at doing both to avoid folks having to purchase addl licenses to have more than one insta-90. One 90 from the boost and many others from the Blizz Store. A number of people will buy extra licenses, make their 90 and possibly merge to their old acct. Probably see it as a possible money making venture.

[therealbowser]

They finally got it that the game was headed in wrong direction. Two unsuccessful xpacs in a row, they were a little slow on the uptake in realizing this.

You'd think they would realize we are sick of orcs by now, but apparently not. No idea what they are trying to do, but clearly they are not listening to the playerbase. Not to change the subject, though.

It's been pretty obvious since before Cataclysm that they are going for profit over everything else. With this expansion, they will do less work to get it out faster, and will have new paid services -- that people will buy, rest assured -- and are focusing on something 'safe' that they think will surely be successful over something that we have been asking for.

Now don't get me wrong, Warlords of Draenor seems fine, but I have my doubts that they are seriously trying to make a game we want to play, they are making a game they can make money from, plain and simple. It's been kind of clear for a while now. Take it as you will.

[Dooney]

You gotta love Blizzard's way of thinking, they notice that there is a problem that many players do not enjoy levelling at this point you would expect them to be asking players how they can improve that experience. But not Blizzard. No. Instead they ask how much players would be prepared to pay to skip the unenjoyable content...

I really do not see any harm for insta-90s. There is nothing spectacular about leveling by yourself in ghost towns across Azeroth/Outlands.

Why should I have to play Burning Crusades, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm and Mist of Pandaria just to play Warlords of Draenor, which is what leveling is?

[Pann]

I really do not see any harm for insta-90s. There is nothing spectacular about leveling by yourself in ghost towns across Azeroth/Outlands.

Why should I have to play Burning Crusades, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm and Mist of Pandaria just to play Warlords of Draenor, which is what leveling is?

But why should you have to pay extra to skip parts of the game that are not enjoyable? If a large part of the game that is unavoidable offers no enjoyment to players it should either be improved to be enjoyable or players should be be able to avoid it without cost. I am not sure why people think Blizzard should be financially rewarded for producing a boring levelling experience.

[Beet]

Man it's so funny. Back when paid transfers came in we had people saying this was a slippery slope and Blizzard would start putting more paid stuff in if people accepted it. Of course there was plenty of people who fought saying how reasonable so and so was and that theres no need to worry because Blizzard would NEVER do some stuff such a PVE to PVP server transfers. Which guess what? Came quickly. Then they put in the pet/mount store and people were worried again, and of course more people said don't wrry they won't go any further than this guys. And now here we are with them thinking of giving us paid instant 90s. And if someone suggests they may let us buy gear next, there will be people saying how it will never happen as well.

The slippery slope argument turned out being true. If enough people say it's reasonable to do this or that then it will happen. And sadly some people find it reasonable for Blizzard to put tier gear on the store for money as well. Pay to win games are one thing entirely and have no place in a game with a subscription.

It's funny though. People think leveling is just so bad and long now that they'd actually want to pay for instant 90s. I think most of these people would have their head explode if they had to experience how leveling was in 2004-2007. Or hell, if they saw how EQ leveling was they'd have a heart attack. Todays leveling is a joke and is nothing compared to what it once was.

I actually miss the old days of leveling. When once you got to the level cap you really felt proud because you accomplished something. Sure it may not have been 'hard' persay to level back then, but it was 'harder' than it is today and it was long. And contrary to popular belief you didn't have to actually grind a bunch. I also miss how it was back then because leveling an alt up to cap was significant. And this way you didn't have to worry about people being out of things to do because they'd level every class up to cap. Very few people actually did that in those days.

But I don't want to turn this into a vanilla sucks or vanilla ruled type thread. It's a dumb argument to have. I really dislike the idea of paid instant 90s. The only way I would be okay with it is if there was a hard limit on it. Like say once per account, or once a year. Something like that. Maybe twice a year.

[Deleted]

Of course, now that they have an ingame shop, they are trying to get the most of it. Well paying for something extra that I have to pay to have access to again via subscription doesn't make any sense to me. But I don't blame other people for using it, nor Blizzard for implementing it, if players want it. To each his own.

[Dooney]

I have to wonder if the people using the "slippery slope" argument of "next they'll be selling gear" are the same people that think allowing same sex couples to marry will lead to people marrying a tree.

What kind of a tree?

And I have 4 level 90s and plan to buy at least 2. Who knows how long this feature will last or be included in future xpacs.

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But why should you have to pay extra to skip parts of the game that are not enjoyable? If a large part of the game that is unavoidable offers no enjoyment to players it should either be improved to be enjoyable or players should be be able to avoid it without cost. I am not sure why people think Blizzard should be financially rewarded for producing a boring levelling experience.

That too. When I buy the last version of Windows, I am somewhat buying Windows 95-Vista. But I should not have to activate them all and learn each to start the last version. And yes, WoW is not a stand-alone game.

[Pann]

That too. When I buy the last version of Windows, I am somewhat buying Windows 95-Vista. But I should not have to activate them all and learn each to start the last version. And yes, WoW is not a stand-alone game.

To use this, quite frankly, bizarre analogy Microsoft do not require you to buy Windows 95-Vista and Windows 7 in order to use Windows 8 and they then do not charge you extra not to sit through the installation of the previous versions of Windows.

[KrazyK923]

Maybe because the content is boring? Why should we pay for boring content? Why do Blizzard expect us to pay even more to avoid the content that is not fun? Surely if a large proportion of the game is not enjoyable to a large part of its customer base this should be viewed as a failure on Blizzard's part and not an opportunity to charge us even more?

Do you know what the subscription fee pays for?

1.) You're not even paying for BC/Wrath/Cata (And in WoD, MoP) content separately anymore. They give it to you for the initial cost. So your argument fails here.

2.) I'm not sure why you can't understand the impossibility of having literally every level of content being constantly new and fresh. This is probably one of the more absurd things I've ever heard haters say about WoW. No MMO anywhere has ever done this, ever. Why? Because its impossible. You are making the absolutely false implication that you are being somehow forced to pay for BC/Wrath/Cata content. They're giving it to you for free now included in the base price of WoW. Again, why? Because that content is old. Its clear now that you really have no idea what your subscription pays for and you're just parroting back what I said.

Uhm? Okay. Are you suggesting that MMOs are not supposed to entertain their customers? Maybe actually try to reply to what I have written rather than making up arguments and then responding to what you have just made up?

I'm replying to what your comment then means, because just saying "THEY SHOULD MAKE THE GAME ENTERTAINING!" means absolutely nothing. Maybe if you explained what you mean or even could understand the implication of what you're saying then your comments wouldn't be a joke.

There's really no point in continuing with you. There's 30-35% of people who will be against what Blizzard does no matter what. Its clear you are one of these people. I will laugh at you when WoD comes and they don't end up selling epic items or whatever bullshit slippery slope crap people like you have been doomsdaying about since they started selling mounts 5+ years ago.

[rda]

Man it's so funny. Back when paid transfers came in we had people saying this was a slippery slope and Blizzard would start putting more paid stuff in if people accepted it. Of course there was plenty of people who fought saying how reasonable so and so was and that theres no need to worry because Blizzard would NEVER do some stuff such a PVE to PVP server transfers. Which guess what? Came quickly. Then they put in the pet/mount store and people were worried again, and of course more people said don't wrry they won't go any further than this guys. And now here we are with them thinking of giving us paid instant 90s. And if someone suggests they may let us buy gear next, there will be people saying how it will never happen as well.

The slippery slope argument turned out being true. If enough people say it's reasonable to do this or that then it will happen. And sadly some people find it reasonable for Blizzard to put tier gear on the store for money as well. Pay to win games are one thing entirely and have no place in a game with a subscription.

It's funny though. People think leveling is just so bad and long now that they'd actually want to pay for instant 90s. I think most of these people would have their head explode if they had to experience how leveling was in 2004-2007. Or hell, if they saw how EQ leveling was they'd have a heart attack. Todays leveling is a joke and is nothing compared to what it once was.

I actually miss the old days of leveling. When once you got to the level cap you really felt proud because you accomplished something. Sure it may not have been 'hard' persay to level back then, but it was 'harder' than it is today and it was long. And contrary to popular belief you didn't have to actually grind a bunch. I also miss how it was back then because leveling an alt up to cap was significant. And this way you didn't have to worry about people being out of things to do because they'd level every class up to cap. Very few people actually did that in those days.

But I don't want to turn this into a vanilla sucks or vanilla ruled type thread. It's a dumb argument to have. I really dislike the idea of paid instant 90s. The only way I would be okay with it is if there was a hard limit on it. Like say once per account, or once a year. Something like that. Maybe twice a year.

It goes like this:

* Blizzard put something into the store;
* some people express their dissatisfaction, some defend Blizzard saying things like "the sky isn't falling just yet, it's all fine, it doesn't affect you, it's optional, stop crying";
* time passes, some people from both groups leave the game, others join;
* Blizzard put something else into the store;
* the people who were expressing their dissatisfaction the first time continue doing so, some of those who were previously defending Blizzard see that the game DOES go downwards wrt paid items and services and start expressing their dissatisfaction with that as well, but there are NEW people now who defend Blizzard saying the exact same things the previous defenders used to say - "the sky isn't falling just yet, it's all fine, it doesn't affect you, it's optional, stop crying".

And so it continues. What wasn't acceptable before is acceptable now. Slippery slope at its best.

[Pann]

1.) You're not even paying for BC/Wrath/Cata (And in WoD, MoP) content separately anymore. They give it to you for the initial cost. So your argument fails here.

2.) I'm not sure why you can't understand the impossibility of having literally every level of content being constantly new and fresh. This is probably one of the more absurd things I've ever heard haters say about WoW. No MMO anywhere has ever done this, ever. Why? Because its impossible. You are making the absolutely false implication that you are being somehow forced to pay for BC/Wrath/Cata content. They're giving it to you for free now included in the base price of WoW. Again, why? Because that content is old. Its clear now that you really have no idea what your subscription pays for and you're just parroting back what I said.



I'm replying to what your comment then means, because just saying "THEY SHOULD MAKE THE GAME ENTERTAINING!" means absolutely nothing. Maybe if you explained what you mean or even could understand the implication of what you're saying then your comments wouldn't be a joke.

There's really no point in continuing with you.

We still pay for the content even if expansions are now bundled with the base game, if it is not worth playing as the level 90 boost suggest Blizzard believe then it is not worth paying for and it most certainly not worth paying extra to skip.

I am not sure why you keep saying that I think content should be new and fresh I think it should be enjoyable and if it is not enjoyable it should either be improved or the necessity for players to complete it should be removed without an additional charge. Regardless of whether certain expansion are now included with the base game it still costs money to buy and a fee to play through them. Why don't you explain what the sub fee pays for?

Why do you feel the need to continually resort to insults? Does my disagreement with the multi-million dollar corporation attempting to charge its customers more for less upset you that much?

[Dooney]

You'd think they would realize we are sick of orcs by now, but apparently not. No idea what they are trying to do, but clearly they are not listening to the playerbase. Not to change the subject, though. It's been pretty obvious since before Cataclysm that they are going for profit over everything else. With this expansion, they will do less work to get it out faster, and will have new paid services -- that people will buy, rest assured -- and are focusing on something 'safe' that they think will surely be successful over something that we have been asking for. Now don't get me wrong, Warlords of Draenor seems fine, but I have my doubts that they are seriously trying to make a game we want to play, they are making a game they can make money from, plain and simple. It's been kind of clear for a while now. Take it as you will.

I, too, have Orc-fatigue. It is a marketing ploy of course. But does not negate the fact that there is interest among former players to come back for this one. (I've got 4 buds coming back - 2 have re-sub in order to make some gold.) Delaying flight until 6.1, will keep a number of subscribers around for a while, but withholding final judgment, until we see the numbers after 6.1 and actually experience some content.

Brings me to another question, wonder what the insta-90s will have in their bags as a start-up?

[Charagon]

blizzard is not a charity

people need to realize this, it's as if by subscribing to a service, blizzard is a charity that only works to give you stuff

What exactly do you think people are paying the subscription for?

[Alcomo]

What exactly do you think people are paying the subscription for?

The use and maintenance of their servers.

[Blufossa]

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.

100. In WoD, the new highest level is 100, so it's only fair that to be able to purchase "more" 90's, is by already "beating the game" so to speak.

Now, mind you, new players could still have ONE free level90, but to purchase more, you have to hit 100 first.

[quras]

fuck that shit. . . play the game or gtfo

The post made in the comments of that article wondering if this kind of business move by blizzard was why ghost crawler left is interesting. I could see many people not liking blizzards new business moves.

[KrazyK923]

Decided to respond to the latest internet freakout and butthurt at Blizzard: