Reason's behind disgust at 60$ for level 90 chars

[MoanaLisa]

Why should Blizzard put any effort into end game content when people are just going to get bored with it in a few months and quit playing? Blizzard should be finding ways to keep players interested in old and new content, instead of charging us to skip it.

Three points:

1. It's difficult to take any part of your post seriously if you're serious about the question posed in the quote. That's why we have patches and expansions. That's part of the reason why they say they are bending all of their efforts on end game instead of continuously toying around with stuff that has already been in the game for years.

2. I believe that scaled content is going to be in the game sooner rather than later. Which will possibly make older raids and dungeons more interesting. Maybe. At least I hope so. It's something I've looked forward to for a very long time. And they actually seem to have a project like this in progress.

3. It's just as sensible to say they're charging people who want to skip to the part of the game they'd prefer to play. Don't skip it if you don't like the charge. You do have that choice.

[Surfd]

My issue is not that I want the boost removed it is that Blizzard have come to the realisation that much of the levelling content is no longer fit for purpose and rather than look for solutions to the problem they have decided to monetise it. If they cannot find a way to make levelling enjoyable they should most certainly not be looking to charge their customers extra for their failure to deliver enjoyable levelling content and should allow existing players to boost their characters for free.

This is quite literally one of the most ignorant things I have seen someone post in this thread yet. You honsetly can not be that dense, can you?

Blizzard did not introduce Boost to 90 feature based on the conclusion that leveling is so broken that the only way to "fix" it is to monetise it. If they really felt that leveing no long "fit it's purpose", they would just tweak the exp curve / exp payout for quests / mobs yet again, so people power to 90 that much faster.

Leveling still serves its purpose, the only thing about it that is broken is that the zones were designed around a much longer exp curve. And unfortunatley, there is no "quick fix" for that, short of completely doing the entire leveling / exp system around which the game is built on.

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Once again I'll say it: You're creating something out of nothing. A server or faction change is not in the same line. A server or faction change is still meta-game in the sense that servers are part of the meta-game. Paying for a level 90 character is not meta, it directly effects the actual game.

That's a rather silly arguement. Everything character you make in the game creates something out nothing. Every level 1 character you make magically appears out of nothing. When you made it, it wasnt there before. Sure, you payed your 15 bucks a month for that level 1, but where do you draw the line. Is your 3rd level 1 character more something for nothingish then your first? What about your 10th? Why is boosting a character to 90 any different?

And how exactly does it driectly affect the game any more then creating a new level 1 does? Epsecially when the level cap will be 100 for WoD?

Also, Old content is Old content. Especially in DIKU style MMO games, old content is pretty much by it's nature designed to depreciate over time. The entire purpose of the DIKU style game system is that the cool stuff happens at the higher levels. When the level cap goes up, everything UNDER the level cap simply becomes a foot note stepping stone to reaching the new max level. The onus (as you called it) is not on blizzard to keep the entirety of the old world content just as relivant in every way as the New content, any more then the onus is on the Ford Motor Company to keep every single model of car they ever released compedative with the newer ones. Your Model-T is never going to be as good as an F350, and is / was never intended to be. That is just the nature of the beast. The best thing Blizzard can do is tweak it so it never becomes completely broken.

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Where in my post do I say Blizzard should re-do quests? You're missing my point entirely: leveling content doesn't have to be questing. There is tons of content Blizzard could open up to leveling players that was once 'end game content'. The content already exists.

Name two that dont already exist in the game?

You can already level from 1-90 completely based around doing nothing but:
- Farming mobs
- PvP battlegrounds
- PvE dungeons
- Archaeology
- Gathering Professions (mining / herbalism)
- Pet Battles

Exactly what OTHER options do you propose blizzard has somehow missed to allow people to level without questing? Maybe you should just gain a level every 2 hours you spend logged in, so that people really could just AFK to victory?

[Elian]

It's priced at 60$ to keep the games integrity, as a barrier to dilute a majority of people from instant leveling.

If Blizzard wanted to make money they would have made it 15-20$ and have 15X the people using the service.

The price isn't supposed to be ''reasonable'' that's the entire point of the 60$ to make you think twice about instant leveling.

Think before mindlessly making claims and reasons.

IF it was to keep the game's integrity, it would be like 3-6 months cool-down until you can purchase the next lvl 90; also,the game's integrity was gone a long time ago, i guess you are so mindless that you didn't know that. Blizzard doesn't give a shit about you or the game's integrity, they are only interested in whats in your bank accounts. and you shouldn't tell people to think before making mindlessly claims and reasons when you are mindlessly defending a corporation that doesn't give a shit about you.

your kind of attitude is the reason why so many governments are so corrupt and why many corporations are taking advantage of the governments , you easily bend over to the shit that will be jamming down your throats without having any critical thinking to repel.

[Celista]

IF it was to keep the game's integrity, it would be like 3-6 months cool-down until you can purchase the next lvl 90; also,the game's integrity was gone a long time ago, i guess you are so mindless that you didn't know that. Blizzard doesn't give a shit about you or the game's integrity, they are only interested in whats in your bank accounts. and you shouldn't tell people to think mindlessly claims and reasons when you are mindlessly defending a corporation that doesn't give a shit about you.

your kind of attitude is the reason why so many governments are so corrupt and why many corporations are taking advantage of the governments , you easily bend over to the shit that will be jamming down your throats without having any critical thinking to repel.

I don't think he's necessarily wrong though. What would happen to the leveling experience if most people decided to forgo traditional leveling and just whip out $20 or $30? Leveling zones would be empty...significantly longer dungeon and pvp queue times...it would suck for those people who decided to level the old fashioned way.

Personally I don't think level 90s should be available to purchase at all, or are limited to one per WoD xpac purchase. But having a higher price point hopefully means that at least some people won't think the price is worth it, and therefore have less of an effect on the leveling experience.

[Deleted]

From the negative perspective: They are basicalky ensuring us that they don't expect anything from WoD and that they will milk the game until it's dead.

[silvercentric]

This is quite literally one of the most ignorant things I have seen someone post in this thread yet. You honsetly can not be that dense, can you?

If that's the case then why is it necessary to introduce it at all? Clearly, if it's as you said and that nothing is wrong, then we never had to add it in the first place. Except they did, so they obviously see that something is wrong with leveling.

That's a rather silly arguement. Everything character you make in the game creates something out nothing. Every level 1 character you make magically appears out of nothing. When you made it, it wasnt there before. Sure, you payed your 15 bucks a month for that level 1, but where do you draw the line. Is your 3rd level 1 character more something for nothingish then your first? What about your 10th? Why is boosting a character to 90 any different?

When you create a character, they start at level 1 with no experience. They are, in game mechanics, effectively nothing. You can create all the level 1s that you want, and there is no actual value to doing so. This is not the case with a level 90. There is value in having a level 90 and that value has been conjured out of thin air. Are you so dense that you cannot comprehend something so simple?

[Collected]

Again, the mirror of 'paying to skip content' is 'paying to get to the content you want to play' which for many people will sound sensible.

But here is the problem. Let's say I'm this example gamer you mention that only cares for end game, and I want to roll an alt. Are you suggesting that it's reasonable for an MMO that I already pay $14.99 a month to play on top of the cost of the actual game itself to then expect me to pay $60 per new character to skip all of the redundant and dead content and enjoy the part of the game I want to play? So $Cost of Game/Expansions + $60 + $14.99 to enjoy the part of a game that you suggest is widely accepted to be where the actual game starts. Hmm. Something doesn't quite stack up there.

Now of course the response to this is: choice. You don't *have* to pay. But by your own suggestion.. the game is dead/broken/whatever 1-90 .. so the game is sort of suggesting you do need to pay up.

I'll suggest a radical alternative here. They could have boosted new alts to 90 for free with a limit of how many times you can do it. But that would be far too radical for Blizzard because guess what... they make no money from that. Instead they cook up some line about how $60 is the correct value for a 90 and hope the player base swallows it.

You can tell Blizzard know deep down their charge is flawed because they're giving everyone who buys the expansion a free 90. They know if they didn't do that the $60 would be too much to pay for returning players.

Their game has a problem.. and rather than fix it with a free solution.. they're charging for the fix. Gotta hand it to them.. they're pros at milking their player base. Anyone would think WoW was free to play. I mean the prices of some items on the store sure seem to suggest it.

Here is my view, 1-90 isn't broken, it never has been. It's just a chore. Even with heirlooms, random dungeons, it's still a bit too much of a chore with a 100 cap. So here was my idea. Sell an entire heirloom set, all pieces, all classes, with an extra +15% XP necklace .. sell all of that for $15. Call it the "All In One Alt Kit" or whatever. You buy it once.. you can use it on as many alts as you like. And bingo.. 1-90 is so incredibly easy.. you just queue for randoms and you're a 90 in no time. At least with this solution the 1-90 dungeons aren't ghost towns and healers and tanks will actually know how to perform their rolls before they turn up in 90-100 dungeons.

To sum up... if 1-90 is "broken" and the game "begins at 90" .. how is it ever correct and acceptable that they're charging $60 for the fix to this problem?

[MoanaLisa]

But here is the problem. Let's say I'm this example gamer you mention that only cares for end game, and I want to roll an alt. Are you suggesting that it's reasonable for an MMO that I already pay $14.99 a month to play on top of the cost of the actual game itself to then expect me to pay $60 per new character to skip all of the redundant and dead content and enjoy the part of the game I want to play? So $Cost of Game/Expansions + $60 + $14.99 to enjoy the part of a game that you suggest is widely accepted to be where the actual game starts. Hmm. Something doesn't quite stack up there.

Now of course the response to this is: choice. You don't *have* to pay. But by your own suggestion.. the game is dead/broken/whatever 1-90 .. so the game is sort of suggesting you do need to pay up.

No, I didn't say the game is broken for everyone. It's broken for me personally since I've been through it enough times. But that's personal and I'm not applying this to everyone. Quite the opposite. And after a long run of raising alts after leaving it alone for say a year it may well 'un-break' itself.

There are plenty of people who will think the price too high or enjoy leveling and won't do it. And that's fine too. The reason that the response to this is 'choice' is precisely because it is. If it's worth it to a player then they can do so, or they can choose not to. Neither is wrong, nor am I saying or have ever said that the choice should be removed. And everyone gets a free shot at it in any case if they buy the expansion which is fine. For many that's all they need. And that's the difference.

It's up to Blizzard how they wish to provide the game options. It's up to us to choose which of those options we pursue. For everyone else, it's really none of their business.

[silvercentric]

It's up to Blizzard how they wish to provide the game options. It's up to us to choose which of those options we pursue. For everyone else, it's really none of their business.

This is an MMO, not a singleplayer game. How other players get things IS my business because it effects the community I play in.

[Clone]

It should be free. Leveling is pointless anyway since the endgame is where you really play the game at.

[xcess]

If that's the case then why is it necessary to introduce it at all? Clearly, if it's as you said and that nothing is wrong, then we never had to add it in the first place. Except they did, so they obviously see that something is wrong with leveling.



When you create a character, they start at level 1 with no experience. They are, in game mechanics, effectively nothing. You can create all the level 1s that you want, and there is no actual value to doing so. This is not the case with a level 90. There is value in having a level 90 and that value has been conjured out of thin air. Are you so dense that you cannot comprehend something so simple?

What youre telling me ppl made all these bank alts for no reason ?

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I'll suggest a radical alternative here. They could have boosted new alts to 90 for free with a limit of how many times you can do it. But that would be far too radical for Blizzard because guess what... they make no money from that. Instead they cook up some line about how $60 is the correct value for a 90 and hope the player base swallows it.

Here is my view, 1-90 isn't broken, it never has been. It's just a chore. Even with heirlooms, random dungeons, it's still a bit too much of a chore with a 100 cap. So here was my idea. Sell an entire heirloom set, all pieces, all classes, with an extra +15% XP necklace .. sell all of that for $15. Call it the "All In One Alt Kit" or whatever. You buy it once.. you can use it on as many alts as you like. And bingo.. 1-90 is so incredibly easy.. you just queue for randoms and you're a 90 in no time. At least with this solution the 1-90 dungeons aren't ghost towns and healers and tanks will actually know how to perform their rolls before they turn up in 90-100 dungeons.

To sum up... if 1-90 is "broken" and the game "begins at 90" .. how is it ever correct and acceptable that they're charging $60 for the fix to this problem?

Haha you really think aoeing your way through low lvl dungeons will teach ppl how to play at end game ? cos its already like that. Ppl can also raf 1-85 without learning a thing right now they just have the raf toons follow a lvl 90 toon and lvl 90 does all the work.

[Surfd]

When you create a character, they start at level 1 with no experience. They are, in game mechanics, effectively nothing. You can create all the level 1s that you want, and there is no actual value to doing so. This is not the case with a level 90. There is value in having a level 90 and that value has been conjured out of thin air. Are you so dense that you cannot comprehend something so simple?

In a game with a level cap of 100, where a level 100 will stomp a level 90 with about as equal impunity as a level 90 would stomp a level 1, having instant access to a level 90 with shit gear and nothing else is about as equivilent to having instant access to a level 1 with shit gear and nothing else. In the grand scheme of things, your instant level 90 is a value conjured out of thin air that still has no meaningful signifigance. Instant 90s will not, in any way, break the game. They will not wreck the community. They will not affect your life.

If you honesty believe that they will, I would like you to actually provide a concrete example of how, instead of just ranting that "zomg, there will be more level 90 newbs now who will shit up my LFR." Because the answer is simply that there wont be. Anyone who gets to level 100 and sucks at their class will do so because they suck at their class, not because they started at 90. They would still suck at their class if they started at level 1, the only difference is that it would take them about 4 or 5 days less time to reach level 100, which in the grand scheme of a game where you are going to spend HUNDREDS of hours at max level, is completely meaningless.

[silvercentric]

In a game with a level cap of 100, where a level 100 will stomp a level 90 with about as equal impunity as a level 90 would stomp a level 1, having instant access to a level 90 with shit gear and nothing else is about as equivilent to having instant access to a level 1 with shit gear and nothing else. In the grand scheme of things, your instant level 90 is a value conjured out of thin air that still has no meaningful signifigance. Instant 90s will not, in any way, break the game.

It's not a matter of how a max level character is in a face off with a level 90. That has nothing to do with the value of a level 90 character. A level 90 character is valuable because they are not level 1, they have "gained" all the experience that makes them level 90. A level 90 character is valuable because they are worth all the time it takes to level one.

If it's as you say: "your instant level 90 is a value conjured out of thin air that still has no meaningful significance" then there's really no point in putting in free 90s at all is there? Do you see what corner you just backed yourself into?

[Surfd]

Ok, So what is the value of the time it takes to get to 90? Since that is appearently all a 90 is actually worth. Oddly enough, blizzard has an answer for you: That time commitment is worth 60 bucks.

They are giving you a choice: Pay 60 bucks for a 90, or Spend X amount of time for a 90. If you dont want to pay for one, you play for one. In the end though, in the grand scheme of things, how you get to 90 will have almost no appreciable impact on what you do once you are there, since you still have to level from 90 to 100 to get to the endgame of WoD.

I already have several 90s. Other then the faction rep gained by leveling the normal way, there is really no benefit I can see to leveling yet another characer through 4 expantions worth of content I have already seen MULTIPLE times so i can get another one, that would not be offset by the simplicity of paying 60 bucks, and spending that time I would have spent leveling to 90 on leveling FROM 90. I personally will not be buying extra 90s, but the free boost to 90 from the initial WoD box purchase will still get used. It is all up to personal choice.

There is quite literally no way that blizzard could improve the leveling system for vetran players because every veteran player has seen the leveling content more times then they really want to allready. No amount of level curve tweaking, quest exp rebalancing or any of that shit will change that fact.

And new players. Players who have never been in the game before can still enjoy most leveling zones, since without heirlooms you dont outlevel the entire zone after the third quest hub. They still wont see ALL of the leveling content, but no body EVER does on a single playthrough.

Your whole argeuemnt that a 90 has inherent value and that the 60 buck price tag to get an instant one somehow deminishes that value is predicated on the belief that everyone puts the same signifigance on its appearant value as you do. which is not the case. To some people, the only thing a 90 is worth is the time it took to get there. To others, the 90 is worth all the experiences they had with the character up to that point. To others, it isnt worth squat, because the new benchmark of character power will be level 100, and a fresh 90 still has to get there.

[Deleted]

Price is irrelevant tbh and it could had been higher. Personally more peeved that it went from p2p with some f2p features. Instead of just only this option of buying a lvl 90 for 60 (which is relatively cheap compared to third party services by the way) they could had added a loyality program or something like that: having one lvl 90 allows you to add 30 lvls to an alt, or if you started ages ago a free lvl 90 etc. But no, there should be only one option..

[DarkArchon]

IF it was to keep the game's integrity, it would be like 3-6 months cool-down until you can purchase the next lvl 90; also,the game's integrity was gone a long time ago, i guess you are so mindless that you didn't know that. Blizzard doesn't give a shit about you or the game's integrity, they are only interested in whats in your bank accounts. and you shouldn't tell people to think before making mindlessly claims and reasons when you are mindlessly defending a corporation that doesn't give a shit about you.

your kind of attitude is the reason why so many governments are so corrupt and why many corporations are taking advantage of the governments , you easily bend over to the shit that will be jamming down your throats without having any critical thinking to repel.

lol...not even worth responding too. Exaggerate much?

[Jellybean]

Once again I'll say it: You're creating something out of nothing. A server or faction change is not in the same line. A server or faction change is still meta-game in the sense that servers are part of the meta-game. Paying for a level 90 character is not meta, it directly effects the actual game.

Saying it once was more than enough. Pretty much everything you do in WoW creates something out of nothing. That's why it's a virtual world. If you're so against value being created or destroyed from nothing, why aren't you arguing against the normal expansion gear resets instead of the 60$ boost fee? A raid-geared max-level toon has a ton of value, when the new patch comes out and better gear is available from easy 5 man dungeons, that value has poofed. That has a ton more impact than this 60$ fee.

[Hooliganz]

60 is a fair price

[theburned]

Levelling is a good part of this game, some people don't enjoy it as much as others.

I for one like levelling characters, why? Because I feel attached to a character that I have levelled from 1-max level, unlike if I play on my friend's account I don't feel attached to that character at all even if it's the same class as mine.
The value of a character (that you aren't going to sell) depends on the time you've spent with it and with whom you share that time with.

Also I like progressing in some means, skipping that process feels like a waste, though one free 90 or 2-3 isn't such a bad idea.

[Collected]

60 is a fair price

Is there another MMO that charges that much for a level boost?

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Levelling is a good part of this game, some people don't enjoy it as much as others.

This is true but the only reason Blizzard is now entertaining the idea of a level boost is because they've extended the max cap to 100. Their design decision has resulted in the requirement for a paid service. I still don't understand the logic of that. Charge me for content. Charge me for pets. Charge me for mounts. I get all of that. But charge me because Blizzard made the gap between 1 and 100 bigger? I don't get that.

I know it's optional. I know it's choice. But I still feel it's bad news.