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

[Stroglin]

I am a little shocked by people's reactions. The price is steep but it's obviously intentional. Seems to be aimed at people that have leveled many times and do not want to take the time of leveling another alt. Maybe a class we just never got around to. For me it's a Shaman. I also understand that we all get 1 upgrade free with preorder of WoD so everyone gets one if they buy the game. There are times when I look at the screen after a rolling a new toon and said am I really doing this again. I would pay anything to be 90 already. Blizzard's answer is $60 bucks please.

[Lovestar]

The point is to dissuade too many people from using it....

The problem is, as @ro9ue points out (a little melodramatically), that Blizzard is acknowledging the leveling process is so unappealing that people will pay $60 to get it over with.

Rather than fixing the leveling issues, they're choosing to use it as a business opportunity. By doing that, they're gambling that playing more WoW faster is worth more to people's wallets and financial tastes than new products like other games.

That is very crass and very ambitious, but since Blizz is rarely stupid, they must have good reasons to believe it's worth implementing.

You need to realize — they are not trying to 'dissuade' people from using it. Implementing something like this costs time, resources (thus, money), testing, support burden for the inevitable bugs and issues, etc etc etc.

Blizzard doesn't do this because they don't want people doing it. That makes no sense, and the company is too smart for that. They're doing this because they know people want it and the leveling process has grown stale, and they expect that it's bad enough that people are willing to shell out this much cash to blow past it.

They're probably correct, and I'm incredulous but amused. It's still amazingly crass.

Ultimately, the price tag is motivated by what they think they can get. They may be thinking in terms of how many months subscription time will be truncated for an average-type player by not having to level an alt.

At best, the price is there to help reduce anger from the die-hard anti-boost crowd, who can reassure themselves "Oh, phew, at least it's expensive". But that's probably a side effect; if they didn't think people would buy it at $60, they wouldn't price it that way. Period.

[Deleted]

More people to play with is a good thing though. I prefer stuff like this to the mounts and pets. At least level 90 is obtainable without paying, the mounts are not.

[Wixwix]

$60 jesus.. is it gonna be 90€?

[Tiev]

World of WarCraft, the game you pay $60 to buy and then $60 more to skip playing it.

These people. These arguments. Lol.

Put 90 levels of level grinding before you can begin queing for a match in dota 2. Watch Valve's forums burst into nuclear explosion of hate and complaints.


response: But WoW isn't Dota, it's a completely different game and the RPG and the quests and the beauty and..


response to response: Maybe some of us would like it to be? Not in a sense of becoming a Moba. Of course not, but in the sense of logging into the game and start playing the game you want?

You know, for some people, levelling is NOT the game. The game starts at raiding, max level pvp, warzones and whatnot.


As for the: Blizzard should just fix levelling because if I don't want to do it it's because it's broken!


That is incorrect. I don't want to do it because I've done it before. End of story.

SWTOR had a much better levelling system and even then, once I was done with the levelling once I was done with the game.

[ro9ue]

END OF ARGUMENT. There is no good argument against this logic. 12 hours of my time is worth well of a lot more than 60 bucks.

From a time/money ratio it's obviously WELL worth it. But when you're talking about trying to remove something from an entertainment experience, there's a greater issue at hand. The problem with the whole thing is the leveling system. It's old, it sucks and might be nice for a classic single player RPG, but when you add the multiplayer element all it does is put up a bullshit barrier between people and the content they can experience together.

Blizzard knows this. Look up their comments on scaling technology just a few months ago. It would've been a great way for veterans to play with their old buddies. Then, probably around the time they started talking about offering a free 90 and a paid 90 boost, the scaling tech disappeared from all blue posts. So instead of fixing the archaic leveling system with scaling technology they leave the problem in place and put a $60 paywall up in front of the solution.

Companies have to make money, we get it, but when they do so at the expense of their product and service, it's time for me to throw money at companies that don't.

[Prancing Minstrel]

I personally think it is a reasonable price for the amount of content that you are skipping.

You do realise you're supposed to pay for more content, not less, right?
You're paying the price of a whole brand new game in order to jump ahead on a single character, that's pretty extreme IMO.

[Zenotetsuken]

Honestly if I still played I would actually consider paying $60, but only if the chars were boosted to max level with each expansion AND it was available immediately. I feel like doing it that way might almost be worth it so that I don't have to waste time doing pointless bullshit quests before beginning the only part of the game (IMO) that matters.

[Abysal]

I'm with you. Lets see where the cash shop is in 2 years. So we can come back to all of the "Slippery slope fallacy" ppl and laugh.

Alright, but first we'd have to agree on when it changes over to pay-to-win. We already have tons of threads claiming a free 90 in WoD when 100 is max level is pay to win, which would mean we were already over the slippery slope. Then we have another group who say pay to win is only when you can get the current season's conquest gear or heroic raid gear from the current tier, or some sort of exclusive stat booster that isn't available without paying extra.

If we agree on the 2nd definition, I think in 2 years when we come back, we'll see that we don't have any of those things in the cash shop.

[Mirishka]

But whats next? Buying Achievements/Gear/professions. Whats the point of an MMO if you can buy your way to the finish.

Because level 90 with shitty green gear is the finish in an MMO that will soon have a level 100 cap right?

Spare us the hyperbole please. Already enough whine to go around these forums.

[Deleted]

"If" my work paid overtime and not stupid comp, I would have to work 3 hours to buy one OR I could spend what, 30-40 hours leveling. It's not overpriced

It all depends where you alive. They probably will set 60 euro in europe which is total bs since $ is cheaper then euro like 33%.

Which means everyone in Europe is screwed over by this.

It doesn't matter how you can justify this piece of crap. You can buy new AAA game for that, or pay for 4 months of sub. 4 months of sub > lvl 90 boost period.

My few cents here.

[Sephius]

I'm just happy blizzard is smart and completely ignores the morons with terrible opinions such as the following.

"The old talent system was so much better! I had SOOOO many more options!"

"omg this game is pay2win!!!11"

Thank you blizzard for making a better game, and being able to shift through the muck that idiots who complain spew out.

[Harlequin719]

I'm with you. Lets see where the cash shop is in 2 years. So we can come back to all of the "Slippery slope fallacy" ppl and laugh.

Go for it. I'll still be here laughing at you conspiracy theorists after having happily paid to boost my 90's. And if they started selling raid gear, I'll be paying for that too.

[Abysal]

$60 jesus.. is it gonna be 90€?

Pretty sure Euros are worth more than dollars atm. If they price based on exchange rates, it will be ~45€, but I don't know if that's how they will price it or not. I can't see it being more € than $ though.

[Jankage]

How long does it take the average person to level to 90?
If you spent that many hours working, would you make more than $60?

I could spend 6 hours working and make far more than $60.
I can't level a toon to 90 in 6 hours.

It's worth it for some people, if you don't have a job and need a way to kill time then maybe it's not worth it to you.

[GrieverXIII]

Sounds fine by me, laziness always had a pretty steep price IRL too, no problem with it.

[Harlequin719]

You do realise you're supposed to pay for more content, not less, right?
You're paying the price of a whole brand new game in order to jump ahead on a single character, that's pretty extreme IMO.

And IMO, levelling is NOT content. It is a boring, outdated slog that is akin to being punched in the crotch. I will happily pay 60 bucks for less crotch punching.

[Abysal]

It's worth it for some people, if you don't have a job and need a way to kill time then maybe it's not worth it to you.

Thank you. This is all that needs to be said.

What's worth it for 1 person isn't for another. So much QQ over the fact that people have subjective values when it comes to their time and money.

[Lovestar]

It's worth it for some people, if you don't have a job and need a way to kill time then maybe it's not worth it to you.

This is basically it. It's not priced to dissuade people using it, it's priced because enough of the aging WoW population is employed that purchases are still plausible at this price.

Again: it's crass. It's certainly not stupid.

[thunderdragon2]

Pretty sure Euros are worth more than dollars atm. If they price based on exchange rates, it will be ~45€, but I don't know if that's how they will price it or not. I can't see it being more € than $ though.

i just put the price into the curency converter and atm $60 is 43.59 euro and £35.94 for those in the UK tho converson rates may change between now and the release of the feture