Is the level 90 boost pay to win?

[Sar-]

Buying cosmetic items is pay to win. Plain and simple.

In an MMO everyone is playing together. Players earn things by putting in the effort in-game. Just because something doesn't effect combat doesn't mean it's not pay to win.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Cosmetic doesn't affect gameplay in any way, and therefore is the opposite of pay to win.

Do you scream "WINNING!" every time you successfully transmog something?

Learn to engage brain, then try again.

[Prag]

Your personal goal is largely irrelevant. The actual goal of World of Warcraft is to get powerful enough to defeat the main villains. Standard faire for just about every single RPG there is in existence aside from real-time bard simulators. Yes, there's plenty to do and plenty of people to do it with. That's because no one in their right mind would pay $60 then an additional $15 a month for here-and-there updates to a multi-player RPG if that were all you could do.

For example: No one would realistically pay $15 a month to have multi-player Dragon Age with little bits of extra gameplay, amounting to less than an acceptable size for $15 a month DLC that come around every three or four months. You need other shit to do. That extra shit to do is purely for something to tide you over until the next raid comes and the next bad guy terrorizes the world. That is the goal; defeat all the big bad guys. Whether you personally value the mount collecting, achievement farming, etc. is all personal preference and all well and good. However, the goal is to get together and win against the bad guys. You can't do that with the $60 character boost.

That's your interpretation of the goal.

Read: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/game/guide/

"Essentially, the core gameplay of World of Warcraft revolves around fighting monsters and completing quests."

[Deleted]

As I said in another one of my posts. Raiding is not "winning" at this game. PvP is not "winning" at this game. This an MMO, there are many different facets and areas for players to focus on. You are being purposely dense when you restrict your point of view to being those the only areas that you can "win" at.

There are players who only play to level. There are players who are only interested in cosmetic things like mounts, pets or transmogification. You cheapen the game and make it pay to win when you provide out-of-game methods to progress a character in these areas.

By your logic the Battle Chest is pay to win, since you paid less than those who started playing in vanilla and who bought every expansion when it came out at full price. Or that every single discounted thing is paying to win because 'you are not paying the same amount than the ones who bought it when it was new'.

Also, you seem to be thinking that there should be no optional aspects to this game, even though you mentioned that everyone has different goals and ways to enjoy this game. Yet you preach about how everyone else should have to do the same things that everyone else did. There's no logic here, at all. If someone wants to boost their character to 90, then let them. It's not like it's deleting your accounts and characters or even in game achievements and gear. The idea of 'Bwaaaaah I don't feel so special anymore because anyone is buying their level 90s and don't have to level' is ridiculous in itself, because the problem in thinking like that is yourself.

[ComputerNerd]

The gear you get is insufficient to get you even into the current tier of raid content, unless you feed it with timeless gear, which ofc you can do with any alts.
You don't "win" anything
Always someone throwing that term around, and each and every time we have to tell them that they have no idea what it means.
Try searching and I am sure you will find multiple, if not dozens of threads asking exactly this same question and getting the same answer.
Don't jump on the bandwagon thinking it makes you look cool, when you are simply a sheep.

[silvercentric]

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Cosmetic doesn't affect gameplay in any way, and therefore is the opposite of pay to win.

Do you scream "WINNING!" every time you successfully transmog something?

Learn to engage brain, then try again.

Cosmetics is part of the gameplay of an MMO. It's really simple.

[Deleted]

Cosmetics is part of the gameplay of an MMO. It's really simple.

Part of THEIR gameplay, not yours.

[MyLifeIsRandom]

Cosmetics is part of the gameplay of an MMO. It's really simple.

The bricks I'm shoving into this cannon are definitely not aimed at you. No need to worry.

[mistahwilshire]

Nope. It's objectively not.

[SL1200]

Since anything that makes your character more powerful for money = pay to win. The level 90 boost is pure pay to win. Even the games we traditionally call pay to win don't go this far with it.

The level 90 boost they're giving us for buying the expansion is just the Trojan horse to get the feature in the game with less complaining from the playerbase. Most of you ate it up, just like they knew you would.

[silvercentric]

By your logic the Battle Chest is pay to win, since you paid less than those who started playing in vanilla and who bought every expansion when it came out at full price. Or that every single discounted thing is paying to win because 'you are not paying the same amount than the ones who bought it when it was new'.

This is on a completely different level. You pay for access to the game. When you purchase an expansion, it does not "give" you anything in game, it simply grants you access to more content.

When you pay for an item on the store, you do not unlock access to it in-game. You are simply given it for purchasing it. This is an important difference.

Also, you seem to be thinking that there should be no optional aspects to this game, even though you mentioned that everyone has different goals and ways to enjoy this game. Yet you preach about how everyone else should have to do the same things that everyone else did. There's no logic here, at all. If someone wants to boost their character to 90, then let them. It's not like it's deleting your accounts and characters or even in game achievements and gear. The idea of 'Bwaaaaah I don't feel so special anymore because anyone is buying their level 90s and don't have to level' is ridiculous in itself, because the problem in thinking like that is yourself.

You and I would both agree that Blizzard is a very large and successful game company. I recognize fully that players have different goals, and obviously Blizzard does too. The difference is that there is an in-game solution to this and that Blizzard is a competent company that is capable of coming up with said solution.

- - - Updated - - -

Part of THEIR gameplay, not yours.

You don't get to pick and choose what's part of the gameplay. It's an inherent fact of the game. You get to CHOOSE which gameplay to engage in, that is the important difference.

[MyLifeIsRandom]

Since anything that makes your character more powerful for money = pay to win. The level 90 boost is pure pay to win. Even the games we traditionally call pay to win don't go this far with it.

The level 90 boost they're giving us for buying the expansion is just the Trojan horse to get the feature in the game with less complaining from the playerbase. Most of you ate it up, just like they knew you would.

I'm also not using the brick cannon on you. Move along, citizen.

[giovannileanza]

Stupid question imo. Of course not.

[Coldhearth]

People voting 'yes' on this poll have no idea what a pay to win model actually is.

[SL1200]

People voting 'yes' on this poll have no idea what a pay to win model actually is.

Pay to win = anything that makes your character more powerful for money. I voted yes.

[Gothicshark]

Not even close.

To be winning in WOW you have to be top teir raiding or PVP, boost to 90 doesn't do this.

To be winning in WOW you have to know the class you play intimately, boost to 90 actually makes it harder to do this.

[Raven]

If some peoples lifes are so boring that they count turning lvl 90 as wining i feel really really bad for them. they really deserve a win in their life that actually is a win.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

[Eliandal]

? Again? Do we REALLY need yet another topic about this? It's getting rather tiring.

and...no

[MyLifeIsRandom]

@SL1200
@silvercentric

I really have to apologize. I should be putting in more effort to provide a compelling argument for you to see why I think your views are off and misinformed, and giving you more to believe what I say and understand my point. I'm just tired and hungry at the moment, and I can't be bothered to do so other than cheap jokes about firing a brick cannon. Sorry for that.

[Deleted]

Yes, buying any form of advantage is considered a p2w.