Move the game away from a indirect pay to win motto?

[Unlimited Power]

Getting into a Mythic Jaina pug without already having the achievement was proving to be a pain, so I just bought a boost for 400k.

Probably about 1/4th of the gold I was sitting on at the time, but totally worth it to me given the mount will no doubt be very annoying to grind in SL and even beyond. And I have no doubt in my mind that the mount will sell for way more on the BMAH as well.

In that regards, boosts are a necessary evil in my opinion. But given how much the trade channel is spammed, especially on some of the larger realms, I always move trade chat to a separate window that I never open unless I'm specifically looking to buy a boost for something.

And boosts frankly aren't anything new. They've always been around in some shape or form, but I believe they gained prominence in MoP as people wanted the mount from Garrosh Ahead of the Curve and his heirlooms that became guaranteed drops in the prepatch of WoD and would be forever unavailable once WoD launched.

[Ragnarohk]

If I had the gold I would buy a run for the Jaina mount. Don't have time to join a group and do it 10 weeks in a row.

I did it for the Archimonde AotC mount. To my surprise, I managed to PuG heroic Archimonde like 2 weeks after I bought the mount. Just wasted gold. But that's fine.

[Lucetia]

I call bullshit on this. WoW GMs do not get back with people to announce the punishments they dole out, they are not even allowed to do this.

He didn't say the GM's did it. Blizzard did it and yes they do that now. They send you a generic mail saying "Your recent reports has lead to the action on of an account" something to that affect. Overwatch was doing it first then WoW copied it so that way players can see that their reports are looked into and actioned on. Now whether they actually are or it just auto sends it after X amount of messages is a different story.

[Sevarin]

remember the days when people would actually play the game and not expect to get paid for it?

these days i feel kinda stupid for actually helping people instead of charging absurd amounts of gold for something that is easy to clear. 0 mask clear for 20k? seriously? most of them just say end loot too, they dont even bother ressing for the side bosses.

ive seen people try, and probably get, 10k for m0 clears. or literally selling guides straight from wowhead for things like lucid nightmare and baa'l. like what the hell people.


of course in the end, i guess its not just the scumbags selling it, but the morons that actually pay for it that cause this kind of behavior, otherwise there wouldnt be a market for it.

[Usernameforforums]

Boost are fine but the advertising has become cancer and has reached a level of new heights we’ve never seen before. Yes, there have always have had boost but the advertising has never been this bad. It used to be that you would see like maybe one an hour. Now its like 15-30 a minute.

There will always be boosting, its inevitable. Unfortunately, there is no viable solution. They could remove bnet tokens, max level only in trade, ip address chat restriction to slow down advertising from multiple instances though its easily countered by vpn and though than can do multibox likely can afford a vpn, or just say fuck all the boosters and ban them all. But again, none of my suggestions here are viable.

[Lochton]

I am not sure how much spam in chat of the 5 servers I play on but when you see 200 different advertisements for carrying sales in both PVP and PvE it is very disheartening. You may ask me what does it matter to me if it does not hurt me. It gives the impression that is very disenchanting to a lot of players. It disenchants me in thinking wow stops one form of rmt but indirectly does not intervene on others. Some are legit yes but is this really the spirit of the game? Is this how we want wow to be going in the future. I hope we can convince Blizzard to make a statement that carries can be nerfed by altering how gold can be funneled out of servers and make sales outside of game chat illegal. 50% of these sales ask you to visit a discord channel to discuss the specifics and while the carry team itself might be legit they use a third party company that pairs and advertises then sets these carries up which are often tied to rmt in itself.

It is hard to break something that has been part of the game for over a decade. It isn't new, just more. At least Blizzard still strikes at RMT's. I suggest getting an addon to handle advertisement blocking.

[SkagenRora]

The game would be far less enjoyable without them, Imagine if you had to do natural progression for every alt and can’t just pay for boost and be close to ilvl 460 on like the same day you ding 120.

[Mirishka]

He didn't say the GM's did it. Blizzard did it and yes they do that now. They send you a generic mail saying "Your recent reports has lead to the action on of an account" something to that affect. Overwatch was doing it first then WoW copied it so that way players can see that their reports are looked into and actioned on. Now whether they actually are or it just auto sends it after X amount of messages is a different story.

Then I stand corrected - my apologies, @Othraerir.

I've known that Overwatch does that as part of the big 'combat toxicity' initiative. As recently as like... 5-6 months ago I opened a ticket to report something quite egregious I saw in-game and got the standard "we do not disclose the details of our investigations blah blah' reply. And certainly no followup from Blizzard.

I hadn't seen anything to indicate that it changed, but I'm glad to know that it has. I always thought it was dumb to keep that kind of info from people who are trying to make the game a less shitty place.

[Topornic]

Blizz should add a "Boost/Carry" part in the LFG tool to help filter out all the boost groups from the main groupfinder part.

No they shouldn’t. Blizzard should never support boosting officially. Any keywords indicating boost selling in lfg should be an automated ban.
And then in trade chat just report them for spamming because they post every goddamn 5 seconds.
Also start shaming people buying boosts to make them reconsider buying any. After all - it’s the customers who keep the wheel spinning.

[Wuusah]

Boosting has always been part of the game. I wouldn't blame this for the state of trade chat. I'd blame BfA professions. There is NOTHING ELSE TO SELL. What else would you see in /2 if boosting was filtered out?

[Lollis]

As much as I fucking hate boost spam in trade, boosts are NOT pay-to-win. They are, at best, pay-to-catchup.

Unless when you are getting given all mythic gear by a heroic geared raid you are not getting the significant advantage over other players that pay-to-win infers in every other game.

[VinceVega]

I am not sure how much spam in chat of the 5 servers I play on but when you see 200 different advertisements for carrying sales in both PVP and PvE it is very disheartening. You may ask me what does it matter to me if it does not hurt me. It gives the impression that is very disenchanting to a lot of players. It disenchants me in thinking wow stops one form of rmt but indirectly does not intervene on others. Some are legit yes but is this really the spirit of the game? Is this how we want wow to be going in the future. I hope we can convince Blizzard to make a statement that carries can be nerfed by altering how gold can be funneled out of servers and make sales outside of game chat illegal. 50% of these sales ask you to visit a discord channel to discuss the specifics and while the carry team itself might be legit they use a third party company that pairs and advertises then sets these carries up which are often tied to rmt in itself.

Boosting services are annoying as hell agreed. Constant spamming. I think the most annoying part is the LFG Tool. Every other post in there is a boosting service. THAT should be forbidden. It just makes the tool incredibly annoying to use.
BUT: Demand/supply... simple as that. I sold a few runs this year myself with guild buddies.
But after i had enough money i stopped. (4 Runs)
Also i have not been in the trade chat since... idk... at least WoD. There is no reason to be in it. Everything that gets sold there is cheaper in the AH or you can sell it more expensive there.

[Wuusah]

Boosting services are annoying as hell agreed. Constant spamming. I think the most annoying part is the LFG Tool. Every other post in there is a boosting service. THAT should be forbidden.

It is. That's why you can right click report for advertisement in the tool

[Lucifer Morningstar]

Easiest fix for this would be to have a separate category for boost advertisement and Blizzard making an official statement that you're not allowed to advertise carry runs in trade chat.

[VinceVega]

It is. That's why you can right click report for advertisement in the tool

Sure? Isn't it only forbidden for real money?

[Wuusah]

Sure? Isn't it only forbidden for real money?

all advertisement is forbidden in LFG tool.

[rrayy]

i generally report them and all the other bullshit in the custom groups.

actually got 2 in game mails, saying blizz had banned some people, so it does work i guess.

That is BS. Blizzard does not do that at all.

- - - Updated - - -

Also start shaming people buying boosts to make them reconsider buying any. After all - it’s the customers who keep the wheel spinning.

Then you should be banned for trolling. Who the hell are you to judge how others play the game? Bullying is behavior that needs to be removed fro the game.

[Unholyground]

I think it is the lesser of 2 evils, I take that over the random Chinese sellers of old.

[bloodwulf]

Susanexpress says Hi lol.

I think boosts for gold are fine. Albeit my guild is on the seller end not the buyer, but still as long as you are being fair and honest, and only trading for gold, there really isnt any issue. There are relatively too few real gold sinks and an hyperinflated economy so it lies to the player to make use of their gold.

Also people saying they lose respect for gear or achievements is just a lol. Wasn't one of the major arguments ProClassic was Retail wow gear doesnt mean shit, so why is boosting worse than having 2 expansion in a row were a 5 man can drop a BIS piece of gear. Also why the fuck does Lil'Timmy's gear affect another player at all. I don't walk around boralus and say, damn that guy is geared, bet he bought it.....I don't care how you acquire your gear as long as i still have my preferred means of getting mine. If you are worried about vetting pugs and they not playing at their gearlevel..........DONT PUG.......GG end of story

[glowpipe]

/leave 2

But I agree. Boosting services should be banned from the game.

they don't have to be banned. since that would make a lot of people leave the game, which ultimately hurt all of us. But blizzard should ban it from tradechat. make a seperate channel you have to join or even have notice boards in cities, where they post their boost notes and people wanting a boost go there and find a booster.

Its not like the boost spam in trade chan would make a normal person who doesn't use boosts go "oh, that deals sounds awesome, im gonna get boosted" after seeing a ad that passes by faster then the speed of light. People wanting a boost actively search for one, and they would also join another channel. So boosters wouldn't loose any "sales" by having a boosting channel you have to join. And getting it away from the trade chan would make everyone who hates boosting, be happy. its a win win