Paying for a level 90. Pay to win, or not?

[Atlas Nerzhul]

I have been hearing a lot of arguments on how paying for a level 90 is a step toward "pay to win." I disagree. Let me explain why.

For example, lets go ahead and take a look at players whom are level 90 across the board. You have your world top raiders, you have your heroic raiders(myself), you have raiders who just want to down normals, and you have casuals.... Then you have the dreaded LFR players.. Just because you are level 90 does not mean you are better than everyone else. Prime example are the players that do nothing but LFR, whether that is because that is all they have time for real raiding or they are just so bad they cannot do anything else. They are level 90, like the rest of us.

If I could open up the shop and buy my Heroic Warforged caster trinkets that would be pay to win. They aren't giving you a level 90 in bis or anything even close to that.

I think paying for a level 90 is a great thing. I have been playing this game for a long time. I HATE LEVELING!! I have done it sooo many times that it is no where near fun. I have also tried to get my friends into the game and they get to about level 50 and say, "Screw it! This isn't fun!." Now leveling can be positive so you learn your class thru and thru(but lets be honest, classes change so much at level 90 anyway.) But no one is forcing you to buy the level up. So that is a personal choice. This creates more money for blizzard which also means better maintenance(maybe even quicker maintenance??) more content, better content. I could give examples all day.

My final point is that this game is so centered around end game level 90, that it really is pointless to do anything in pre MoP. It is just a huge waste of my time honestly.

Tl;Dr Pay to level 90 is a good thing for the gamer and the game itself.

Leave your opinions below.

- - - Updated - - -

Bump, I want to know your opinions

[-Superman-]

RaF and SoR go to 80 in a lvl 90 game. Those are instantly 10 levels below cap. Buying a 90 (SoR or RaF) in a lvl 100 game is the same. There is no way to "win" in an mmo, and the 90 still has to level 10 more levels, and get geared, and level profs, and grind rep, and and and.... and you get my drift.

[MW4Life]

I am just curious as to how much this 90 is gonna cost. Not that I'll buy one (because I really won't), but I've just been wondering. Watch it be like $69.99 US or something like that. Meh with my free 90 at least I'll be able to put my bank alt in some nice looking clothes. All I care about is my Monk and she's already 90.

Anyway, I agree with much of what you've said, but one thing I do fear, however, is if this is gonna lead to a massive infestation of bots and increase the amount of trollish behavior we see in game.

"So what if I get busted botting, I'll just buy a new 90"

I think this may "casualize" botting where someone who normally wouldn't bot, someone who is afraid of losing all that leveling work, will now be more apt to take the risk.

"So what if I get banned for being a trolling griefer? A fresh 90 is a 'swipe of my cc' away."

I think some trolling or bad behavior is kept in check because someone wanting to do such a thing, like the botter above, doesn't want to lose his/her time investment.


I dunno what to make of all this yet. I'll just have to wait and see.

[rda]

Too many threads on the same subject. There's no point rehashing the arguments. Just reply in the threads that already exist, if you have something new to say.

Yes, it's pay to win. Read the threads as to why.

[AeneasBK]

Mod lock, already subjects on this.

[Deleted]

Technically it IS play to win, but it will be limited by it being you being 90 set levels, and not continously getting ahead through paying real money.

After you buy the 90 you play the same game as everyone else, multiple toons are not additive from a game progression perspective to any big extent.

[Ronduwil]

It's not pay to win. Pay to win is like SWTOR where you need to purchase the ability to equip epic gear or even gem/enchant/reforge it. Getting to level 90 is not "winning" WoW. The definition of "winning" varies from player to player. Definitions include maxing out a subset of achievements, defeating the final boss of the expansion, and/or achieving a certain PvP/Brawler rank. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a player, however, that counts hitting 90 as "winning" the game.

[-Superman-]

It's not pay to win. Pay to win is like SWTOR where you need to purchase the ability to equip epic gear or even gem/enchant/reforge it. Getting to level 90 is not "winning" WoW. The definition of "winning" varies from player to player. Definitions include maxing out a subset of achievements, defeating the final boss of the expansion, and/or achieving a certain PvP/Brawler rank. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a player, however, that counts hitting 90 as "winning" the game.

Agreed, the game just gets going at 90. Dailies, rep grinds, achievement hunting, soloing old content, collecting tmog gear, raiding, arenas.... and the list goes on. Plus, you can't "win" at something that never ends.

[Rucati]

RaF and SoR go to 80 in a lvl 90 game. Those are instantly 10 levels below cap. Buying a 90 (SoR or RaF) in a lvl 100 game is the same. There is no way to "win" in an mmo, and the 90 still has to level 10 more levels, and get geared, and level profs, and grind rep, and and and.... and you get my drift.

Actually RAF goes all the way to 85 now, doing it currently myself. SoR I'm not sure about, I honestly didn't know they even still had that haha.

But I completely agree with you. The only ways I could possibly see someone "winning" WoW is if they were to have every single achievement in the game, I suppose at that point you'd have officially "won". Other than that, I mean, I guess full clearing the final raid tier on heroic doing all the achievements, or being rank 1 in PvP, would be "winning" if you only PvP for example. But you can already pay real money for both of those things, so it's already pay to win for those who want it to be. Buying level 90s is in no way pay to win at all, hell I wouldn't even care if they sold level 100s, because leveling isn't the challenge in WoW, raids and/or arenas are.

I am just curious as to how much this 90 is gonna cost. Not that I'll buy one (because I really won't), but I've just been wondering. Watch it be like $69.99 US or something like that. Meh with my free 90 at least I'll be able to put my bank alt in some nice looking clothes. All I care about is my Monk and she's already 90.

Anyway, I agree with much of what you've said, but one thing I do fear, however, is if this is gonna lead to a massive infestation of bots and increase the amount of trollish behavior we see in game.

"So what if I get busted botting, I'll just buy a new 90"

I think this may "casualize" botting where someone who normally wouldn't bot, someone who is afraid of losing all that leveling work, will now be more apt to take the risk.

"So what if I get banned for being a trolling griefer? A fresh 90 is a 'swipe of my cc' away."

I think some trolling or bad behavior is kept in check because someone wanting to do such a thing, like the botter above, doesn't want to lose his/her time investment.


I dunno what to make of all this yet. I'll just have to wait and see.

This won't happen. If you get banned for botting, it's account wide, so they'd have to buy WoW and all the expansions, plus the 90s, and on top of that they'd lose the gear/achievements/mounts/pets they had. Big difference between losing one character, and losing your whole account. I don't expect botting or trolls to increase, because people won't want to lose their whole account.

[fooliuscaesar13]

I enjoy leveling/questing, tbh, so this is a service that I doubt that I'd ever use unless it was dirt cheap (like $5.00 or so) and we all know that isn't what Blizzard will price it at. I don't feel that it is pay to win and I have yet to see someone present a good argument for it being pay to win either. It certainly opens up the possibility for pay to win options...but I personally don't see Blizzard doing something like that. Who knows, though.

[Darsithis]

Please use an open thread to post your opinions. There are many open threads, including ones on this exact topic.