i am not 100% a fan of the free level to 80 though, i would have prefered some other sort of time saving incentive but i do think players shd have to start on level 1 and move forward.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
MMOs should not give away nearly level-capped characters. It creates a plethora of new/returning players that don't understand the class they're playing. "What? What totems? I'm a shaman dude." or "What do you mean Moonkin can't heal?"
The difference is these are not new players. these are unsubscribed players. The character must be selected before they actually log in, so it is a character they played before. Sure, the game may have changed a lot depending on how long ago it has been since they quit.
Also, these players are being bumped to lvl 80, which is the beginning of cata content.. so they will have a week or two of leveling to become familiar with the class if it did change a lot. But your examples are wrong, because anyone who played a moonkin or shaman knows those things.
so naked 80 character ? no justice points,no honor,no reputations ,no achievements.
skipping 67-69 , 70-74 PvP ,77-79 which are still quite fun.
There players start at lvl 80 and are given ilevel 232 green gear, which is slightly higher than what someone would have who quested through WOTLK without doing any endgame heroics.
Also, ALL players started Cata with no justice points. they are reset at evey expansion. Reputations aren´t that big of a deal because they are starting right at the beginning of cata content, so will get all the natural cata reps. They can then go back and grind BC or WOTLK reps, which most new players would have to do anyway.
OMFG, I can get a mage (the only class I don't have) instantly leveled to 80 :O
This deal is just ridiculously good to be real. I already have cata and I am on one of the most populated EU servers but the instant level 80 is pure win for someone who has levelled a million toons
If you don´t currently have it, then you can´t get it jumped to 80. When you accept this offer, you choose one of your old characters to get the boost. You cannot use it on a new character ( you do it before you actually log into the game.).
Thing is though this is kind of a trap as well... Take me -- yes if I were to give WoW a third chance with this offer, my character who was capped in sunnywhatever before lich king came out would be able to skip lich king and never play any of that content just 80 to 90. But then when Panda comes out if you decided -- well I want to get a panda to 90 -- you would be stuck at the lich king levels and if you wanted to get from 70 to 80 you would be required to buy the expansion.
I agree that the simple answer would be to include all the prior expansions with the new game -- ESPECIALLY the new accounts... I mean if you have someone considering playing WoW for the first time (and yes it does happen) they have to buy all of the expansions pretty much at once. At least when the panda expansion arrives (and in light of this -- pretty amazing scroll of ressurrection thing) they should at least have an option that includes everything.
Personally I think it should always include everything and have the data on the discs because then you would have an up to date version of the whole game which you could load. As it stands now, even if you have the originals -- the process of installing each in order and then updating would be ridiculous if you are moving to a new system. A lot of people would choose to just download the thing. If you had an up to date version of everything though that would be far better.
Optionally they could have 1) A digital version that only included panda at 1 price, 2) An in store version that has everything for say 20 dollars higher but including an extra month (even if you apply the thing) that gives you a good disc set.
I agree with the others that the net result is you will have more current sub paying customers angry than newcomers, or returning players. In addition, it appears a MoP launch is in the distance most likely.
Not a bad deal. Get a scrub freind that is stupid and still playing have them res you. You get 7 days from level 80 to play for free.
7 days from 80 = a fully geared out epic character and the realization of why you quit in the first place. Then you can quit again after spamming everyone in game what dumbasses they are and how bad the game has turned into a POS and to please try out GW2 to enlighten themselves or try out TOR or Tera or something more in depth like a facebook game etc lol.
Thing is though this is kind of a trap as well... Take me -- yes if I were to give WoW a third chance with this offer, my character who was capped in sunnywhatever before lich king came out would be able to skip lich king and never play any of that content just 80 to 90. But then when Panda comes out if you decided -- well I want to get a panda to 90 -- you would be stuck at the lich king levels and if you wanted to get from 70 to 80 you would be required to buy the expansion.
This is incorrect. You are upgraded from whatever version you are running (Vanilla through to Wrath) all the way to Cataclysm. So if you quit in Vanilla, and accept the scroll, pay for 30 days - then you get an 'auto levelled' 80 (It must be an existing character) and BC, Wrath and Cata.
Blizzard makes an expansion focused on recreating 1-60 content, then starts giving away lvl 80 characters? I guess the good point here is that Blizzard finally realized that no one wanted that stupid rehashed content and they should've focused more on the high end content, maybe in MoP they will get it right? Has Blizzard learned its lesson?
"They essentially want to say 'Correlation proves Causation' when it's just not true." - Sovrath
My brother wanted the spectral mount so he sent my account the invite and paid for a month. I had a rogue that was sitting at level 20 for years, so I told him to make that one an 80. I logged in this morning and was impressed at what all came with the scroll.
Level 80.
All i-level 232 gear.
280% flying.
Cold-weather flying
Azeroth flying
Swift purple gryphon.
Not too shabby for accepting a scroll invite. I probably won't level it up to max level, but it's nice knowing it wouldn't take that long if I wanted to.
Honestly, I only have one problem with this..Okay, it brings 1 character to your friends server, and brings one to level 80. Clearly meant to help people who quit at a low level catch up to their friend while bringing their toon. However in, I feel, a majority of cases, the friend will already have one, or multiple 80s or even 85s. So one character will switch(probably their main, which is 80 or 85), AND it'll level another toon to 80, which is a waste or they'll need to pay 25 dollars anyway to server swap that toon.
Either that but, what if all your friends are on the same server/faction side anyway which is highly likely. Then its a waste of the server/faction change because its AUTOMATIC you don't get to pick what server you want, or if you want to switch faction. You pick a toon and it does it by what your friend is(to my understanding).
Playing Nothing waiting for The secret world Played WoW, DCU online, star wars: the old republic, city of heroes, city of villains, everquest, plenty more I'm probably forgetting or aren't worth noting.
I'm not so sure this "must be an existing character" part is correct. I read on the WoW forums where a person took the SOR invite, first rolled a new character on the same server/faction as the inviter, and then ran the "Claim Rewards" taking it directly to level 80.
I can't find the post, their forum is moving crazy fast, so treat this as hearsay until verified.
Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.
this is absolutely a sign of the problem with mmos.
it's like no one wants to actually play the game anymore. they just want to play endgame. i don't know why so many mmos even bother having levels, especially with this kind of farce.
it shows the absolute confidance that people will love the content of your game by helping them skip it all.
Don't even care if people call this deperate, this is amazing, all MMO's should have incentives like these to play again.
You're absolutely right. Amazingly desperate
Found Cataclysm in the bargain bin @ $5 a few months ago, resubbed for a month, played 5 days.
2 weeks ago had a "7 days free" offer (baah could have used 2 months ago) and got a questionaire mostly focused on "have you seen and understood our really nice 1 yr offer with diablo 3 and please tell us how much you plan to play GW2?"
WoW is a nice game - some fans will stay indefinately - The rest of us: Moved on, now we and Bobby K. just need to accept that
We dont need casuals in our games!!! Errm... Well we DO need casuals to fund and populate our games - But the games should be all about "hardcore" because: We dont need casuals in our games!!! (repeat ad infinitum)
I'm not so sure this "must be an existing character" part is correct. I read on the WoW forums where a person took the SOR invite, first rolled a new character on the same server/faction as the inviter, and then ran the "Claim Rewards" taking it directly to level 80.
I can't find the post, their forum is moving crazy fast, so treat this as hearsay until verified.
Well, while its under the same "Cant find it treat it as hearsay until verified" but I saw a post saying you had to use to rewards before you can even log in fully.
Playing Nothing waiting for The secret world Played WoW, DCU online, star wars: the old republic, city of heroes, city of villains, everquest, plenty more I'm probably forgetting or aren't worth noting.
I'm not so sure this "must be an existing character" part is correct. I read on the WoW forums where a person took the SOR invite, first rolled a new character on the same server/faction as the inviter, and then ran the "Claim Rewards" taking it directly to level 80.
I can't find the post, their forum is moving crazy fast, so treat this as hearsay until verified.
I heard the opposite second hand also.. so much like you, unconfirmed. What I had heard is that your 7 free days do not get started untli you login to battlenet and do the entire process, which includes selecting the character you want to get to 80. Reading my other post, I probably shouldn´t have sounded so authoritative, since I only heard it mentioned twice I think. But it is similar to the realm and faction changes.. I believe they only allow you to switch to the server and faction that your friend is on. It is not like a paid one and it cannot be saved for future use.
I do think the lvl 80 part is overblown because you still have to level through the cata content to get to 85... which is plenty of time to get yourself back into the flow of the game.
As a long term player, I have no problems with people getting boosted to 80, just like I had no problems with RAF. Grinding more than 20 quests is not going to help you learn your character better.
I'm not so sure this "must be an existing character" part is correct. I read on the WoW forums where a person took the SOR invite, first rolled a new character on the same server/faction as the inviter, and then ran the "Claim Rewards" taking it directly to level 80.
I can't find the post, their forum is moving crazy fast, so treat this as hearsay until verified.
I heard the opposite second hand also.. so much like you, unconfirmed. What I had heard is that your 7 free days do not get started untli you login to battlenet and do the entire process, which includes selecting the character you want to get to 80. Reading my other post, I probably shouldn´t have sounded so authoritative, since I only heard it mentioned twice I think. But it is similar to the realm and faction changes.. I believe they only allow you to switch to the server and faction that your friend is on. It is not like a paid one and it cannot be saved for future use.
I do think the lvl 80 part is overblown because you still have to level through the cata content to get to 85... which is plenty of time to get yourself back into the flow of the game.
As a long term player, I have no problems with people getting boosted to 80, just like I had no problems with RAF. Grinding more than 20 quests is not going to help you learn your character better.
Not to mention end game is an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT BALL-GAME THEN LEVELING ANYWAY! so all you need to know is the basics then you need to re-learn everything anyway..
Playing Nothing waiting for The secret world Played WoW, DCU online, star wars: the old republic, city of heroes, city of villains, everquest, plenty more I'm probably forgetting or aren't worth noting.
I have enjoyed World of Warcraft since launch and I usually have come to the defense of this game on everything. Until now....
You see, I'm a pretty casual gamer. If I spend 3-4 hours a day playing MMO, that's pretty hight amount for me. So, to tell you that it took quite a bit of time and work for me to get my character to level 80, would be an underrstatement. From the time that I started him (and there were months where I wasn't subbed) it took about two years to hit level 80 and it was a great moment for me when it happened. Hell, I even saved the in-game letter congratuating me on my accomplishment.
It feels like a slap in the face to see a returning player instantly get to have one of their toons become an instant level 80. I mean, I really don't even know what to say to that. It just is frustrating. Now, I know Blizzard is trying to do everything they can to curb the number of people leaving the game but there's just a part of me that feels bitter knowing that the easiest way for me to reach level 80 was for me to have actully quit the game. Can someone explain that to me?
Now you dont even have to play the game to get to 80! Now thats just swell ! Oboy! So amazing.
Sounds desperate and sad to me. Im not saying WoW is going down the tubes any time soon and its still the major success of its time, but come on. Invite a friend and get a free level 80? What?
I have enjoyed World of Warcraft since launch and I usually have come to the defense of this game on everything. Until now....
You see, I'm a pretty casual gamer. If I spend 3-4 hours a day playing MMO, that's pretty hight amount for me. So, to tell you that it took quite a bit of time and work for me to get my character to level 80, would be an underrstatement. From the time that I started him (and there were months where I wasn't subbed) it took about two years to hit level 80 and it was a great moment for me when it happened. Hell, I even saved the in-game letter congratuating me on my accomplishment.
It feels like a slap in the face to see a returning player instantly get to have one of their toons become an instant level 80. I mean, I really don't even know what to say to that. It just is frustrating. Now, I know Blizzard is trying to do everything they can to curb the number of people leaving the game but there's just a part of me that feels bitter knowing that the easiest way for me to reach level 80 was for me to have actully quit the game. Can someone explain that to me?
This is a joke post right?
I mean a slap in the face because they give level 80 for free? You didn't misread that to be level 85, full Latest Raid Tier gear, right?
First of all, why it bothers you what others get because of their friends?
Second, even if you are a casual (as am I) you are surely aware that getting level 80 is no real accomplishment in WoW. Everyone can do it and since CATA everyone can do it in a quite relatively short amount of time (Hey look at that, I just started a new shaman, I can play 1-4 hours a day.... but not all days, some days I do not play at all, some week ends I play more... and he is level 74. Not 80 yet, but I started maybe a month ago. I am slow... but come on, level 80 is nothing really!)
So even if it took a long time for you, realize that for most people it is nothing special, trivial even. So getting your pants in a twist because they are giving something trivial away? When that does not affect you at all? Nope, I call joke post.
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
Comments
Please post actual invites or requests inside the sticky at the top of this forum and not in this discussion thread.
that is a pretty bonkers promotion for sure.
i am not 100% a fan of the free level to 80 though, i would have prefered some other sort of time saving incentive but i do think players shd have to start on level 1 and move forward.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
People really need to read....
http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/scroll-of-resurrection-faq
before posting. So many people with no clue here (but...what can you expect)
The difference is these are not new players. these are unsubscribed players. The character must be selected before they actually log in, so it is a character they played before. Sure, the game may have changed a lot depending on how long ago it has been since they quit.
Also, these players are being bumped to lvl 80, which is the beginning of cata content.. so they will have a week or two of leveling to become familiar with the class if it did change a lot. But your examples are wrong, because anyone who played a moonkin or shaman knows those things.
There players start at lvl 80 and are given ilevel 232 green gear, which is slightly higher than what someone would have who quested through WOTLK without doing any endgame heroics.
Also, ALL players started Cata with no justice points. they are reset at evey expansion. Reputations aren´t that big of a deal because they are starting right at the beginning of cata content, so will get all the natural cata reps. They can then go back and grind BC or WOTLK reps, which most new players would have to do anyway.
If you don´t currently have it, then you can´t get it jumped to 80. When you accept this offer, you choose one of your old characters to get the boost. You cannot use it on a new character ( you do it before you actually log into the game.).
Thing is though this is kind of a trap as well... Take me -- yes if I were to give WoW a third chance with this offer, my character who was capped in sunnywhatever before lich king came out would be able to skip lich king and never play any of that content just 80 to 90. But then when Panda comes out if you decided -- well I want to get a panda to 90 -- you would be stuck at the lich king levels and if you wanted to get from 70 to 80 you would be required to buy the expansion.
I agree that the simple answer would be to include all the prior expansions with the new game -- ESPECIALLY the new accounts... I mean if you have someone considering playing WoW for the first time (and yes it does happen) they have to buy all of the expansions pretty much at once. At least when the panda expansion arrives (and in light of this -- pretty amazing scroll of ressurrection thing) they should at least have an option that includes everything.
Personally I think it should always include everything and have the data on the discs because then you would have an up to date version of the whole game which you could load. As it stands now, even if you have the originals -- the process of installing each in order and then updating would be ridiculous if you are moving to a new system. A lot of people would choose to just download the thing. If you had an up to date version of everything though that would be far better.
Optionally they could have 1) A digital version that only included panda at 1 price, 2) An in store version that has everything for say 20 dollars higher but including an extra month (even if you apply the thing) that gives you a good disc set.
Lich King Expansion is only $20 right now and if it is like past expansions then the older games will go on sale with the new expansion.
I agree with the others that the net result is you will have more current sub paying customers angry than newcomers, or returning players. In addition, it appears a MoP launch is in the distance most likely.
Not a bad deal. Get a scrub freind that is stupid and still playing have them res you. You get 7 days from level 80 to play for free.
7 days from 80 = a fully geared out epic character and the realization of why you quit in the first place. Then you can quit again after spamming everyone in game what dumbasses they are and how bad the game has turned into a POS and to please try out GW2 to enlighten themselves or try out TOR or Tera or something more in depth like a facebook game etc lol.
I might have to try it out for fun.
This is incorrect. You are upgraded from whatever version you are running (Vanilla through to Wrath) all the way to Cataclysm. So if you quit in Vanilla, and accept the scroll, pay for 30 days - then you get an 'auto levelled' 80 (It must be an existing character) and BC, Wrath and Cata.
Blizzard makes an expansion focused on recreating 1-60 content, then starts giving away lvl 80 characters? I guess the good point here is that Blizzard finally realized that no one wanted that stupid rehashed content and they should've focused more on the high end content, maybe in MoP they will get it right? Has Blizzard learned its lesson?
"They essentially want to say 'Correlation proves Causation' when it's just not true." - Sovrath
My brother wanted the spectral mount so he sent my account the invite and paid for a month. I had a rogue that was sitting at level 20 for years, so I told him to make that one an 80. I logged in this morning and was impressed at what all came with the scroll.
Level 80.
All i-level 232 gear.
280% flying.
Cold-weather flying
Azeroth flying
Swift purple gryphon.
Not too shabby for accepting a scroll invite. I probably won't level it up to max level, but it's nice knowing it wouldn't take that long if I wanted to.
Honestly, I only have one problem with this..Okay, it brings 1 character to your friends server, and brings one to level 80. Clearly meant to help people who quit at a low level catch up to their friend while bringing their toon. However in, I feel, a majority of cases, the friend will already have one, or multiple 80s or even 85s. So one character will switch(probably their main, which is 80 or 85), AND it'll level another toon to 80, which is a waste or they'll need to pay 25 dollars anyway to server swap that toon.
Either that but, what if all your friends are on the same server/faction side anyway which is highly likely. Then its a waste of the server/faction change because its AUTOMATIC you don't get to pick what server you want, or if you want to switch faction. You pick a toon and it does it by what your friend is(to my understanding).
Playing
Nothing
waiting for
The secret world
Played
WoW, DCU online, star wars: the old republic, city of heroes, city of villains, everquest, plenty more I'm probably forgetting or aren't worth noting.
I'm not so sure this "must be an existing character" part is correct. I read on the WoW forums where a person took the SOR invite, first rolled a new character on the same server/faction as the inviter, and then ran the "Claim Rewards" taking it directly to level 80.
I can't find the post, their forum is moving crazy fast, so treat this as hearsay until verified.
this is absolutely a sign of the problem with mmos.
it's like no one wants to actually play the game anymore. they just want to play endgame. i don't know why so many mmos even bother having levels, especially with this kind of farce.
it shows the absolute confidance that people will love the content of your game by helping them skip it all.
shameful. absolutely shameful.
[Mod Edit]
You're absolutely right. Amazingly desperate
Found Cataclysm in the bargain bin @ $5 a few months ago, resubbed for a month, played 5 days.
2 weeks ago had a "7 days free" offer (baah could have used 2 months ago) and got a questionaire mostly focused on "have you seen and understood our really nice 1 yr offer with diablo 3 and please tell us how much you plan to play GW2?"
WoW is a nice game - some fans will stay indefinately - The rest of us: Moved on, now we and Bobby K. just need to accept that
We dont need casuals in our games!!! Errm... Well we DO need casuals to fund and populate our games - But the games should be all about "hardcore" because: We dont need casuals in our games!!!
(repeat ad infinitum)
Well, while its under the same "Cant find it treat it as hearsay until verified" but I saw a post saying you had to use to rewards before you can even log in fully.
Playing
Nothing
waiting for
The secret world
Played
WoW, DCU online, star wars: the old republic, city of heroes, city of villains, everquest, plenty more I'm probably forgetting or aren't worth noting.
I heard the opposite second hand also.. so much like you, unconfirmed. What I had heard is that your 7 free days do not get started untli you login to battlenet and do the entire process, which includes selecting the character you want to get to 80. Reading my other post, I probably shouldn´t have sounded so authoritative, since I only heard it mentioned twice I think. But it is similar to the realm and faction changes.. I believe they only allow you to switch to the server and faction that your friend is on. It is not like a paid one and it cannot be saved for future use.
I do think the lvl 80 part is overblown because you still have to level through the cata content to get to 85... which is plenty of time to get yourself back into the flow of the game.
As a long term player, I have no problems with people getting boosted to 80, just like I had no problems with RAF. Grinding more than 20 quests is not going to help you learn your character better.
Not to mention end game is an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT BALL-GAME THEN LEVELING ANYWAY! so all you need to know is the basics then you need to re-learn everything anyway..
Playing
Nothing
waiting for
The secret world
Played
WoW, DCU online, star wars: the old republic, city of heroes, city of villains, everquest, plenty more I'm probably forgetting or aren't worth noting.
Blizzard needs to try harder to get me back, maybe throw in a free hookers and blow.
I have enjoyed World of Warcraft since launch and I usually have come to the defense of this game on everything. Until now....
You see, I'm a pretty casual gamer. If I spend 3-4 hours a day playing MMO, that's pretty hight amount for me. So, to tell you that it took quite a bit of time and work for me to get my character to level 80, would be an underrstatement. From the time that I started him (and there were months where I wasn't subbed) it took about two years to hit level 80 and it was a great moment for me when it happened. Hell, I even saved the in-game letter congratuating me on my accomplishment.
It feels like a slap in the face to see a returning player instantly get to have one of their toons become an instant level 80. I mean, I really don't even know what to say to that. It just is frustrating. Now, I know Blizzard is trying to do everything they can to curb the number of people leaving the game but there's just a part of me that feels bitter knowing that the easiest way for me to reach level 80 was for me to have actully quit the game. Can someone explain that to me?
Now you dont even have to play the game to get to 80! Now thats just swell ! Oboy! So amazing.
Sounds desperate and sad to me. Im not saying WoW is going down the tubes any time soon and its still the major success of its time, but come on. Invite a friend and get a free level 80? What?
This is a joke post right?
I mean a slap in the face because they give level 80 for free? You didn't misread that to be level 85, full Latest Raid Tier gear, right?
First of all, why it bothers you what others get because of their friends?
Second, even if you are a casual (as am I) you are surely aware that getting level 80 is no real accomplishment in WoW. Everyone can do it and since CATA everyone can do it in a quite relatively short amount of time (Hey look at that, I just started a new shaman, I can play 1-4 hours a day.... but not all days, some days I do not play at all, some week ends I play more... and he is level 74. Not 80 yet, but I started maybe a month ago. I am slow... but come on, level 80 is nothing really!)
So even if it took a long time for you, realize that for most people it is nothing special, trivial even. So getting your pants in a twist because they are giving something trivial away? When that does not affect you at all? Nope, I call joke post.
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"