I don't get this... It's like using a cheat code to level up your character. Why are would you do that? Isn't the point of playing a game to enjoy the challenge and the content it has to offer?? I mean... whats the point?
Wow has become a game of convenience, it seems the majority of players that play Wow now will do anything or pay anything to skip content, even though they're paying a monthly sub to play the content. tbh people can do what they want with there money, for me that's not the problem, the problem is the effects this will cause long term to the game. Blizzard are only looking at the now, which is them getting money. http://i.imgur.com/Tc3blZq.jpg
I heard someone say optional. Yeah it is, but it's not excatly giving you a fair choice is it? "You have 2 options, the first you can hit level 90 straight away, join all your friends, get into the action, all for a small fee or you can level in are empty baron world, wait in 30 min ques for dungeons, out level zones, zerg through quests and mobs, were by the time your level 60 you want to hang yourself out of boredom. Wish i was overreacting with the last part.
They may as well sell epic gear too and everyone can just prance around in goldshire all day.
Bravo for Blizzard. I don't think they went to far why not find ways to make cash
I believe it was P.T. Barnum that popularized "A fool and his money are soon parted."
If someone is willing to spend money for power level. Than I don't believe they deserved to have that money in the first place.
What do you suggest ppl do with there disposable income? Something you deem of value as opposed to theirs? It's not like it's their money and they can do what they like with it? Levelling is just a time sync and all time syncs should have a cash bypass method. I have actually levelled more than one of every class and I would of used the service after the first few.
Wish ppl that want everything for free and try to shape the world according to them would get off the internet.
Edit: Please keep in mind this poll is regarding the ability to PAY for a level 90 at almost any time. It is not regarding the free lvl 90 with the expansion (As I feel the free 1 lvl 90 is a great idea). I've just noticed a few posts regarding the free 90 rather than the ability to buy one whenever you want. Thanks for the responses though.
Let me start by saying I never thought I would make a post like this.
So I was browsing the internetz with not really any goal other than just looking at recent mmos that will be receiving updates. I came across this on the World of Warcraft website....
_________________________________________
"Bolster the Ranks
We’ve also heard feedback from players that they’d be interested in boosting multiple characters to 90, including alts they play with friends on other factions and realms. We’ve been evaluating ways to make that possible without having players go through roundabout methods (such as purchasing multiple boxes and performing multiple character transfers), and in the near future we’ll be testing out a feature that gives you the option to purchase a character upgrade directly. We’ll have more information to share later—including details on our character-upgrade plans for Asian regions where players don’t buy expansion boxes—but you’ll start seeing pieces of the process soon on the PTR, so keep an eye out.
We’re looking forward to the closed beta test, and we’re excited we’re able to give players their character boost immediately upon pre-purchasing—hopefully that will help tide you over while you’re waiting for the epic battle for Draenor to begin. Stay tuned for more information on presales and our beta plans, and we hope you’ll join in and help us test this stuff out when it hits the PTR."
________
How much farther are they going to take this? Isn't their money stream big enough yet? I understand its a business that needs to make money but there is also something called knowing when to quit. It's their game, and their community, but in your opinions...is this taking it too far?
Because for me, it is and I still enjoy WoW from time to time.
WoW is not an epic community of gamers who grew up on the Dungeons and Dragons era, roleplaying the days away with college educated adults mulling over complex maps whilst they forever remained in character. It's a net catch all generalized co-op that layers one expansion pack on top of the other to bring in cash - a LOT of cash. For sadly far too many folks who now define the majority of the subscribers out there (and thusly the industry's direction), WoW was their first girlfriend.
So, when I see anything that involves profiteering over just simplifying the add on nonsense (ever play a raid druid?) and bringing the game back to the Vanilla era when I still felt this was an mmo RPG (Through Burning Crusade...possibly Wrath depending on who you ask)...I'm just not surprised.
Orgrimmar and Stormwind are so disgustingly cluttered with "stuff," not to mention the players themselves have little pets following them, trinkets that make little pets appear, silly oversized super mounts, and with the Kung Fu Panda expansion, we have countless celestial dragons - with Tauren Paladins on them. All of it's just so overdone and drenched in a factory production style of gaming that I just SO SORELY want a return to a simpler time where content was more sandbox, and lore truly mattered (you know, like Dark Age of Camelot or Asheron's Call).
No developer reads these forums though, so I'm just beating a dead horse here.
WoW is not an epic community of gamers who grew up on the Dungeons and Dragons era, roleplaying the days away with college educated adults mulling over complex maps whilst they forever remained in character.
Because even us older geezers nearing 50 years-old now were really young then to even worry about college. I was quite young still in 1978 (junior high) when AD&D came out...in the real D&D era.
Let's see. My sis bought the manuals and dice and served as the DM. My other sis helped to be the terror of all gaming. Yep, and we all play WoW today.
So what was that about WoW players not being from the actual D&D era, again?
Sheesh, I was 13 years-old when you were born! Not only did you not play D&D in the era, it would be the late 1990s before you were in college to rummage "in character" over "complex maps" (no one was "in character" playing D&D even at the conventions, that non-sense didn't evolve until MuDs came around. It was played like Monopoly). -_-
At what point did people become so complacent about allowing what can be considered a cash shop microtransaction system - one similar to those found in fully F2P games - in P2P subscription based mmos? If a company would have tried to do this back in 2004 people would have been enraged. I just don't understand when it became acceptable to do this kind of thing? Was it when the influx of "F2P" apps came and tablets / smartphones started to become popular? Was it the influx of Chinese Pay to win games that influenced western developers? Perhaps the older generation of mmo players now no longer teens have jobs / families and want to be able to play their game but don't have as much time so they accept short cuts? Perhaps this is influenced by the possibility that young mmo gamers today just don't know an mmo space without microtransactions?
Either way I am truly let down by what WoW has become over the years. I left the game in 2008 and wanted to return when I read about the new expansion's content. Then I started reading about the free level 90 upon pre-order and it made me feel a bit concerned. Now that I am learning that they are considering adding an option to just buy characters to 90 I am shocked. I never thought I would see the day where gamers were so complacent that they would allow this to happen to their favorite medium of entertainment.
Similar to the world of politics, if people do nothing then the system will continue to take advantage of them until eventually the people rise up and stop accepting the injustice.
To quote Rabbi Joachim Prinz "The most important thing that I learned in my life, and under those tragic circumstances, is that bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most tragic problem is silence. A great people which had created a great civilization had become a nation of silent onlookers. They remained silent in the face of hate, in the face of brutality, and in the face of mass murder"
Granted this situation is not comparable to WWII however, the relevance of the quote can be seen with regards to the silence that the gaming community has chosen to partake in while companies continue to find new ways to exploit them.
At what point did people become so complacent about allowing what can be considered a cash shop microtransaction system - one similar to those found in fully F2P games - in P2P subscription based mmos? If a company would have tried to do this back in 2004 people would have been enraged. I just don't understand when it became acceptable to do this kind of thing? Was it when the influx of "F2P" apps came and tablets / smartphones started to become popular? Was it the influx of Chinese Pay to win games that influenced western developers? Perhaps the older generation of mmo players now no longer teens have jobs / families and want to be able to play their game but don't have as much time so they accept short cuts? Perhaps this is influenced by the possibility that young mmo gamers today just don't know an mmo space without microtransactions?
Either way I am truly let down by what WoW has become over the years. I left the game in 2008 and wanted to return when I read about the new expansion's content. Then I started reading about the free level 90 upon pre-order and it made me feel a bit concerned. Now that I am learning that they are considering adding an option to just buy characters to 90 I am shocked. I never thought I would see the day where gamers were so complacent that they would allow this to happen to their favorite medium of entertainment.
Similar to the world of politics, if people do nothing then the system will continue to take advantage of them until eventually the people rise up and stop accepting the injustice.
To quote Rabbi Joachim Prinz "The most important thing that I learned in my life, and under those tragic circumstances, is that bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most tragic problem is silence. A great people which had created a great civilization had become a nation of silent onlookers. They remained silent in the face of hate, in the face of brutality, and in the face of mass murder"
Granted this situation is not comparable to WWII however, the relevance of the quote can be seen with regards to the silence that the gaming community has chosen to partake in while companies continue to find new ways to exploit them.
That has to be the biggest over-reaction reply to a thread that i have ever seen in my life!!
Pushing the shocking use of that quote aside where is the complacency here? This is a move that Blizzard is considering and haven't even confirmed yet and if you take a look at the majority of this thread you will see that most people have stated that it has no detrimental impact on the game. There is no pay to win involved, there is no impact on the existing population and it adds another choice to players old and new and there is the key, choice.
You are not being forced to do this, they are not telling you that you have to buy more characters to continue playing, but if you decide that after levelling 5 characters to max that you wouldn't mind skipping all that to try out another class, you have the choice to pay for those levels instead.
If they were saying that you had to pay for every level from 90-100 or that all characters boosted to 90 will be provided with a greater advantage, there would be a cause for concern, but that is not the case and blowing it out of all imaginable proportions does not make it any more the case.
It must be Thursday, i never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Originally posted by ComafOrgrimmar and Stormwind are so disgustingly cluttered with "stuff," not to mention the players themselves have little pets following them, trinkets that make little pets appear, silly oversized super mounts, and with the Kung Fu Panda expansion, we have countless celestial dragons - with Tauren Paladins on them. All of it's just so overdone and drenched in a factory production style of gaming that I just SO SORELY want a return to a simpler time where content was more sandbox, and lore truly mattered (you know, like Dark Age of Camelot or Asheron's Call).
I wanted to reply to this in particular, as it's a big reason I quit. Wow is now obnoxious with gaudy gear and mounts, and toys, pets, and doodadsall of it trivial to obtain, rendering it a meaningless jumbled mess of radioactive clown puke.
I remember seeing a mage in full Grand Marshal armor for the first time. He really stood out because of the rarity of it, and I thought it awesome, even though I knew I'd most likely never obtain similar gear myself. That same armor now looks positively threadbare compared to what every max level character is sporting nowadays (a lot of that due to transmog.)
Someone should tell Blizzard the whole point of an MMO is the journey, not the destination.
And somone should tell all other MMO developers that we need menaingfull content once we reach the destination, seeing as that is where we spend most of our time.
That is percisly the reason WoW is still the big dog in town.
Exactly. I don't know about other people, but take my Druid for instance. He has full heroic gear from SoO for both spec, and has over 15,000 achievement points. I rarely ever log onto him anymore, since there is nothing to do. It was a good journey, but the destination sucks lol. I only ever use him if people want help or something like that. I spend most of my time getting gear for my other characters, and not playing my super elite Druid.
MMOs are truly about the journey.
Edit: I wonder though, if the free 90 in WoD will make you unable to get a SoR from someone, that's 2 90s for free for returning players...that's enough for most people hehe
It is another 'option' for players who wish to take it up, they aren't forcing people to buy it, they aren't making an extra charge on the sub for it, it is an optional extra that you may purchase if you want it. I know i have and many others probably have a character that they have levelled so far but found they weren't enjoying it as much as they thought and so can't be bothered to level it the rest of the way, so maybe this is the option for them to see how it plays out at a higher level.
Moreover, they haven't confirmed that they will be doing this yet anyway, they are putting out feelers to the community to gather opinion and see whether it is something worthwhile doing anyway.
I will never understand the uproar of the shop when they are still maintaining a sub model that does not force you to use these options if you don't want to. If they start producing pay to win options then i could see some reason for concern within the community, but we aren't there yet, so maybe chill out a little.
It is valid and affects you because if enough people do it, it leaves less people to dungeon with.
Nirrtix ALPHAs: -Pantheon -Shroud of the Avatar -Camelot Unchained BETAs: -World of Warcraft -City of Heroes -Star Wars Galaxies -Saga of Ryzom -Homeworld -Starcraft II -Warcraft III -Hearthstone -Star Wars The Old Republic -Vanguard Saga of Heroes
Originally posted by Gravarg I don't get why you would buy a 90 anyways. It's easy to level these days, especially with RaF. You can easily get to 85 in about 8-10 hours of playtime with RaF. 85-90 about another 10 hours. I can do it in 2 days easily.
You just answered to your own question. Leveling content 1-89 is worthless, and doesn't even qualify as a gaming experience. Blizzard knows this, and sells short cut to skip the whole boredom those early levels have become.
This is getting ridiculous. Lotro cash shop already has an item for sale that stops your experience gain for a short period of time. Now WoW sells auto leveling services in their CS to bypass content they've deliberately made tedious and boring. So it's a good idea business-wise to f*** up your own game and then sell fixes for real money?
Pathetic!
Your opinion... I happen to enjoy the gaming experience... the only reasons it goes by so fact is Blizzard babyfing the game. SAme reason the good talent trees are gone... The only reason I am playing WoW is there is nothing else to play. WoW decimated EQ2 and most of the other good competiton.
In the end I am jsut playing WoW until Camelot Unchained or PAntheon releases, unless they give me reason to stay.
Nirrtix ALPHAs: -Pantheon -Shroud of the Avatar -Camelot Unchained BETAs: -World of Warcraft -City of Heroes -Star Wars Galaxies -Saga of Ryzom -Homeworld -Starcraft II -Warcraft III -Hearthstone -Star Wars The Old Republic -Vanguard Saga of Heroes
It is another 'option' for players who wish to take it up, they aren't forcing people to buy it, they aren't making an extra charge on the sub for it, it is an optional extra that you may purchase if you want it. I know i have and many others probably have a character that they have levelled so far but found they weren't enjoying it as much as they thought and so can't be bothered to level it the rest of the way, so maybe this is the option for them to see how it plays out at a higher level.
Moreover, they haven't confirmed that they will be doing this yet anyway, they are putting out feelers to the community to gather opinion and see whether it is something worthwhile doing anyway.
I will never understand the uproar of the shop when they are still maintaining a sub model that does not force you to use these options if you don't want to. If they start producing pay to win options then i could see some reason for concern within the community, but we aren't there yet, so maybe chill out a little.
It is valid and affects you because if enough people do it, it leaves less people to dungeon with.
It doesn't because those that don't like levelling now just blow through by boosting anyway, the people that enjoy levelling will continue to do so, but as this is a 10yo game now you would expect there to be less and less of them anyway.
It must be Thursday, i never could get the hang of Thursdays.
It's really a mistake for games to do this. It creates a cross purpose for Blizzard in their game design. Before you want your game to be as fun as possible to play. Now they actually want to make sure part of their game is tedious - such that you can charge more people for the instant leveling.
It's just an awful business model. I know everyone in this forum really thinks is just a great way to monetize the game - but moves like this are similar to pay to win mechanics. IF you make say the best armor available to purchase - do you allow it to drop in the game? And how often?
The Diablo III RMAH is another example of this monetization run amok.
I cannot deny that this is another marketing opportunity for Blizzard and of course they would make some money from it, but it also opens up another choice for the long term, returning and new player base. Nothing in the store, including this gives players an advantage in any way and as i have said previously, those that enjoy the levelling experience will continue to do so, boost available or not.
It must be Thursday, i never could get the hang of Thursdays.
It is another 'option' for players who wish to take it up, they aren't forcing people to buy it, they aren't making an extra charge on the sub for it, it is an optional extra that you may purchase if you want it. I know i have and many others probably have a character that they have levelled so far but found they weren't enjoying it as much as they thought and so can't be bothered to level it the rest of the way, so maybe this is the option for them to see how it plays out at a higher level.
Moreover, they haven't confirmed that they will be doing this yet anyway, they are putting out feelers to the community to gather opinion and see whether it is something worthwhile doing anyway.
I will never understand the uproar of the shop when they are still maintaining a sub model that does not force you to use these options if you don't want to. If they start producing pay to win options then i could see some reason for concern within the community, but we aren't there yet, so maybe chill out a little.
Exactly
Out of every 100 men, 10 should not be there, 80 are nothing but targets, 9 are the real fighters. Ah, but one, ONE of them is a warrior, and he will bring the others home. -Heraclitus 500BC
Comments
They may as well sell epic gear too and everyone can just prance around in goldshire all day.
What do you suggest ppl do with there disposable income? Something you deem of value as opposed to theirs? It's not like it's their money and they can do what they like with it? Levelling is just a time sync and all time syncs should have a cash bypass method. I have actually levelled more than one of every class and I would of used the service after the first few.
Wish ppl that want everything for free and try to shape the world according to them would get off the internet.
WoW is not an epic community of gamers who grew up on the Dungeons and Dragons era, roleplaying the days away with college educated adults mulling over complex maps whilst they forever remained in character. It's a net catch all generalized co-op that layers one expansion pack on top of the other to bring in cash - a LOT of cash. For sadly far too many folks who now define the majority of the subscribers out there (and thusly the industry's direction), WoW was their first girlfriend.
So, when I see anything that involves profiteering over just simplifying the add on nonsense (ever play a raid druid?) and bringing the game back to the Vanilla era when I still felt this was an mmo RPG (Through Burning Crusade...possibly Wrath depending on who you ask)...I'm just not surprised.
Orgrimmar and Stormwind are so disgustingly cluttered with "stuff," not to mention the players themselves have little pets following them, trinkets that make little pets appear, silly oversized super mounts, and with the Kung Fu Panda expansion, we have countless celestial dragons - with Tauren Paladins on them. All of it's just so overdone and drenched in a factory production style of gaming that I just SO SORELY want a return to a simpler time where content was more sandbox, and lore truly mattered (you know, like Dark Age of Camelot or Asheron's Call).
No developer reads these forums though, so I'm just beating a dead horse here.
Because even us older geezers nearing 50 years-old now were really young then to even worry about college. I was quite young still in 1978 (junior high) when AD&D came out...in the real D&D era.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wtwRwczrIA
Let's see. My sis bought the manuals and dice and served as the DM. My other sis helped to be the terror of all gaming. Yep, and we all play WoW today.
So what was that about WoW players not being from the actual D&D era, again?
Sheesh, I was 13 years-old when you were born! Not only did you not play D&D in the era, it would be the late 1990s before you were in college to rummage "in character" over "complex maps" (no one was "in character" playing D&D even at the conventions, that non-sense didn't evolve until MuDs came around. It was played like Monopoly). -_-
.:| Kevyne@Shandris - Armory |:. - When WoW was #1 - .:| I AM A HOLY PALADIN - Guild Theme |:.
At what point did people become so complacent about allowing what can be considered a cash shop microtransaction system - one similar to those found in fully F2P games - in P2P subscription based mmos? If a company would have tried to do this back in 2004 people would have been enraged. I just don't understand when it became acceptable to do this kind of thing? Was it when the influx of "F2P" apps came and tablets / smartphones started to become popular? Was it the influx of Chinese Pay to win games that influenced western developers? Perhaps the older generation of mmo players now no longer teens have jobs / families and want to be able to play their game but don't have as much time so they accept short cuts? Perhaps this is influenced by the possibility that young mmo gamers today just don't know an mmo space without microtransactions?
Either way I am truly let down by what WoW has become over the years. I left the game in 2008 and wanted to return when I read about the new expansion's content. Then I started reading about the free level 90 upon pre-order and it made me feel a bit concerned. Now that I am learning that they are considering adding an option to just buy characters to 90 I am shocked. I never thought I would see the day where gamers were so complacent that they would allow this to happen to their favorite medium of entertainment.
Similar to the world of politics, if people do nothing then the system will continue to take advantage of them until eventually the people rise up and stop accepting the injustice.
To quote Rabbi Joachim Prinz "The most important thing that I learned in my life, and under those tragic circumstances, is that bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most tragic problem is silence. A great people which had created a great civilization had become a nation of silent onlookers. They remained silent in the face of hate, in the face of brutality, and in the face of mass murder"
Granted this situation is not comparable to WWII however, the relevance of the quote can be seen with regards to the silence that the gaming community has chosen to partake in while companies continue to find new ways to exploit them.
That has to be the biggest over-reaction reply to a thread that i have ever seen in my life!!
Pushing the shocking use of that quote aside where is the complacency here? This is a move that Blizzard is considering and haven't even confirmed yet and if you take a look at the majority of this thread you will see that most people have stated that it has no detrimental impact on the game. There is no pay to win involved, there is no impact on the existing population and it adds another choice to players old and new and there is the key, choice.
You are not being forced to do this, they are not telling you that you have to buy more characters to continue playing, but if you decide that after levelling 5 characters to max that you wouldn't mind skipping all that to try out another class, you have the choice to pay for those levels instead.
If they were saying that you had to pay for every level from 90-100 or that all characters boosted to 90 will be provided with a greater advantage, there would be a cause for concern, but that is not the case and blowing it out of all imaginable proportions does not make it any more the case.
It must be Thursday, i never could get the hang of Thursdays.
I remember seeing a mage in full Grand Marshal armor for the first time. He really stood out because of the rarity of it, and I thought it awesome, even though I knew I'd most likely never obtain similar gear myself. That same armor now looks positively threadbare compared to what every max level character is sporting nowadays (a lot of that due to transmog.)
At least they aren't charging for races and playing the race you want in the faction you want (yet.)
Race Change Change a character’s race (within your current faction) 20 Euro.
Faction Change Change a character’s faction (Horde to Alliance or Alliance to Horde) 25 Euro.
I think you are wrong , sir :P
Exactly. I don't know about other people, but take my Druid for instance. He has full heroic gear from SoO for both spec, and has over 15,000 achievement points. I rarely ever log onto him anymore, since there is nothing to do. It was a good journey, but the destination sucks lol. I only ever use him if people want help or something like that. I spend most of my time getting gear for my other characters, and not playing my super elite Druid.
MMOs are truly about the journey.
Edit: I wonder though, if the free 90 in WoD will make you unable to get a SoR from someone, that's 2 90s for free for returning players...that's enough for most people hehe
It is valid and affects you because if enough people do it, it leaves less people to dungeon with.
Nirrtix
ALPHAs:
-Pantheon
-Shroud of the Avatar
-Camelot Unchained
BETAs:
-World of Warcraft
-City of Heroes
-Star Wars Galaxies
-Saga of Ryzom
-Homeworld
-Starcraft II
-Warcraft III
-Hearthstone
-Star Wars The Old Republic
-Vanguard Saga of Heroes
Your opinion... I happen to enjoy the gaming experience... the only reasons it goes by so fact is Blizzard babyfing the game. SAme reason the good talent trees are gone... The only reason I am playing WoW is there is nothing else to play. WoW decimated EQ2 and most of the other good competiton.
In the end I am jsut playing WoW until Camelot Unchained or PAntheon releases, unless they give me reason to stay.
Nirrtix
ALPHAs:
-Pantheon
-Shroud of the Avatar
-Camelot Unchained
BETAs:
-World of Warcraft
-City of Heroes
-Star Wars Galaxies
-Saga of Ryzom
-Homeworld
-Starcraft II
-Warcraft III
-Hearthstone
-Star Wars The Old Republic
-Vanguard Saga of Heroes
It doesn't because those that don't like levelling now just blow through by boosting anyway, the people that enjoy levelling will continue to do so, but as this is a 10yo game now you would expect there to be less and less of them anyway.
It must be Thursday, i never could get the hang of Thursdays.
It's really a mistake for games to do this. It creates a cross purpose for Blizzard in their game design. Before you want your game to be as fun as possible to play. Now they actually want to make sure part of their game is tedious - such that you can charge more people for the instant leveling.
It's just an awful business model. I know everyone in this forum really thinks is just a great way to monetize the game - but moves like this are similar to pay to win mechanics. IF you make say the best armor available to purchase - do you allow it to drop in the game? And how often?
The Diablo III RMAH is another example of this monetization run amok.
It must be Thursday, i never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Exactly
Out of every 100 men, 10 should not be there,
80 are nothing but targets, 9 are the real fighters.
Ah, but one, ONE of them is a warrior,
and he will bring the others home.
-Heraclitus 500BC