At Blizzcon there were a lot of people I met that said they planned on buying multiple copies of WoD, just to get the free 90s. $60 isn't so bad. One thing this does do is stick a jab at the third parties who steal and sell accounts for hundreds of dollars, so there's a positive For me, I'll probably never use it. I love to level. I have 14 90s and still leveling characters lol.
By giving an alt to characters who might not have one, it makes it more likely that they will do dailies TWICE, which makes it more likely that they will stay in Blizz's eyes.
Only thing I don't like here is price - it should be higher than 60 dollars. Guessing they went that price cause there are $100 accounts with 3+ 90 chars on blackmarket.
Wow's "Cash Shop" (yes it is one, much of what you see is the same stuff you see in F2P games) is just so rediculously priced as is. F2P trying to charge $25 for a transfer would be shunned and likely blackflagged for attempting to it, such as Neverwinter. Its insane to think blizzard gets away with such a thing when your paying a monthly fee for the game.
The level boost to 90 only shows a huge fundamental problem with their game that people do not want to play through the game due to it being boring with the end being the means. Hell, my friends are currently using RAF to level characters quickly (which btw only costs $30s total and 6-10 hours per level 85) since the experience feels just so tedious and pointless. Their act of removing talents pretty much sealed the experience to feel so unrewarding and make an already bland experience feel that much more so for anyone leveling up more then 1 character.
I'm sorry but blizzard is greedy as all hell when it comes to things that most people yell at F2P games doing for even a bit less cost for such services. Diablo 3 it bit them in the ass with ubercasualizing the game that almost no one really bought into it with just its "Polish" being its only big saving grace and a cash shop that just ruined the experience, and the only reason that is being pulled away is due to box sales being able to generate far more sales for the game then Real Money Auction House.
Total BS, of course. Why not set it to $1000 to show how much they 'value leveling'? Of course it's the optimal profit-maximising price, as it should be.
it sure makes GW2 cash shop look like a harmless gingerbread house in the rainbow island.
cant wait whats Blizzards next cash shop item.
Ps.they really should raise their sub fee a bit since they have invented so cool new item that people can play with.
you are kidding right? hiding 99% of the new weapon skins behind lock boxes and basically selling legendary weapons (and practically everything else in the game) via gems--> gold is somehow tame compared to selling a boost to 90 which won't even be max level in the expansion? yeah....
Max level toon in GW2 is sold for less via gems-->gold and just leveling all professions, which has been in the game since day 1.
but selling lvl 90 boosts does just what he said he didn't want to do. it devalues leveling. no matter the price.
My sentiments exactly. The irony of it is, people pay them a sub in order to play the game, and now they pay them $60 to not have to play the game.
you mean not have to play the boring/tired part of the game...the fun part in 99% of games is the new expansion content/endgame, especially for those who have done it (level)many, many times
Bash it all you want, it is a good business decision and lets not forget that this is a business, employees get paid to make these games. For people that don't have a lot of time to level a character this is a good deal.
Actually compared to many f2p games this is cheap. Heck it is easy to spend $30-50 for a mount in many PW games.
The only thing that I disliked in the story was the indication that the new expansion will cost $60, that is rather high for an expansion cost and none of their expansions have been that encompassing lately. This one had better be a dozy.
The one thing that WOW had going for it was the competitive nature of being server first. This kills the leveling aspect of that. All blizzard needs to do now is add a " One Shot One Kill " raid boss item and their shop will be complete. Adding this type of item clearly indicates that they don't believe WOW has much longevity left.
There is no better way to kill your own game, than to add supremacy goods to your microtransaction model.
it sure makes GW2 cash shop look like a harmless gingerbread house in the rainbow island.
cant wait whats Blizzards next cash shop item.
Ps.they really should raise their sub fee a bit since they have invented so cool new item that people can play with.
you are kidding right? hiding 99% of the new weapon skins behind lock boxes and basically selling legendary weapons (and practically everything else in the game) via gems--> gold is somehow tame compared to selling a boost to 90 which won't even be max level in the expansion? yeah....
Max level toon in GW2 is sold for less via gems-->gold and just leveling all professions, which has been in the game since day 1.
I do know what kind of product GW2 is and i hope in the name of holy moses that Anet keeps their players forever happy in their jewel limbo.
But lets think about this blizzards new mystical magical item.
first (this story should be long but i try to make it short)
-they did not merge servers ,they made tools for people instead so they could be able to team with other people who are not even connected to their realms in any way.
-all kind of tools,dungeon finders and x-realm crap and x-realm instanced pvp etc ,no idea what all kind of cool™ things there is these days.
But what this new magical mystical ultimate weapon of power ,which costs real money does is that whoever uses it ,will not be in those dungeons and battlegrounds or whatever there is,or world PvP ,i bet that is completely dead at this point anyways.
Whoever uses it should get achievement "Deserter" but sad thing is that Blizzard seems to be proud of selling deserter tags.
So, did ESO have a successful launch? Yes, yes it did.By Ryan Getchell on April 02, 2014. **On the radar: http://www.cyberpunk.net/ **
Why should you get high level toon for real money? Its RPG FFS which is about leveling and progress. If you do it for your loyal players that have already maxed out characters, then just give them /level command for free. If you do it for whiners that want catch up... well you dumbed down WoW for them already. If anyone want play equal field then just play Counterstrike or other FPS.
Dark Age Of Camelot - Gareth - Alderienne (keen eldritch)
Blizzard, you wanna know what really devalues the accomplishment of leveling? Selling max characters does.
Not max. New max is 100.
/ignorance + anonymity = trolling
Thanks, was going to mention that before I saw your post.
Honestly, though it bugs me that they are allowing people to boost to 90, I don't see why anyone would pay for it. In my view the 1-85 is the fun bit. The 85 to 90 part poses problems because I found MoP to be somewhat lacklustre. However, is it worth it to pay $60 for a character just to get over the 85 to 90 part? For me, personally, no. I would rather level on my own and throw that money at some other game. If I am tired of leveling alts, perhaps it is time to take a break from WoW and then go back when I feel the desire to play it again.
If I had been Blizzard though I would not have put a leveling service in the gameshop. That opens to the door to so much frustration it is not even funny especially with regards to gear and player ability.
I think the problem here will not be whether this is a good idea or a bad idea but that Blizzard will make money hand over fist using this method. I fear that this kind of fix is what will drive future innovation and we will end up with less creativity.
Blizzard can appease all the player's complaining that leveling is too fast and casual by quadrupling the time it takes. And at the same time that will probably quadruple "Level 90 Boost" sales.
Blizz needs to let us pay to have our toons autodown every raid boss and mail every piece of gear to us so we never have to leave Stormwind/Org. After all, video games are such an inconvenience.
If they wanted to decrease the frequency at which this boost is used to preserve some kind of integrity rather than price gouge, they could simply restrict it to once per (X) days per account.
Agree fully with explanation. Have personally leveled all my 11 alliance alts, now working on horde. For me main fun of playing is LEVELING, not end game. Endgame is just end bonus. And if you skip whole game leveling experience .... what you will do in endgame? Same instances over and over again. Boring as hell. So .... every1 would boost all alts to max, .... enjoy for some time endgame ... and leave. No subs from then. It also does not make sense from $ perspective.
Comments
Sad part is, leveling in WoW is really the only enjoyable experience left. End game had been horrible for the last handful of years.
My sentiments exactly. The irony of it is, people pay them a sub in order to play the game, and now they pay them $60 to not have to play the game.
Blah blah blah, greed pure and simple.
35 bucks to move an account from one server to another when it's just a DB flag? Seriously?
60 bucks is more than the game costs.
http://www.greycouncil.org/
I'd rather take a shotgun to my knees then do dailies in wow.
A 90 should be $40 at this point. You'd get more people buying them.
Not max. New max is 100.
/ignorance + anonymity = trolling
Wow's "Cash Shop" (yes it is one, much of what you see is the same stuff you see in F2P games) is just so rediculously priced as is. F2P trying to charge $25 for a transfer would be shunned and likely blackflagged for attempting to it, such as Neverwinter. Its insane to think blizzard gets away with such a thing when your paying a monthly fee for the game.
The level boost to 90 only shows a huge fundamental problem with their game that people do not want to play through the game due to it being boring with the end being the means. Hell, my friends are currently using RAF to level characters quickly (which btw only costs $30s total and 6-10 hours per level 85) since the experience feels just so tedious and pointless. Their act of removing talents pretty much sealed the experience to feel so unrewarding and make an already bland experience feel that much more so for anyone leveling up more then 1 character.
I'm sorry but blizzard is greedy as all hell when it comes to things that most people yell at F2P games doing for even a bit less cost for such services. Diablo 3 it bit them in the ass with ubercasualizing the game that almost no one really bought into it with just its "Polish" being its only big saving grace and a cash shop that just ruined the experience, and the only reason that is being pulled away is due to box sales being able to generate far more sales for the game then Real Money Auction House.
you are kidding right? hiding 99% of the new weapon skins behind lock boxes and basically selling legendary weapons (and practically everything else in the game) via gems--> gold is somehow tame compared to selling a boost to 90 which won't even be max level in the expansion? yeah....
Max level toon in GW2 is sold for less via gems-->gold and just leveling all professions, which has been in the game since day 1.
you mean not have to play the boring/tired part of the game...the fun part in 99% of games is the new expansion content/endgame, especially for those who have done it (level)many, many times
The one thing that WOW had going for it was the competitive nature of being server first. This kills the leveling aspect of that. All blizzard needs to do now is add a " One Shot One Kill " raid boss item and their shop will be complete. Adding this type of item clearly indicates that they don't believe WOW has much longevity left.
There is no better way to kill your own game, than to add supremacy goods to your microtransaction model.
Well...
I can only speak for myself.... I have a real problem paying someone $60 of my hard earned money for them doing didley squat
Click here---------------> enter credit card # here---------------->ching ching ching
Never thought I see the day.... when the purchase of the game was the cheap part. You have been monetized.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
I do know what kind of product GW2 is and i hope in the name of holy moses that Anet keeps their players forever happy in their jewel limbo.
But lets think about this blizzards new mystical magical item.
first (this story should be long but i try to make it short)
-they did not merge servers ,they made tools for people instead so they could be able to team with other people who are not even connected to their realms in any way.
-all kind of tools,dungeon finders and x-realm crap and x-realm instanced pvp etc ,no idea what all kind of cool™ things there is these days.
But what this new magical mystical ultimate weapon of power ,which costs real money does is that whoever uses it ,will not be in those dungeons and battlegrounds or whatever there is,or world PvP ,i bet that is completely dead at this point anyways.
Whoever uses it should get achievement "Deserter" but sad thing is that Blizzard seems to be proud of selling deserter tags.
So, did ESO have a successful launch? Yes, yes it did.By Ryan Getchell on April 02, 2014.
**On the radar: http://www.cyberpunk.net/ **
Dark Age Of Camelot - Gareth - Alderienne (keen eldritch)
Thanks, was going to mention that before I saw your post.
Honestly, though it bugs me that they are allowing people to boost to 90, I don't see why anyone would pay for it. In my view the 1-85 is the fun bit. The 85 to 90 part poses problems because I found MoP to be somewhat lacklustre. However, is it worth it to pay $60 for a character just to get over the 85 to 90 part? For me, personally, no. I would rather level on my own and throw that money at some other game. If I am tired of leveling alts, perhaps it is time to take a break from WoW and then go back when I feel the desire to play it again.
If I had been Blizzard though I would not have put a leveling service in the gameshop. That opens to the door to so much frustration it is not even funny especially with regards to gear and player ability.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
I think the problem here will not be whether this is a good idea or a bad idea but that Blizzard will make money hand over fist using this method. I fear that this kind of fix is what will drive future innovation and we will end up with less creativity.
Think about it....
Blizzard can appease all the player's complaining that leveling is too fast and casual by quadrupling the time it takes. And at the same time that will probably quadruple "Level 90 Boost" sales.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
If they wanted to decrease the frequency at which this boost is used to preserve some kind of integrity rather than price gouge, they could simply restrict it to once per (X) days per account.
Sorry Blizz; not a believable story.
HEH BLIZZ !
So when will I be able to buy my Tier Gear?
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee