In defense of the paid WoW level boost.

[Saviordd1]

So as some of you may know World of Warcraft started offering instant level boosts to 90 for $60 and many people called bullshit on it, including me.

But now I've found myself in a situation where, honestly, the level boost makes sense.

I work an extremely demanding job. I work from 2 PM to 11 PM Monday-Saturday at a factory. It's tough work that leaves you exhausted and drained. But it also leaves you with a ton of excess cash that you honestly don't have time to use. And I've recently fallen back into WoW because its an easy, mindless thing to do after work or on my days off.

I fill this unique niche where dropping 60 bucks isn't that big a deal but I don't have the time to devote to leveling a character.

Obviously the level boost isn't for everyone. And you can make a lot of valid points against the idea. But since I've recently found myself in a unique situation that not many people have I've changed my opinion.

What do you guys think? Have your opinions changed for the level boost? Do you think its ever excusable? I'm honestly curious what people think of this.


CAPTCHA: Half Empty.
Hah, describes my life.

 

[Fappy]

I am actually in a similar situation to you (at least my time-to-money ratio is the same), but I still don't like it on principle. I really just think it's plain too much money for what it is. Feels way too much like a cash-grab, but then, many of the pay services in WoW are way too much for what they are.

Honestly, I just wish they made the lower level content relevant. It really sucks that, come the end of the year, content for level 1-90 will be completely pointless.

 

[lnin0]

Having disposable income doesn't make a bad purchase good.

Why not just pre-order Warlords of Draenor which gives you a free level 90 character boost as soon as you purchase it. That way you are actually getting new content for your money rather than paying to skip content you already purchased.

I don't really get it. If you are getting back into WoW, don't you already have high level characters? If you don't have a capped character, why not just level you main up the rest of the way. Wouldn't all that content be new to you? What is your goal? I am not sure why you would want to pay to skip the game. You can skip the game without paying Activision/Blizzard for the privilege.

Nothing is more fun than jumping into a level 90 raid to find half the players boosted and don't really understand how their class plays. But I guess your opponents will appreciate it in PVP.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

It's tough work that leaves you exhausted and drained. But it also leaves you with a ton of excess cash that you honestly don't have time to use.

Are you freakin kidding me
MY shopping list is 7,81 kilobytes of text, and i have loads of stuff i need in my head only

That 90 boost seems fun to shove on an alt, but i sure as fork aint gonna pay the price of a new game to skip the game

25$ mounts... pfahaha

 

[Evonisia]

Honestly my only issue with the character boost as it is is that you're allowed to use it now. I am certainly glad I packed in LFR just in time for that to come around, because any poor sod who thinks LFR is a good way to get gear is in for a sad surprise with a bunch of people who have boosted classes they don't know to 90.

If Blizzard took the option down until WoD came out, I would be completely fine with it, especially because 100 will be max level then.

The price has never bothered me, in fact I see it as quite cheap compared to what they could charge. Typically it's a day and half's play time to reach 90 (for me) now, so it will be even more so for a new player. So let's just assume you pay 60 bucks for the skipping of that 36 hours. The average AAA game takes between 8-10 hours to complete. Blizz could easily charge more is all I am saying.

Edit: To clarify, the above paragraph is just the numbers once you're finished. I know we have to factor in personal life and so on, but I think the same would apply to the AAA game in comparison.

 

[Something Amyss]

I'm never going to use Time Saver packs, but if people want them, eh.

Still strikes me as a bad investment, though. They charge you for a game and then they charge you not to play it.

 

[Notshauna]

I don't like it out of principle, it's very shady to go about deliberately refusing to improve content that many players find uninteresting, when you already charge them monthly to play the game and then turn around and offer a premium service to skip it. Reeks of mobile free to play tactics. Plus the price is laughable, I can't imagine ever purchasing it, even if I were to become a billionaire.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

It's not for me personally, I really don't mind the dungeon filled grind to 90, even if I have seen the inside of Gnomeregan more times than my own eyelids. That being said, I can see the appeal. WoW still has a bot problem and the next best way to level (other than just powerleveling) is abusing the Recuit-A-Friend system and multiboxing your way to 90 in less than a day. Seeing as getting caught using bot software is a bannable offense and the latter is a £35 investment that comes with the hassle of either paying ingame for boosts or grinding through the dungeon system. That £40 doesn't seem too bad in comparison.

But yeah, it's not going to be for everyone. If you know the story and you just wanna get straight into the endgame meat and potatoes, then why not.

I don't like it out of principle, it's very shady to go about deliberately refusing to improve content that many players find uninteresting, when you already charge them monthly to play the game and then turn around and offer a premium service to skip it.

They revamped Azeroth with Cataclysm and look at the backlash it garnered. I'm not saying it's an excuse, I'm just saying it's probably equally as likely to rustle some jimmies. When you start touching old content, you tie a knot and whoever didn't witness that content the first time around is out of the loop. If you played before Catacylsm, there's a butt ton of references in new quests and random world details that will just stand out to you. If you started with Cata then you're gonna miss a majority of that. I think it's why they've never updated Outland or Northrend, because they have contained stories which would be completely borked if they brought the world up to the current timeline.

 

[krazykidd]

So let me get this straight. You want to play world of warcraft. But you don't want to level the character to max level. So , you want to skip most of the game, of the game you want to play . Seems legit.

Seriously though, leveling is suppose to be part of the fun. Not only that, leveling your character also teaches you how to play said character. Oh who am i kidding, people are just going to look online for character skill rotation and guides to beat bosses , so they can wave their epenis around and feel proud by effortlessly doing nothing .

You're cash do what you will.

This is why people don't take gamers seriously. Gamers are the laziest hobbiest ever.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

It's Pay-to-Win and I'm against that regardless of whatever shitty justification you can come up with.

 

[Supdupadog]

I don't like it out of principle, it's very shady to go about deliberately refusing to improve content that many players find uninteresting, when you already charge them monthly to play the game and then turn around and offer a premium service to skip it. Reeks of mobile free to play tactics. Plus the price is laughable, I can't imagine ever purchasing it, even if I were to become a billionaire.

There is no real way to solve that problem.

They already tried in Cata. And it was good, IMO. But it's been 3 years and now I've done all that revamped stuff and I'm tired of it. And I don't really want another re-vamp. They don't want to do another, because as we learned, doing over all that land really takes a bite out of what we can expect for endgame.

I've been playing WoW for 8 years. And before and inbetween and currently I am playing games that also have leveling systems. I'm tired of this concept. They could make the most magical elevating leveling experience and I'd still quit of exasperation. I'd honestly be buying lvl 90 toons every month if I had the income.

After 10 years of content and poop quests, maybe it's ok to think an MMO might need to change the rules for itself to stay in the lime light unlike other properties...

 

[The Madman]

It's Pay-to-Win and I'm against that regardless of whatever shitty justification you can come up with.

I don't play WOW anymore and even when I did I never really got into the higher tier stuff like hardcore raiding or pvp, but regardless I'm pretty sure you can't 'win' at WOW since it really isn't a competitive game nor does it have any sort of end-state. Really the only person hurt/helped by the level boost thing would be the player themself.

Personally I don't much see the point of level boosting but then I always thought questing was one of the most fun aspects of WOW. Why skip the bit with all the story and progress in favor of the bit where you sit around Ironforge or Stormwind waiting in for a group to run a dungeon/raid for the dozenth time in the vague hopes of something useful to you dropping?

 

[Canadamus Prime]

It's Pay-to-Win and I'm against that regardless of whatever shitty justification you can come up with.

I don't play WOW anymore and even when I did I never really got into the higher tier stuff like hardcore raiding or pvp, but regardless I'm pretty sure you can't 'win' at WOW since it really isn't a competitive game nor does it have any sort of end-state. Really the only person hurt/helped by the level boost thing would be the player themself.

Personally I don't much see the point of level boosting but then I always thought questing was one of the most fun aspects of WOW. Why skip the bit with all the story and progress in favor of the bit where you sit around Ironforge or Stormwind waiting in for a group to run a dungeon/raid for the dozenth time in the vague hopes of something useful to you dropping?

It's pay-to-win in the sense that you're not achieving the in game goal though gameplay, but rather by paying real world money.

 

[sniddy_v1legacy]

Ok for vets it may work....but a newb who's never levelled a character

TBH I think learning and gearing a character is half the fun. maybe they should have a 'staging point' for vets maybe a level 70/80 character decked out in decent gear that sells for like 2 copper so if you want to jump classesor have alts you can without grinding too much early content

 

[Keoul]

I think if leveling takes so much time and effort maybe that's a sign that they should make it easier instead of adding a payment option to instantly get to max level, even more so if it's an MMO since you do have other people working their asses off to get to the same level as a guy who just dropped 60 bucks.

 

[LetalisK]

I am actually in a similar situation to you (at least my time-to-money ratio is the same), but I still don't like it on principle. I really just think it's plain too much money for what it is. Feels way too much like a cash-grab, but then, many of the pay services in WoW are way too much for what they are.

Honestly, I just wish they made the lower level content relevant. It really sucks that, come the end of the year, content for level 1-90 will be completely pointless.

It is too much money. Intentionally so as to price out people who would do it casually (unless you have a lot of disposable income I guess). If they wanted to go for a cash grab, they would actually lower it to 20 or 15 bucks as a lot more people would be willing to shell out for that.

 

[Pogilrup]

Like others have said, perhaps Blizz could retain more players if the lower levels are still relevant even in a new expansion.

 

[Nazulu]

No, I find that a terrible reason. This is pay to win no matter how you reason for it. Also, were trying to get publishers to stop money schemes. And not only that, but I believe they should be adding more land or quests or whatever to make the Whole Game worth playing again. Actually find means to encourage people to enjoy the whole world.

Or, they could do what Lineage 2 did and make it that so you can adopt more than one class type on each character when reaching max level. You had to go through a challenging quest but everyone did it.

 

[Norithics]

Hm. I don't play WoW, so I don't know how grindy it is. I also have to work for a living, and thus most MMOs are out of my reach. But I do play Final Fantasy XIV and honestly it's perfect for people of our disposition. So I dunno, paying to get to the level cap in a game that isn't designed to be might not be as good as just playing a game that gives you lots of natural, "I'm still playing the game" opportunities to level.

 

[fenrizz]

I'm fine with it.

I've leveled 1 through 70/80/85/90 too many times already.
Hell, if it was not for the XP-boost (+100%) I'd not have leveled my Shaman at all.

It's nice if you want to level a new class.

So I dunno, paying to get to the level cap in a game that isn't designed to be might not be as good as just playing a game that gives you lots of natural, "I'm still playing the game" opportunities to level.

You are not getting to the level cap though, 90 is the rpevious cap, the new one is 100.