In defense of the paid WoW level boost.

[LetalisK]

Isn't the whole point of the game leveling up, finding shit cooler than the shit you already had, and for bonus points, tagging along with other players to... do the same thing?

Aside from the point that the whole game is "level up to do stuff you can only do now to level up more", which doesn't make the game bad - in fact, that's what makes the game so engaging in the first place - but isn't that just a cash grab? They're already charging you for expansions and playtime, so asking for an extra $60? No. Blizzard, what are you doing?

Levelling is an extended and robust tutorial in WoW that gets you ready for the meat of the game. Don't get me wrong, I think it's really fun and I would never buy this service, but I definitely understand how someone who has 8 level 90s might be more interested in hurrying up and raiding with his friends than levelling on his own.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

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.

I find this entire argument silly, because why are you playing a game that you don't have time to play? Why pay for a game and then pay to not play it? Why don't you just not play it at all?

For me, paying to get a character boosted to 90 is a sign that the game is designed more around manipulating me to give the developers more money than it is to be a rewarding experience. I'd rather just take that $60 and buy a game that I actually want to spend time playing.

 

[spartan231490]

I didn't know this was a thing, and honestly, it's almost tempting enough to get me back into wow. I never had the time or ambition to level a character, I just didn't have much fun with it, but doing dailies and heroics with my friends was something I always wanted to try. So I can totally understand it.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Isn't the whole point of the game leveling up, finding shit cooler than the shit you already had, and for bonus points, tagging along with other players to... do the same thing?

Aside from the point that the whole game is "level up to do stuff you can only do now to level up more", which doesn't make the game bad - in fact, that's what makes the game so engaging in the first place - but isn't that just a cash grab? They're already charging you for expansions and playtime, so asking for an extra $60? No. Blizzard, what are you doing?

If you only PvP though the grind sucks. For me the game doesn't start till 90 when you can start arena's/bgs. why waste a month of time trying to get a new toon to 90 when I can just drop some cash and get it pridefulled out in that time.

I guess you could level through bgs but thats a roller coaster of wonky stat scaling thats only fun if your the OP class for that level.

 

[DrOswald]

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.

The problem is that leveling content in an MMO is completely pointless by it's very nature. Leveling in an MMO is a bad mechanic in its current form that needs to be completely reworked and all the old assumptions challenged.

I mean, imagine if instead of creating 60 levels of content wow had instead devoted all those resources to end game content? Imagine if instead of having to do the same dailies every day you could instead choose a questing area and do some actual end game questing for your grid? You know, make it not so much of a grind.

MMOs, by their nature, center on end game content - you cannot create content fast enough for there to be new content all the time so you have to focus on making it worth playing over and over. But all the resources go into creating leveling content and the best they can do for most end game content is repurpose their leveling content. It is a backwards, stupid system that is only in place because everyone expects it to be there. You can't have an MMO without 50 hours of leveling now even though there simply is no real point to it.

 

[Pogilrup]

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.

The problem is that leveling content in an MMO is completely pointless by it's very nature. Leveling in an MMO is a bad mechanic in its current form that needs to be completely reworked and all the old assumptions challenged.

I mean, imagine if instead of creating 60 levels of content wow had instead devoted all those resources to end game content? Imagine if instead of having to do the same dailies every day you could instead choose a questing area and do some actual end game questing for your grid? You know, make it not so much of a grind.

MMOs, by their nature, center on end game content - you cannot create content fast enough for there to be new content all the time so you have to focus on making it worth playing over and over. But all the resources go into creating leveling content and the best they can do for most end game content is repurpose their leveling content. It is a backwards, stupid system that is only in place because everyone expects it to be there. You can't have an MMO without 50 hours of leveling now even though there simply is no real point to it.

Well in EvE, the only thing one has to grind is ISK. But aside from that I like how that game doesn't invalid content in a new expansion.

 

[michael87cn]

If you have time to play the game, level 90 or not, you don't need a level boost. To get anything accomplished in an MMORPG usually takes time. What are you going to do at end game? Pay someone to do everything else for you?

It sounds good at first, "wow I could be max level so easily" but then you get it, and you're like "this sucks". It's like fast forwarding through a movie to the last 30 minutes. Why rip yourself off like that, and pay to do it too?

Besides, EVERYONE works a 'demanding job'. 40 hours a week (MOST jobs...) means you get 3-4 hours a day for yourself. You're not a special snowflake to have a job. EVERYONE works their asses off at their respective jobs and has little free time. (unless you're a student or still living with mom n' dad, lucky you?). My point is, does this mean all games should offer paid options to skip 'grinds'? Why have grinds at all? Why have all that content? Everyone is a hard working individual with little free time, so why not skip it all with paid options from now on, for every game?

Don't. Support. These. Kind. Of. Things!

Games should devote their time, money, and resources to being FUN. END OF THE LINE. They should not be lazy and go "uhh, well we could make the game fun but if you pay us you can just uhh skip the parts you don't like okay? uhh yeah that's a fair option we think *scratches butt* so can I have my money now? there's 13,789 people in line behind you waiting to pay me to do nothing...."

Then you have people supporting this stuff saying "well they are a business and businesses want money good for them~" well to that I say some people think life is about more than just buying something for a dollar and selling it for two.

 

[michael87cn]

Borderlands 2 - why play the game when you can get right to max level - the entire game is just a tutorial anyway! Get right to max level and playing the REAL game!

 

[leberkaese]

I think that this isn't too shabby. I'm playing Wildstar and our RP-Server is already dying. The endcontent in Wildstar may be good, but the process of leveling is a long, tedious and boring job for many people.

This made me think "okay, give me 'Raiding - the MMORPG', where you instantely jump to the endgame". I don't want to farm items and level for weeks, just to get to the point where I can do the fun part, the raiding.
That destroys the process of leveling, where I learn to play my class? Well, if I can't learn it fast enough on max level, my raiding guild will kick me out for it, so that's my fault.

This "buy a lvl 90 char" actually is a good step for people that stopped playing WoW years ago or simply want to try the endcontent with a different character. Also, the price is high enough. So you won't have hundreds of people running around on max. level, not knowing, what they have to do. Well, maybe you have... they shouldn't give this as a preorder bonus.

And of course Blizzard made this with the thought "oh, look. A way to make money!". If the people want to buy this, it's their business. Doesn't give them any advantages

 

[EvilRoy]

Isn't the whole point of the game leveling up, finding shit cooler than the shit you already had, and for bonus points, tagging along with other players to... do the same thing?

Aside from the point that the whole game is "level up to do stuff you can only do now to level up more", which doesn't make the game bad - in fact, that's what makes the game so engaging in the first place - but isn't that just a cash grab? They're already charging you for expansions and playtime, so asking for an extra $60? No. Blizzard, what are you doing?

It can be a question of value for some of us. Its one thing if you legitimately enjoy the process of leveling, but some of us don't but still want to try out raiding or whatever.

Using a previous posters estimate of 2 hours per level, in order to actually reach level 90 its going to take someone three months to reach it, assuming two hours per day of playtime. That's the cost of game + 30 dollars in monthly subscription fees to reach the stuff that I actually want to play. However, in reality I'm going to be able to play maybe five hours a week total, because me and everyone else on earth has other shit on the go, so that number is closer to 9 months - so cost of game plus 120 dollars in subscription.

If I were to buy the game and spend 60 bucks on the boost, I would actually be able to play four full months of end game content before I would have spent the same amount of money just trying to level up the hard way without any time at all on end game content.

If anything, for a guy like me, this is a fantastic deal - and unless WOW really is that good, chances are Blizzard will lose money on me in the long run as I quit after two months play.

 

[Saviordd1]

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

To be fair I should've specified that I do actually have a normal 90 that I worked up towards way back when I didn't have this job. I used the level boost on my alt.'

If you have time to play the game, level 90 or not, you don't need a level boost. To get anything accomplished in an MMORPG usually takes time. What are you going to do at end game? Pay someone to do everything else for you?

The thing is I enjoy the end game, especially things like Timeless isle and the scenarios. Things you don't get till 90. And if I spent the time to level up to 90 at this point it'd take over a year to get to the part of the game I really enjoy.

The other part of it is I do have another 90 that I leveled up myself at the start of MoP (When I didn't have this job) but I realized too late that the class bores the shit out of me.

It sounds good at first, "wow I could be max level so easily" but then you get it, and you're like "this sucks". It's like fast forwarding through a movie to the last 30 minutes. Why rip yourself off like that, and pay to do it too?

Because, again, I'm there for the end game.

Besides, EVERYONE works a 'demanding job'. 40 hours a week (MOST jobs...) means you get 3-4 hours a day for yourself. You're not a special snowflake to have a job. EVERYONE works their asses off at their respective jobs and has little free time. (unless you're a student or still living with mom n' dad, lucky you?).

I don't work 40 hours a week. I work 48-56 hours a week depending on the week. The only day I get off is Sundays and even then I sometimes get called in if some dipshit breaks something.

My point is, does this mean all games should offer paid options to skip 'grinds'? Why have grinds at all? Why have all that content? Everyone is a hard working individual with little free time, so why not skip it all with paid options from now on, for every game?

Because admittedly most other games I play don't have grinds.

Don't. Support. These. Kind. Of. Things!

Games should devote their time, money, and resources to being FUN. END OF THE LINE. They should not be lazy and go "uhh, well we could make the game fun but if you pay us you can just uhh skip the parts you don't like okay? uhh yeah that's a fair option we think *scratches butt* so can I have my money now? there's 13,789 people in line behind you waiting to pay me to do nothing...."

They tried to change up the format and way quests work. It was called Cataclysm. The fanbase hated it.

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

Pay to Win implies that the boost gives you a huge advantage over your peers in game.

It doesn't.

When you boost to 90 you're given barely acceptable gear, some cash, and the most basic flying mount. If anything you're at a disadvantage to other players since, unless you boosted a class to 90 that you already had at 90, you're not 100% sure how to play your class and any other person playing your class would have way better gear than you by 90.

It's not pay to win by definition, its more like pay-to-skip. Which again works for me because of the amount of cash I have and the little amount of time.

 

[Lilikins]

Time for my 2 cents, I quit in MoP simply for the reason I was there since vanilla and quite plainly just couldnt be bothered with it anymore. Too much time spent doing things ingame where as I could just do other things. Note: Thats my personal opinion, its a good game but I just couldnt be bothered with it, so props to it but..yeah.

1: The reason I personally find it crap that you can insta boost a char to level 90 with the simple motion of waving your wallet is because I always believe in games if you want something..you should earn it. Of course it can be debated 'well, I did earn it, I spent my hard earned cash (or, I annoyed the hell out of my parents for 3 hours till I got their credit card, each to his own.) and worked for it physically/mentally. Yes, that debate can go on and on, nevertheless out of personal belief I think stuff in games, should be earned ingame. As spoken, my opinion.

2: Ill say about 90% of the folks who use this will most likely do it for a raiding alt or such, so they have a concept of the game/raiding/builds etc. Through this by 'most' it wont be a prob, get together with some friends, jump in, play around with it for a bit and grasp the class/spells/cooldowns. Though of course theres that 10% who are completely 'flawed' then, who have jack all clue what they are doing and will run into a brickwall face first.

3: My personal opinion on the matter...I donno if its changed at all but I do remember that its...Ill say, mind numbingly easy to level up to 90. If you make a new char Friday night, and binge it over the weekend, (with all the exp boosts etc..) your already level 90. Voila, if you dont have all the exp boosts you'll still be done with it before the coming Friday if you have a clue of what your doing (an added bonus is you'll learn your rotation properly and how you can best play/be of assistance with that class...the point which your actually trying to get to).

Now if I weigh all that out (especially point 3), if someone wants to throw their money at the screen, be my guest. Its not my money, so I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with it. If someones a nab in a raid (theres always one) I 'usually' gladly gave them a nudge in the right direction, unless they were an impolite prat then..screw them^^ haha.
Long story short, each to his own, Id personally rather save those 60$ and spend it on rent/food/other things and just binge it over a weekend if I really want it that badly. If someone else wants to pay, knock yourself out, no skin off my back.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

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

Pay to Win implies that the boost gives you a huge advantage over your peers in game.

It doesn't.

When you boost to 90 you're given barely acceptable gear, some cash, and the most basic flying mount. If anything you're at a disadvantage to other players since, unless you boosted a class to 90 that you already had at 90, you're not 100% sure how to play your class and any other person playing your class would have way better gear than you by 90.

It's not pay to win by definition, its more like pay-to-skip. Which again works for me because of the amount of cash I have and the little amount of time.

Pay-to-Win by my definition means paying real world money to advance in a game which would otherwise require skill and effort. And yeah this does give you an advantage over those who had to get to level 90 the hard way.

 

[Duster]

Well above all, their job is to monetize the game, not make quality content or balance the game (please blizzfans, you could teach a 14 year old to make higher quality models than what was in cata/mop). The only point they would be obliged to change is if their point profit adjusted to where it wasn't profitable for them to do that anymore, and that isn't going to happen because people gobble their stuff up.

 

[Lieju]

I guess I just don't understand MMO's.
It doesn't seem to me like it's a good game if you need to pay to not play the game.

I get this kind of thing if the game is free-to-play, you pay for convenience, and can get the same thing with effort. But if you're already paying for the game, it seems like a... I dunno, like something that doesn't sit well with me.

But I don't play WoW or other MMO's so what do I know?

It doesn't at least seem like a pay-to-win situation, since all you're buying is time basically.

But I don't think it's really a sign of good design.

 

[Risingblade]

Level Boosts are great for people who have ALREADY leveled characters to 90.

 

[Duster]

Level Boosts are great for people who have ALREADY leveled characters to 90.

Not for 60 dollars.

 

[Risingblade]

Level Boosts are great for people who have ALREADY leveled characters to 90.

Not for 60 dollars.

People are complaining about the concept rather than the pricing

 

[rob_simple]

I kind of get your logic OP, it's just that I can think of so many other things I'd rather drop sixty bucks of disposable income on; paying to not have to play a part of a game just seems kind of odd, to me.

Although my friend did recently start playing WoW and told me that he paid to boost to whatever level you need to be to use a mount, because walking everywhere is boring as shit, but I would contest that, if that's the case, then the developers are being dicks by making the game dull and then giving you the option to give them more money to actually make the game you're already paying for fun.

I dunno, WoW in general just blows my mind, but at the end of the day, it's not up to me how other people spend their time/money.

EDIT: That same friend also explained that he boosted to get on level with his friends that had been playing for ages, so they could go on quests and stuff together. I guess it makes sense, then.

 

[Saviordd1]

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

Pay to Win implies that the boost gives you a huge advantage over your peers in game.

It doesn't.

When you boost to 90 you're given barely acceptable gear, some cash, and the most basic flying mount. If anything you're at a disadvantage to other players since, unless you boosted a class to 90 that you already had at 90, you're not 100% sure how to play your class and any other person playing your class would have way better gear than you by 90.

It's not pay to win by definition, its more like pay-to-skip. Which again works for me because of the amount of cash I have and the little amount of time.

Pay-to-Win by my definition means paying real world money to advance in a game which would otherwise require skill and effort. And yeah this does give you an advantage over those who had to get to level 90 the hard way.

Saying "It is so" does not make it so.

Most gamers would define Pay-To-Win as something that gives you a noticeable advantage over your fellow players. The only advantage I get is the time I saved. In terms of gear, stats, skill, mounts, professions and raid experience every other player has YOU at a disadvantage until you take the time at 90 to acclimate yourself.