I don't think they said it officially prior to this blog post, but you'll be able to purchase boosts to level 90.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/124...port-1-16-2014
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I don't think they said it officially prior to this blog post, but you'll be able to purchase boosts to level 90.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/124...port-1-16-2014
Blizzard is once again setting the mark with a combined subscription / micro transactions model that we know from the free to play games. Amazing how they keep pulling it off. And can't say I like it at all. It's not the kind of game I want to play. But hey, many saw this coming since the celestial steed.
As long as they don't offer any type of pay to win, they should be fine. Buying time is fine; buying an extra 100k hp is not.
It's not a bad idea.
Not like its going to matter much as new max level on xpac is going to be level 100, so boosted 90's wont have much of an impact, might be good for people living busy lives in real life and time restricted to level an alt, or alts from 0 to max lvl.
I think having the option to pay for boosted toons is good idea, doesnt suit all, is not mandatory its just an extra option.
Only thing i dont like about that is wannabe boxers. Now you might see more people running more accounts because they can pay for a fresh level 90 team of their choice. This is a downfall in my opinion. I mean not having to level the long hard tedious way we all have and we continue to do. They also get gear for that level handed to them. All they have to do is learn to play the class comp they are running with some sort of success. Also buying level 90s might affect raids like the ebay buyers did. Hmmmmm not liking it.
With the continued loss of subscriptions the need for new ways to increase revenue and stabilize the business model were inevitable.
But really. Who cares. They'll still have to level to 100, I can't see the selling of 90's coming until after WoD releases and the ones who buy WoD will probably already have teams at 90 so it's a bonus. I'll be using them to roll an alliance team as I've never managed to level 1
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/12426481
Warlords of Draenor will be available for pre-purchase digitally Soon™, and we’re once again planning to have standard digital and Digital Deluxe versions (along with a physical Collector’s Edition—more on that at a later date). This time, if you pre-purchase the Digital Deluxe edition you’ll get your exclusive World of Warcraft pet and mount right away, allowing you to bring a little bit of Draenor past into Azeroth present.
In addition, when you pre-purchase either digital version, we’re going to grant you your level-90 boost at the time of pre-purchase. That’s a little different from the plan we laid out at BlizzCon, but based on the feedback, it’s obvious that many of you would like the chance to get acquainted with a new class before heading into the expansion. This will also give more players the opportunity to experience the current end-game content and the events leading up to Garrosh’s exodus to Draenor. Maybe you’ll get your Legendary cloak from Wrathion and level 90–100 Heirloom weapon in the process.
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.
I can´t use RAF like others - so this is great news for me.
Oh man, I hope they do this soon. I really want to roll 25 DKs or 25 Rogues. or something crazy.
I better save my timeless isle gear. Hopefully they hook us up with Flying and stuff, so we don't need to spend like 8k getting MOP flying and Artisan flying.
This is probably a really good chance to make some gold selling stuff at the AH.
You are obviously entitled to your own opinion, but after reading this I see no longer a reason they should forbid any form of botting/gold buying (well only reason I guess then is that the money doesn't go to blizzard). I bet you also expect full epic gear, and like 100k gold in the bank for every toon you buy?
It completely defeats the purpose of an mmo imo, where you progress your char(s).
I think you should have to level one character to 100 first..
I agree giving away epics and gold would ruin the game. So I think we're on the same page on those items.
When you use a scroll of resurrection, you get a level 80 with 80 gear, including bags, food, and 75g - and they give you all the way up to artisan flying which is like 4.5k or so. So it's a character that is usable and you can have fun with day 1. You can do dungeons, quests etc... I'd expect the same for a level 90.
I can't imagine they'd give you a level 90 with 0 gear, and no items. That's not very friendly to players who have been out a long time. Coming up with even 3k gold so you can fly around in MOP (and buy the prereqs) is Days and Days of work for most player - most players coming back wouldn't be able to do it. And it would encourage gold buying)
I would expect they'd give you level 88 starter gear that you buy at the vendor, or possible make slightly higher stats level 90 green starter gear. Give you flying, bags, and a handful of repair gold and let you do the rest.
I would not expect them to hand over epics or any significant amount of gold. What I was trying to say is that I intend to farm more timeless isle epics so I can hand it over to my new level 90's. Which I have done regardless of how I leveled them.
I can understand with the scroll or rez to give gear, bags, and some gold. The purpose is to bring back an old player who quit. They would need that to start playing because they have been gone and do not have content current characters.
Buying a 90 isn't the same situation. It's buying the time it would take to level an alt. Thus the people doing it already have content current characters who can pass resources over to it; like timeless gear. Also there will be some sort of restriction in place like having a max level character to begin with.
I can't see them granting flying or any other skills like first aid, fishing, cooking, etc when you buy a 90. The economy is built around secondary skills and such so I don't think they would let you start with 600 blacksmithing and bypass the ingame economy that goes with leveling trades.
However you can't underestimate money from the equation. They will sell you a fully raid ready toon if it makes sense financially. WoW still has more subs than all the other subscription games combined, but someday they will.
Even with a starting level 90, it's going to be a money sink for existing players. Enchanting gear, buying gems, buying inscriptions. Buying bank slots, buy bags for bank slots. Then it'll cost a fortune to try and level many non-collection professions. Lots of repair bills for people who don't know how to play the class too.
Blizzard just banned a shitload of bots, seems to be one of the bigger banwaves I've seen. Some of those dark forums are literally exploding with reports. Wouldn't surprise me if they launch the 'buy 90' one of these days.
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/2...of-a-ban-wave/We have recently taken action against a number of accounts for the use of third party programs. Such programs not only give their users an unfair advantage, but are a violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use, and go against the spirit of fair play. Due to our policies on the protection of player privacy, we’re unable to discuss specifics except directly with those whose accounts have had action taken against them.
The writing was on the wall the moment they announced that every copy of WoD comes with a free 90. People were immediately talking about buying new copies of the game ($15 during the sale) buying WoD (~$40) and buying a character transfer ($25) totalilng $85.
The ability to do this was going to be there no matter what.
I think that blizz giving a distinct "Buy a 90" option is to give them a more realistic subscriber number count, rather than having tons of abandoned accounts with no characters on them.
The whole point of all of this, is party due to a survey that I took part in, regarding why people quit the game, and what would it take for them to come back. For many people, the biggest hurdle, is wanting to get back into the game, when a new expo comes out, but realizing that their character is in such low level gear that it's gonna take quite a while before they can even start to enjoy the content that they just purchased, and get easily discouraged and quit again. This won't give an advantage to anyone reallly, it just evens the playing field between players who never quit and have been at 90 and geared for some time, and people that may have quite one or more expansions ago. It's similar to the gear reset IMO, all of the WoD Quest rewards wil likey be better than anything from the timeless isle, at least past the starting zone.
Anyone that plays in a new expansion knows that what gear you have when you start gets replaced in the first zone with higher item level quest gear.. so i don't think lack of gear has anything to do with new people returning for a new expansion. The lack of gear and levels keeps people from coming back in the middle of an expansion more than at the beginning. New expansions actually, in and of themselves, inspire a lot of players to return to try the new content.
I think the free 90s are just another creative way to boost revenue, not unlike RaF was, nothing more. I think it might nab a few old players, but I think they will get more money out of existing players wanting to boost alts or change mains. I know thats what i will do..boost some old toons to 90 that i might not have ever played again otherwise.
I think that's one reason that they are considering it. I think it's more what Fat Tire said, with the game declining (and their next MMO delayed for who knows how long) they will start pulling out all the stops to keep people playing and paying. For anyone who would have paid an outside service to powerlevel characters for them, the Blizzard service will probably be cheaper and safer. Next would be spending RL dollars for gold and items, which I figure will happen shortly before Titan is ready to go.
I was under the impression that the launch date was moved back, not that it was canceled.
was Titan not just a code name for a new mmo there working on???
Level 90 Boost on the PTR now:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/...-Level-BGs-DLC