[WoD] Scouting Report Blog Post

[Lyonheart]

I think you should have to level one character to 100 first..

[Kicksome]

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 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.

[Starbuck_Jones]

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.

[zenga]

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.

That makes sense. Still dislike the idea of being able to buy levels, but in a way RAF is buying levels as well, and that has been in the game since wotlk.

[Kicksome]

That makes sense. Still dislike the idea of being able to buy levels, but in a way RAF is buying levels as well, and that has been in the game since wotlk.

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.

[zenga]

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.

[ebony]

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.

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.

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/2...of-a-ban-wave/

[daviddoran]

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.

[Lyonheart]

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.

[Tonuss]

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 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.