World of Warcraft Paid Level 90 Boost Will Cost $60

[Steven Bogos]

World of Warcraft Paid Level 90 Boost Will Cost $60

For a $60 fee, you'll be able to instantly boost one of your World of Warcraft characters to level 90.

For a few minutes after the World of Warcraft servers came back up from maintenance, a glitch allowed players to access the upcoming, officially unreleased in-game store, showing that unless Blizzard comes out and announces otherwise, paid level 90 boosts will set you back $60 a piece.

When Blizzard first announced its upcoming World of Warcraft expansion pack: Warlords of Dreanor, one of the promised features was the one-off ability to instantly boost a single character to level 90, no doubt meant to coax back old players who haven't played the game for an expansion or two. We later learned that Blizzard was experimenting with additional, paid level 90 boosts [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131413-Update-WoW-Warlords-of-Draenor-Pre-Order-Bonus-is-an-Instant-Level-90], and it now looks like they have made a decision.

It's likely that the paid level 90 boosts will go live at the same time pre-orders open for Warlords of Dreanor (thus giving pre-order customers a free level 90 boost), which according to Blizzard will, of course, be "Soon™".

We have reached out to Blizzard for confirmation on the paid level 90 boost's cost.

So there you have it, boosting your character to level 90, unlike a faction or race change, is pretty much past what we can call honestly a "microtransaction" with a straight face. There's nothing "micro" about $60, as it's more or less the price of a full, new game. It's even more than the actual expansion costs.

Is the journey from 1 to 90 so tedious that you would be willing to drop $60 on skipping it? Do you think the boost price is fair, or do you think it should be a bit lower?

Source: MMO Champion [http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/3773-Character-Level-Boost-to-90-priced-at-60]

Permalink

 

[Vaccine]

Keep in mind this price is probably to challenge power leveling services and mostly likely to not be so low to be seen as a money grub for people to get a near-max of every class easily.

Is the journey from 1 to 90 so tedious that you would be willing to drop $60 on skipping it? Do you think the boost price is fair, or do you think it should be a bit lower?

Yes, I'd use this service if I didn't already have all the maxed characters I wanted, because if there's one thing I hated about WoW, it was the leveling, I enjoy playing with my friends at max level, I don't enjoy dumping many hours just to get there.

 

[Redflash]

A small, cynical part of me wonders if this 'maintenance glitch' giving brief access to the store wasn't a cunning ploy on Blizzard's part to test the waters for that price, see how much fallout it generates.

At any rate, for my two cents I think is $60 is ridiculous. I used to play pretty heavily and I'm not gonna go back again because I enjoy having a life too much, but if I was that way inclined I would never pay that much.

 

[Nazulu]

This is such a scummy move. Just make fucking servers with max characters if you can't make the areas good enough for people to enjoy leveling through. I drew the line with this game when they brought in the mounts you can pay for, but this so much worse.

I already know there are people who like this sort of crap, but there is nothing you can say that can defend this.

 

[Stavros Dimou]

Is it only me that is not unnoyed with the height of the price,but by the very fact that services like this that ask you to pay money to advance in the game exist ?
"Oh hey,so you want to be good in our game but you suck or are bored playing it ? Fine,pay us some money so you can say you cleared it,without even playing it!"
:/

 

[Marohen]

Actually, this has been a mined price and there's a chance of it not being final.

In any case, the developers claim the boost was largely in response to the theoretical issue of players buying the game multiple times and merging accounts (Since you get one of these boosts for free with the expansion). My concern with the 60$ price tag is whether or not it's a cheaper solution, otherwise that angle is wasted.

Overall, it's easy to assume that this is a short-term cash grab at the expense of long-term viability, but I don't have a full grasp on the economics surrounding WoW (The game's sub numbers, for example, are said to fluctuate wildly depending on points in an expansions life cycle). Mechanically, it's not much different from when Death Knights were implemented, so discussion should remain centred on the economics.

For example, the price might be at that so as to be prohibitive, but if it's too prohibitive then it's not sound design. Again, if it's availability is in response to a possible exploit, is the price meant to be conducive to those people who might consider such an excessive investment? And, if so... Why not just let them buy the game anyways?

 

[Redflash]

Is it only me that is not unnoyed with the height of the price,but by the very fact that services like this that ask you to pay money to advance in the game exist ?
"Oh hey,so you want to be good in our game but you suck or are bored playing it ? Fine,pay us some money so you can say you cleared it,without even playing it!"
:/

Looked at that way it's annoying, but this is more aimed at people who left the game and want to get back into the action but are too burned out to go through the full levelling process again. The service offered is answering a legit need, they've just gotten greedy on the pricing.

 

[Geisterkarle]

I haven't played WoW in ages, but my 2 cent to that:
I would like to say that I think it's wrong to get a level 90 char just like that, because so you (maybe) actually don't know how play that char/class. But on the other hand already in "my WoW days" there were so many people having "no life" and playing incredible amount of time with their char/class ... and still didn't get the hang of it, how they have to play it correctly. So there is no difference there!

Also:
Yeah, level 90 ... do you get any items with that or are you an naked end-level guy/girl?

 

[Roofstone]

Well, I kinda like this. It should be expensive to take the cheap (Hah!) route. You don't want to spend a day or two power leveling your character? Fine, buy this, but it'll cost you. And it should cost you. The easiest route should be discouraged.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Sort of a ridiculous price, but then I guess it could be higher, all things considered. Is it worth the skip? Depends on who you ask - most people that play MMORPGs feel that games don't really pick up until the end-game content anyway, so for those people that want to jump straight into their favorite part, it might be worth it.

Personally, I'm one of those that feels the best bits of the game come from achieving max level; although I do a bit of end-game content myself, getting there is a lot of the fun for me. So I think that skipping it would feel bizarre. I have no idea what you would do for money in order to outfit such a character if you did.

 

[blackdwarf]

Also:
Yeah, level 90 ... do you get any items with that or are you an naked end-level guy/girl?

You get Greens, based upon your specs. If I am correct, but not sure, you get two main professions on lvl 600 (current max) and you will probably start at a phased out zone, where you will learn the basics of your class.

The price Is expensive, and I will probably never buy it, but I am glad that it isn't cheap, because this will stop people of abusing it and playing a class they never learned properly.

 

[Abomination]

Great idea, actually. If there's one way to combat gold farmers it's to offer the EXACT SAME SERVICE.

$60 is steep? Depends on how you look at it. How many hours does it take to level a character from 1-90? Now divide 60 by that number and that's how much you're paying for in services/hour. If it rounds out to about $5/hour that's a damn good deal - depending, of course, how much your time is worth.

 

[Vedrenne]

Also:
Yeah, level 90 ... do you get any items with that or are you an naked end-level guy/girl?

You get Greens, based upon your specs. If I am correct, but not sure, you get two main professions on lvl 600 (current max) and you will probably start at a phased out zone, where you will learn the basics of your class.

The price Is expensive, and I will probably never buy it, but I am glad that it isn't cheap, because this will stop people of abusing it and playing a class they never learned properly.

ILvl 483 greens, prof's only get boosted if the character getting boosted is over lvl60 (only primary prof's and first aid get buffed, not cooking or fishing AFAIK).

 

[Hawkeye21]

Soooo... you buy the game, buy subscription, and then pay 60$ to NOT PLAY the game? Sounds very convenient. Can I pay 100$ and make someone else play it for me? I would login once a week and inspect my new items, stats and mounts.

 

[Teoes]

I can see a lot of people being peer pressured in terms of guilds to basically have all characters just to make sure they can always raid.

If someone gets into that situation without telling the guild/guild-leader to either go bolt, or to foot the bill - the guild isn't the only party with a problem. "You want me to do what? How about you give me a boot in the testicles while we're at it?" /gquit.

snip

Actually a sensible way of looking at things. I'm not sure why people are getting so angry at Blizz for this. Yes, it can be thought of as expensive. No-one is reasonably forcing anyone to go through with it. If someone wants to pay even more to not play the game then that's their prerogative. A fool and his money, as they say.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

Eh, if you are going "Pay to Win", I'd rather the price be high enough to discourage it so I'm cool with this.

 

[TheEvilCheese]

And so marks the last time I will ever subscribe to WoW. I understand the argument that this is all optional and unimportant in the grand scheme of things but paying to skip content means blizz have no motivation to (say) update outland back into step with the rest of the game. Hell, it encourages making the grind unbearable because they get more money that way.

It's not that I expect this to be the case, it's that I refuse to be part of a system that encourages paying to skip gameplay and also charges you for the privilege of playing the game in the first place. I just don't trust Blizzard in the slightest anymore.