Blizzard Revamps WoW's Recruit-a-Friend System With New Rewards

[Steven Bogos]

Blizzard Revamps WoW's Recruit-a-Friend System With New Rewards

Recruit-a-friend recruiters will be able to choose from eight mounts and pets.

While the recruit-a-friend feature for Blizzard's colossal MMO World of Warcraft is nothing new, it has recently revamped the program with new rewards, in attempt to get all of its veteran subscribers to spam their friends and family members so they can try and get another shiny new mount. Previously, the recruiter would get a month of free game time when his recruitee paid for their first month's subscription, and a free mount when they paid for their second month.

Now, recruiters will be able to choose from eight different mounts and pets once their victim... err, "friend or family member," has shelled out for two months of game time. The mounts and pets available are:

Emerald Hippogryph
Heart of the Nightwing
X-53 Touring Rocket
Swift Zhevra
Golden Pig
Silver Pig
Jade Tiger
Zipao Tiger

Some of these mounts and pets have been available to recruit-a-friend participants in the past (such as the X-53 Touring Rocket and the Swift Zhevera), some were previously only given out as special event rewards (like the Golden Pig and Jade Tiger), and the Emerald Hippogryph is a brand new mount.

Recruiters will actually be able to earn multiple rewards if they recruit multiple friends, so the most dedicated fans can actually earn all eight of the mounts and pets.

For those unfamiliar with the system, veteran players can recruit friends by giving them a free week of game time to try out the game, during which they are also given added "friend benefits," such as boosted experience, and the ability for recruiters and recruitees to teleport to each other.

Source: Blizzard [http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/11524458/Recruit_A_Friend_Program_Offers_New_Rewards-11_12_2013]

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[Uratoh]

I wonder what the people who shilled out to upgrade friends etc so they could get the zhevera/rocket on their mains before they went away are gonna say about this...

Not that I really sympathize, they played the system, so it's playing back.

 

[Roxor]

In the unlikely event that anyone ever tries to get me to play WoW, I'll be responding with "You just want the in-game goodies!".

Seriously, though, this strikes me as cultish behaviour. It's creeping me out.

 

[Moosejaw]

In the unlikely event that anyone ever tries to get me to play WoW, I'll be responding with "You just want the in-game goodies!".

Seriously, though, this strikes me as cultish behaviour. It's creeping me out.

Cultish? Let me know when they make you sacrifice a live goat to renew your subscription and I'll agree with you (and they better not, do you know how much one of those costs?).

It makes sense, they want to hold on to their subscribers so they want to give incentives for people to try and drag their friends with them.

 

[Charli]

R> EU players!

(I kid, though I wouldn't say no to the golden piggy for my pet battle team)

((And actually as an afterthought my team is recruiting up for the next expansion already, so I have a raiding home for you if you're all set to play for the long haul. I prefer not to bother people with WoW who don't want to be bothered with it, I'd rather you were willing and had some free time to burn enjoying the game then reluctantly dragged around by an enthusiastic nut ball.))

 

[VanQ]

The Hippogryph is pretty nice. I still prefer not to spam folks like this though, so I'll have to pass on this one. Unless someone here plans to come back to the game before the next expansion to see Siege of Org while it's still current.

Any US players can feel free to PM me if they want to come back to the game/try it out for a week for free.

 

[Eleuthera]

The Hippogryph is pretty nice. I still prefer not to spam folks like this though, so I'll have to pass on this one. Unless someone here plans to come back to the game before the next expansion to see Siege of Org while it's still current.

Any US players can feel free to PM me if they want to come back to the game/try it out for a week for free.

Coming back to the game won't work though, this is only for new players (I just checked, since I've been itching to give WoW another spin for a while). For returning players there's still the old "scroll of resurrection" but you have to have last played before March of 2012. (This is true for European players anyway, US might be different)

 

[mattaui]

Almost everyone I know who gets these recruit a friend mounts just buys another copy of the game and recruits themselves. Blizzard should just skip the facade and put all these in a cash shop, but I guess they must still get some actual new subscribers out of it.

 

[MHR]

No way I'm going back. I deleted my super-uber pimped out wealthy character with tons of collector's items and an armored netherdrake mount from season 1 arenas just so I wouldn't ever go back.

Every now and again I get a small feeling that there might be something redeeming about the game worth checking out but then I hear about things like an instant level 85 character for new players and am disgusted with the game again.

Those mounts sound cool though, but I deleted my armored netherdrake that I prized so very dearly so I'd be far too depressed to care about anything else in the game. Never again.

 

[Micalas]

Cultish? Let me know when they make you sacrifice a live goat ...

Let's see... animal sacrifice... A known practice in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, and traditional African religions.

Yup. Some pretty creepy cults there, actually.

It makes sense, they want to hold on to their followers so they want to give incentives for people to try and drag their friends in with them.

Common cult tactic there, actually.

I couldn't stand WoW beyond level 30 myself. Grinding for crafting reagents and begging for groups got old real quick. I'd be difficult for someone to convince me to drink the Kool-Aid again.

But Kool-Aid is so good...especially the blue kind. *cough*witharesnic*cough*