Update: WoW: Warlords of Draenor Pre-Order Bonus is an Instant Level 90

[DazZ.]

Imagine if other games did this. Legend of Zelda. What would of happened if you were suddenly given every item, had max hearts and skipped over the journey to fight Ganondorf? Is there any reason to play the game anymore? What about Super Mario Brothers? You jump from the starting stage to the Bowser end fight. What's there left of the game? Something more modern? What would Fallout of been if you exited the vault and was given all the weapons and ammunition you need to kill the master?

Whilst I wouldn't use this as I tend to enjoy leveling characters, I'm going to assume you haven't maxed an MMO character before.

The games you compared it to have definitive endings with no end game (other than go back and do stuff you missed). MMOs tend to have a fuck ton of content at the end, and the grinding leveling doesn't even really stop at the cap as you still need better gear to get into raids and do all the expert versions of everything else for example.

Also the best PvPs and arenas will unlock at the end usually, but...

Is there any reason to play the game anymore?

...to answer that. Yes. Most certainly in the case of MMOs.

 

[jurnag12]

I see no issue with this. Hell, I've been playing the damn game for 6 years, and this sounds like a godsend to me: You mean I can skip all the boring crap I've already done a dozen times and roll an alt that can instantly get into the action? Sign me the fuck up!

Look's like daddy is finally getting that Hunter he's always wanted.

Small comment on the article itself; I assume that it's based on a misinterpretation of a message Blizzard recently dropped onto the WoW forums: The Instant 90 bonus is included in every copy of the expansion pack, but the people who pre-purchase the digital versions (The Standard version or the Digital Deluxe with fancy exclusive battle pets and a mount)will get the rewards for doing so, including the boost, the moment they pre-purchase said product. BLizzard's essentially letting you skip the wait for the Xpac and get your goodies immediatly.

 

[Jandau]

Umm... what?

As someone who recently came back to the game (like, 2-3 weeks ago) and hasn't played since TBC, I don't really see the point of this. Leveling is obscenely fast now. 1-60 can be done in a few days. 60-70 is also stupidly fast (3 zones and a few instances), same with 70-80. 80-85 I got done in the first Cata zone. The only reason it's taking me a few weeks to get to 90 is that I occasionally stop playing for a few days and I froze my XP at a few points to explore the content.

Yes, leveling is so fast you need to stop XP just to avoid content flashing before you faster than you can see it. And I'm still disappointed I didn't get to see all of WotLK. Through all this, I had nearly instant dungeon queues, even for low level content.

Seriously, leveling has never been faster. Doing 1-60 in the old days took 2-3 times longer than 1-85 takes now. 85-90 (the current expansion) isn't much slower, with me being 89 after clearing 3 zones.

I understand people don't actually want to play the game, but this is getting silly. I can MAYBE see a point to this for longtime players who've been around for every patch ever and might want to roll a fresh class but not go through the same stuff they've seen 10 times already. But with heirlooms and all the various boosts, getting to 90 can be done in a week.

And I shudder to think of all the people with instant level 90 characters in classes they have no idea how to play. It's going to be terrible. As in, really really bad.

All in all, a bad move for the game...

 

[Fdzzaigl]

A new sad record in the lifespan of this game and for MMO's in general.

It has come to the point where even the developers don't give a flying frak about leveling, exploration and world content. Instead they give out a token to zap you to the max level so you can get straight to running instances and grinding gear again.

The WoW of days past, where leveling up to the cap was a big journey that took you through a well-crafted open world filled with interesting challenges around every turn is long gone indeed.

Still, I wish them the best of luck. I returned to the game some time ago and quit again soon after, there's a limit to how long a grind with gear rewards can keep people hooked.

no, i think that the sensation of leveling up is one of the pillars that keep you playing a game.(becomming better by time by "earning" it)

like a signal in a skinner box.

thats why you quickly improve in games and are more willing to spend more time to be able to get your rewards you got so quickly in the first few levels.
a good skinner box rides the learning curve all way long
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Alanf777_Lcd_fig02.png/270px-Alanf777_Lcd_fig02.png

WoW doesn't need the leveling curve as a "skinner box".
It has perfected its gear grind as exactly that and gives out small nibbles at a time when going through instance after instance.

However, in reality, if you keep doing this longer and longer, people DO get tired of going for the same "stimulus" as in receiving more gear again in later tiers.

Which is why WoW's numbers are dropping in my opinion.

Apart from the gear grind, the game has far too little things to actually motivate people to play it.

 

[Kahani]

To be fair, reaching level 90 is not finishing the game. In fact, WoW actually begins at the level cap-- the leveling process is essentially a overly long and poorly designed tutorial.

The big problem WoW has is that this isn't objectively true. It's how some people view the game. Others actually enjoying playing through the story and slowly leveling up. The problem is that every time new content or a higher level cap is added, the divide between the two groups of players gets bigger. It's got to the point now where it's essentially impossible to cater to both at the same time. Anything added to the earlier parts of the game will be completely ignored by the former group, who just power past everything as quickly as possible. But anything added to the later parts of the game may never be seen at all by the latter group who enjoy the process of getting to the top. Basically, WoW is no longer a game, it's two separate games which, as you say, don't even play in the same way. The early game isn't a bad tutorial for the late game, it's simply a different game.

So I have to say that allowing people to jump straight to the end is probably one of the best things they've done for the game in a long time. Before now, every time they raised the level cap they also forced people to level faster so it would take about the same length of time to get to the top. The problem is that this screws over the people who want to enjoy the lower level content, while failing to do anything for those who just want to skip it all since they still have to spend the same amount of time leveling. By allowing a choice, you cater to both groups equally well. Those who want to play through the whole game can do so, those who don't aren't forced to.

 

[Fasckira]

Great news! Devs recognise the leveling system is complete bollocks.

Bad news! They're going to charge you to skip it.

 

[lancar]

I recall I actually answered a questionnaire from Blizzard about how much I would be willing to pay for a level boost to lvl90.

Twas a silly question.

I reckon every man and their dog all answered "Nothing".

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

They're getting desperate, aren't they?

captcha: can you see. Yes, I can.

 

[Lucyfer86]

I hardly see who is this gonna exactly hurt (question for all ya haters)?
If veterans wants to pay up to get that 10th alt to the end game without doing all early content they've already done several times, that's their business.

I hardly doubt there would be thousands of completely first timers who just for some reasons wants to skip all that learning experience (which is non-existent, given how fast leveling is now). There's always gonna be totally clueless people in end game, no matter if theres ability skip leveling or not.

 

[Ranorak]

This is a great idea.
I for one, hated leveling in TBC content, and Pandaria.
With this system in place I can at least skip those horrible zones with 1 new character.

 

[Muspelheim]

Oh... Well...

I didn't think I was going to get WoD. I skipped Mists of Pandaria entirely, and had that looming feeling of expansion fatigue. This more or less settles the deal. I'm afraid that my days of playing the game properly is well and truly over.

It's a small grievance, but... Honestly. This is the last thing that you should be nickle and dimed for. It really doesn't do anything but to draw attention to how absurd the leveling length has become over time.

As much as I rather like levelling up now that there's been a few welcome overhauls, I'd rather they sod the whole business, start new characters up at level 90 with some beginner's gear and go from there. Yes, it'd make most of the game world entirely pointless, but it's been like that for most of the expansion dynasties, where everything slightly relevant has been exclusive to the current expansion's theme park area. Might as well just bite it and prune it off entirely. Perhaps keep it around as an optional thing, for little extra rewards, if flushing down years of hard work would suddenly become a consideration to the house of bliss.

But that is just the idle musings of a filthy roleplayer. I can see the logic behind it, and I won't blame anyone who would take the offer. Not at all, I understand very well. It's just that it wouldn't be a problem like this if dear old Blizzard had their heads screwed on properly.

The only feature this expansion adds that I'm the slightest bit interested in by now is the new character models, and they'll probably charge extra for those as well...

Now, I shall mutter and moan about the idiotic lore development to my cat.

 

[Colt47]

They're trying to solve a big problem with the Theme Park MMO genre by trying to ignore the problem entirely? It makes sense to let people start playing at the latest expansion instead of going through all the content long since forgotten by the player base. Unfortunately, it's hard to want to support a company that seems to have officially killed any sense of risk taking they once had and replaced it with virtual cash grabbing. There was a point where I liked Blizzard Entertainment, but I think it died somewhere after Wrath of the Lich King.

 

[Alfador_VII]

No, this is good, so instead of having a game that you would want to play, you have a system, that you can pay money, get max level, and then you don't have to play anymore.

You mean I can pay money to have the game already finished for me!? Sweet! If there was one thing holding back gaming, it was the fact I had to actually play the game. The fact Blizzard has enabled me to simply throw money at them and have the game finished for me really opens up my schedule.

90 in half-decent blue gear isn't anywhere near "finishing" the game. Arguably it's more like starting the real game, just with a very slight advantage of having blue gear rather than random quest greens.

starting a game in which you already have one of the highest possible ranks and a lot of skill points to put into your skill tree and ability tree might end up with you, putting most of your points on skills you thought were good for your playstyle, but turned out to be impractical for you in the end.

so this can go wrong for players who wanted to get into world of warcraft with this expansion as an entry point.

If they do this right, the level 90 character you get will have no specialisation selected or talents, and even if they were set, it's very easy to change it in a couple of minutes.

Also Skill Trees haven't been a part of WoW since Cataclysm

 

[Ed James]

What they're doing is making Power Leveling legal within Blizzard's terms of use. Back in my high school days when we played The Burning Crusade (haven't played WoW since) leveling was genuinely a very long ordeal, enjoyable but very long, just to get to 60, let alone 70. A few of my friends paid a company to use their accounts to power level a character up so that they wouldn't need to slog through the low level quests on their second or third characters but it was a really risky thing to do since Blizz would often catch that they were power leveling (through their account being online for too long) and ban them. Also power leveling wasn't cheap. I think it was about £50 to get a guy to 70 back then? I was thought it was stupid since the point of buying a game is to, you know, play it, and those that did power level had level 70 characters they couldn't use since without slowly learning their abilities through leveling they had no idea how to play them.

All I'm saying is that there's definitely a market for it, but I think it's just a cheap money making strategy. Have they started to sell gold for real money yet? If not, that's next.

 

[viranimus]

People are just hating this because it's WoW.

That is completely untrue. I know I take umbrage with this, and it would not make a difference if it was WoW, FFXI/FFXVI ToR, GW1/2 or any MMO, period. First off it smacks of someone in accounting stepping in saying "Hey... uhh we could make a hell of a lot more money if we turn it into yet another paid service instead of making it some one trick pony. There is something indisputably wrong when making decisions based on profit when you have made so much, you have lost any kind of context to its value. Doing it for basically no other drive than to do it, rather than as means to the end of staying in business. This seems as if it is the pilot program to expand on this "service" later on.

Then there is the morality of it. Look I get it. Hell I have an MMO pedigree on par with anyone you could point to. There is a degree of reasonability in players of wanting to bypass all that work to get to the content you want. However as someone else put it, Those tedious levels basically ARE your extended tutorial. Sure part of that is rooted in the time and experience needed to learn skills, behaviors, techniques, etc.

However, and arguably more importantly the "tutorial" period is supposed to be about "learning" what it is to be X Character. What is their purpose, how do they fit in to the greater scope of the world they inhabit, what are their motivations, their flaws, what makes them a unique individual. WoW has already defiled MMORPGs by repeatedly wringing virtually everything that makes them a game where one plays a role. This goes too far because it is little more than removing the vestiges of what not only what it meant to play a role, but effectively what it means to play a game.

This "solution" is an incorrect path as if you effectively nullify character growth and development, then what is the purpose to remain in a persistent world? Just go ahead and commit and remove levels and kingdoms all together and simply leave selectable skill trees and central hubs where people wait till they have been grouped into matchmaking for series of unlinked instanced content. Either be a role playing game, or become the FPS/MOBA-esque thing it is evolved into so that developers can get back to developing online role playing games for those players who want to play them. Allowing WoW to become what it is trying to become and not make the entire MMORPG Genre suffer being held to the standards of the "Biggest MMORPG" that seemingly is determined to no longer be one.

 

[fluxy100]

I like this idea of a quick boost to lvl 90. I already have an Alliance character at 85, when I get back into WoW it would be cool to just pick a horde class and get an almost max level character. I'll be able to experience the Horde storyline at a much quicker rate and without all the hassle.

 

[Baresark]

I have to say, it's an interesting idea. I mean, I quit playing a little after Wrath came out. And I sometimes crave an MMO. The downside is that I am paying a fee but just grinding to catch up to my friends who didn't quit. Running through areas, doing quests as fast as I can, stuff like that. It does still have substantial play value like this though as you won't have any gear that is at your level. You will either have to be hooked up by your friends/guild and will need to run dungeons for your best gear or run PVP for your Heirloom gear. It's not actually that bad of an idea considering how much grind is involved in this game at this point. And I don't mean that in a bad way, I mean that this is the longest running MMO with the most expansions (I believe, I could be wrong and I'm not debating it with anyone, just in case anyone gets that idea), and with that comes a significant amount of content.

 

[Pieturli]

I see a lot of people complaining that this is like the dev finishing the game for them. I disagree.

For me, leveling is a period of time that has to be endured before I get to go raiding. Well, strictly speaking, ten levels per expac for one character can be fun, but on the whole I don't like it. I like raiding with the guild.


I can see why some people like leveling though. So why not, you know, level? Why would you give a shit about this?

 

[tehroc]

This "solution" is an incorrect path as if you effectively nullify character growth and development, then what is the purpose to remain in a persistent world? Just go ahead and commit and remove levels and kingdoms all together and simply leave selectable skill trees and central hubs where people wait till they have been grouped into matchmaking for series of unlinked instanced content...Allowing WoW to become what it is trying to become and not make the entire MMORPG Genre suffer being held to the standards of the "Biggest MMORPG" that seemingly is determined to no longer be one.

I never understood why Activision never pressed for a console release of this. Dungeons, Raids, Arena, Battlegrounds and Dalaran. It would have sold millions on both consoles.

So much old content I can see why they are doing this, but it's won't be me. I've given up WOW after they killed Cataclysm with nerfs. Blizzard has made it clear they they are only interested in the instant gratification crowd.