From gear to Reputation grinds to non-combat pet collections, Blizzard seems keen to make players feel like they’re making progress. Unlike many competitors, however, they have yet to add the most significant, non-combat progression path: player housing.
Refer-a-Friend? What about Marry-a-Gamer?
Published on August 21, 2008 by Phaelia 
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This post is in response to this week’s Shared Topic over at Blog Azeroth. It was originally suggested by Wrathbringer from Metal up Your WoW. For additional takes on this topic, I invite you to read Runycat’s Recruit a Friend (or Yourself) and Megan’s New Rules, Part I.
You may remember a while back how excited I was when MMO Champion discovered the presence of unicorn-esque Zhevra mounts in the game files. I previously had reason to believe that these mounts would be acquirable through quests from the Hemet Nesingwary expedition in Northrend. It turns out, however, that these amazing ground mounts are only available to those who can convince a friend who is not already playing to play the game for two months or more. I find this incredibly, ridiculously frustrating for a number of reasons.
First of all, everyone that I know that would enjoy playing World of Warcraft already has an account, active or otherwise. This program should extend to encouraging canceled accounts to renew. Why should a friend who tried the game, became disenchanted with the leveling curve (or quests, or hair selection, or whatever), and canceled have to purchase an entirely new account? This new program should have been added onto the lackluster Scroll of Resurrection program already in place for renewals. A returning player should be viewed as at least as valuable as a new player.
I’ve been playing World of Warcraft since the first day of release. In City of Heroes/City of Villains, they issue Veteran Rewards at various playtime milestones, both to encourage and reward their long-term subscribers. While I thought that was really neat for CoX, I didn’t really expect for Blizzard to follow suit … until they implemented a new program that makes me think they value a potential new customer more than they value my years of past and future dedication. Every year that you play should afford a percentage-based experience bonus for alts that you create.
As you may know, I play with my husband. Shouldn’t we be able to "link accounts" to help us level new characters without having to buy a third account? This “linking” could be available to any two accounts from which character transfers would be allowed (same last name and/or billing information). To obtain the same benefits that a new player would, not only would we have to purchase a new account, but we’d later have to pay $25 to transfer the character onto one of our existing accounts or continue paying an additional monthly fee. I understand that Blizzard is in business to make money, but surely encouraging the creation and advancement of alts will make them money in the long term.
As it stands, Blizzard is essentially charging $X for 300% bonus experience, 30 free levels, and a special mount not available through any other means. In my mind, this puts them a step away from allowing players to purchase gear directly from them. All in all, it feels very much like receiving a fantastic pricing offer in the mail from my cable company/ISP but when calling in to switch to the new plan with all its bells and whistles, being informed that only new customers are eligible for the deal and that I shouldn’t have received the offer in the first place (true story).
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Regarding switching back to Resto, I think you’ll be fine with your SD/Crit (SD?) gear. Naxx is supposedly really easy and should give you ample opportunity to switch back to more healy-oriented gear. @Wise Fox: If “Alt + Z” doesn’t work (as Marc kindly recommends), try just “V” or even “Ctrl +...
I would have to agree with you Phae, it seems strange that I would have to “convince” a friend to shell out at least $30 just so I can zip around on my very own Zhevra. (Or I could pay him to play for two months, but paying $30 for a mount seems a little ridiculous to me, no matter how cool a striped unicorn is.)
At the same time, I would be eternally sad if my friend and roommate (who started playing at launch) received some sort of reward for his long-lasting subscription while I (who started playing about 8 months after launch) did not receive the reward because he had been playing “longer”. We both have about the same play time (a ridiculous amount of days that makes me shiver to look at) but if rewards were based upon those, it seems as though people would just bot AFK. All in all it seems like a lose-lose, but I agree Blizzard should have the same incentives for people renewing their accounts - not just creating new ones. Renewing still makes them money, and even if the player only plays for a few months that’s still a cash infusion… to an already ridiculously wealthy company.
Moral of the story I guess: Are you willing to create another account and pay to get the Zhevra mount?
By the way, in answer to if I PvP a lot, the answer is yes. I was in a BT/Hyjal guild for a while and cleared them a few times, got my loots, and then our guild sort of burned out in the pre-WotLK world. Now it’s just kind of PvP to do something other than grind my eyes out waiting for new content.
Wholehearted agreement here. I ranted about it myself, that I think this willful exclusion of alternatives with regards to existing players, and no countermeasures to prevent multiboxers from using this sort of makes it a straight-up pay for an advantage situation.
Micropayments next, yes?
Altomancer Mitss last blog post..Warriors - my love/hate-relationship.
Wholeheartedly agree here. This whole system just sounded like a get a free toaster! sort of deal. It’s such a cheesy way to grab new people and yet the mount looks just good enough that it entices people to grab some unlucky friend or just pay for the two months yourself to get it.
I also agree with adding already existing accounts on there as well as vet rewards. Sadly the only rewards Blizzard is interested in is the limited edition packs and blizzcon. =/
I love that picture btw.
I wonder how many legitimate new accounts have been created from this program. Everyone I know that’s participating simply purchased a second account - some for the mount and some for the experience bonus.
While I was listening to one of these guys explain how his alts were flying through the levels (up to level 40 in less than day played time), I was spending some time on an alt - leveling much more slowly. It makes me feel like I’m wasting my time doing it at such a slow pace (despite having full rest all the time), but the thought of buying a second account to speed up the process feels too much like buying gold or paying someone else to level my toon.
I think it really highlights the need for some sort of accelerated leveling in general. The changes they put in place earlier this year helped make the grind from 1-60 a lot faster, but it’s still tedious for someone doing it the second, third, or fourth time. Would it hurt the game for any alt on an account with a level 70 to get triple XP up until level 60?
As it is, they’re simply giving out this bonus at a premium price.
Walkeres last blog post..Making Decisions in the Shadow of WotLK
While I think that the program overall is good for Blizzards pocketbook I think thats the only thing it’s good for.
The part that bugs me the most I think is the free levels that get handed out. I could quite literaly multibox to 60 (or have multiple people level together) and be able to give a newly created alt 29 levels witout ever playing it.
Think about it, a level 30 character standing in front of the initial quest giver in level 1 gear. To go really nuts with the Idea you could in fact go all the way to 59 with free levels without ever moving from that spot.
I do know at least one person who ligetimately did refer someone though. I did.
My eldest daughter turned 18 and as such can no longer play on my account. So since she was having to start up her own anyway I sent over a refer a friend code to get the free month on my account. I will take the mount for one of my alts since it is free with the deal, But I really wish I could elect to give it to her. After all she is the one paying for it.
the only help she will get from my account otherwise is this. I will sell off everything that cannot be transferred from one to the other and then give her all the non-soulbound gear and cash that she earned while using my account. After all that’s only fair, she earned it.
Dechions last blog post..Someone out there was listening
I sincerely doubt that this promotion is really pulling in all that many new players. It’s a nice little financial shot in the arm before Wrath is released, but it’s not much more than that. If Blizzard wants new people (and they should), they need to either change the pricing structure, or revitalize the early and middle game with new content. Maybe both. Continuing to charge the $15 sub price for “old world” content that hasn’t been substantially upgraded for years isn’t really something that I want to support.
That said, if someone wants to pay for me to play for two months, I’ll happily play whatever race/class they desire to support them through the triple experience leveling. Healer, Tank, whatever. They get a magical zebra, I play for two months. Seems reasonable to me, if people are just multiboxing this anyways.
Teshs last blog post..Monetizing MMOs #1: Overview
The RAF worked for Chris and I. It was just the incentive we needed.
@Halfalthaia: What if the long-lasting subscription reward would become available to you four months later, though? It isn’t like they would be one time gifts but instead be milestones along your subscribed time. And even though I started playing at release, there is probably a 3-4 month gap where I wasn’t subscribed due to disliking playing Horde (we switched for a while due to battleground queues). ^^
I’d be in the same boat as you were (PvPing to avoid BT/MH) if I hadn’t a) created a Feral alt and b) obtained a beta key. It’s amazing what you’ll do for new content. Thank you for commenting!
@Altomancer Mits: The thing is, I don’t think they want to discourage multi-boxers from using it. They seem to smile upon the idea. After all, multi-boxers pay for multiple accounts (I don’t really have an issue with it, but then I’ve never had a negative experience with it, either). I think they created the program knowing that it would be an incentive for people to start multi-boxing, even.
@Zackoria: Yeah, I admit that I tried to think of ways to get the Zhevra mount for myself. In the end, I just didn’t have any friends who I thought would be interested and that I could actually take the time to play with so that they got the advantages, too.
@Walkere: I think that’s the thing that bothers me most. This program came out when my little kitten was just reaching the 40s, historically the most arduous of the leveling brackets. Knowing that I was missing out on 3x experience and free levels sickened me, especially since in order to get those benefits, I’d have to pay $25 to transfer her to a newly purchased account. It feels really unfair.
@Dechion: Did you realize that if you bought a second account and both accounts were under the same name, you can pay $25 to transfer her character to the new account and still get the benefits? There shouldn’t be a reason for her to lose any of the soulbound stuff she’s acquired. Just something to consider. I’m glad the two of you are going to get to play together. I’d LOVE to play a game like this with my father. =D
@Tesh: That’s something I hadn’t considered: paying $15/month for content that’s years old. It doesn’t seem like they ever intend to do a sweeping pass of older content, either. I have wondered if they don’t somehow plan to allow ALL classes to be created at level 55 the same way that DKs are. But then I guess that older content would mostly be ignored. =/
@Auryann: I’m glad the two of you got separate accounts finally.
But I want my Zhevra, too!
@Phaelia
Aye, I’ve wondered if they might do the insta-55 to all classes, too. I’m of two minds about that… on the one hand, it would make it easier to try to convince them to make the old world free to play, but on the other hand, it may well alienate those players who “invested” all that time and money into playing to 55 the old fashioned way. It would also certainly make it easier to get an alt fired up and ready for raiding, which Bliz seems to consider to be the core of the gameplay. (Which I don’t really agree with, but hey, it’s their product, they can focus however they’d like.)
As far as I’m concerned, making the old world free would be a sound idea for the business, as it could generate goodwill, and get more people hooked, or at least playing… but it might break the economy (free farming alts), and the backlash from disgruntled players who think the insta-55 cheapens their play in the past might be harsh. I’d love it, since I love tooling around the old world, but I’m not yet convinced that it would be a completely smart business move on Blizzard’s part. I think the pros would outweigh the cons, but without access to their back-end numbers, I just don’t know.
Even the idea of an insta-55 would be nice to try out high-end classes before committing to playing one for a long time. *shrug*
I have to shamelessly admit that I went out and started up a third account to take advantage of the program. After setting up the account I then went and got a 60 day game card to get the mount.
http://foederati-wow.com/fieldnotes/?p=84
I plan to drop back down to 2 accounts after Wrath goes live.
I can certainly see where many people would be upset the program. It does feel like cheating in a sense as I level up my alts, and grant levels to other characters on my primary account. I also think it would be cool if Blizzard added some sort of rewards for longevity. Didn’t EQ2 have something similar for players that had played EQ?
Hi Phaelia, or is it Thaelia?
It was neat to run into you on the beta and to join your merry blogging guild
About mounts!!!!
Apply carrot on a stick to the mount when you first bring a toon over or when the mount-idol thingy poofs and goes in the mount bar you can’t apply it anymore
@Tesh: Making the “old world” free-to-play is a GREAT idea. People who purchase TBC+ could opt to start their characters at 55, and they could help get their friends hooked with the content they used to level up on. You make a good point about the possible negative effects on the economy, but maybe some protection would come from the fact that any items at that level would have very little worth, and Daily Quests would line the pockets of max level characters.
@Amradorn: I think that EQ2 did do something for legacy EQ1 players. Something cosmetic like housing additions, I believe. Good catch!
@Arielore: Hey, there! It was really nice to meet you and add you to the fold last night.
And thanks for the tip on Carrots and Riding Crops. I’ve incorporated it into my latest article.