Comments on: Refer-a-Friend? What about Marry-a-Gamer?

By: The Old World of Warcraft - Tish Tosh Tesh

The Old World of Warcraft - Tish Tosh Tesh — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:33:08 +0000

[...] The “old world” (game content that shipped with the original iteration of the game, levels 1-60) doesn’t get much Blizzard love, despite the fact that people are still being charged for playing through it. In a quick discussion with Phaelia, I posited that opening the “old world” to free play might be just the ticket to revitalize the game, and get new blood for Blizzard. [...]

By: Phaelia

Phaelia — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:07:55 +0000

@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.

By: Arielore

Arielore — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:39:32 +0000

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

By: Amradorn

Amradorn — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:19:06 +0000

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?

By: Tesh

Tesh — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:34:23 +0000

@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*

By: Phaelia

Phaelia — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:09:55 +0000

@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!

By: Auryann

Auryann — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:03:24 +0000

The RAF worked for Chris and I. It was just the incentive we needed.

By: Tesh

Tesh — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:12:43 +0000

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

By: Dechion

Dechion — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:29:35 +0000

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

By: Walkere

Walkere — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:42:23 +0000

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