Blizzard's Baleful Boosts unBalance the Bedrock of our Beloved game

WoW Classic Cataclysm Classic Discussion
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Some of the more attentive readers of these forums may have cottoned on to the fact that I strongly oppose the boost. So yes, this is yet another boost post to add to the umpteen zillion others. I offer no apologies for this. I will use all tactics at my disposal to push back against the boost.

Actually I feel justified in opposing the boost on entirely philosophical grounds. For me that’s enough. I don’t need to offer myself any strong arguments of logic, objectivity and factual analysis. I have a passionate belief in the concept that characters in an RPG should start out “rubbish”, with almost no skills or abilities, and slowly build themselves up from scratch via applied use of effort vs reward. That’s enough for me. It is the central, unassailable core of an RPG game.

An instant boost to L58 goes against everything I hold sacred in such games, and on that basis alone I reject boosts, even if I am alone in that belief. it’s not the money. I would still oppose it if it were free!

But that’s not enough. People demand logical, evidence-based reasons rather than ‘feelings’…

Yeah I guess so. It would be great if I could provide evidence of something that hasn’t happened yet. Sadly I am not psychic and have no crystal ball. I’ll have to rely upon ‘solid arguments’ instead. Fortunately I have a few.

It’s just a one-time L58 boost, it won’t even affect you…

OK, pop quiz.
In 2006 Blizzard said they would never allow an account to share a Horde and Alliance character on the same PvP server. Did they?

a) Stick to this rule, and it remains that way in retail to this day?
b) Go back on this rule, and eventually allow both factions on the same server?

Blizzard said they would never allow faction transfer. Did they?

a) Stick to this rule, it is impossible to transfer from Horde to Alliance and vice versa in retail?
b) Scrap this rule and allow faction transfer.

Blizzard said they would never allow in-game items to be bought for real money, did they:
a) Open a cash shop?
b) Remain true to their promise and never opened a cash shop?

Blizzard said they had no plans to create legacy servers, did they?
a) Create WoW Classic?
b) Stick to that promise, and never make WoW Classic?

Blizzard said they would never allow gold to be bought for real money, did they?
a) Uphold that rule, and no gold can ever be bought (legally) for real money?
b) Implement WoW Tokens?

Blizzard said a cash shop had no place in WoW Classic, as it would ‘break hearts’. Did they?
a) Never create a cash shop?
b) Implement a cash shop in TBC?

So, what do you think the odds are that Blizzard/Activision will NEVER expand upon the paid level boost for TBC? That they will draw a hard line and think “That’s enough! No more cash shop services! We’ve milked players enough for their cash”.
a) Highly likely as I am a sweet, trusting summer child?
b) Go back on their word and implement more cash shop services further down the line?

Yeah but this is TBC, not Classic! They only meant Classic when they talked about cash shops! TBC is a different game!

There are stand alone expansions and integrated expansions.
An example of a stand-alone expansion is Quake Scourge of Armagon. When playing the expansion the player starts again, from scratch, with a new character, and none of their original weapons or gear.

Ever bought integrated DLC for a game? Let’s think about something like Far Harbour for Fallout 4, ever played it? Good isn’t it?

When playing Far Harbour do you:
a) Create a brand new L1 character in Sanctuary Hills, the bomb drops, and you run to far Harbour?
b) Take your existing Level XX Vault Dweller to Far Harbour with all inventory items and gear.

So, how would it feel if someone said "Far Harbour is an entirely different game! I don’t want to run through the Commonwealth again, I already did that! Just give me an instant L80 Vault Dweller and let me go straight to Far Harbour!

Erm… no, it don’t work that way pal. Far Harbour is tightly integrated into the main game. So is TBC, because TBC is an INTEGRATED EXPANSION, in which you are supposed to take your existing characters. Sure you could level a new character, and go there - but that’s not the core design philosophy. If it were, then what would be the point in working through all the Vanilla content? Does progression not matter?

Yeah but buying a boost is no different from buying a second account and multiboxing - you’re spending real cash on both right?

And you could apply the same argument to anyone who opens a WoW account or pays the box price. How far do you stretch a point? There has to be a line drawn. Opening and account and paying the box price are necessary steps to play the game. Boosts are not.

An athlete who pays a registration fee to compete in the 100 metre hurdles is not ‘boosting himself’, he is making a necessary payment to compete. If that same athlete buys steroids, he has crossed the line, as he is giving himself an unfair advantage over other who have not bought steroids.

But skipping levelling doesn’t give you an advantage, this isn’t a competition…

Oh? How many times have I heard people say things like: “I need the boost so I don’t fall behind, I need it so I’m not way behind everyone else, I need it to be competitive” ? I’ve heard it quite a lot.

What of those who honesty cannot afford to spend an extra 50 Euros, or whatever on a boost? How do they ‘stay competitive?’. Do they have to ‘fall behind’, because they lack the cash? Are you sure the boost isn’t actually giving you an advantage over those who do not boost?

OK, but it’s no different from Mage boosting in dungeons…

Mage boosts cost in-game gold. Paid boosts cost real money. What of those who cannot afford to pay ‘real money’? But that’s not even the point. At least the one using the Mage boost is basically using ‘fair’ in game resources, that require no expenditure of real cash to achieve.

Sure Mage boosting sucks. It’s essentially levelling by using an exploit. I hate the very idea of it. But two wrongs don’t make a right.
Just because Mage boosting might be considered wrong, does not make boosting for real cash automatically ‘right’. Both are wrong. The level of ‘wrongness’ is simply a matter of degree, just as murder is more ‘wrong’ than robbery.

I don’t have time to level…

‘Hi. I’m an MMORPG. Achieving anything worthwhile within me takes time, patience and effort. Sorry dude, that’s just how I am. I can’t adapt myselt to suit others’, they have to adapt to suit me. Sorry dude, it’s how I am.’

I have five hours (roughly) per-week to play. I play. I don’t ask for shortcuts.
If you truly don’t have time to play an MMORPG, then the blunt truth is, you’re playing the wrong kind of game.

What will you do about the long, lengthy attunements for raid content? Or don’t you have time to raid?
What will you do about the long farm for crafting materials? or don’t you have time to craft?
What will do you about the long farm for honour? or don’t you have time for PvP?
What will you do about the long farm for rep requirements to do heroics? or don’t you have time to run dungeons?

What do you have time for then?

Er… levelling I guess… you know? Quests and stuff…?

Wait… you said you wanted to skip that with a boost!

Oh… er… yeah, good point. DOH!

But I hate levelling…

Too bad, you have 10 levels of it to do in Outland. but of course what you really mean is 'Azeroth takes too long, and I want to save time, because the real game starts at 70’…

But in order to get there you are expected to, you know? work for it, level your character…

Wasn’t the whole idea of WoW Classic to do away with the retail outlook of instant gratification? Else why are you even here?

Good question.

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if u guys really want that Bli$$ard listens to u, u should all cancel ur subs and add ur anti boost stance as ur reason for ur sub cancel.

Cause if we are honest Blizzard doesnt care about their forums, they care about Money, so vote with ur wallet.

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Very well put ! I agree 99%, just one minor thing i have a less harsh view on but i can relate. Big fan ^^
And thank you, now i can link this to anyone who is asking why boost or the shop are bad.

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I hope you mean fallout 4 :slight_smile:

Correct, people who don’t spend 50 won’t fall behind as they’re currently level 60.
If it boosted you to 60 or above 60, then yes it’d give you a headstart.
If it was a fresh server, it’d be understandable.
But you aren’t gaining an advantage over any current players :man_shrugging:

You spend longer on the forums rather than playing the game?

For the gameplay, community and in general to avoid the in-game mechanics of retail.

But did we need yet another topic on this?

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You did not relate to her/his point here. Its having an advantage because you can effort the boost than other may cant. It wasnt about the lvl itself.
I would add more reasons but this would a repetition we had before

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It’s why another topic isn’t needed on top of another on top of another.
Because every topic is going to repeat itself.

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Thats maybe just me, but i think its a very good summary of why some people are against the boost or the shop etc… Its all there, we didnt had that before here.

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Yes, good spot. I’ll correct that.

You spend longer on the forums rather than playing the game?

I post during down time at work, and because I work from home right now there’s no marauding boss stomping around looking over my shoulder.

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This is actually a far better justification for opposing the boosts than the megazillion of endlessly repeated slippery-slope-opinions, assumptions about bots, or the newest explanation of how the economy will break down even tho it staunchly refused to do despite everything so far.

I congratulate you for this, please accept an honest :+1: and /bump =)
Also, the title is almost an Alliteration :heart:

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Almost. I really tried for a full aliteration, but couldn’t quite pull it off.

Maybe next year with WotLk :slight_smile:

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Blizzards Baleful Boosts Badly Blast Basic BC Balance?

:sunglasses:

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It’s strange, I share your insights and before I would be 100% against the boost, but I will be using one. Simply because it’s the only way for me how to re-roll horde on the same pvp server without deleting my 3 60 alis which I will send to the vanila forever realm.

Yeah I know, I could send them away and level the hordie from scratch … but I can’t be bothered the 4th time. I could transfer them to another realm right away, but that would cost me 60 quid. I could delete them … but that simply feels wrong when I think about how much time I put into them. I also could make a second account, but I like to play retail on the side and managing two accounts just isn’t for me.

I don’t want faction change to be implemented, because that would bring WAY more problems than a one time boost. So the boost is my faction change. To be completely honest with you, if there was new fresh tbc realm, I would scratch all of the above and just level it having fun with other people who have nothing … that would be the very best scenario for me.

Tell me … what would you do in my situation? (Not a trick question, albeit a sincere one, because I am dealing with this dillema for quite some time now. Don’t forget it’s important for me to roll on this one server because of my acquaintances there.)

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Holy mother of TL;DR!
Was another topic on boosts really necessary?

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I can appreciate you feeling that way. I feel like every person that played resto druid in the original TBC, and every person that will be playing resto druid in TBCC, does not deserve gladiator because they are playing a class that was overpowered by design which goes against the spirit of competition since they’re getting an unfair advantage over those that don’t play resto druid.

Alas, I had to deal with broken druid players who were 500 rating above their actual skill level 90% of the games in TBC and I will have to again in TBCC. Can’t all have what we want.

And those 10 levels in TBCC will have no boost, free or paid, by Blizzard (yet anyhow, and prior to WotLK, I’ll oppose any boost that goes past 58). It’s up to 58 and they’re on their own from there. What was 1-58 again? Oh right. Classic vanilla. Old, outdated content, that has nothing to do with TBCC (60-70, Outland). If we had fresh servers, 1-58 would be relevant again, but we don’t have fresh servers. So either we deny our current well geared and prepared level 60 characters access to TBCC servers as well, or I still can’t see the issue with a level 58 boost other than feeling.

Maybe for you. Hardly for me. I don’t consider retail ‘instant gratification’ at all. Gearing in retail, for example, is infinitely harder than it is in classic. Need PvP gear? Throw time at the game and you’re a Grand Marshal/High Warlord - IQ not required! Need PvE gear? Go through the time gated free loot raids and eventually you’re fully geared. You probably did not have to touch your keyboard for any of it - people would hardly notice. Meanwhile, in retail, the game actually gives you challenges to overcome before throwing good gear at you. I like and dislike aspects of classic and retail both.

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Again you with this topic…dont you have anything better to do with your life?Like no one even asked for boost service but they added it anyway.You really think they will listen because few of you are making some noise on forums?

Most people realize its give you nothing but a hole in your own pocket.People are already leveled or will level something before burning crusade comes out and you are acting like some boost thats 2 level lower than you can be now,game breaking.

You spend way to much time posting same thing over and over again and I noticed its same few people that agree with you and rest just dont care.

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people just might do that.
once the initial TBC hype is over and the casual trash tourists get their 58 boost and realizes by 70 that the rep grind is too much for them, they’ll be gone along with those who quit due to the boost being implemented to begin with.

you see, retail has all these overly convenient things that people keeps asking for in classic, and shadowlands dropped in subscribers by 41% 3 months into its lifespan… so yeah, you might just get what you ask for.

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The major argument against boost is that they gonna be use by bots so they can start farming day one.

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And how much did classic vanilla drop in subscribers 3 months into its lifespan, do you think?

Path of Exile drops an insane amount of players a month or so into each league. So do the majority of other games that have existed for a long time but get regular content updates which will bring back player retention for a while. I guess those games are just filled with overly convenient things, causing people to quit again when they’ve seen the new content?

Or are you just pulling statistics up as a strawman argument without realizing this is just normal behavior no matter the game?

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And how much did classic vanilla drop in subscribers 3 months into its lifespan, do you think?

well… not 41% that’s for certain.

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Yes it did though, people didn’t want to wait in the 4-10 hour+ classic server queues.
So they reduced a lot of the population.
Some realms had populations of 20k+ on launch, you’d easily be able to tell that they lost at least 50% of the population once the queue was gone.

A lot of people were also “trying out” classic to see how WoW was back then.
But where do you get 41% subscribers quit SL exactly?