Have we forgotten what a game is and how the 58 boost breaks TBC classic?

WoW Classic Cataclysm Classic Discussion
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A game is a platform that provides resistance to each player against a clear objective. The game’s rules and restrictions dictate what form of resistance each player must face along with the freedom of movement gifted to overcome it.
Now the creation of the game across all the parameters can be simple and straightforward like the game of chess, where you just need a board and 1 set of pieces of 2 different colors (platform), restrictions on the pieces abilities to move (rules) and an opponent which provides both the resistance a player faces and the objective which of course is to win said opponent. Or the game can be like World of Warcraft where all the parameters are complex and intertwined with each other while also being presented to thousands of players at the exact same time. If the server cant handle too many players and crashes (platform) we don’t get to play, if some players instead of walking/running around can glitch themselves through walls or in the air (rules) we get disadvantaged, if the bosses are too easy (resistance) we get bored. In other words to maintain a smooth flow of gaming experience its a huge task to manage cause if the chain loses a link at any point the game loses value because our progression towards the objective is either halted,diminished or unsatisfying.

Does WOW have an objective or do we define it? In chess players want to win but in WOW is it that straightforward? Well its true that WOW offers plenty paths for players to enjoy while also not demanding gaming time to all of them, letting people sort themselves out by their interests in PVE/PVP/Gold-farming/collecting/quest-completionist. But like victory in chess where one must first do a good opening, develop the pieces then avoid blunders in the midgame while finding a good attacking strategy all those paths in WOW (objectives) are viable only if the player reaches the infamous endgame.
This means and it needs to be emphasized, that from the moment any character is created its first and main objective is to reach the endgame and to do that there is one and only obstacle in the way, the leveling process. Tedious, repetitive and done OH so many times that its natural that people want to skip it given the chance and a company try to monetize that desire.
Welcome to the birth of the 58lvl boost, usable by everyone once per account for a fee!!!
Well it sounds good with returning players and newcomers to the game allowed to catch up with the server’s progress, also giving the opportunity for current players to create their alts that they couldn’t level up before. The effects being that more and more players are attracted to the game and on day 1 of TBC classic’s release bigger server populations will be achieved.
How can anyone not like that result, where is the flaw in the design? Could a method that helps players avoid a tedious process while hurdling them closer to the endgame have any significant downside? If the analysis of the boost’s impact stopped at day 1 of TBC classic then from the players perspective the answer would be no there is no significant downside to it.
Alas the game wont last only 1 day and if the boost damages its ability to retain players for longer periods of time then the assertion that boosts=more players is wrong. So lets check how the boost changes the rules that the game offers and see if it passes the sniff test.

Once a player unlocks the platform of the game (subscription) and enters the open world, the obstacles in the way of the objectives test and reward gaming skill, ability to learn and adapt, cooperation and time investment. Of all those the time investment is seen by many as a negative aspect that must be eliminated and not be a barrier to entry. But time to level your character and grow attached with a certain play-style is what makes the time invested in that character’s potential be beneficial to the whole server as you are now more inclined to not give up on progression while a boosted character is an emotional blank slate spawned close to the endgame, meaning when stuck in an obstacle the player will be more likely to give up and stop playing.
Keeping in mind also that time investment lessens the more skilled a player is, to downright replace it with real life money for a significant part of the game takes away importance from all the other skills required achieve one’s goals. Therefore the end result is when comparing players who have roughly the same skills and put the same effort in the game those who also paid to receive the boost will always come out on top. Now this is a recipe for unfair competition, and when implemented in a game always fails to retain the interest of the players.

Its like when playing chess before any moves are played where the 2 sides are perfectly symmetrical and have equal opportunities to win the game, when all of a sudden 1 player takes out his credit card and after swiping it the referee comes in and moves forward all of his pawns closer to the center, now one side has a clear advantage which wasn’t earned within any of the games parameters. No matter how small it might seem to some real life money shouldn’t be a factor at all to how a game is played lest the game condemns itself to become pay to win. And that is why i don’t think the boost will help the servers as it will diminish the effort players put into the game and slowly but surely force them to check out, in simple terms with boost=more players on day 1 but less players throughout the phases

In conclusion i would like to thank you all for reading my post, i know its long but i hope its helpful too, and i would also like to encourage anyone to post their opinions about the topic, just try to be cognizant of the fact that i only argued the effects of the 58lvl boosts to the player community. I didn’t mention impact on bots/gold-buyers/cheaters as i wanted to analyze its effect on the player base regardless of those factors so please stay on the topic if you happen to find yourselves wanting to criticize my position.

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Are you for or against the boost, I can’t really tell.

btw in chess you can set a game out from halfway through and test yourself against other players.

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Be my guest: he is against it.

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Yeah, in chess you can even test your skills by having only the king and the queen at your disposal, you can play puzzles against other people with many tweaks and disadvantages. But when the official games roll the pieces are placed to their corresponding positions both players are given equal time and all the parameters are set to 0 at the start of the game.

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There’s many topics that have been created explaining all the cons of this boost with indepth and deep evaluation, along side just simple reasons why the game doesn’t need it,

No matter how good an argument you come up with against the boost the players that think its good for the game simply don’t want to hear it, their only counter argument is " time and effort ", and thats it

Blizzard will be popping open bottles of champagne watching that money come in.

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No way am I reading that bruv

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Like a private chess game ?

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There are many many many official chess rulesets used in FIDE acknowledged competitions, some including predefined board-setups, additional or missing chess-pieces, altered turn-logic, and even alternative board-geometries.

If you are looking for something to strengthen your point (which I assume is “a game is always meant to be played start-to-finish, no exceptions”), then chess is about one of the worst examples to chose :wink:

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Do the official ELO chess standings get any influence by those predifined board-setups?? NOPE, the ability to be good in those setups doesnt make you a champion, the ELO rankings from the tournaments (be it blitz, rapid, bullet) are the only ones that matter and have only 1 king at the top for 10 years now, and those games start ALWAYS in the well known symmetrical position.

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Very much agree with the points made, when will Blizzard learn, a large percentage of the Player base play Classic rather than Retail because it is harder and it requires EFFORT!. Whether that effort is portrayed as mindless and meaningless by some it is the an important driver for others. The Boost to 58 removes some element of that effort, personally I am very much against it. If you do not wish to put in the effort, play retail, it really is that simple.

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I know but i had to try to dispel the myth many eat up, that the boosts are good cause at the bottom line they bring more players in, and i tried to argue a position that it doesn’t matter if they bring them in without holding them in the game.

I bet those boost-loving champions wouldn’t be in favor of the paid service if instead of the boost one would be offered the ability to use the glitch-flying technique to level up easier and faster until they reach Outland, whilst again is a paid service that gives advantage to deep pockets.

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“Time and effort” is an argument against the boost, since “time and effort” 's value is reduced by wallet payment which hurts the game by definition.

The only real argument for the boost is that it brings new players on the short term. That’s it.

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EXACTLY!!!
You sir know whats about to happen if the boost is realized!
A tip of the hat and a tap of the chest are more than warranted for that summary of my position, thank you.

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I can very much acknowledge the feeling about boosted characters does not hold the same value as a character lvled in the old fasion ways.
When i look at my time in retail, i have gotten 1-2 characters boosted with a payed boost ( or handed to accounts for returning or buying expansions, i dont really remember), and to be honest, i dont really care about those characters.
something is missing with those characters, and thats experience. i simply had no clue on what to do with them, how to play them etc.
In retail there is not much els you can use a character for then play throu storymode and since professions is kinda pointless (from my point of view) i soon forgot about those characters.

Now if you use a boost in classic, you get a couple of players back shortterm as mentioned in earlier posts. but they have no relations to the character because they have spent no time progressing it. so they will soon leave the game again. no harm in that imo.
BUT… for players who have played throu all of classic until now, and will continue to do so in burning crusade, they can use the boost for 2 things, either a fast reroll or a profession alt.
And here comes the big issue with the boost, profession alts! this will inflate an already broken economy. minmaxxers will create multiple accounts and get access to all professions, multiple of the same professions even.
This will make it even more difficult for casual players to keep it going, and i dont see how this is good for the game.

And if someone uses the argument " i have 20 full time jobs and 700 children, and only 10 min avaible to play every month, how am i to play the game then?" well then maybe the game isnt for you.

i think that sums up my opinion pretty well about the boost :slight_smile:

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Agree with what you’re saying overall, but none could argument why they think “it’s good for the game” yet.
All they say is, it is good for themselves. Pro-boosters only care and talk about themselves, the game, the economy, the integrity, game systems, etc. is out of their attention.

I have boosted 4 characters from expansion bonuses on retail and I don’t even remember their character names. The psychological bound and identification between me and them is absolutely zero.
This is one of the hundreds of reasons why a paid boost should never be in a MMORPG.

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Yes they do, in their respective category.

There is the official FIDE ELO for “classic” chess, and there are any number of ELO rankings for any number of chess variants, many of which are btw. recognized and administrated by FIDE as well.

The ability to play Go really well doesn’t make you a champion in classic chess either, but it does make you a champion in Go. Which, btw. also has it’s own ELO ranking.

To people who are only interested in classic chess.
To people who are interested in who’s the best 3D chess player, these rankings don’t matter at all.

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This is the only part of your post that I’d dispute, on the grounds that it reinforces the “end game is all that is important/destination more important than journey” mythos - which, ironically was one of the key drivers of the 58 level boost.

I prefer to view the game in a holistic manner: “It is a game / composed of many different elements / some are long / some are short / some are difficult / some are easy / some are exploration-focused / some are combat-focused / some are story-focused / some are mechanic-focused”.

The whole exeeds the sum of it’s parts.

Fore some chess players, achieving checkmate in the fastest, most efficient manner is all that matters. For others, the chase is better than the catch, and the entire business of seducing your opponent into a hopeless situation, together with it’s various strategies, tactics etc. is equally important.

Personally I do not find the levelling process tedious. I view it merely as an intrinsic part of the game; as with any RPG game the pleasure is in the slow, gradual development of your character, which gains power and abilities in relation to how much effort is put into that character.

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Well, you can set up the board to put you at a disadvantage or halfway through someone else’s game and see if you can win when they didn’t.

On subject, skipping is in the real world, Easyjet and a lot of other airlines do it when flying.
It’s not “cheating” or “against the spirit of flying”, it’s just paying to skip the long queue at the gate.

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Those would be very good arguments if my position was that niche competitions do not exist or if they do they don’t hold any value. But my assertions were that niche competitions never ever hold as much value as their base game, and to prove that all anyone has to do is try and remember champions of past and present in each respective category.
The reason you and i remember classic chess players and and are more entertained by their performances is that the base game not only has a bigger following but more competitors participating in it. Which holds still true to this day mainly cause the base game holds an equal opportunity position at the start no advantages based on wealth /social standing, and that’s where i believe my analogy with chess is an accurate one.
So once again if you go to a classic chess tournament but your opponent whips out his wallet and pays for a better position than you in the board, the game itself devolved from starting at an equal footing, you might see this challenge and double down stubbornly to win it still but its objectively true that many people wont accept that and leave. That’s what the boost does, it transforms the game from a classic competition of competence and effort to a niche one that allows unfavorable starting positions for real life currency and will inevitably have a smaller following for it.

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Well, speaking of “niche competitions”, who was the first player to reach lvl 70 on DE Tichrondrius? I have no idea, and I played there during original TBC. However, I could probably still recite every server first kill of all the TBC bosses on Ticho from memory.

Additionally, this toon here, spent a whooping 2% of its /played leveling, and 98% in endgame. And yes, Sorzza was leveled completely by hand, starting on release-day. No Mage Boosting.

So if we have established that niche-competitions don’t matter, then a boost that allows to skip one of them can’t matter either, no?

:sunglasses: