Both gold buying and dungeon boosting are bad. Gold buyers should be banned as it’s against the ToS and the dungeon exploits should be fixed as well as making boosting less viable (no exp if a lvl 60-70 is in the group etc.). One reason to be against the paid boost, is because if it goes through, then Blizzard won’t have any reason to fix/improve leveling anymore. Paying to skip something broken that should’ve been fixed is just bad.
Other reasons for why the paid boost is bad:
*It didn’t exist in the original and does not help to adapt the game to recreate the experience while staying true to the original (while changes such as pre-nerf raids do)
*It breaks a core RPG-principle, a pillar of the game’s design (one is supposed to level up and make the character stronger in order to earn access to Outland/‘the endgame’, not pay to skip this progress).
*It’s Pay-to-Win (Pay-to-get-Advantage) and takes advantage of real life wealth disparity: A rich person can boost up one character of each class, while a poor person is forced to level
*Makes leveling worse for those that can’t afford the boost, and others (abandonment of Azeroth). It devalues leveling as it no longer feels enjoyable when you know others just boost past it, one would be dumb not to boost oneself from a time perspective so leveling feels meaningless (no one likes to self-handicap themselves), and it lessens the feeling of accomplishment and attachment to the character when 70 is reached
*It’s an indirect way of buying gold (through profession alts for powerful CDs)
*Exacerbates meta-gaming and the hyperfocus on the endgame even more (which is partially what led Retail to be as streamlined as it is)
*Screws with class representation (overpopulation of Warlocks and Hunters, excessive amounts of Druid flying farmers including bots)
*Overpopulation in Outland which is 1/10th the size of Azeroth
*Screws with Faction Balance (it’s easier for people to reroll to Horde)
*Makes it easier for cheaters (fly hackers etc.) and offenders: If they get banned they can simply boost up again. Before they had to level from scratch, making the impact of the ban much bigger.
*Speeds players closer to stagnation: There is far less to do in the endgame in TBC compared to Retail, which will cause the stagnation that is the worst enemy of MMOs (players quit and complain there is nothing to do)
*Contributes to making the game less social and isolated within guilds (one no longer meets people while leveling), and the server community will suffer because of it
*Screws with the economy:
-there will be less people leveling in the world to spot and report on bots
-bots can use South American/Russian accounts to buy cheap boosts and easily enter farming spots at 58 or level up in Outland
-any new player that uses the 58 boost will be 1) accustomed to the idea of spending irl money to buy progression, and 2) plays a character that by 2 levels time will need to earn ~1000g to purchase an epic mount; this is the perfect audience for MTX’s and hence gold buying --> increase in botting
-will lead to more inflation as botted gold enters the economy, and the increased prices will tempt players that are far behind to buy gold, leading to a vicious cycle
*The change in player population will make them more friendly to further MTXs and give Blizzard better legitimacy to implement them (‘foot in the door’-tactic)
*Rewards the “I don’t like this part of the game, so it should change to fit me”-mentality, paving the way for further skips (as opposed to “the player adapting to the game”)
…and probably a whole lot more as the game isn’t designed around a level boost (Retail and other modern MMOs, on the other hand, are). And it’s all for a demographic that struggles to play the game to begin with, due to either time constraints or don’t have the patience and perseverance to tackle the leveling process.