Blizz, time to add in old reward tracks

Community Discussion
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Ok, so I won’t bury the lede here. The idea is to let us swap reward track bars.

So the first rewards track was Darkmoon Faire. Since then there have been 15 reward tracks. So 16 total, 17 when Cataclysm comes out.

So the idea is that you can choose any of the tracks, just like you choose expansions for looking at your card collection. A simple drop down menu.

So, you swap to the track, and there you are. You do things, you move forward on it, earn all the free stuff.

And oh, look at that, you have the option of buying the paid upgrade? Wow, you mean I can get all those hero portraits and golden legendaries that I missed and have been wanting for years, for a mere 15 bucks?

Yes, like always you would have to warn players that it’s all wild stuff, except for the cosmetics, which would be the main appeal for most people anyway.

So free to play, new players will get 17 rewards tracks to explore and conquer.

New whales will have the ability to spend up to $255 that they have no way to spend at this point.

You get bonus PR points for removing FOMO from the game.

So, my pie in the sky stuff.

It would be fantastic if you rewarded your long term paying customers by giving them the paid tracks they already paid for.

Something like that could actually bring people back to the game. Someone paid for a track but didn’t finish unlocking all the stuff, and those premium end of track rewards that they paid for but don’t have have been haunting them for years. I should have that! But I got busy in the last month and just couldn’t get to the end.

Tears fall, hearts forever broken.

But now, wow, you mean, I can go back and fix past mistakes? A second chance to set things right? Well sign me up.

So the questions remain. Would all that 101-400 gold still exist, or would the track just stop at 100? I think the tracks should be as they were, end of track gold and all. But I could see the penny pinchers at Blizzard fainting at just how much gold that would give players access to.

Oh well, you have to finish the track to access it, and it still runs out eventually.

I think that about covers it.

Let new players collect the half a decade worth of stuff they missed. Let people with money give the money to you. Like, realistically will every player plunk down cash for old reward tracks? No, but some will. Some will pay for one, complete it, then pay for the next one, complete it, and bam, you just made $300 bucks for flipping a switch.

I am wagering that most players will buy 2 or 3. Everyone wants stuff that they missed because they just weren’t playing at the time. Everyone wants to finish the tracks they already paid for, and could return to the game to do it.

This is a no lose situation for you Blizzard. You get extra money, new players get some core cards to dip their toes into wild, and yeah, it’s an evergreen feature. In 7 years, you could still be making money on the United in Stormwind rewards track, because people will really want that amazing Tamsin Triumphant portrait for their warlock.

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I think only Level 1-100 for the old tracks would make sense, since you can just earn gold from the latest track post 100.

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What Jonius said.

When you buy a tavern pass, you are buying access to the premium content from that track. So, if you buy access to an old rewards track, you would only get the premium rewards from it (all the premium rewards, not just the cosmetics). Since there is no premium content after level 100, you would only get rewards up to level 100, and of course this would not affect your ability to earn gold from the current rewards track after you reach level 100.

I guess that means a player would lose out on any cosmetic rewards from the free track that they didn’t pick up first time (including all uncraftable cards), but it would be very easy to add those to the premium track for old expansions. There’s loads of empty space on the premium track.

Also… once you have purchased a tavern pass (whether current or historical), it doesn’t have to disappear when the current track is replaced. Just have an option to see all historical tracks, with filters for unpurchased, incomplete and completed tracks, so players can buy any previously unpurchased tracks from that screen, or just look at the rewards.

Also, I think that it might be “optimistic” to expect to get the XP boosts from historical rewards tracks to stack with those from the current track. But buying a tavern pass does mean a player gets more gold. TBH, if it weren’t for the extra gold, I wouldn’t buy the tavern pass. I aim to make 12 reward track levels per week (on average), or 15 with the bonus XP.

So, that’s 3 levels (150 gold) each week. With 17-18 weeks in each expansion (52/3) that makes 2550-2700 gold over the lifetime of a tavern pass. That’s a very significant amount of gold, and for me, it makes the difference between buying the tavern pass and not doing so.

So, I would consider replacing the old XP boosts with some gold, or maybe some packs (or golden packs) from that expansion, or simply reducing the cost of the tavern pass.

So yeah. Its a great idea, and I can’t see a downside. They really should do this.

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Any XP bonus would be locked to tracks that have it, so if you swap tracks, you get that tracks XP bonus status. Everything would swap when you swap.

And everyone would get all the free tracks for free. No need to buy them, you buy the premium stuff, just like you would have when the track was current, because for you, it would be.

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