Boosting is literally Pay to win

I do not recall blizzard ever saying they are free. I remember blizzard saying you can choose whether to move your character on to TBC OR stay in classic for free.

I am not opposed to the boost inherently as I said before. I am opposed to anything that greatly empowers automated programs (bots) that destabilize the game.
A free boost would be wonderful for the players that are in their target demographic. That would be awesome. But Activision’s Blizzard naturally wants to monetize it. No big deal. They are a company after all… They offer free transfers when the powers that be deem it necessary…

The problem is a free boost would even more cataclysmically (pun intended) damage the game due to bots abusing this feature.

I am not entirely sure I agree with this. Here’s why:

It is my personal belief that fresh TBC servers without boosts and without a cash shop will be something akin to a resolution to the botting issue. Not for everyone, mind you, but for those of us who would like a fresh start, or those of us who are willing to give up our time investment to have a shot at a better server. Better how? Read on.

Will bots not be present? What a foolish thought! Bots will definitely be there, if anything there will be more than on the current servers as the market will be fresh and untapped - they could charge more for the gold!

However, many of the people who have already bought gold are vested in the servers they are currently playing on and therefore are less likely to leave where they are presently. Sure there are some that may be so stinking rich that the idea of being vested after spending hundreds or more is absurd to them, so they may come over but it is a smaller percentage of the players.

Also, and more importantly, the community itself is built of a different style of player. The community of these fresh servers that want no boosts are built with players who are willing to give up everything they have earned - all that time investment and start entirely over from scratch to help alleviate (not even entirely resolve) the issue.

The community; therefore, will be less receptive to dungeon boosting mages, buying gold, and seeing bots roaming the wild. There will be people on the ground at lower levels so spotting the bots would be more likely. The bots that are spotted would be more likely to be reported because the players here would be less likely to just shrug and walk on. We are the players who are sick of it. We’d be more likely to report the bots and more likely to kill them.

Blizzard does take action against bots - some of them, anyway… Most likely those who have the greatest amount of reports. As players on this server are sick of bots they will be reporting them more frequently. Therefore the bots will likely/hopefully have an ocean of reports before they can go slink away into BRD or get high enough to do terribly large amounts of damage.

Finally, as I said the community itself would be less likely to buy gold. If no one buys gold then the bots make no money and eventually the problem solves itself. Do I feel like no one would buy gold? Man, that would be great. What an ideal world. But unfortunately no. I am a cynic. There will likely be some who do. But I expect they would be fewer as the community here would not foster as well to them.

Ok so the idea of having servers with boosts and also fresh servers for those who want boost free servers(as well as the other benefits u suggest) seems like a win/win.

One group of players left out would be those who want to carry their classic toons into a boost free realm.

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What if classic characters are allowed to transfer to these fresh realms after an alotted amount of time with only soulbound items and a gold cap. A phase 2 possibility

This is true. According to some of their own posts (and sorry, I don’t mean to thrust here-say directly into this and then not go scour for the specific posts but I cannot be bothered so you are welcome to disregard this if you so choose) the players of existing servers are most well equipped and have had time advancing those toons to an extent that boosted characters will not affect them at all.

I often see “it is just one boost - it does not affect you/me/whomever”

I tend to believe it does effect even them in some small way - as brand new boosted players will be joining the server and potentially taking their raid/dungeon slots as they progress. However, that is not really any different than anyone else doing the same - aside from the fact that the boosted characters did not spend the same amount of time developing the character.

That said, having more players on a server is a bonus - a positive thing. Players are the life-blood of any mmo. Without them then the entire project is mute and can be deemed worthless. That is part of why I am okay with boosting. It will draw more people in.

I suppose in the end the current classic players who are left out of the running for non-boosted servers argument can boil down like this:

The battle-lines are clearly drawn.

At this point if you are against the boost you might have an alternative, but it requires a heavy choice:
Subscribe to the notion of “fresh tbc servers” that offer no cash shop and no transfers/boosts
OR
Submit to the current roll-out and accept that boosts are happening. Get over it. And have fun. Do your best to be magnanimous and get over the petty squabble with the people who will be boosting on your server to play there with you.

“But it is not fair!”
“I worked hard for my stuff etc…”

Please forgive me quoting myself on this one but I believe the post is relevant here.

I see no issues with this personally. Some may. I don’t.

Another potential solution would be to allow current classic players a second tier choice.
Right now their choice is:
Stay classic
or
Stay on server and progress to a boosted TBC realm

Many are requesting fresh tbc non-boosted servers in which everyone starts at 1.
Blizzard could potentially allot a few additional servers of TBC non boosted that are “not fresh” and are instead progression servers.

Thus the new tier of choices to current players would be:
Stay classic
or
Stay on server and progress to a boosted TBC server
or
transfer to a few allotted servers that are progression to TBC but have no boosts - thus saving their time investment and disallowing boosts.

The 2 problems I see with posing this last option are:

  1. Activision’s Blizzard wants to make more money. Sure the subscriptions are sufficient to pay for the servers but they are not as efficient as making more money would be by offering a plethora of monetized services. With this you get into the “slippery-slope back to retail argument”
  2. From a player perspective this splits the playerbase even more. Too many splits does damage server longevity because no one wants dead servers. On the one hand you have a group of people who desire fresh and are willing to give up their progress - that shows sacrifice and potentially proves they would be willing to stop playing if the demand is not met. You don’t want to risk losing these players but on the other hand if you split the playerbase up too much then dead servers become a reality and this - as a whole- diminishes the entire classic project.

It is a disgusting balance.

That’s from the outdated content so no, not even close

Lastly, I will go ahead and thank you for the non-hostile debate we’ve shared. Nice to see opposing viewpoints discussed and expressed without digressing into toxicity or offense.

Thanks for that. I am heading to bed but if you continue to reply I will check up on it when I next get online.

Good on you! Have a nice night!

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I feel like everyone should be able to play with their friends and have fun the way that they want. I do hope some fresh boostless servers get made for those that want that option. It is just a game after all.

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Sigh… I see the idiotic STV comparison is being made again.

Someone pays for a boost, and kills a person who didn’t pay for a boost, but had friends and joined a guild, that guild sent its level 60s with T3 raid gear down to camp the booster that tried to camp the non booster. They also use a alt account from the enemy faction to /who snipe the guy who picked on their friend friend camp him everywhere he goes until he quits the game, because these level 60s have better gear, better level, and more players than the booster because it’s a guild vs a scrub that likes to camp lowbies. This is an mmo, if your on a pvp server and not in a guild that’s your own fault.

It’s dangerous out there, take one of these to keep you safe! “Hands guild invite”.

So now you have people who didn’t buy the boost decimating the guy that did. If this game was fresh you would have an argument on this, but it’s not, it’s been out for 2 years. Learn the difference between pay to win and a catchup mechanic.

If you don’t like boosts that’s fine. You have a few months before tbc launches to play and get to 60 with better gear than what a boost would have, you don’t have to buy one to be ready for tbc. It’s just an option that is there for those who HATE the lvl.
1-58 content. And if you act now and level, you can have professions ready for tbc as well!

The camped player could also go buy a boosted counterclass to kill the camper.

Yet this is a social game, your trying to apply retail logic to classic/tbc classic. The games play VERY differently. When you get camped in retail you change layers, don’t ask for help, or just accept a dungeon, lfr, or pvp que to escape. In classic, you call friends to help.

A couple boosted nightelf hunters would be dope to have around while levelling…

Or you could have naxx geared hunters who would mop the floor with the boosted ones. Hmmm. Join a guild, make friends, ask for help. Classic is a social game, unlike retail.

I guess it depends how many you buy. Maybe some mages and priests as well

Odd then, how it’s one per account. How are you getting all these boosts?
… also naxx geared mages or priests still better.

You can buy more than one account.
Its actually pretty nice. I have a bunch of warlocks and clickers i use to summon myself around azeroth.

How many lvl 58s is a naxx geared player worth you think?

I’m still trying to figure out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop…

Mr owl says 3