Sorry to disappoint you with a fairly simple answer, but I think I’ve finally figured it out.
I tend to rely on the old adage of “Don’t attribute to malice that which could be adequately explained by incompetence” mixed in with opportunism… but there is a prolonged pattern of behaviour, mostly regarding the neglect and half-arsed implementation of levelling-related systems (especially for old content).
WoW is being catered towards whales.
Perhaps a bit more low-key than other examples, but it’s definitely reached the point it’s starting to affect the game’s design and monetization. Guaranteed access to the beta and early access to the next expansion would be easy examples, as are paid level boosts. If I’m not mistaken, most carries are still being paid for with in-game gold (I tend to instantly leave the trade chat channels to avoid the spam & drama, so I can’t say I’ve confirmed that)… and the WoW token is definitely the easiest way to finance that.
Nevertheless, on the point of content being poorly designed… likely not entirely intentional. But being neglectful by leaving it in a slip-shod state for a prolonged period of several years, such that players stop thinking it’s worth their time to do and opt to get a boost instead?
Yeah, I think they’re intentionally not fixing the leveling content because doing so could result in the whales actually playing the content instead of paying to skip it.
I view those as something of an understandable situation for those getting the boost, as it’s generally a one-off and not a wider pattern of behaviour… though hopefully not a gateway to making that a habit.
… and would also argue that such a FOMO tactics is just Blizz being scummy.
Sadly, they work on a lot of players.
You say I’m paying to not play the game for myself, but I’m actually buying a level boost to play the part of the game I actually care about. The leveling process in WoW is absolute garbage to me, personally. I have 0 interest in the story, and less than 0 interest in collecting any of the even older transmogs of past content. The last time I leveled a character from scratch was back in TBC, and I absolutely won’t be changing that. The end-game PvE content in WoW is the only reason I stay subbed.
Except there are no charges that are high enough or repetitive enough to make enough money for that.
If you add up the difference between the lowest box set and the highest, all the shop mounts/pets/mogs, add maybe ten boosts a year, and, say, a token every few month, and spread it over the time from when the practice started until now, that money is just not worth the loss of revenue from the regular joe.
On top of that, if one was looking at emptying out the pockets of whales, one would not be adding playing the game to the account-wide crap. In fact, nothing would be account wide because you would want those whales purchasing everything for each of their characters.
I like making gold and i like farming mounts, i couldnt possibly care less about the current meta, or the stupid treadmill, it means absolutely less than nothing too me. I have a real job, thats where i put my effort into. when i play a video game my goal is to do something simple and predictable thats relaxing and i can destress from a chaotic day.
I dont hav the time, the patience, or the bandwidth to spend my entire day at a high-stress high demand job, then come home, and log into a video game to then mindlessly run more treadmills because blizz thinks i should desperately care about that only.
I don’t see the big deal about boosts for raid mounts/CE mounts when you can go back and farm it later.
Are people actually MAD when they see someone on a CE mount from 2 expansions ago when it might have taken them 300 tries to get it?
At that point, what’s the difference between someone buying a CE mount when it’s current ?
Both a mount (or title) farmers are taking short cuts and yet I don’t see threads screaming at mount collectors as content dodgers who only want easy content to farm for their mounts.
I think we can agree that Blizz doesn’t indulge in the most egregious of the whaling practices, but I think that’s mostly to avoid causing too much of a stir with it all at once. There’s still a lot of predatory monetization going on. I think it’s more of a balancing act for them to get as much money as possible without causing the community to collapse upon itself with some blatant practices.
This is, in essence, why you don’t see actual endgame gear advancement and item level increases on the shop. Because it’d be going too far for the community. If Blizz thought they could get away with this, or that they actually had nothing left to lose, they’d probably be all-in on it.
But to look at some dollars and cents here… let’s just cut it down to level boosts versus subscriptions versus the WoW token. Going based off some off-the-cuff rate exchanges (Canada here, and I don’t think it’s quite one-to-one as boosts & tokens are round numbers on the store) here, but here’s what I think the basis is:
The base rate for the monthly subscription is $15 per month.
I’m assuming the (currently level 70) level boost is $60.
And the WoW token is $20.
Now, let’s do a basic comparison for 12-months worth of subscription - $180.
That’s equal to 3 level boosts per year.
Comparatively, you’re also getting 9 WoW tokens.
That number of “ten level boosts per year” is actually more than triple the amount of cost for a full year’s subscription… and more than enough time to level up that many characters. Heck, you probably could level up several characters in a single month compared to paying 4 months worth of subscription to skip the process for one character.
It’s not one of the extreme examples of whale behaviour which the term is known for.
… but it still looks a lot like whale behaviour, just one a much smaller scale.
But the key point here is that your normal player is going to figure out that level boosts in general are not worth the cost when comparing it to their regular subscription. There is some internal justification with saying they don’t want to do that part of the content again… but they still threw away 4 months worth of subscription fees to skip it for a single character.
But Whales behaviour is not “normal”.
The logic behind most of the reasoning for that behaviour reveals some kind of flaw in the system, often involving some sense of urgency or coercion involved to try and prompt the hasty decision instead of thinking over the implications.
Another issue the normalization of whale behaviour, those countless little nudges that encourage players to make use of such systems. All those free level boosts they’ve been provided with just about every expansion since WoD? That looks like the standard “foot in the door” sales tactic, the freebie that encourages someone to pay for more of the same thing.
And if I step back for a moment, I have no choice but to conclude that Blizz has been VERY successful in their widespread approach to encourage and normalize whale behaviour among the dedicated facets of the community.
You’re trying to take refuge in the extreme case not necessarily being applicable here.
… and I think account-wide collections for mounts and transmog probably killed off the dream of being able to get whales multiple times for multiple characters on certain items before the monetization became so egregious.
As for other stuff becoming account-wide with the upcoming expansion… that’s probably the aforementioned “balancing act”, mixed with appeasing the playerbase so players don’t actually abandon the game. The reception to DF appears lukewarm after the messes that were BfA and SL, so they’re trying harder to make the game better to make up for it.
In any case, “what they can get away with” is a very valid question here… and that’s probably why you don’t see the extremes of whale exploitation.
Yet.
A sentiment I fully understand, quite well in fact.
… but the other fact of the matter is that you’re also being pushed into a position where achieving your goal is unreasonable through fairly normal play on your end. If there’s FOMO involved (like the AotC mounts that are being cited quite a bit in this thread), you don’t have the option to wait until the content is soloable either.
So you have a situation where quite a few players look wanting to get a mount are effectively required to pay for a boost (if you aren’t fortunate enough to find a group of players helping others achieve it for free; what’d they call it, “Friendship Moose” or something?) or forgo never being able to get that mount.
So a curious question here… if there wasn’t any FOMO involved and you could get it later, would you bother with getting the boost/carry?
I know you didn’t ask me but I can still answer this question.
Yes and no. I buy AOTC and this latest Awakened mounts but I don’t buy KSM or gladiator mounts. They’re both “FOMO” (I don’t believe in this term but I use it because you did) but I personally draw a line.
I could technically get AOTC and the Awakened mounts on my own but I’m lazy. I don’t think I could get KSM or gladiator mounts because I don’t like m+ and I don’t pvp.
Because some people like playing alts, but the content gets very repetitive if you do.
Because high level characters can easily acquire the kind of money and items that low-level characters can’t. Not having at least one character like this to help you out when you need it can be a burden if you’re trying to level other characters - it won’t stop you, but it can definitely slow you down.
Maybe you’re interested in exploring areas and working through questlines. The game has loads of these. Being able to start with the ability to fly and to blow all enemies away without blinking does wonders for streamlining the experience, which would take ages if you had to fight through every inch of it.
Oh its simple , The buyer always say Because time >>>>>> money and they are just interested in the shinnies .
Money you can always make , time you will never get back .So why progress weeks and weeks if not months when they can just do something else in their life in the meanwhile then just buy themselves a carry and be done in 10 minutes
It’s rare that I buy boost but I have and I get them when I buy expansions.
Here is why I use them:
I’ve been playing the game for 20 years. I have already experienced the leveling content (quests) many multiple times. It’s not something I enjoy repeating, especially in quick succession.
Personally, I’m of the opinion that levels in wow are mostly meaningless and should be removes as anything more than a time played metric. A newly created character should be viable in any content so long as they have the gear for it.
Story and world quests could then be just another “end game” content loop for players to enjoy if that is their jam.
I don’t know if you are posting as bait because my first thought is “seriously a discussion is needed to figure this out?”
So if you’ve played the game for many years and leveled through certain zones and expansions until you can’t practically do them blindfolded… the reason why one might level boost is “just get me to the new stuff I don’t want to trek through kalimdor or eastern kingdom for the 9054th time”
Time is the most precious resource anyone has on the planet whether they agree or not it simply is.
Doing a hobby or pastime (if you want the old term for it) doesn’t mean that you want to waste time even if a hobby is something we use to last the time…lol
It gets a little weird. Time spent is worth it if you get enjoyment from the time spent when talking about a game that’s likely not redoing content you’ve done a million times but rather doing new content.
As for the buying runs thing I’m sure it’s a similar psychology but I’ve never bought a run ever.
As for boost I don’t buy then directly but I feel no shame or guilt using the ones that come with expansions.
When I use them that is- I’m a glutton I guess I mostly enjoy leveling alts the whole way with out boosting.
If you find the right podcast or show to watch while you play it’s quite relaxing.
Do you have anything to support the claim that these things used to be rare and are now common other than feels and/or personal observations?
What makes you think that was ever true?
That’s an odd way to put it. If I pay someone else to cook a meal for me, did I cheat myself? What if I’m not a very good cook but I want something fancy?
By the way, I’m not even someone who buys boosts or carries, but find the arguments against them a little off-putting. Your entire thesis is built off false assumptions.
Because in this game you can’t just log in and play with your friends, you have to log in and level to 70 and do 50 dungeons or BGs to catch up to them. This is in addition to installing and setting up addons for 6 hours and learning how to play your spec at target dummies for about 4 hours. And learning routes if tanking, raid boss mechanics watching guides for an hour or two.
Because a lot of players care more about the rewards than the content. It’s not just people that pay for boosts. There are plenty of players that grind through content they hate just to get the rewards.