Because they don’t enjoy the content that they’re skipping.
That is an opinion that they’re allowed to have, even without your permission, believe it or not.
Also, they work hard enough to earn the gold it takes to skip it.
Maybe if you all weren’t so lazy, you’d have enough gold to pay to skip the content you don’t enjoy as well. But we’ll never know, because you’re too lazy to do that.
put the time in/earn your level.
There’s less money in that model. From the company standpoint, you may as well find a way to monetize the desire to accelerate the experience.
Looking at this point in particular… eh, I could easily argue that flying over all those enemies is somewhat detracting from what could be its own little adventure. Conversely, there are more than a few instances where WoW’s placement of mobs and their density is more than a little annoying as you’re dealing with an unending stream of interruptions.
While I would disagree with the sentiment, you are at least forthright about your proposed solution.
But I think the “time played” metric for leveling is very much irrelevant to Blizz in regards to leveling. They’ve cut down the amount of time it takes to level up characters immensely over the years, to the point where it is something of a joke in comparison to how it used to be.
Leveling seems to be regarded as an “annoying obstacle” by many… and I’m starting to think it’s by design, or at rather it’s being neglected to the point it’s becoming annoying and players are more than willing to pay for a shortcut.
Frankly, attaching the story to world quests is something of an insult. They are the questing system, just entirely divorced of the context (the story) for the sake of efficiency.
Then again, I’m probably one of the few who actually read the letter between NPCs for the “flight point mission” between Crossroads and Orgrimmar. Because only an orc would write “You’re so cute when you’re bleeding!”
I would disagree.
… though some expansions are decidedly not as fun as others.
I think I’ve replied to enough posts here to prove that the questions are being asked in earnest… though I have historically had more than a few disagreements from what could be called the “hive mind” that is the WoW playerbase and the forums in particular.
The internal logic there makes sense… but I do wonder now, is part of the reason that WoW’s endgame so divorced (structurally speaking) from the leveling content to make it “obvious” (to endgame focused players) that leveling is an “annoying obstacle” to them?
Because it seems the entire logic from the more entrenched playerbase for boosts and carries is that they find the normal process a waste of time and an unnecessary obstacle… which raises all sorts of questions of “Why hasn’t it been resolved yet?”
Then again, there are murmurings about doing so and Blizz’ development process moves at a glacial pace when it comes to making adjustments to older content.
Mostly anecdotal and I didn’t exactly keep receipts. The best source of evidence would be the long-since-purged old WoW forums which featured generic faces for each character based on race/gender combinations.
Still, I recall level-boosted characters being ridiculed for having no idea what they’re doing. The logic at the time was that the boosted player has no idea what half their abilities do (something which was all too often proven to be true), knowledge they would have gained while leveling up the character.
A meal is an odd way to put it, as it does go into that “biologically necessary” category and there’s more to it both physically and culturally.
But an easy comparison for me is what could be called a “hobby project”. To just rattle off a few examples:
In the case for all of these, the fun I have with them predominantly comes from the building & assembly process for each of them. The idea of purchasing these fully assembled (or already painted in the case of the miniatures) already is… kind of unthinkable for me, to tell the truth. It’s defeating the point of why I get them in the first place.
It’s fair to say I was making an assumption based on my own perspective and motivations there… but the intent from the beginning was to understand why my perspective is different from others.
So it still does look like people are “cheating themselves”, but keep in mind that’s an idiom that’s closer to “you don’t know what you’re missing out on”.
But based on the responses so far, it seems that players generally don’t care for the leveling experience anymore. But is it because they never enjoyed the leveling? Or is it because the leveling experience is in a very bad state right now?
Boosts - play with friends
carries - save time, FOMO, ego
You need to define “play the game” first. Once you do that, the answers will become clear.
I wonder, do some posters only read the topic title and not read any of the posts within the topic? Because that’s certainly what this post suggests, and I think I’ve already explained - at length - what is being referred to here when it comes to what “playing the game”.
But for the sake of being thorough, there’s two broad categories being discussed:
Of course, the “obvious” answer is that they don’t want to do that content… which then turns to “WHY do they want to avoid playing that content?”
The only content worth doing is in the end game. Now buying carries in the end game activities i don’t get.
Two reasons time(which honestly with the upcoming XP boots the current Timerunning event etc thats not as much of an excuse but people do have responsibilities and all) and the content involved not being terribly that interesting the 5-6th time you’ve done it as not all leveling experiences are created equal across the expansion timeline. WoD has due to a variety of factors been the fastest normal leveling expansion for awhile but if the player is not invested in the things there doing during those leveling zones whether that be a poor narrative or just bad zone and quest design people will always find a way to throw money at a problem to circumvent it as people with disposable income will always do.
Because they want to.
Leveling has become a formality.
It used to be a sort of tutorial phase, and also just a way to get players out in the world interacting with each other.
There’s infinity guides on youtube to learn from now, and the open world is a ghost town for leveling.
I really enjoyed the leveling process back when you would be leveling alongside the same players, having a bit of spicy back and forth fighting over quest mobs, and trekking across the content to farm Scarlet Monastery for as long as everyone could stand. But that’s just not the way things are now.
There’s always been comments about how you get to max level and then you start playing the game. But that really is kind of true now.
An interesting question to raise in retrospect… but I’ve actually looked at the “leveling speed” detail as mostly a non-factor, at least from my end of the experience. And if I recall correctly, time-travel shenanigans of the plot notwithstanding, WoD was still considered one of the best leveling experiences in the game for a good while; most of the complaints in that expansion stemmed from the endgame being lacking (and the managing the garrison being “too good” for the results it provided).
If the experience itself is enjoyable throughout, what does it matter if it takes a dozen hours or a couple hundred?
But clearly, it seems the responses are indicating that the leveling experience in WoW is not enjoyable to them.
Repeat a lie enough times, and you begin to believe it’s the truth.
… and I’m starting to wonder if the developers themselves have fallen into that trap.
It would go a long way for explaining why WoW is notorious for how bad its new player experience is.
Because the leveling process is dog water and navigating old content is expedited and unfulfilling regardless.
That is precisely why I made my comment. You have are presenting a very narrow view of what playing WoW means to players. I feel like the answers are obvious, because your bullet points are pointing out means, but you aren’t think about what the ends are. What does each thing allow the player to do?
This is only confusing if the leveling process is the main or only part of this game. It certainly is not, particularly for players that have been playing for years, if not decades. For some, “playing the game” is playing end game content. Time is money, and if you want to do Mythic+, raid, PvP, or any end game content, alone or with friends, a level boost can certainly be a means to that end.
Some people play this game to collect things, including time limited appearances and items. That is how they “play the game.” If a lack of a guild, lack of playing time, or even a lack of skill to play heroic raids effectively, block them from getting that cool mount they want to fly around on while they do world quests, that isn’t avoiding playing the game. That is simply a means to the end of playing the game the way they want to play it.
Your definition of “playing the game” certainly implies something particularly narrow. Defining that, you could answer your own questions.
I think it’s because a lot of people who play WoW are very unpleasant to be around for any length of time. A lot of this “pleasure and enjoyment” is ruined on the whim of some stranger.
Probably more accurate to say I’m presenting my point of view while asking what the other perspective is, but I’ll give it the courtesy of a response.
But yes, I am pointing out the means rather than the ends for a reason - because I feel that that means are what should matter here, rather than the ends. Though over the course of this topic, I would say that there’s a pretty significant disconnect between myself and posters who share your particular point of view.
Because I don’t care about the “ends” as you call them.
And in retrospect, it’s fair to say I failed to give them proper consideration.
So this is a case of what’s “obvious” to you actually isn’t obvious to me.
And I think I can argue that the inverse is also true.
So what would you say to players who are not interested in WoW’s offerings for endgame content?
Believe it or not, I tried most variations of it some time ago and simply found them to be not worth the effort. And yes, that includes raiding with a decent guild (socially and in terms of ability) to clear heroic difficulty.
And while leveling content often must have a natural end-point, questing doesn’t necessarily have to stop… but far too often, it feels to be structured as an afterthought (especially after the level cap) and more of a funnel towards some piece of instanced content.
Needless to say, seeing level boosts being advertised on a constant basis can be rather disheartening and alienating when they’re quite explicitly to skip over the content you enjoy. It could even be taken as an insult because of the assumption that everyone wants to skip over this content.
Collecting is a motive that can be applied to any aspect of the game, as transmog appearances, mounts, pets and toys can come from any source. A large chunk of them, especially the better looking ones for transmog & mounts, are found in the endgame content… but don’t necessarily have to be from there. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if the better-looking stuff is attached to that content to encourage participation in it.
But collecting certain items before they become unobtainable, or “FOMO” (fear of missing out) rewards? That’s artificial scarcity, intentionally created as such by the game’s designers. While I can’t really fault people for being willing to get a boost if they can’t obtain it otherwise in this situation, especially when there’s a time limit (no matter how generous) involved… I dislike the game being designed in a way to create this situation for players.
As mentioned, it’s artificial scarcity. The developers are making it rare and time-limited to drive up the value of the item. If they were simply not removed, I doubt many people would even be seeking out carries for these runs.
The game focuses on the “End Game Progression” and always has. It is not about the journey or leveling multiple characters. I do realize that some people do enjoy leveling multiple characters through all the systems but that is not the focus that developers place on the game. Sometimes, you just want to raid with your buddies.
Personally, I think people should just play the game in the method that gives them the most enjoyment.
Or even a second time for that matter I know of people who get bored of their first toon so they make a second boost it and get it geared via Carry’s etc
Such as the original legion mage tower or the pandaria cloaks stuff they made limited time only stuff because they didn’t want players going back at higher levels and breezing through content
its part of the gameplay
sell service because its fun to earn from being skilled
buy service to avoid pointing fingers at teammates maybe