Gimme a Boost!

With the announcement of Warlords of Draenor (WoD) at Blizzcon this month, there were quite a few new features revealed to be coming in the next expansion of World of Warcraft.  Many of the announcements were met with overjoyed enthusiasm by those in attendance, but of course, some of them were not as universally popular. Whether it be the new raid formats, gear changes, player models, or the "boost to 90" feature, there have been several who have taken to the open forum that is the Internet to voice their thoughts (rage). As such, I feel it is my obligation as an American to jump into the fray since my opinion is the only one that really matters, and I hope to dedicate a blog post to each subject I have mentioned.

You've been warned.

However, for the purposes of this post I will focus solely on the controversy surrounding the "boost to 90" feature. This feature allows anyone who buys WoD to immediately boost one of their characters to level 90 which is the starting level needed for the new content. This will effectively allow someone to bypass all previous content, and jump through the red Dark Portal to join everyone else. Anyone who uses this feature will have their action bar wiped clean, and will be slowly given abilities as they level in an effort to not overwhelm new or returning players. Basically, level 90 is the new level 1.

The temptation is to break this down into a question of whether or not this is good or bad, but I refuse to fall down that CNN sinkhole. Instead, I think it is important to simply offer my perspective, and let you decide for yourself. I've played the game for over four years, and I've spent a lot of time leveling. I've also had friends who I would have liked to have played with in the game, but never could quite make it to current content levels. There are obvious pros and cons that I think are worthy of discussion.

Being the optimist, let's start out with the pros...

Pros

The biggest upside of this feature is that it should bring in more people to play the game. Being able to start the new content with everyone else has to be attractive to both new and returning players. By effectively being able to bypass the old content with everyone else, the player base at the start of the expansion should be heavily concentrated on new content. This should mean faster queue times for matchmaking instances, a large pool to recruit players into guilds for both PvE and PvP, more people getting to bring friends into the game to play max level content together, and more people interacting with the outdoor environment from the beginning. In the end, it's simple; more people playing should mean more opportunities to enjoy group content.

Also, one thing kinda glossed over in the announcement is that anyone who uses this feature will have their abilities completely taken away to a minimal amount to begin the adventure. Much like how death knights received skills and talents in Wrath, new players will have an opportunity to get a basic grip on their class without being so overwhelmed with the full capabilities of a level 90 character. To me, this is the most under-appreciated  aspect since I think most current players have forgotten just how foreign this game feels to a new player, and this should help alleviate some of the pressure of trying to learn 30 keybinds at once.

In addition, players will be learning the game in context with the new content. Spells never really seem to make much sense at lower levels. Whether it's tanks hitting way too hard and having limited tanking abilities; healers having absurd mana regeneration; or damage dealers simply spamming one button to victory, the older content never seems to adequately train players for what to expect when meeting up with the end game levels. Since Blizzard seemingly has no interest in evenly tuning low level content to reflect what goes on at max level, skipping the previous expansions' content isn't only reasonable; it's logical.

Cons

First off, World of Warcraft is awesome. The world created by these guys at Blizzard is truly a work of art, so skipping it feels a bit blasphemous. I started in Wrath when all the content outside of Northrend was outdated (ah, memories), and of course, I had to level through all the old content just to battle the Lich King. Along the way, I enjoyed quests, dungeons, random folks, and newbies like myself which I think helped enrich my own personal experience. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the old content was great, and shouldn't simply be swept under a rug.

Now that that's out of the way, let's move onto the more objective thoughts...

Noobs! While there may be more people playing the game together, this may actually dilute the quality of player to a point that it may actually become harder in some cases to find a fun group. Sure, the matchmaking will be faster and people will be out there in the world, but that doesn't necessarily mean the quality of the group content will improve. In fact, it's highly likely that a player of 6+ years will be matched up with a player of 6 minutes. This could cause a dip in community quality as some of the more veteran players tend to be... well... dicks, and new players tend to be more timid about even joining in group content. In this case, I could see group content becoming more of a hassle than one might expect.

Finally, there is also the risk of bringing on the wrong kind of attitude from newer players.  If new players are given this instant gratification by zooming up 90 levels, I wonder if these players might begin to expect the entire game to work in this fashion. WoW is a game that takes time even after you've leveled, so setting the precedent for immediate rewards may actually diminish one's expectations for what the game truly offers. If this is the case, I genuinely wonder if Blizzard is reaching for the wrong audience to bring along for the release of this expansion; and if so, it could adversely affect the community as a whole. One thing to consider, the level grind also served as a buffer between more committed players and those who simply wanted rewards.

Final Thoughts! (Yes. It's over, and no, I'm not apologizing.)

Whether it's good or not depends completely on the release content. If the new content caters exclusively to the boost crowd, we could see an exodus of current players who find the content unsatisfactory. New players must be acclimated to the game that we current players enjoy, not the other way around.  Also, if the tutorials and starting area are able to do a sufficient job, the integration could be seamless; if not, it could be quite the detriment to the existing community, or at very least a rough beginning to the expansion. This must be done with care to avoid a negative response on release from each player base.

There's still probably a good deal I left out, but my personal opinion on this feature is that I like it.  I look forward to meeting new folks in the game, and possibly bringing back a friend of my own (again, you've been warned). In the end, I trust Blizzard enough to make this work, so I am indeed hopeful.

Next time, we'll look at the new raid formats.


(stay tuned...)