New Recruit-A-Friend Promotion

[Ralence]

  They launched a new promotion today, which includes;

  Free Zevra mount for the account that "recruits"  (The "recruited" must actually upgrade to a full account, and pay for 2 months additional for this)
  Triple experience and honor for both accounts while they are playing together (The triple only applies to the lower level of the 2, if both aren't the same level)
  The ability to summon each other once per hour (up to level 60)
  The "recruited" also can grant one free level per 2 they gain to a character of equal or lower level on the "recruiter" account.
  The "recruiter" gets a free 30-days of game time (If the "recruit" upgrades to a full account and pays for 1 month)

Link to the Blizzard R-A-F FAQ  which has been hammered for a few hours now.

  It's definitely a huge jump for them, triple experience for the entire old-world content means everyone levels extremely quickly in anticipation of the WoTLK launch.  Not to mention, talk about artificially inflating the subscriber numbers, multi-boxers rejoice!

  My question would be, can I create the free account and transfer one of my existing characters over to it?  Moving my 70 prot pally to a new account, and having him be able to run everyone of my characters through instances to get them to 60 would be just about worth it.  Since, according to what I've read, every one of my chars below 60 would get triple exp for 3 months, even doing it this way.  And if I'm understanding it right, I'd get to pretty much level a character on the new account with the "free levels", just about up to 60, without ever actually playing it?  If I gain 100 levels across 5 characters, I get to "give away" 50?

[Montague]

  They launched a new promotion today, which includes;

  Free Zevra mount for the account that "recruits"  (The "recruited" must actually upgrade to a full account, and pay for 2 months additional for this)
  Triple experience and honor for both accounts while they are playing together (The triple only applies to the lower level of the 2, if both aren't the same level)
  The ability to summon each other once per hour (up to level 60)
  The "recruited" also can grant one free level per 2 they gain to a character of equal or lower level on the "recruiter" account.
  The "recruiter" gets a free 30-days of game time (If the "recruit" upgrades to a full account and pays for 1 month)

Link to the Blizzard R-A-F FAQ  which has been hammered for a few hours now.

  It's definitely a huge jump for them, triple experience for the entire old-world content means everyone levels extremely quickly in anticipation of the WoTLK launch.  Not to mention, talk about artificially inflating the subscriber numbers, multi-boxers rejoice!

  My question would be, can I create the free account and transfer one of my existing characters over to it?  Moving my 70 prot pally to a new account, and having him be able to run everyone of my characters through instances to get them to 60 would be just about worth it.  Since, according to what I've read, every one of my chars below 60 would get triple exp for 3 months, even doing it this way.  And if I'm understanding it right, I'd get to pretty much level a character on the new account with the "free levels", just about up to 60, without ever actually playing it?  If I gain 100 levels across 5 characters, I get to "give away" 50?

Is this a joke? Edit - I know the link is legit, I'm just stunned that Blizzard feels the need to give away the store like this.

[Kail]

My question would be, can I create the free account and transfer one of my existing characters over to it?  Moving my 70 prot pally to a new account, and having him be able to run everyone of my characters through instances to get them to 60 would be just about worth it.

Looks like "no" to me: (unfortunately)

Is quest experience tripled too?
-Yes, but only if the quest was not trivial (gray difficulty) for either character.

Do normal experience rules apply?
-Yes, if a monster is trivial to either player, no experience boost is given.

So if you've got a 30, they won't recieve any bonus XP from anything the 70 kills unless it's green to the 70.

[Ralence]

Looks like "no" to me: (unfortunately)

Is quest experience tripled too?
-Yes, but only if the quest was not trivial (gray difficulty) for either character.

Do normal experience rules apply?
-Yes, if a monster is trivial to either player, no experience boost is given.

So if you've got a 30, they won't recieve any bonus XP from anything the 70 kills unless it's green to the 70.

  Ahh, I seem to have misread that part, I thought it meant the higher level wouldn't get any exp, not that the triple-bonus wouldn't kick in at all, much like current rules.  So much for that idea!

[Simond]

Is this a joke? Edit - I know the link is legit, I'm just stunned that Blizzard feels the need to give away the store like this.

EA have got to be spitting blood 

[Montague]

Is this a joke? Edit - I know the link is legit, I'm just stunned that Blizzard feels the need to give away the store like this.

EA have got to be spitting blood 

I don't know about that. Trust your game. Trying to play games with sub numbers is not wise, IMO.

[Lantyssa]

Why now after I'm not interested in playing WoW?  I love zhevras.  Always wanted one for a pet, and now this. 

It's almost enough to make me play again.  Fortunately there's no one I know to invite to tempt me.

[Fordel]

How are they giving away the store?

[Lakov_Sanite]

Hmm, with triple exp is 90 days enough time to hit 60 through casual play?

[Triforcer]

Proof they are losing subs and desperate!!

Also, I saw a blue car, which I believe proves the same thing. 

[Merusk]

Hmm, with triple exp is 90 days enough time to hit 60 through casual play?

Depends on how casual.  I hit 70 on my warlock just outside of a month of solid play 3-5 hours on weekdays and ~7 or 8 on weekends.    I also was using that QuestHelper mod, which helps even more than the leveling guides since they have you jump around too many zones.   Soo.. about 156 hours total.  That works out to 1.7 hours a day over 90 days.  But it'd take even less time since 2-3 hour' players wouldn't blow through their accrued rest XP as fast as I did at the upper end.

[Montague]

How are they giving away the store?

Giving away free levels if your friend levels. Trust me, I'm not a hardcore poopsocker who's going to cry about the game being too easy, but at some point they may as well just put in a "level to 70" button.

[Fordel]

They may just do that one day. 


Seriously, I still don't see whats the big deal? It just ensures the friends are always at a similar level while they level up in tandem. Also ensures the new friend is put into relevant content rapidly, since the 'old' content isn't used as much, but it still allows the new player to experience the good parts, since they are being shown everything with their established friend.


The only QQ about this system I have is it wasn't put in sooner. We recently had a brand new player join our guild, and she's only now just hitting the 60 range. It's kinda annoying to everyone involved when you have to work around a 50+ level gap. Plus, new mount 

[Ingmar]

Yeah this would have been brilliant for getting her up to speed. I do have one sister-in-law left who isn't playing but she's not much of a gamer, and I don't think this would be her thing.

[Azazel]

If the Zhevra mount is an Epic one, I might be tempted to do this.

I'd have to become interested in playing again, of course.

[apocrypha]

Interesting. I already 2-box and I've just started up a warlock and druid pair with the aim of getting them to 70 by wotlk. Given that they're only level 20 now it'd almost be worth my getting a *3rd* account using this and rerolling one of them.

Hrmmm. Pondering :p

[Ironwood]

They should just have put in side-kicking ages ago.  It would make it all so much more fun.

[Ratman_tf]

They may just do that one day. 

They will probably do this one day. Deathknights starting at 55, the adjustment of experience gain pre-60, this new buddy recruit system.

I daresay WoW has become so top-heavy that Blizzard is going to take more and more drastic steps to let people play catch up.

[Ralence]

Interesting. I already 2-box and I've just started up a warlock and druid pair with the aim of getting them to 70 by wotlk.

  Sent you a PM about this, I'm really curious.

[lamaros]

This is pretty dumb, to me.

Who only has one friend who they might want to play with? What if you have two, and those other two want to just play with each other sometimes? Etc bleh.

Sure it's better than nothing, but most of the stuff I read around the place is from people sayings stuff like "mmm, tempted to 2-box and get the pet" and shit like that, not "this will be great to get my casual friends to play".

Just charge extra to start characters at level 60 or 70 already.

[Lakov_Sanite]

This is pretty dumb, to me.

Who only has one friend who they might want to play with? What if you have two, and those other two want to just play with each other sometimes? Etc bleh.

Sure it's better than nothing, but most of the stuff I read around the place is from people sayings stuff like "mmm, tempted to 2-box and get the pet" and shit like that, not "this will be great to get my casual friends to play".

Just charge extra to start characters at level 60 or 70 already.

I think they want new players, that's the goal of this and starting a new player at 60-70 would be a bold and frankly stupid move. However I agree with you on the issue of who has one friend they want to play with?

Really for me, all my geeky friends are already playing wow, or have played wow and quit. I doubt I know a single person who would be interested. I also know if I did refer them I'd never actually play with them since I spend too much time on my main guy as it is.

[Dren]

Just to add to the straw polls,  I saw a ton of linked Zhevras going around last night while playing.  People were sighting them all over the place.  That's on the launch day.

For some reason even before this, we've been picking up a new member for our guild at least once a week.  They are a friend of xxx or a cousin of yyy.  We picked up yet another one last night.

I doubt I'll ever do anything with this, but from my limited perspective, whatever they are doing is working.

The drawback?  We're back to the daily calls for help running people though Deadmines and Gnomerang, etc.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Just to add to the straw polls,  I saw a ton of linked Zhevras going around last night while playing.  People were sighting them all over the place.  That's on the launch day.

For some reason even before this, we've been picking up a new member for our guild at least once a week.  They are a friend of xxx or a cousin of yyy.  We picked up yet another one last night.

I doubt I'll ever do anything with this, but from my limited perspective, whatever they are doing is working.

The drawback?  We're back to the daily calls for help running people though Deadmines and Gnomerang, etc.

Alliance scum. real newbies are looking for mankirk's wife.






btw where is she?

[MrHat]

Keep heading south, she's after the elevator.

[fatboy]

They should just have put in side-kicking ages ago.  It would make it all so much more fun.

I totally agree.....it seems a win - win for both Blizzard and players.

[apocrypha]

Keep heading south, she's after the elevator.

If you get to a big white desert with lots of turtles in it.... keep going, you're nearly there

[Simond]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE1sJFi3bz8

 

[photek]

No matter what anyone says, this is awesome. Simply brilliant.

[NiX]

Fortunately there's no one I know to invite to tempt me.

You wanna invite me?

[Azazel]

This is pretty dumb, to me.
Who only has one friend who they might want to play with? What if you have two, and those other two want to just play with each other sometimes? Etc bleh.

I have to say, your post seems pretty dumb to me. They're giving you something where before you got nothing and you're bitching? You expect them to put in a reciprocal port to anyone who might be your friends? FWIW, my casual friends who might be interested in WoW are already playing.

Those who wouldnt be, won't.

If you have two friends, you can invite one and that guy can invite the other. You miss out on super-PL and ports for your second friend and the tradeoff is both the lowbies can port to and from one another. Oh noes!

[lamaros]

I have to say, your post seems pretty dumb to me. They're giving you something where before you got nothing and you're bitching?

George Bush is a good president because he isn't Stalin.

[Azazel]

Wow, you're good at making irrelevent points that have nothing to do with the argument! 
Actually, it's more of a comment than a point, since the initial assertation is highly questionable at best. But feel free to try again. Or not.

Anyway, looks like the mount is epic.
http://thottbot.com/i37719

[lamaros]

You're an idiot.

Criticism is not black and white.

Sure it's better than nothing,

in my original post.

Now go be stupid somewhere else.

[Azazel]

Any particular reason you're being an absolute troll and cunt lately? You weren't this much of a dickhead previously.

Or are you attempting to be an internet.bad.ass?

[Typhon]

He has gone the way of the boog.  I eagerly await the day that he stops posting, or at least stops posting, "you're stupid", as his main sole point.