I mentioned it already but I do it again, World of Warcraft is a pay-to-win game now in my opinion, and I can just laugh about Blizzard´s attempted explanations. But I will dig a little bit into the topic again.
Isn´t it hilarious that developers of today prefer to care more about people who think that leveling is boring, and who didn´t even notice that the entire game has always been based on leveling? When we met those confused players in-game, we called them eBayers in the past. There were people who sold their World of Warcraft accounts on Ebay because they hated nearly all features of the game as they were only interested to start with the max level and without work. It was fairly easy to spot these players as they were overwhelmed with the game. And now comes Blizzard and introduces level boost microtransactions, to support this lazy player base. And I say this is just another shot in the own foot.
The heart of the community left the game already. There is only a community left which thinks that everything is too difficult and that it should be possible to reach everything without work. This is not the community which can keep the game alive. This is a community which will demand to achieve more and more in-game goals without work but instead with money. Their arguments often sound like “People are sick of leveling, that´s why they go for the boost.” when they talk about this game, that is bases on leveling. Strange? It is.
But there are still so many who hate pay-to-win games or even free-to-play games with all the paid advantages that are called microtransactions today, and there are still enough people who hate gold farmers and account sellers. But the joke is, all this is not only done by dubious Ebay sellers or so-called “China Farmers” anymore alone. It´s now done by Blizzard now too.
That means Blizzard does not only ask you to pay a monthly fee, in addition they are adding more and more microtransaction features which are so hated by hardcore players, the players which make a game popular and which keep a game alive. Blizzard adds features that many people seems to dislike because they are financially unethical and because they destroy the sense of playing games, the progress on the way to reach particular in-game goals.
This explains the shot in the foot. If there are still hardcore players in the community, Blizzard will do the best to lose the last of them. The players which are essential for a successful game, as said. If this isn´t stupid? What´s your opinion?
Diary of Dennis 
I wrote a piece along similar lines to this last week on a friend’s website. For me, Blizzard are appeasing the players who don’t actually want to spend any time playing the game at the expense of their most loyal and interested players. It’s all about milking as much money as they can from the WoW cash cow.
I was never a “hardcore” player – I started playing just as Burning Crusade was about to hit and it took me months to level to 70 mainly as I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing. I met some great people and we levelled and adventured together. I was the first of the bunch to hit 70 and go through the attunement for Karazhan and I spent a good couple of months after this helping friends to level and get attuned too. There was a massive sense of achievement in getting a group of 10 good friends into our first raid and despite the fact we failed completely on our first attempt – we eventually worked our way through the whole thing. It was hugely satisfying. A few months after we cleared it for the first time, they decided to remove the attunement process and, for me, it all started going downhill from there.
The piece I wrote can be read at: http://www.thegamersocial.com/problems-facing-new-mmos/ if you’re interested.
As a german I sometimes still have problems to express myself in english, but I like blogging and improving my english. I loved your definition “loyal and interested players” and I think that is how I define “hardcore players” today. People who still support the idea that games hacve a goal that you can and should only try to reach if you are interested and if it´s not a problem for you to spend time on the way to achieve it. It´s basically the same as with any other hobby like learning to play guitar, or whatever. I really prefer your definition “loyal” and “interested players”.
I also do agree with your opinion about the financial aspect. Sure, they have upcosts and for sure they should earn money with the product but that just worked fine in the past. Now they go crazy and yea “want to milk the cow” but it´s a question for how long the cow can still give milk. They go too far. As you said, they scare the loyal players away and it is somewhat hilarious that they do think, this is the right strategy.
You descriped an experience we all had. Loved BC too. Achieving something together, yes that was satisfying enough. I think we all had no clue at the time we walked our first steps in Azeroth. But it was interesting and I experienced the same solidarity like you. You came with some friends and met even new ones.. everyone was friendly, helpful.. let me stop… it was an awesome community. But the game changed, and with it the community. It´s sad but it seems that is the way where the industry is heading to.
I´ll check out your link now. I´m interested to read more of your opinion. Thank´s for the comment here and for the related link. I´ll take a look now 🙂
No one says you have to buy it. And saying the community is made up of people who think the game is too hard is offensive. this still doesn’t make WoW a pay to win game as lvl cap will be 100 and u still have to gear and raid
It´s offensive to many former loyal players (people who played the game since release), that Blizzard takes more care about people today, who did nothing else than crying and whining that everything is too difficult or too strong and so on.
Don´t worry, my friends and me left the game early enough. About your pay-to-win definition… I disagree. You pay and you get a bonus, no matter if there are still 10 levels to 100. It´s a bonus for money. What comes next?
There are many people who dislike this new business model of modern games. I am one of them and I will shout this out loud. It´s net meant offensive… it´s simply my opinion. And as said, some people think that Blizzards decision is offensive to the former loyal player base.