WoW Insider

I got the refer-a-friend bonus with my wife, and went from level 0-45 in 1.5 days played time. And that's taking it slowly, spending an hour or three of that in SW leveling profs.

Reply

actually, to teleport you must both be under level 60, the triple xp stops at 60, and you can no longer teleport each other, you dont gain triple xp unless you are both within short distance of one another. however its awesome. i got a character leveled up already! my playtime at 60 was 2 days 8 hours, i did some pvp and stuff

Reply

it would be nice if ALL countries could use Recruit-a-friend
it just sucks that Blizz only gives such privileges to big countries and it's so annoying
oh why Blizz? why? why are you tormenting us little guys like that?

Reply

Ahh yeah, I did this just to get the zhevra mount :>

I also used the second account to dual box for a while.

Reply

Has any sub-60 ganker been forced to regret his actions when a lvl 30 RAF teleports a big brother lvl 60 to "take care" of the situation?

Good to hear it ends after 60...

Reply

I did this so I could two box a pally rogue combo, once I am done I am transferring the pally to my main account and cancelling the other.

Reply

"they don't really affect your gameplay at all"
Disagree.

It's up for a discussion what "gameplay" really is.
Just because it doesn't affect mechanics and performance, it adds to the immersion, aestetical pleasure, fun and all these other things that some see as a major part of gameplay.

Reply

The major flaw about Recruit-a-Friend is that it's giving people gameplay rewards for actions performed outside of the gameplay. This is breaking an important principle in MMO gaming. It should never happen. Only what players do in the game, should affect what happens to your character in the game. Especially when it comes to basic gameplay mechanics like xp and leveling. Blizzard knows this very well, and that's some of the reason they have taken an aggressive stance against various forms of cheating, like hacks, account trading, gold and item trading (RMT), botting, powerleveling and so on.

Not only is R-a-F a powerleveling service provided by Blizzard, but it's also additionally flawed by having various strings attached to it that makes it unusable by a lot of the players.

The most obvious problem is that if you do not have anyone to recruit, you're left out. If you don't have the hardware or money to multibox, you're left out. If you come from a country like Denmark, where this kind of scheme is illegal, you're left out.

This is the second basic MMO gaming principle that Blizzard violates by using the R-a-F ploy. They are effectively discriminating players by doling out xp and levels for only a select part of their customer base.

Some of you are saying, "Yeah, but it's for a greater good. They are facilitating players, so that they can catch up with the other players". Well, I agree with you. There should be an option to skip leveling, since there's not enough players in the starting areas to make our time there enjoyable. And with those who are able to use R-a-F leveling up in a jiffy, it will be even more empty and boring.

Some seem to totally disregard the fact that R-a-F is an extremely poor solution to the problem. There's a lot of other options that could facilitate *everybody* in the same way, instead of just catering to those who provide Blizzard with extra income.

Now, some of you might say "Well, Blizzard are all about making money. If you don't like it, you can play something else". That's true. They are free to do whatever they want with their own game. They're free to degrade the game, sell out and disgrace themselves if they want to. But, remember that a large part of Blizzard's success and henceforth a large part of what makes them so great is that they always have been all about putting *good and fair gameplay* in front of gaining monetary wealth. This has always been Blizzards official development strategy. They have been proud about it, and not afraid to use it as a selling point. A standpoint that has gained them a lot of respect amongst their fans.


US CM Belfaire posted on the subject before R-a-F came in effect, i.e. Blizzard's official stance on the subject:

"We want all players to be on equal footing, regardless of income and livelihood. You say that because it's open to everybody, that it won't give one player an advantage, but this is patently false. While we do offer paid services, these are technical or vanity services as opposed to services which offer a real and true advantage in the game, like RMT gold buying would."

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=4822544200&pageNo=1&sid=1#6


Recent interview with Paul Sams, the "Chief Operating Officer" of Blizzard Entertainment. In it, he explained a bit about Blizzard's way of dealing with business models:

"At Blizzard, the business model doesn't come until late in the game. We focus on what the experience is, what the gameplay is and what the overall kind of feature set is before we start talking about what the business model is. I know there is a lot of speculation, but candidly, we just don't know yet.

I think a lot of businesspeople would say "oh well, the important stuff is how we generate profit and revenue". But, our feeling is that's secondary. We need to focus on what the experience is, make sure that the gameplay is right, and then we wrap a business model around that."

Source: http://warcraft.moviechronicles.com/


So, why have Blizzard launched R-a-F? Honestly, I don't know. But I do know that there is dissent amongst the people at Blizzard about this. Unfortunately, they are bound to silence as employees. Some bullheaded businesspeople have probably forced this decision, and now they are testing the water while at the same time stealing potential customers from the new MMOs like WAR. How do you think that will affect the evolution of MMORPG gaming for us as gamers?

So, yeah... Before you start blindly defending R-a-F, just remember that it *could* have been fashioned in a way that would facilitate *all* players and without breaking these fundamental principles. There's no need to go into tunnel-vision mode.

What will be next?

Reply

The recruit a friend is the biggest f-u to people who leveled multiple charcters on there own and recruited family and friends who did the same with out all these so called perks. Recruit a friend is a corporate scheme to make more cash. It's totally financially driven and anyone who thinks likewise is a sucker and I have a bridge I would love to sell them. Blizzard you sold out for the almighty $. For shame!!! Blizzard with this new move is like an awesome rock band who sell their song to sell bubble gum. Can you say sell outs? If you want to make leveling faster thats fine but this is not the way to do it. I notice in your article you did not mention the level jumping...just left that out??? The ultimate of all cheating moves. What's next blizzard going to start selling level 70 charcters like the powerlevers? Might as well, they are practically doing it anyway.

Reply