World of Warcraft - Paid Level 90 Boost

It has been officially announced that Blizzard is going to sell boosts to instantly be leveled up to level 90, and it won't come cheap. The boost to level 90 will cost you $60, which is approximately €44. Is Blizzard asking too much for this boost to level 90, or is it justified?

Blizzard's reasoning behind the fairly high price (equivelant to about 5 months of pre-paid game time) is that it isn't their intention to devalue the worth of becoming level 90. At the moment, to become level 90 it takes over 100 hours playtime to get a single character to level 90. Blizzard also added that if it was their intention to make as much profit as possible and sell as many level boosts as they can, they would've priced the level boost lower. But since they are claiming that it isn't their intention to make as much of a profit as possible, but to simply help those who have less time than others they have priced the level boost to $60. Another reason is that Blizzard wants to make it easier for old and new players to instantly play with their level 90 friends.

In addition to the paid level boost, everyone that purchases a copy of their upcoming expansion Warlords of Draenor, will receive a boost to level 90 for free. There is a small backdraw for those that use the level 90 boost - you won't start with all the level 90 skills immediately. Blizzard doesn't want to suddenly throw you into the deep with a new class that suddenly has 25 abilities to use. As an example, if you boost your level 1 mage to 90 you will only have a few spells to start with such as fireball, frost nova and polymorph. You will gradually unlock new abilities, but it is unknown how long it takes before you get access to them.

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World of Warcraft: New Expansion

Blizzard Entertainment has registered the trademark for The Dark Below. It’s unclear what Blizzard is planning to use the name for, and fans expect it will be either an expansion for Diablo III or one for World of Warcraft. It is expected that Blizzard will announce at least an expansion for Diablo III on GamesCom.

An user of MMOChampion, posted on the websites forum about the registered trademark. The registered trademark is for a videogame. It may be an entire new IP, but it is more likely that it will be an expansion for an existing IP such as World of Warcraft or Diablo III. If it would be a new IP that they would announce, it would probably have something to do with their upcoming game with codename Titan.

But since Blizzard aired a website titled Reaper of Souls today, which is linked to Diablo III, it is more likely The Dark Below will have something to do with World of Warcraft. There is a big chance that this is what Blizzard will be announcing at GamesCom, but they might also announce something next to the expansion of Diablo III. GamesCom 2013 will take place from August 21 to August 25, so be ready for any announcements made by Blizzard (and ofcourse a lot of other publishers that will be at GamesCom this year).

With Blizzard working on quite a few different IP's and BlizzCom coming up later this year, we can expect lots of announcements to be made. Whether we will hear something about Titan isn't sure though, with not a lot known about the game yet. But who knows, Blizzard might just surprise us!

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World of Warcraft: Connected Realms

News from Blizzard: during Patch 5.4 some servers will essentially be merged together. Why essentially? The new functionality, which is called Connected Realms will let players from two or more different realms play together as if they would be playing on the same server. They will be able to chat with each other, be in the same guild, access the same Auction House and also play the same dungeons or raids.

“Our goal with Connected Realms is to give players on lower-population realms more opportunities to group up, compete, and connect with other players to take on Azeroth’s bigger challenges. That sort of interaction is a big part of what makes World of Warcraft fun, and this feature will help us deliver that experience to even more players.” 

With the number of subscribers to the MMO going down and down, realms keep getting emptier and this might be a good solution to make the realms feel alive again. It actually is more of an upgrade than a whole new feature, since zones in the game already have players from multiple realms to make the world feel less empty.

Blizzard states that these Connected Realms should have no limitations and that players should be expecting the Connected Realms to happen somewhere during Patch 5.4 and for those that would like to see how it works exactly, these players can check out the Private Test Realms to see the feature live.

What this will mean both socially and economically for the game isn’t known yet. It will definitely have an effect on both, with the Auction House having more buyers and sellers. How it will work out socially depends on the players, no one knows how connected communities will react on each other. Are you prepared for Patch 5.4?

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RuneScape 3: A New Beginning?

There is quite a big chance that you know the game, played it or that it even was your first MMO that you ever played. You might have guessed that I am talking about RuneScape, and today Jagex released a massive update for the game. If you can remember the switch from RuneScape 1 to RuneScape 2, you can compare the update to this scale.

The major noticeable change is the graphics, they have been polished and the game now is fully 3D. When you start the game you get to choose if you want to play the Java version or the new HTML5 version. The new graphics give the game a very fresh feel, especially for those that haven't played the game for quite a while. This also means Java isnt a requirement anymore and you can just play the game from any HTML5 compatible browser, no need to download anything else.

The world should also be more player driven, and will adapt to the players choices. This starts with the first event that is called The Battle of Lumbridge. Everything that happens in these player-events will be of influence on the game and the future lore.

And since it is so easy to try the game out, why not? You can still log-in with your old account or just simply connect your Facebook to RuneScape and you're ready to go. If you haven't played RuneScape for some years, the game will feel very different as a lot of the core mechanics in the game have changed such as combat. Just check out the trailer below and if you are amazed by what Jagex has managed to do with an in-browser game, you might want to give it a try!

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World of Warcraft: Going Pay2Win?

Paying a monthly subscription for a game, and then also having the option to buy items with real money to boost your gameplay? Sounds a bit weird, but Blizzard is testing it with their MMO World of Warcraft with a potion called Enduring Elixer of Wisdom. This new item will boost the experience that players are granted by a 100%, and it is currently only available on the Private Test Realms.

On the World of Warcraft forums there are a lot of discussions going on about the whole thing. A lot of people are calling it unfair and unnecessary, while others think an experience boost won't bother other players anyway. Some players are afraid this is just the beginning of an in-game cash-shop, and they think it could lead to powerful paid boosts and purchasable armour.

A Gamemaster on the forums responded on the ongoing discussions with the following post: 'For players who are already interested in the in-game items we offer, such as Pet Store pets and mounts, the benefits of an in-game store are pretty clear. We think everyone would appreciate the convenience of being able to make such purchases without having to leave the game.' It does make sense, but we won't know what will eventually happen with the in-game store.

What we do know is that more and more people are quitting the game. Since the game primarily is making money with paid subscriptions, Blizzard is trying to find other ways to make sure profit is not going down. But only time can tell what will happen with these in-game items and what the future holds for the most popular MMO ever.

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