14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Blizzard says that the level 90 boost that is included in the upcoming Warlords of Draenor expansion for World of Warcraft and which is also sold in the online store for the MMO is designed to help all players upgrade their characters and experience all the new content that’s coming.
The reaction comes after fans of the game criticized the company for the 60 dollars or Euro price point that it attached to the boost and for the fact that its use will basically destroy the core structure of the title.
Ion Hazzikostas, the lead encounter designer at the company, is telling Eurogamer that, “We realised as soon as we came out with Warlords of Draenor boost to 90, we knew that there was going to be demand for more than. It’s tremendously awkward to tell someone that you should buy two copies of the expansion just to get a second 90. That’s odd.”
Once Blizzard realized that the demand for level 90 boost would outstrip the supply of copies that the company plans to create, a decision was made to add a separate purchase option.
The team has carefully considered the price of the option because it wants it to be useful for gamers who want to bring an alternate character or two up to level 90 before Warlords of Draenor for World of Warcraft is launched.
At the same time, the company is interested in making sure that players who have more time continue to play in order to get the experience required to upgrade their characters, using the traditional mechanics of the MMO.
The lead encounter designer adds, “The intent here isn’t to create a world where no-one levels. It’s just to allow people who want to purchase additional level 90s, maybe they want a second or third alt and they don’t have time to level it themselves because they have a family or etc – it’s to allow them to do that.”
Warlords of Draenor is designed to take gamers back to the ancestral home of the Orcs, which was destroyed before the events of the series, introducing a range of high level areas to explore and more enemies to fight against.
Blizzard says that it will also introduce a lot of customization options for gamers and clans, including the ability to create their own strongholds that need to be defended from attack and offer a number of bonuses.