After the official announcement of Burning Crusade Classic at BlizzCon 2021, many players are really looking forward to the Outland adventure. Certainly also because the developers of Blizzard take into account many details in the implementation, which were requested by the community in advance (even if not everyone sees it so positive, right, Kevin Jordan?).
But there are also points that are heavily criticized. Points like the not yet announced fresh Burning Crusade servers or the character boost to level 58, which is supposed to be available to every account for a one-time fee for TBC Classic - we talked about both points in the last buffedCast, for example.
Especially the latter boost is a thorn in the side of many players. Some well-known WoW Youtubers are even of the opinion that the boost will destroy the Burning Crusade experience for many Outland fans. Here are their arguments:
- Using the current dollar price of gold sales, as well as the current price of character boosts for Shadowlands, as a model for the TBC boost, here's what you get: players who get a new account, pay for the boost, and level up with the high-level character Tailoring can easily get gold this way (thanks to the valuable, because temporary, transmutations) for much cheaper than gold sales currently allow. The more months you milk the profession, the more glaring the difference becomes. And the more accounts you get, the more gold you make for a comparatively small real-money investment.Staysafe therefore predicts that the boost will have a catastrophic effect on the economy of Classic servers, as Blizzard introduces a de facto Pay2Win element to Classic. Already, there are said to be numerous players who want to acquire an army of accounts and then dominate the economy with the boosted characters.Solheim adds another problem of the boost in his video: Bot users have a very easy time readying characters for Outland thanks to the boost. Not only does it eliminate the time it would take them to level up to level 58, but it also eliminates the chance of them getting banned on the way to level 58. Sure, there's the "only one boost per account" restriction, but obviously gold vendors can easily afford to keep opening new accounts. And thanks to the boost, the bots now get faster into the level range where good gold can be farmed. In other words, if you already found Classic bot-infested, you're in for an even worse bot show with TBC Classic.For Serious Gaming, it's clear that Blizzard doesn't care much about the current economy on the Classic servers. There will be no gold cap for Burning Crusade and the transfer options. The damage is done and it's going to get bigger with TBC Classic - partly because of the character boost and the aforementioned bots. At the same time, the boost nicely shows that Blizzard wants to favor players who own multiple accounts and thus pay the subscription multiple times: They are then allowed to reach into their pockets again for multiple boosts.Also a problem of the boosts: The already full servers will become even more crowded and it will be even more difficult to quest or farm in the open world of Outland - and for a very long time.
The Youtubers don't just have criticism in store, however, but also suggestions for solutions:
- If Blizzard's only concern is that Classic newcomers and returnees should be able to play with their friends' high-level characters, they might as well introduce the refer-a-friend program with the pre-patch (including a noticeable XP buff) - that first came late in the TBC era back in the day.If Blizzard desperately needs more Classic revenue, they'd better make the original Trading Card Game mounts available for purchase.Blizzard should offer fresh "Burning Crusade Classic" servers with no boosts or transfers. Everyone starts at level 1. If you want to avoid the problems listed above, you can do so on these servers.
What do you think of the character boost? Do you share the fears or are you not as critical of the situation? Tell us in the comments!
Sources: Solheim, Staysafe, Serious Gaming
