Why would you want someone else to play a game for you?
by Matthew Rossi 
Sep 29th 2007 at 2:30PM
It can be a touch daunting to level a character in WoW, especially if you have a lot of real life commitments. The designers are aware of this, and changes are on the way. But what amazes me is that there are players out there who pay other people to level their characters for them. It's usually offered as an adjunct to real money transfer services, and it always boggles my mind. I can understand that after you've leveled a few 70's up, you might get bored with the old world content to some degree. After my fourth 70 I was bound and determined that none of my under 60 prospects were going to set foot in Stranglethorn Vale again because I'm sick of the place (they all did, because while I'm sick of the place, I also know where all the quests are - I can go through STV like a steam powered quest thresher now, be it Horde or Alliance quests - expediency trumps all, I guess) but I still have a hard time imagining actually giving someone else access to my account, especially someone who is in all likelihood working for a gold seller.
I suppose it's only different from playing your wife's toon while she's at work by degree, but it seems different to me. (Hey, she really wants that Firefly, it would be a great anniversary present.) I play WoW because, well, I like the game. If I disliked playing the game so much that I felt like I needed to hire someone to play it for me, I don't think I'd play it at all. Is it that important to get to 70 super-fast? Is the game so much more fun at max level that you'd actually pay someone to get you there?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Leveling, Alts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Krishan Sep 29th 2007 2:50PM
Levelling is boring imo, and I am really dreading the new expansion, will have 3 level 70's to raise :<
Grinding rep/gear is fine, I like doing quests to get gear for running instances to get gear to run karazhan to get gear to run SSC e.t.c
But levelling is boring.
But i think prices powerlevellers charge are rediculously high and anyone who uses that service deserves a /slap.
Finnicks Daerkhiv Sep 29th 2007 2:54PM
Speaking as someone who somewhat dislikes the style of advancement in the endgame, levelling a character is fun (especially a new class). Like the endgame, there's only so many quests and so many zones to level through, true, but I would have three problems with hiring a powerleveller:
1) I'd be "skipping" the part of the game that's more fun, for me.
2) I wouldn't have any emotional attachment of any kind to my brand new level 70 character.
3) If it's a class I've never played before, I would suddenly be one of those n00bs with a level 70 they don't know how to play at all, and everyone would accuse me of purchasing an account.
Nathan Sep 29th 2007 2:57PM
I think it's that raiders have done a great job of making everyone below 70 feel like they're wasting their time at whatever they do.
Angel Sep 29th 2007 3:17PM
I'll admit that i've used a power-leveling service before (pre-TBC). I needed a hunter to farm and support my holy priest and didn't have the extra time to both raid and level another character. Funny thing is that didn't have time to farm on that hunter anyway and ended up giving that account to my little brother.
Moral of the story; If you don't have time to level an alt, you don't have the time to play it.
Lem Sep 29th 2007 3:21PM
Well, I can see both sides.
The problem is, I want a lvl 70 character. I don't want to level one. I've already done that with other characters. It's boring, I've seen it all before.
Getting someone else to level your character, for money, is fine in my opinion.
People will say "That's stupid, you're paying someone to play the game for you" but these are the same people that say "The game doesnt start untill 70".
I want a 70, to play at 70, to do 70 instances and raids. But, I dont want to do all the leveling.
You either do it, or you don't get a 70, right? Well, if you're willing to pay money to do something you're capable of, but can't be bothered, why not? Why be up in arms? It's thier money, not yours.
Do not people pay others to tidy thier house, do thier laundry or clean thier cars?
To me powerleveling is no different. You're paying a premium for a service that you can do yourself, but dont have the time/energy.
Xino Sep 29th 2007 3:29PM
Have no alts past lvl 30 because I hate leveling. For me it's boring and extremely time consuming. Leveling to 70 when TBC came out was pretty fun because everything was new, fresh, and you felt like the whole server was leveling with you. But leveling an alt is torture.
I just want to rush my alts to 70 so I can get them in raids. I guess I am a raider at heart.
dpoyesac Sep 29th 2007 3:30PM
The problem with power-leveling is it leads to too many "L2P" moments. It's often hard to notice, but there are lots of quests and goals that are designed to teach essential class skills -- and nt just class-specific quests. Take the godawful Samophlange in the Barrens -- it's a stupid, annoying little quest that bugs the bejesus out of me. But ever time I play a new class, that quest teaches me the differences each class needs to be aware of when pulling those little Venture Co. miners.
But on the plus side -- PvP against power-leveled paladins is probably substantially easier than against players who know their class. So I can heartily recommend that all Alliance thinking of rolling a Paladin should use power-leveling services.
Dave Sep 29th 2007 4:18PM
Once you've leveled a character through all of the starting zones and then once through the rest of the game, what exactly would you be missing out on if you have someone else level for you?
The 1-58 portion of the game is rather poorly designed in many places (winterpsring especially, having to go to far remote locations for quests wastes huge amounts of time for very tiny XP gains and worthless quest rewards, not to mention 5+ hour instances with 3 quests and mediocre rewards that are instantly obsolete when you hit 58 and start Hellfire quests). There's nothing rich and exicting about doing the same crappy quests again the 5th time you've done it, so I can totally see using powerleveling to get some of it done.
The majority of the fun in the game, is definitely at 70. For most people, the game doesn't even start until then. The 1-70 is all about solo play and grinding your ass off until you get to play with the big boys at 70. Then you get into the real fun which is the group play, the raids and arenas. And for the most part, almost every single class has to respec at 70 to be effective (mages go to fire, warriors go prot, anyone who can heal goes to holy/resto, etc) so it's not like you REALLY learn a lot about playing your class before 70 anyway. A tank can spend 70 levels as arms/fury learning how to hack and slash, and still need quite a few instance runs to figure out how to really tank at 70.
To me, it's two separate games honestly. In the next expansion, I'd easily pay extra money to get a pre-leveled character at or near 70 for the classes I don't have there yet. (I'll hopefully have 6 classes at 70 by the next expansion, depending on how well this xp thing works out...)
outforprophets Sep 29th 2007 5:03PM
"Time is money, friend."
Bobby Sep 29th 2007 6:04PM
Omen can both send to and read from KTM, if you set the appropriate options.
Bobby Sep 29th 2007 6:05PM
Eh?
I'm sure i put in 'This is why the death knight'
Theserene Sep 29th 2007 6:08PM
I have seen people who had obviously paid for levelling since they did not know how to play their class beyond the simple spells/abilities they learned early on.
Also, powerlevelling means giving your account name and password to some internet stranger? Frankly, anyone who is daft enough to give out their private details deserves to get their account raided.
Tigraine Sep 29th 2007 6:17PM
To make one thing clear:
I mean leveling an alt
The leveling process from 1-70 is a PAIN!
After lvl 30 it gets a mind numbing, painful, unrewarding experience.
You know ALL quests, you know all spawns, you're getting a mindless Robot. You just waste time on doing something very very stupid.
Playing another class isn't that different that it compensates for doing that Quest multiple times, and as we all hate Rep-Grinds, I hate XP-grinds.
And yes, I consider leveling as mindless as grinding Rep for Cenarion Circle in Silithus.. it's just awful..
once you reach 70 (formerly 60) .. the game gets really really great.
You can do PvP with the PPL you know, you do Instances or Raids with your Guild etc..
Everything beneath max-lvl is just hoping the best for that PUG you just entered.
Maybe it's just me, but during leveling I don't even bother grouping with others, it just slows leveling process and I find it very hard to either keep up with some people's leveling speed or not to outlevel others. Nobody does it at the same pace, and as I did 3 levels on just one Sunday (67-70) others do that in a Week.
So heck yes, the only guys I can really count on are those lvl 70 Guildmates or Friends whom I know they're great and will do PvP/Raids/5mans with me.
Everything beneath that is just .. painful.
And no, I'd never pay a Goldseller or something, although I once paid my younger brother to Farm Aldor Rep in SMV cause I wanted to go out with my Girlfriend and was sick of farming.
Liel Sep 29th 2007 7:50PM
I tried playing my friends druid who was in the 50's after he quit the game, for a while it did not feel "right" when I played it because when I leveled my other toons I got new spells every so often and played with only a few spells and got more as time progressed.
At 54 I got the toon with many spells already there and all at once.
I am waiting for the XP buff to level a rogue though I really don;t have the time to go through the leveling grind again.
Shintar Sep 29th 2007 10:46PM
Heh, I actually kind of feel the opposite of what Tigraine said.
Levelling feels much more dynamic to me, even if you already know all the quests. You're always on the move: gaining levels, entering new (at least for your character) zones, learning new spells (and unless you already have a 70 of that class there'll always be some abilities you never realised that particular class had).
In contrast to that there isn't really anything exciting and new left to do once you hit 70. You can do the same daily quests every day (Think levelling several characters through STV is tedious? Try doing the exact same quests every day!), run the same level 70 dungeons, do the same battlegrounds etc.
The only way to still advance and see new things at 70 is raiding in my opinion - and while that can be fun it's kind of limited to whenever "raid night" is and whether there's a spot for you. At least I can set out to explore Azeroth with a new alt whenever I feel like it.
Aaand that was a bit of a tangent, heh. In conclusion, I also see levelling as one of the most fun things in the game and would never want someone else to do it for me either.
Rich Sep 29th 2007 10:08PM
I was glad they had the level 70 premades on the PTR. It proved to me, I don't need the 1-70 grind to "Teach" me how to play a class. I picked up a shaman and spent about 10 hours messing around to get the feel of everything. By the time I had 20 hours in on the Shaman I ran a pug and was asked if a shaman was my main. When I told him no and I never played a Shaman until the PTR he was floored.
There are plenty of people that could pick up a level 70 of any class they have never played before and be just as good as someone who leveled from level 1. There are plenty of others that are level 70 and still can't play their class. How much time you put on a character is really independent of how good of a player you are.
If i could get my 3 sub 70 alts powerleveled or insta-leveled for me, I would do it in a heartbeat. The grind sucked the first 2 times around and its a pain doing it again.
Hollywood Ron Sep 30th 2007 1:44AM
I personally struggle with leveling alts once they get into the content I know. The easiest time I've leveled an alt was leveling my Horde healadin, and once I got to the stuff I know, it got boring.
jaxson_bateman Sep 30th 2007 2:47AM
As far as I'm concerned, levelling is a chore. For me, best case scenario I'd consider it a test I have to pass to be allowed to use that character at level cap. But there is nothing on the way to cap that is so interesting to me that I would actually enjoy levelling a character there. Instances? They have them at 70, with better rewards. PvP? They have that at 70, with better rewards. Raiding? Well I could stop at 60 (if there were ~39 other 60s who wanted to do pre-BC raids), but even then, I'd be so close to 70 what would be the point.
But at 70, it all changes. Instead of playing the game in order to get XP and level, you are playing the game to do exactly the things you want. For example, I actually enjoy getting my professions skilled up. But I'm not prepared to do it during the levelling process as it's a tonne easier at cap - hence why I always take two gathering professions while I level. But at 70, you don't have the idea of "I could be getting XP right now" in the back of your mind. You're free, in a sense.
But just to show how much of a chore levelling is to me (and a few other people I know), we all have plenty of alts. I myself have 8 alts on the same server as my main, as I'm one of those dreamers who would love to have one of every class at cap. But I won't even touch those alts unless they have full rested XP. It's just too tedious to level them without. That said, they're all currently going at just under a level an hour, which I would consider to be pretty good at around level 30. ^^ Can't wait to see how fast they go with 2.3!
AKWildhammer Sep 30th 2007 3:52AM
I have exactly the same view as the author on the topic. I don't even have a first 70 yet and I'm burning to get there but I would NEVER pay someone to do this for me. It's MY character which shows MY achievements.
Peace.
Jereth Oct 17th 2007 7:04AM
Clearly there are many players who feel that the whole *point* of WoW is to play a level 70 character, while for others (myself very much included) the point is to level.
It's much like the differences in attitude between the questers, RPers, PvPers and raiders.
Part of the success of the game is that it caters for all these types of player.
What gets me down is when certain types of player (and why is it so often the raiders, PvPers and level-cap-or-bust players?) have to **** on the way the rest of us choose to play the game.