Recruit-a-Friend free levels restored (if all goes well)
by Zach Yonzon 
Oct 21st 2008 at 2:30PM
As many of you readers pointed out in a related post, Blizzard could open themselves up to a potential class action lawsuit if the levels aren't restored. The free levels gained are part of the appeal of the Recruit-a-Friend program or product, and is one that I suspect really gets a lot of conversions. Of course, Orlyla is keeping his (or her... you never know with these Blizzard people...) fingers crossed, too, saying that the levels should be working fine once the servers are back up "if all goes well". As Dan pointed out a couple of times, all has not been going well in Azeroth lately.
I'm hoping to see this issue fixed, and even though some of you guys have expressed disapproval of the free levels feature, I personally think it's a great and much-needed way to reach the endgame quickly. I already have several 70s, I seriously don't want to go through the pain of leveling through the same zones all over again. Some people might enjoy that, but I don't. I just wish I actually had friends to recruit -- pretty much all of them already play the game!
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Bugs, Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ject Oct 21st 2008 2:40PM
"I just wish I actually had friends to recruit -- pretty much all of them already play the game!"
Double Boxing FTW. :D
Adbiku Oct 21st 2008 2:46PM
The trick is to tie people to computer chairs in your basement and force them to 'try' wow for three days. The addiction will have set in fully at that point. Force them to farm mats for you and repeat this process with the next friend.
tanek Oct 21st 2008 3:00PM
"Of course, Orlyla is keeping his fingers crossed, too"
That would be *her* fingers...er, paws. Whatever. :)
I hope all does get fixed with the RaF levels today, but as far as a class action lawsuit if it takes longer? Really? I'll just hope that was a bit of exaggeration on your part. ;)
Zach Oct 21st 2008 3:04PM
Is that a real 'her' or a Ghostcrawler-type 'her'?
tanek Oct 21st 2008 3:17PM
The panda has corrected a couple forum posters here and there who have used masculine pronouns when referring to her. I don't know where the Ghostcrawler information had originated, but I don't think it was in blue text. So I'm going with a real "her" on this one.
Tyler Oct 21st 2008 3:33PM
Why should he be kidding? Look at how Microsoft would be torn apart if they did something like this!
"Get a free copy of Microsoft Office with purchase of Windows Vista....Sorry, oops"
Do you know how pissed people would be if they bought a sh!tty ass OS with no Office?!?! OOps... Right?
Not. Someone Like me who has intentionally paid for a second account to only be screwed out of the levels i've earned is misleading and that simple fact right there opens them to a lawsuit. In AMERICA we have lots of laws that protect consumers from the abuse of large businesses, specifically ones that can be considered any kind of a monopoly in certain venues, Where people 'don't have any other choices'.... Now, if I want to play a Warcraft MMO... I don't really have much option now do I? Worse yet, if you argue that there are other MMO's, the simple fact that they had given, and then taken away is like giving you the Office Suite and then revoking your liscense. That is simply not good practice or business. And if they didn't resolve it, that would destroy their entire marketing campaign that not only draws in more new customers, but it also brings in more money from existing customers who buy a second account and lastly strengthens the Lich King user base since they will reach 70 much sooner.
xeren Oct 21st 2008 3:57PM
maybe i'm misunderstanding, but Tyler, you should probably look more into what constitutes a monopoly. Blizzard making the only Warcraft MMO is not a monopoly.
That's like saying because you prefer bravia TV's, Sony has the monopoly on them, and therefore should be restricted the way a monopoly should.
Todd Oct 21st 2008 3:02PM
Ya I freaked when I heard I had lost my grantable levels. If there was a warning I would have granted them before patch. If we get them back I'm granting them right away so I wont lose them again.
Zali Oct 21st 2008 3:19PM
One more bug. OK, yea. We know. Things haven't been going well lately, but it isn't as if we all didn't know that when major patches hit, lots of goofy things happen. Anyone who has played for more than a few months knows that things get a bit strange on Azeroth at patch time.
Sit back, enjoy the good stuff, don't worry about the bad stuff, and have fun with what you can do. Patches are like a bad case of acne. They are part of growing pains, but they will clear up soon enough.
xeren Oct 21st 2008 3:28PM
haha, i like that perspective. i had leveled inscription halfway up on the PTR, then it crashed, and when i relogged, the profession i had dropped for inscription was back, but all my herbs i had used were still gone.
as long as nothing like that happens on live, i can live with the lag and not having my free levels for a couple weeks.
skye Oct 21st 2008 3:36PM
Yeap. Its fixed on live.
Tyler Oct 21st 2008 3:53PM
@xeren:
Wow. That totally sucks. Much like when we were trying to get trained and allocate my talents. I trained all my characters, and when the servers crashed and came back, my talent points were back, but my gold was still gone. WTF.
mark Oct 21st 2008 3:54PM
Are they going to allow those of us who have now passed level 59 to grant the levels we lost as a result of the bug? When I hit level 59, it allowed me to only grant one level to a friend. I am now level 61. GM ticket maybe?
shiplore Oct 21st 2008 4:08PM
@ Tyler the amount you don't understand about a) Bait and switch, b) monopolies c) the world in general is STAGGERING.
No it's not a monopoly because it's the only warcraft MMO. it'd be a monopoly if you couldn't play ANY MMO without paying them.
a class action suit is possible, but would lose. they could argue 1000 different valid things to start the EULA says "game play may change" it changed. There's also technical provisions in there and to top it all off you don't own the characters you're just renting play time. Your playtime was allowed (by your own arguement.
I agree it would suck, I leveled 2 pairs using it, and granted my levels before the patch luckily, but legal recourse in this matter is not really an option.
Prauche Oct 21st 2008 4:38PM
A class action suit may very well lose. However, it was truly a deceptive trade practice if they had not actually gone back and fixed it. They promised X as an incentive to purchase. They then chose not to honor X but kept your money. That is a deceptive trade practice (in barebones form). It would survive long enough to force them to have to pay lawyers to answer any Complaints filed in any federal district courts -- i.e., it's cheaper to fix the code than pay the lawyers to respond to any legal action(s) that may be filed. Not to mention the bad publicity any lawsuit might garner.
Makros Oct 22nd 2008 9:58AM
I disagree with your "it would lose" statement. If you think for a second that long winded boilerplate EULA or TOS will hold up in court for very long you are sadly mistaken or a defense attorney. That's like saying that you can't sue a parking garage for negligence or fraud because the back of the ticket says you can't.
Zumacrume Oct 21st 2008 6:43PM
So are the levels really back? I finally got one of my long time friends to come back to the game and would love to get him past all the stuff he's already done in old world and get him to BC and WotLK. If new recruits aren't getting their levels...let me know!
~Zumacrume
Nick Oct 21st 2008 11:03PM
It was broken for me on Monday and I had 83 earned but not yet used recruit a friend levels.
Today after the maintenance it has been fixed for me.
Tom Oct 24th 2008 1:18AM
Is there a way to see how many levels you have banked? If I have one character that I leveled to 60 and another on the new account leveled to 30, can the level 60 grant 45 levels? Does anyone know how that is tracked?
kietnong Oct 22nd 2008 11:32AM
Logged on today after maintenance. I have 30 Levels to give away on my Level 64 Rogue, and it's still greyed out or it says 'You have no levels to give'. On the other hand, my friend's account still has 14 levels to give to me, and he cannot do the same.
I'm sure after Level 60, your levels are still stored and available, and that it's only the triple XP that disappears.
Anyone else still not able to grant the levels they earned?