Blizzard unveils changes to WoW recruit-a-friend program
by Michael Zenke 
Aug 5th 2008 at 5:00PM
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy
- Recruited players are now 'linked' to the player account the invitation was sent from.
- Grouping with a linked player allows both of you to level very quickly. As long as your character and the recruit character are relatively even level, you'll both recieve 3x the normal experience.
- Recruiting players can summon their friends to them once an hour, via a spell, up to level 60.
- For every two levels a recruited player earns, he can grant one level to a character played by the veteran. This character must be lower level than the recruit player's character.
- If the recruit upgrades to a full account from the 10-day trial, these benefits last a full 90 days.
- If the recruit buys a two month subscription as well as upgrading, the recruiting player is granted a unique Zhevra mount.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
George said on 6:06PM 8-05-2008
Dang, they must be scared of all of the other good MMOs out....
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Aein said on 6:19PM 8-05-2008
Although I agree with all the other points, I think the Zhevra mount is a very bad idea, unless they put in some other way for current players to earn it. Some people are very mount-crazy, and I think a mount which is unable to obtain due to the fact they've played the game from the beginning... is just totally stupid.
Isn't really like it needs faster levelling anyway, with 3x exp you could both get to 70 within the 10 days I reckon.
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The Claw said on 7:40PM 8-05-2008
I don't understand Aein, from the description above, it sounds like anyone can get a Zhevra mount, you just need to recruit someone and get them to sign up for two months.
csavarda said on 7:50PM 8-05-2008
You know how many people are going to create a new account, recruit themselves, then pay the $30 so their main can have the mount. For those who can't help themselves and OMG MUST HAVE every single vanity item they can get their hands on, that will work fine for them.
60% or 100% though?
PeterD said on 8:13PM 8-05-2008
Why does that whole thing reek of desperation? I don't think I've ever heard of any MMO offering so much to boost subscriptions, let alone the most successful MMO of all time. Are they really that scared of WAR?
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csavarda said on 10:29PM 8-05-2008
They aren't desperate. If they were desperate they'd be giving away free months of gameplay a la EQ2 and SWG.
This is just a case of "we're #1 and we want to stay that way."
Rocktober said on 8:44AM 8-06-2008
I can see your point Aein, but at the same time I don't think it's really all that terrible. Afterall, just how many people got a Deathcharger or Swift Zulian Tiger eventhough they've been playing since the beginning? And then there's the loot card mounts that you can't get by playing the game either..
However, I do think that the rate they throw out XP lately is kind of lame.. I get that people are soon going to be working up to lvl 80, and through a 2nd expansion, but at the same time... Eh. (And yes, I know it can be a loooong ride from 1-60/70 with several alts).
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Waiting... said on 10:09AM 8-06-2008
WAR couldn't push its deadline back any farther because of WotLK - anyone that doesn't see that link isn't looking at things from a business perspective.
Now that WAR's coming, I find it interesting watching Blizz's responses - and anyone that doesn't see the link isn't looking at things from a business perspective.
AoC did draw a decent group out of WoW, it just didn't keep them because of the unfinished state. I think this might have shown some Blizz execs how vulnerable they are right now to losing subs, at least for the short term.
WAR is highly anticipated, and reports are that it is highly polished (though we won't know until the NDA drop/Open Beta opens). It has lower system req's than AoC does so it's open to a wider market. I won't go so far as to say an entire company is scared - but I'm sure there are a few concerned individuals who will be looking at numbers very closely over these next few months.
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John said on 3:29AM 8-10-2008
WAR polished... HAHHAHAHAHHA (and I have talked with people playing it)
Maybe you missed the annoucement where they gutted the game to even TRY to make their deadline. If they had to get rid of 4 Major cities which were to be central to the game, and 4 classes how much "polishing" do you think they will have time for.... They are just trying to scrap enough together to complete what they can for a November launch...
It will be the same as AoC bunch of people will leave, two weeks later most of them will be back...
Waiting... said on 11:44AM 8-10-2008
No John, I didn't miss anything. Quite the opposite actually - I've been keeping on top of everything that comes out on the game and have been reading reviews from people at conventions and from the few folks that can actually talk about the game so far.
So as of right now I choose to believe those other first hand accounts over your supposed friends' first hand accounts. At least the professional ones have a decent amount of explanation behind them giving some context for their thoughts and opinions. And soon I'll have my own first hand accounts to make my mind up with.
Honestly, I don't see why everyone isn't pulling for this game to be good. A little competition might, just might now, make WoW a better game in the long run. It's not like they can't co-exist - it's quite possible and probable they they will.
Leshrac said on 12:02PM 8-06-2008
My problem right now with WoW, is that the lower level areas are simply dead. My wife has a level 20'ish character and its virtually impossible to find anyone for her to group with. Then they add features like this; where players are leveling like mad thru all of the content, and its very concerning. IMHO - the early stuff was the best content around; Shadowfang Keep, Deadmines, etc.
Do I think they're concerned with WHO? Yes, they wouldn't be smart business men if they didn't understand their competition. And WHO will pull a larger number of people from WoW then AoC did. But WoW has a 4 year head start on WHO.
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Gabe said on 6:37PM 10-23-2008
Ive been playing wow for 3 years now and I actually stopped playing WoW, bought WAR and played it. I came to the realisation that if you're ready to pay 15$ a month to play a video game, then get WoW. True, War may have better innovations, public quests, xp when you kill a player in PvP, but overall it lacks the awesomness from WoW.
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