WoW raid boosts are a common if controversial practice, and Blizzard co-lead is getting involved

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People paying in-game money for powerful players to “take” them through the higher-level content of World of Warcraft has been a common practice in the game for years, but the reveal that Blizzard co-head is participating in the practice has sparked a new flurry of discussion about “raid enhancers” within the community.

The talk started when Mike Ybarra, Blizzard co-head and former Xbox vice president, recently installed. tweeted a few days ago he would be broadcasting his WoW guild’s “heroic SoD sales race”. For those who don’t play WoW, this is Ybarra’s advertising that he would be broadcasting his guild by playing through the game’s most recent raid, Sanctum of Domination, on Heroic Difficulty.

The “sales” bit indicates that your guild group will include some people who paid in-game gold to be there, rather than joining or gathering a high-level group to overcome the challenge themselves.

What is Raid Boosting?

This practice is known as “raid reinforcement” and has been common in World of Warcraft for years. Like most MMORPGs, WoW has multiple levels of difficulty for its raids. And while options have been added over the years so that players who don’t necessarily have highly trained guilds behind their backs at least see the story and boss content available, the highest difficulty levels (Heroic and Mythic, currently ) require serious coordination. and a specific number of people who play certain roles to finish.

Unless you’re in the upper echelons of WoW players, finishing a raid at this level can cost a lot of in-game guild gold to purchase potions and other necessary items, not to mention the weeks and weeks of preparation and practice required to drop. . the most difficult bosses in a raid.

For those who can manage to eliminate them, the rewards for high-level content are substantial: stronger gear, other cosmetic rewards like mounts, in-game prestige achievements, and sometimes even additional story content, dialogues, or additional boss encounters. that maybe you can’t. see easier modes. So it’s only natural for players to covet them.

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But if you don’t have the time, skill, interest, or energy to put an end to these time-consuming raids, then pay in-game gold for those who do to take you through a raid once or twice to get the things you need. wanting seems like a reasonable solution. It also benefits the guilds, who empty their coffers in raid after raid to finish them off the first few times and will necessarily need to refill them before the next raid is released.

But there are a few reasons why the momentum of the raids and Ybarra’s involvement in it has angered people. The first, somewhat less common view is that the raid drive cheapens the experience for those who get “legitimate” kills through skill, time, and teamwork. It can be frustrating to see someone pay the same rewards that it took you weeks to earn.

Another problem is that the game’s “party finder” tool, intended for players to use to find others with similar abilities and interests to clear raids or dungeons, tends to get bogged down in ads for raid boosters, making it difficult to use it. But while the annoyance over these issues is certainly valid, they aren’t the main reason some members of the WoW community are raising their eyebrows at Ybarra.

The WoW Token Dilemma

In 2015, during WoW’s Warlords of Draenor expansion, Blizzard added a controversial new item to World of Warcraft: the WoW Token. The WoW Token is an item that players can purchase for real money, which can be redeemed for one month of playtime. It can then be sold in-game to another player for in-game gold, essentially allowing players to convert real money to gold or spend in-game gold to maintain their WoW subscription. The real money price of a WoW token is set at $ 20, while the in-game sale price of gold is set by the game, but fluctuates based on supply and demand. In the US, it has been sitting in the vicinity of 200,000 gold lately.

TO post on the World of Warcraft forums from the Ybarra guild, Denial of Service, indicates that leading someone through a Heroic Sanctum of Domination race costs the individual 300,000 gold, with an additional 75,000 gold per boss for the group to “funnel” the loot to the payer, or essentially having everyone in the raid party give them whatever items the boss drops that they can reasonably use, rather than just letting them roll the dice on what they collect individually.

A player could certainly earn that amount of gold on their own, but a much faster way would be to purchase WoW Tokens, effectively paying Blizzard $ 40 or more just to attack with their co-leader’s guild and receive certain desired items from bosses that they kill.

Denial of Service is not responsible in their post that they do not sell real money races, as accepting real money directly for a race would be a violation of Blizzard’s terms of service. The WoW Token system somehow allows players to get around that, and it has for years. While some argue that the WoW Token is essentially legitimizing an illicit practice, others point out that the existence of the WoW Token has helped curb more shady practices, as those who want to buy and sell gold in-game for real money have a safe way. and legitimate. place to go to do it. As opposed to resorting to more shady tactics or websites.

Raid Boosting’s mixed reputation

Ultimately, the Ybarra guild is doing something that has been incredibly normal in World of Warcraft for expansions now, especially as the game’s economy has made it increasingly costly for guilds like Denial of Service to finish tier raids. high. As their post states, “We make these sales to help with Mythic progression, as the gold goes towards crafting Jars, Feasts, Vantus Runes, Potions, and BoE gear. Every race you book with us goes toward killing new bosses. So thank you for supporting us! “

Some players are not only indifferent to Ybarra’s involvement in the raid booster, they are delighted. After all, a member of Blizzard’s leadership is publicly, actively playing the game at its highest level, streaming it, and interacting with the community while doing so. For them, this means that the highest levels of the company are committed to the community and aware of the struggles that high-level guilds face, an awareness that may one day translate into positive change for players like them.

But Ybarra, a senior Blizzard employee who is specifically involved in raid boosts, has reopened a pre-existing community debate about whether boosts and how gold is exchanged for them are healthy for the World of Warcraft experience as a whole. , What this Reddit thread on the subject shows. All of this also comes at a time when Blizzard is already under intense scrutiny from all angles due to an ongoing lawsuit targeting the company’s toxic culture and harassment allegations.

Although common practice, the active involvement of Blizzard’s co-director has players who no longer liked the practice, frustrated with the more active endorsement of it, and desperate that something would ever be done to address the issues. design, balance and game economy. surround it.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @Patovalentino.



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