Blizzard unveils changes to WoW recruit-a-friend program

Dang, they must be scared of all of the other good MMOs out....

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.

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?

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).

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.

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.

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.