This month, I am your guest author for MMO Co-Opportunities. The past few months, I’ve been playing World of Warcraft again, something I’ve not done for several years. Tally asked me to share my experiences for the column. While I’ve always enjoyed Blizzard’s definitive take on the MMO, this time around, I’ve enjoyed it even more, since I have had a co-op partner along with me the whole way: my twelve year old son.
One of the reasons the two of us have enjoyed World of Warcraft so much this summer is the Recruit a Friend program. Turns out, the program is a great thing for family members, too. There are some very attractive benefits to Recruit a Friend, both in and out of game. Getting started with the program was easy; I reactivated my account, and used my Battle.net account management page to sent an invitation to the program. Creating a Starter Edition account for my son was easy using the link provided in this email invitation. A second account like this can be added to a previously existing account, which makes the whole process of management very smooth.
Starter Edition World of Warcraft accounts can play up to level 20 for free. During this time, they have some other limits, too, most notably not being able to trade items or whisper other players. Knowing that level 20 wouldn’t last very long, we upgraded my son’s account to a full one at the first opportunity. Blizzard is very good at getting you addicted to the game, and one instance of this was the oft-appearing notification to upgrade to a full account for a mere $5. As my son neared level 20, after only a few hours in game time, we upgraded, and then, the full benefits of the Recruit a Friend program kicked in.
The greatest of the Recruit a Friend benefits is the increased experience gain rate. When the veteran (referrer) and the recruit (referee) have characters that are grouped together, both characters receive three times the normal amount of experience for both killing monsters and questing. At this rate, the levels just fly by. My son and I were making two or three levels per sitting, sometimes in as little as an hour. We could afford to be picky about which quests to take, and we rarely followed a complete chain to completion before it greyed out on us. The best way to level for us was to find a zone intended for characters two levels higher, adventure until all quests turned green, and then move on. Levelling up truly didn’t feel like a grind at all, it was more of a whirlwind tour than a slow, plodding journey.
There are a few stipulations for the triple experience rate gain. First of all, both the veteran and the recruit must be using characters within four levels of each other. You have to be in the same physical location in the world, as well. The range is generous enough, though, that you never feel tethered to one another. Just don’t expect to group from across Azeroth and enjoy the accelerated rate. Lastly, once you reach level 80, the triple experience bonus ceases. You’ll have to gain those last ten levels at the normal pace.
While the perks of the triple experience rate are perhaps the most obvious, there are a few other benefits to the Recruit a Friend program. One of the most useful is the ability for paired characters to summon one another. The vet can summon the recruit, and vice versa. The cooldown for this summoning is 30 minutes. Between this summoning, using the hearthstone, and all the other aids, travel downtime is almost eliminated. The recruit can also grant free levels to the veteran, as long as the recruit is higher level. For every two levels the recruit gains, he or she can grant one free level to the veteran. The idea is that the recruit will adventure solo a bit, while the veteran might have a raid with another character. Granting levels like this makes it much easier to stay within the 4 level range for triple XP, as well as on the same quest chains. In our case, my son and I were only adventuring together, but I did use the free levels for a lower level alt, because why not?
You might think the enhanced XP gain, summoning, and free granted levels would be enough to make the Recruit a Friend program worthwhile, but there are two more benefits, one of the financial and one of the cosmetic variety. Once the recruit pays for the first month of World of Warcraft game time, the veteran gets a free month. That’s like $15 in your pocket, always nice in these times when we want to stretch our gaming dollar. The cosmetic benefit turns up after the recruit pays for a second month of game time. The veteran can then claim a unique in-game mount, the Obsidian Nightwing. Instead of summoning the mount, you actually BECOME the Nightwing, and your recruit can ride around on your back! I’m not too vain about mount appearance, but there’s no denying the cool factor here.
My son and I have enjoyed many hours of gaming time together in Azeroth this summer. Because of the easy levelling, we have been able to level up to 81, with 82 just over the horizon. He was particularly excited about making a Death Knight character, which requires having a level 55 character in another class. At first, I thought we’d never make it, but it really didn’t take too long at all. We haven’t experienced much raiding or dungeon grouping yet, but we are well on our way to seeing some of the more interesting end-game content.
World of Warcraft is a highly cooperative game by any measure, but the Recruit a Friend benefits make it even more conducive to playing with a friend. The experience rate increase, ability to summon, grantable levels, and free month of game time, as well as the unique mount, are tremendous incentives. If you have a friend or family member who has ever expressed any interest in Warcraft, give it a shot. There’s an awful lot of gaming value for your buck, and plenty of time to try before you buy, in any case. Before you know it, you and your buddy will be walking around in epic loot, fighting tough bosses, and worrying about what gear suits your build best, and having fun doing it.