Your Character Boost is NOT Free

The character boost to level 90 you will get when you buy Warlords is not free. Not in any way. People keep calling it free and for whatever reason that bothers the hell out of me. Perhaps it's because part of my job is teaching economics and personal finance, I don't know. But the more I hear the boost referred to as free the more it bugs me, hence this rant. The character boost is a feature of Warlords. One of many. When you pay $50 or whatever the expansion ends-up costing, you are purchasing the boost alongside garrisons, new zones, and an increased level cap. It is in no way free. It's a cool part of a cool game that anyone reading this blog will almost certainly buy. But if it were in any way free, wer would get it regardless of buying Warlords or not. It's really that simple. When I try to explain this to people, the common response is, "I was going to buy WoD anyway, so this is a free bonus." A bonus? Sure. Free? Not at all. You buy and pay for the whole game regardless of which parts you want or use. I would have bought MoP without pet battles, but that doesn't mean they were free for me. I leveled a character without going to Dread Wastes. Was that zone "free" for me? Hell no. If you never PvP, you still pay for new battlegrounds and the availability of PvP gear. The cost of developing and supporting the entire game is passed along to all of us, and this includes the level 90 boost. Let me explain it with a non-WoW example. You order a pizza. You never, ever eat the crust. It's just not your thing. If you pay the same price for the pizza as someone who loves the crust, you didn't get it for free, even if you were going to get that pizza anyway. Blizzard is a corporation. They shouldn't give us things for free, and they rightly never have. We purchase, and subscribe to, their wonderful game. Many times over the years they have added value to our subscriptions to keep us paying month after month.But let's be informed consumers and stop calling the boost free. It is not. /rant over