Recruit a Zhevra

Several readers wrote me to tell me about Blizzard's new Recruit-a-Friend campaign for World of Warcraft. Unlike previous campaigns, where you'd basically get free days for recruiting random strangers, this one is actually designed to be useful for friends:

• Characters on both accounts can summon each other once per hour.
• While adventuring with your linked friend/family member, you will each gain triple experience.
• For every two levels the new player earns, the new player can grant one free level-up to a lower-level character played by the veteran player.

In addition the account sending out the invitation gets a free Zhevra mount, plus a free month of gameplay, if his friend subscribes to WoW. The "link" between the two friends lasts for 90 days, and the triple xp only work if you are grouped with your friend and doing non-trivial quests and monsters.

On the one hand this really helps to bring a friend into the game and level him up fast. On the other hand it tells a lot about Blizzard's vision for the game below the level cap: Best to skip it. In the Wrath of the Lich King beta the xp to level from 60 to 70 are halved. The time to level to 60 was already shortened. And now you can shorten it further by earning triple xp. The day where you can pay Blizzard $19.95 to instantly level up your character to the level cap isn't far away.