I know that many of the lurkers here are "past" WoW and many looking on to WAR, but I thought I'd drop a note to say that Blizzard has significantly buffed their invite-a-friend system.

Now, instead of just getting free play time if your friend signs up for real (after a ten day trial), you get some pretty sweet bonuses for playing with them (for the first 90 days).

Basically, it works like this: Invite a friend (using an email address). They sign up using the key they get from that invite. This causes those two accounts to be "linked" for the next 90 days.

While linked, you get:

- Triple XP whenever you adventure together. This works for quests and mobs, but only when you're within a few levels of each other. You can almost level faster just by making a trial account and having a second character follow you around just for the xp bonus.
- Summon each other once per hour. Like a warlock summon, but you don't need anybody else to assist in the summon.
- For every two levels the new player gains, they can grant a free level to one of the veteran player's characters (of a lower level).
- Some other random goodies, too.

This means:
- You can start characters of different races, then one of you summons the other, and you can play together from level 1.
- My girlfriend and I were levels 1 and 9 yesterday afternoon. Now, a little more than 24 hours later, we're both level 22, and additionally, I was able to boost one of her other characters from level 14 to 21 for free.
- The summons are handy for getting new characters to hard-to-reach flight points for the first time. I also saved 15 minutes of walking by summoning my new auction bot straight to Ironforge. Also, the summons and free levels allow the veteran player to switch off between two classes and still stay together (I don't know what purpose Blizzard added the free levels for... they're kind of just icing on the cake).
- Beware that trial accounts cannot trade or get mail, so money will be very tight for training. You move three times as fast through levels, but you don't get any extra coin to train with. I imagine Blizzard will do something about this, as I had to skimp on skills before I upgraded my account (it can take a few hours before the trade restrictions are removed).

Anyway, we're having a lot of fun with the new system. Came at a perfect time for us (just as we were starting to game together).

So glad I cancelled my WoW acct last year, that game was all about 'da [purples]. hehe. Horrible type of end-game.

The upcoming expansion looks interesting with the seige and all that, but, hopefully Warhammer will keep our interest for a few years.