Sneak Peek: Guardian Cub Tradable Pet
A new pet is coming to a Blizzard Store near you and ... you can trade it and sell it at the auction house!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Coming soon to a Pet Store near you: the new and titanically cute Guardian Cub companion. You’ve soared across Azeroth on the majestic Winged Guardian. Soon, you'll be able to purchase a pint-sized Guardian of the Titans sidekick to accompany you on your adventures.


Stunning good looks and adorable, supersized eyes aren’t all this new pet has going for it. The Guardian Cub is also the Pet Store's first tradable pet, meaning it can be swapped between characters in-game or given as a gift to guildmates, friends, family, or that special someone -- no adoption papers necessary. Due to his finicky nature, each Guardian Cub will only give its allegiance to one owner, meaning it’s a one-time-use pet that permanently binds to a single character. Be sure to choose a master wisely.

Look for the Guardian Cub to arrive in the Blizzard Store in the weeks ahead -- in the meantime, we've prepped a mini-FAQ to explain how this flying friend will differ from other Pet Store companions.

Q: How does the Guardian Cub pet work? How is it different from other Pet Store pets?

Unlike the other Pet Store companions, the Guardian Cub is a tradable, one-time-use pet that permanently binds to a single character upon use. When you purchase the Guardian Cub from the online store, the character you designate will receive a bind-on-use item to carry in his or her inventory. You can either use the item yourself to permanently add the pet to your character's collection (consuming the item in the process), or -- after a brief initial cooldown period -- you can trade the item to another player so he or she can add it to one of their character's collections. Note that once the pet has been added to a character's Companions list, it can no longer be traded, so make sure you're giving the cub a happy home.


Q: Will I be able to carry more than one Guardian Cub at a time?

While a character can only have one Guardian Cub in his or her Companions list, you can have as many in your inventory as you like. Please note that Guardian Cub items do not stack, so each one will take up a bag or bank slot.


Q: How much will the Guardian Cub cost in the Pet Store?

The Guardian Cub will be priced the same as the other Pet Store pets ($10 USD). All sales of the Guardian Cub are final -- no refunds will be given once a purchase is made.


Q: Why did you decide to make the Guardian Cub tradable?

Since the introduction of the Pet Store, many players have been asking for ways to get the companions we offer there without having to spend real-world cash. By making the Guardian Cub tradable (much like the BoE mounts from the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game), players interested in the new pet will have fun, alternative in-game ways to get one. In addition to trading the pet, players can give the Guardian Cub as a gift to another character for a special occasion; guild leaders can use them to reward members for a job well done; and so on. We also hope this change will help reduce the number of incidents of scamming via trading for invalid pet codes.


Q: Could I put the Guardian Cub up on the auction house to try to make some gold if I wanted to?

While our goal is to offer players alternative ways to add a Pet Store pet to their collection, we’re ok with it if some players choose to use the Guardian Cub as a safe and secure way to try to acquire a little extra in-game gold without turning to third-party gold-selling services. However, please keep in mind that there's never any guarantee that someone will purchase what you put up for sale in the auction house, or how much they'll pay for it. Also, it’s important to note that we take a firm stance against buying gold from outside sources because in most cases, the gold these companies offer has been stolen from compromised accounts. (You can read more about our stance here.) While some players might be able to acquire some extra gold by putting the Guardian Cub in the auction house, that’s preferable to players contributing to the gold-selling “black market” and account theft.


Q: Are you changing the other available Pet Store pets (e.g. Lil' Ragnaros, the Pandaren Monk) to work this way?

No, the other available Pet Store pets will continue to work as they always have.


Q: What about future Pet Store pets?

It's too early to say how we'll handle future Pet Store pets. We made this change in response to feedback from players looking for alternate ways to get the Pet Store pets, and we're always looking into other opportunities for improvement. We're interested in hearing what players think of the Guardian Cub when it launches, and we hope you'll have fun with this new flying friend.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Sneak Peek: Guardian Cub Tradable Pet started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 729 Comments
  1. OriginZero's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by MasterHamster View Post
    How is this "buying gold" when no gold is GENERATED? =)
    Funny people.
    It's not buying gold. People are just being silly.

    They don't understand how the process of "buying gold" works these days. Farmers don't actually "farm" gold. They compromise accounts. That's where the bulk of the gold comes from. The compromised accounts are restored, and thus the gold is duplicated. This increases extra gold. Gold is being created in this case.

    Blizzard likely isn't able to reclaim gold in these cases, or not enough that makes a dent in the market. How many people do you know that buys gold? How many have had it removed? How many people do you know buys pets when offered for gold?

    This is a good way to go in my opinion. Sure, someone with real life money can convert it to gold, sort of; however, if there is a demand for the pet, why not? At least the gold isn't being magically generated. In the case of this pet, someone else has to earn gold at least.
  1. mmoc80b35b5c2d's Avatar
    So they finally did it. They legalised buying /selling gold. Thankgod i quit that abomination of a game.
  1. Tehgypsy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by MasterHamster View Post
    How is this "buying gold" when no gold is GENERATED? =)
    Funny people.
    People are assuming you can buy the shitty pet for $10, then sell it for 20,000 gold..therefore buying gold in exchange for a crap pet.. In reality, the pet will be worth much less, so the pet for gold is not my concern, its the floodgates that are about ready to burst with buyable armor/weapons etc from the blizztard store.
  1. mmoc80b35b5c2d's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tehgypsy View Post
    People are assuming you can buy the shitty pet for $10, then sell it for 20,000 gold..therefore buying gold in exchange for a crap pet.. In reality, the pet will be worth much less, so the pet for gold is not my concern, its the floodgates that are about ready to burst with buyable armor/weapons etc from the blizztard store.
    It doesnt matter how much gold it sells for ingame. They have started legalizing gold selling in WoW. It's a fast, downhill slope from now on.
  1. Rawt's Avatar
    Really glad i quit this game.
  1. sourmonkey's Avatar
    Purchasable items with real life currency to profit in a virtual economy . All it is people put too much weight on this game like it will ultimately change there real life if this goes through . To counter supply and demand is to cut out all demand let the idiots sit on there pets while dust collects on them . Like me I will not buy one for 10 nor would I give 1g for one.
  1. Adramalech's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tehgypsy View Post
    People are assuming you can buy the shitty pet for $10, then sell it for 20,000 gold..therefore buying gold in exchange for a crap pet.. In reality, the pet will be worth much less, so the pet for gold is not my concern, its the floodgates that are about ready to burst with buyable armor/weapons etc from the blizztard store.
    Even if the pet was worth 20k, or hell, let's go ahead and say some people are willing to pay 100k for it. No gold is being generated from nowhere to pay for the item. There's still a player paying for it. The gold is merely moved. It's no different from John Lucky bumping into Poseidus, looting the mount and trying to sell it. Except for this pet, you have to give up real money. It still doesn't qualify as selling gold, and the person has no guarantees of being able to sell the pet, or even for any worthwhile price.

    As for the future, I can't comment on that. I honestly don't think they'd do that, but if they do I see one of two things happening: either a massive amount of people complaining, Real ID style, and having it cancelled, or it goes ahead and there's an absolute and irrecoverable drop in subs.

    Like some people said a few pages back, I wouldn't be surprised to see armor and weapons without any stats on the store, flagged for transmogrification purposes, but that, like this pet, wouldn't really hurt.


    I'll be off for now, have fun around here everyone. (Not being sarcastic, despite the thread I'm saying this on <.<)
  1. mucher's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tehgypsy View Post
    People are assuming you can buy the shitty pet for $10, then sell it for 20,000 gold..therefore buying gold in exchange for a crap pet.. In reality, the pet will be worth much less, so the pet for gold is not my concern, its the floodgates that are about ready to burst with buyable armor/weapons etc from the blizztard store.
    It's still just a currency shift/flux, and not actually inducing gold. That gold already existed in the servers economy. This is not to say the outcome is not similar to selling gold, because it could cause inflation in the servers economy at the exchange rate you mentioned. Luckily we don't have to worry about that.
  1. Tehgypsy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by OriginZero View Post
    It's not buying gold. People are just being silly.

    They don't understand how the process of "buying gold" works these days. Farmers don't actually "farm" gold. They compromise accounts. That's where the bulk of the gold comes from. The compromised accounts are restored, and thus the gold is duplicated. This increases extra gold. Gold is being created in this case.

    Blizzard likely isn't able to reclaim gold in these cases, or not enough that makes a dent in the market. How many people do you know that buys gold? How many have had it removed? How many people do you know buys pets when offered for gold?

    This is a good way to go in my opinion. Sure, someone with real life money can convert it to gold, sort of; however, if there is a demand for the pet, why not? At least the gold isn't being magically generated. In the case of this pet, someone else has to earn gold at least.
    This is what blizztard want you to think...but in reality there are lots of people who do exactly that..
  1. Idoru's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by renegadeimp View Post
    It doesnt matter how much gold it sells for ingame. They have started legalizing gold selling in WoW. It's a fast, downhill slope from now on.
    Yeah .... This slope started with paid character transfers (according to the doomsayers of those days), so it can't really be that fast, or steep.
  1. Puremallace's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by MasterHamster View Post
    How is this "buying gold" when no gold is GENERATED? =)
    Funny people.
    The reason is simple:
    1. hmmz pet on the broker for 5k gold
    2. man that cost 10$ through Blizzard, but this site sells 5k gold for 5$

    Blizzard justifying this as a way to not goto a RMT site is beyond silly and a cash grab.
  1. Venism's Avatar
    I smell a cash shop! -uses therallions old voice- OOOoooOOoooooOO!
  1. protiddhoni's Avatar
    I personally don't care much about Blizzards sales tactics. They are out to make money they will do what they see fit. Its their game after all. The consumers have a choice to play or not... so long story short kudos on getting in on the gold selling niche. Smart business move.and yet... the concept of legalising Real money to gold is what is not sitting well with me. The pet itself won't make or break the economy. What is to be seen is where this ends. If its just small vanity items like this, the consumer base is finite. Replace BoU pets with gear and that's where the game hits the low point. They will have to make it free to play though if that happens. The game is nearing its end as is but then again I thought it had ran its course during WotLK.Beginning of the end? I hope so! The world needs a new WoW.
  1. mordredz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by renegadeimp View Post
    So they finally did it. They legalised buying /selling gold. Thankgod i quit that abomination of a game.
    L8tr, wont be missed
  1. Mumba's Avatar
    People who quit because of this are 1. not leaving 2. silly 3. doesn't realise that this is nothing like bying gold. This will not have any real effect on the current market since no gold is generated which is the major problem with gold bying. Basically when someone buys gold the value of gold is reduced and that makes it a bitch for people who doesn't buy gold. Also, don't forget that bying items for auction isn't something new. Remember the TCG-items (even though those were mostly sold on eBay) Even if I think bying pets/mount/etc is just stupid I still support this pet. A better discussion would be how hard to kick Blizzard in the balls for charging server switching, especially at those prices.
  1. Phuongvi's Avatar
    I still reading this forum/website in the hope one day they will put something interesting to WoWIt keep getting worse each time they put something new.I bet at the Blizzcon news, we will have a good laugh
  1. Muldour's Avatar
    all i can do is laugh at the fact that people are actually going to buy these things...put them up on the AH for thousands of gold...and just watch them fly off the shelf in the first week or so that they are released...after that...they won't move and will be selling for like $100 at most.in short...ppl should just not buy them so i can just make all the gold on the AH :P
  1. Chudah's Avatar
    For those saying this isn't buying gold, you're right, it's not. It's more like laundering (the strict definition of the word without connotations) your real life money into in-game gold. A commentor on WOW-Insider explained it better than I can, so I will quote him here:
    This reminds me of money laundering, only nerdier. Money laundering occurs in three stages: Placement, Layering, and Integration. In this case you want to launder your USD as Gold: 1 - Placement - Pay Blizzard $10 / 2 - Layering - Money is "converted" into a Guardian Cub / 3 - Integration - Guardian Cub sold on the AH; USD converted.
    The only difference in this case is that Blizzard is letting you do it legally, and the person doing the laundering assumes all of the risk. What worries me is that if this does well enough in Blizzard's eyes, where are they going to draw the line? At what point do they take the "layering" out of the equation and let you go directly to paying that $10 for a set amount of in-game gold? Or worse yet, change their philosophy on what type of items they're willing to sell for real money? Heirlooms? BoE epics?
  1. ro9ue's Avatar
    I'm currently unsubscribed, but the 4.3 LFR, mogging and now this are enticing me to come back. However if I did want to sell one of these I'd pick one up and just see what happens, but I do plan on seeing like 500 of these on AH the first week.
  1. chuck123's Avatar
    if you have nothing better to complain about, you are either a very lucky or sad person

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