New Stuff Coming to the Pet Store!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We’ve got some new stuff coming to the Pet Store, and we wanted to give everyone a quick sneak peek. Obviously, the Pet Store has been the place where we sell pets and mounts, but we’ve come up with some new types of cosmetic goodies, including some fun new little toys and Transmogrifiables.

First up: a trio of cosmetic helms for Transmogrification. ( Jewel of the Firelord, Hood of Hungering Darkness, and Crown of Eternal Winter) When Transmog went into the game, people immediately started talking about the possibility of just buying armor looks. So we’re going ahead and forging a few helms and seeing how they fit. They don’t have any stats, they’re just for looks, and you can use them to change the appearance of the helms for any characters of any class or race (they work with all armor types). They’re great for spicing up a Transmog set—or replacing a tier head piece you hate the looks of. No need to check that ‘Hide Helm’ box any longer!




Here are a few images, but keep in mind that these are all special-effecty and animated in a really cool way. You may have even seen these models pop up on Wowhead or MMO-Champion earlier this year.

We’re also trying out something else new. A lot of people have liked the kinds of fun, limited-use items you can get from the WoW TCG—so we’re taking that idea to the Pet Store. Soon you’ll be able to snag two fun new little toys: the Seesaw and Iron Hitching Post!

You can jump on the Seesaw with a party member and relive the childhood glee of trying to slam your friend into the ground . . . or you can have a big ogre named Lunk launch them into the air. Really, though, you’ll probably just look super cute gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes. D’awwwww.


True story: Worgen are exactly the same weight as Ogres.

The Iron Hitching Post is a little different: It’s an item you set down that allows you and up to 24 of your closest raiding cohorts to each jump on your own new unearthly Iron Warhorse mount. You can use it for smaller parties too, and it’s also great for Battlegrounds. Imagine the look on your opponents’ faces when they see a unified front of ghost horses galloping toward them . . . just to ruin everything and capture Snowfall Graveyard. (STOP IT!)




Hyah ghost-steed! Later I’ll feed you some ghost-oats in the ghost-barn.

We don’t have specific release dates for any of these items yet, but you can expect to see them show up in the Pet Store in the near future.

Let us know what you think, and what other kinds of fun and cosmetic items you might like to see in the Pet Store in the comments below!
This article was originally published in forum thread: New Stuff Coming to the Pet Store! started by chaud View original post
Comments 795 Comments
  1. Gracos's Avatar
    I'm sorry, I just really don't like this trend. Pets that started off for charity? Fine. Mounts? Not happy about it, but okay. Now really unique and arguably highly detailed cosmetic items? Stop right there. This stuff should be in the game. I already pay $15 a month. Why does Blizzard get away with charging a hefty subscription fee and also charging for all these "F2P" goodies? WoW is not a F2P game. Such unique looking models have always been a sign of prestige. You got them off a very hard boss, or by completing a difficult achievement. Now it's all bought with cash. I don't like it one bit.
  1. Val's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Amerrol View Post
    Because CM gear is not tier, which is what I was talking about.

    If the current tier looked good, people would use that, transmog or not. It's not like transmog came out yesterday. If someone wanted to wear old gear they have been doing so for a while now. Yet you don't see them switching to the new tier.

    25 players doesn't cover the entire WoW population, but I'm not blind and can use my eyes when I'm in a major city. Expecting me to somehow know what the entire WoW population is doing is unrealistic and a stupid arguement. My evidence may be anecdotal, but at least it is evidence. What do you have?
    The same anecdotal evidence that you do. Which is the opposite from what you claim.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by lunchbox2042 View Post
    If you can't earn it, buy it.
    Considering those models aren't in-game...that's...kind of the point?

    I don't get it.
  1. mmoc4359933d3d's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Val View Post
    To those complaining;

    Do you get mad at your TV manufacturer because you have to pay monthly for cable/satellite? What about those providers? Do you get mad because sports packages and movie channels are extra? What about your computer manufacturer? Do you get mad because you have to pay monthly for internet access?
    Not even remotely the same thing.

    This is more like Blizzard (The cable company) who I pay a fee to, to access all of the content they are producing, suddenly turns around and charges me extra to watch a certain program on their service.

    Nobody does that. When I buy into a Sky package and get the movie channel, I don't get extra bills through for new movies that they add into their rotation.

    Blizzard is literally the only company I can think of who gets away with charging a subscription to access what is supposed to be all of their content, and then (frankly) extortionate fees for additional "extras" that "aren't essential". These helmets will not be $2 a pop like a piece of costume DLC for a different game might be. These will be $10 MINIMUM because they know that stupid people will buy into it.
  1. mmoc26ec95b6c6's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Val View Post
    If that happens, then people will quit and the game will die. THen people will move on to other games. That's the cycle of MMOs. Your point is? Do you expect to be playing this game when you're 60? I don't understand why people make such a big deal out of this.

    If you don't like it, then stop playing and find a new game. If you do like it, then buy the items and enjoy.

    End of story.
    The thing is blizz is going to do it anyway, even if like people quit due to it. So there is no point arguing about it, because it might turn out to be really good if wow ever goes f2p and they got everything set up already. And im not making a big deal out of it, its just like imo its really dumb to have a store for cosmetic stuff or maybe even exp boosts in a game with a monthly fee. And adding this at this time doesn't help gaining or keeping subs at the game in any way.
  1. Hitei's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Valarius View Post
    Not even remotely the same thing.

    This is more like Blizzard (The cable company) who I pay a fee to, to access all of the content they are producing, suddenly turns around and charges me extra to watch a certain program on their service.

    Nobody does that. When I buy into a Sky package and get the movie channel, I don't get extra bills through for new movies that they add into their rotation.

    Blizzard is literally the only company I can think of who gets away with charging a subscription to access what is supposed to be all of their content, and then (frankly) extortionate fees for additional "extras" that "aren't essential". These helmets will not be $2 a pop like a piece of costume DLC for a different game might be. These will be $10 MINIMUM because they know that stupid people will buy into it.
    Starts charging you extra?

    What an awful analogy.
    If you're going to compare Blizzard to a cable company, then it's like you have a deluxe package, and the pet store is Pay per view newly released movies.
  1. Shaley's Avatar
    The people saying "microtransactions have no place in a subscription game" are the best. Says who? Who are any of you to say what is or isn't right for business?

    No one is going to unsub because of this. Anyone who says they will is just looking for reasons to unsub in the first place, and were going to pin it on the first convenient thing. People who come to the forums and rage and declare to the hundreds of people who read a particular thread that "This is the last straw!" "I quit!" "I'm unsubscribing!" have been ITCHING for a reason to quit.

    "Virtual Realms? Fuck this noise, I'm unsubscribing!"
    "Cosmetic pay shop? Fuck it, I'm done."
    "Only 14 raid bosses in Orgrimmar instead of 15? Fuck it, not worth my time"
    "Flex raiding for my alts, and friends&family? Fuck it, dirty casuals"
    "Defense of the Alehouse, an improperly data-mined battle ground isn't in 5.4? Fuck it, false advertisements."

    If you guys really meant it, you'd quit without any noise. Running to the forums and expressing displeasure for something so trivial as cosmetics that are completely optional is akin to a 2 year old throwing a tantrum at the grocery store because her mommy won't buy her cookies.
  1. mmocb2ea88a996's Avatar
    You know I've been holding on to this sweet little item since Classic.
    Got it on a greed roll for RP after all our hunters had their own.
    http://www.wowhead.com/item=18817
    Couldn't bring myself to part with it even before transmog.

    Ofc I can't use it for transmog because of armor class restrictions put for subscription players to extend the transmog grind.
    (got to keep those subs going fellas)

    But! /wave the magical credit cart wand and all restrictions and "technical hurdles" go "poof"

    Happy to see my subscription money going to develop content I can't get on the subscription... I sure am!
    That's the glory of free market, the enterprise is free to screw you and you're free to buy lube (*)

    * Dropping the subscription instead and starting a romance with other gaming companies.
  1. Noden's Avatar
    Honestly when I first saw the helm of winter I was stoked for it. I thought it looked great and started building an xmog set around it on my warrior. However now that I see I would have to pay cash for it I could care less. Once a real dollar price point was put on it I saw that I don't like it. Sad thing is I will see plenty of people running around with these helms meaning that the blizzard art team will spend more time working on xmog sets and less time overall on the tier sets. I love transmogrification and it's one of my favorite features in the game but honestly this is a way to kill the feature.
  1. Thundermoose's Avatar
    Just to do a TL: DR for most of the arguments that are going to appear in this thread.

    Group 1: Lol, you are poor. I'm rich. Or well, so I claim on the internet. I don't have time to play 24/7, but I want stuff.

    Group 2: Lol, paying for pixels. Talk about feeding your addiction much. Shouldn't this be in the game anyways? It's not F2P, you know.

    Group 3: Wait... Where's the Pr0n?
  1. Ineluki's Avatar
    Meh, this shit will probably clip through all the other armor like most of the tier/pvp sets they make. There are only a few helms that I even enable. Though I have to agree that overall its a slippery slope and Blizz needs to be careful.
  1. Shaley's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Drii View Post
    You know I've been holding on to this sweet little item since Classic.
    Got it on a greed roll for RP after all our hunters had their own.
    http://www.wowhead.com/item=18817
    Couldn't bring myself to part with it even before transmog.

    Ofc I can't use it for transmog because of armor class restrictions put for subscription players to extend the transmog grind.
    (got to keep those subs going fellas)

    But! /wave the magical credit cart wand and all restrictions and "technical hurdles" go "poof"

    Happy to see my subscription money going to develop content I can't get on the subscription... I sure am!
    That's the glory of free market, the enterprise is free to screw you and you're free to buy lube (*)

    * Dropping the subscription instead and starting a romance with other gaming companies.
    The best thing is that you typed this nonsense out immediately after I posted what I did. Thank you. I mean it.
  1. mmoc4359933d3d's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Soratrox View Post
    Starts charging you extra?

    What an awful analogy.
    If you're going to compare Blizzard to a cable company, then it's like you have a deluxe package, and the pet store is Pay per view newly released movies.
    Pay per view charges aren't set by a cable company though; they're set by the manufacturer of a separate product (Ooh let's say a WWE show for example) because that's how they generate revenue.

    Blizzard isn't regularly a platform for other services now, is it? Your point would make sense if other artists were creating items for sale through the store; they're not though.

    You pay them a sub, which has traditionally allowed you access to anything/everything they develop in-house (TCG actually does match your point btw; it's a tie-in product created by *another* company who charges you for it, and a perk is provided in-game, but Blizzard themselves don't directly take money from you for the item). During Wrath they started allowing mounts to creep on, then pets for charity, then pets purely for profit and now we have them claiming "oh this art is too much work" and "oh that art is coming along, but limited artists and such you know " then you have shit like this coming out, off the back of an absolutely abysmal tier preview for T16 (don't even dare try telling me a single one of those sets even matches their respective class).

    The analogy stands, you just assumed "the cable company" is who sets PPV charges. They aren't.
  1. Gegan's Avatar
    So when is this stupid game going FTP so it can justify the expanded real money store?
  1. Anjerith's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Valarius View Post
    Blizzard is literally the only company I can think of who gets away with charging a subscription to access what is supposed to be all of their content, and then (frankly) extortionate fees for additional "extras" that "aren't essential". These helmets will not be $2 a pop like a piece of costume DLC for a different game might be. These will be $10 MINIMUM because they know that stupid people will buy into it.
    If people want to spend 10 of their earned dollars on a cosmetic item, who are you to say they are stupid? Also, given that it is entirely optional (believe it or not) you can't really even refer to it as "Extortionate" pricing... since it is a voluntary, unnecessary item.

    Here is a (better) analogy;
    You are out of gas.
    You must purchase gas.
    You see a candy bar you want while paying for the gas that you need.
    You can buy that candy bar if you so desire it/have the money for it - otherwise you must pass on said lovely piece of chocolate delight.
  1. Xiphan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by rogueMatthias View Post
    for people worried that Blizzard are going to put all the really cool models in the shop and won't spend as much effort on tier+PVP sets, I've put the latest PVP sets together w]ith the masks!
    Those comparisons were a little unfair.



    There's still a bunch of great gear coming for PVP and PVE. Some helms that lock lacklustre on their own work well within the completed set too, like the Priest and Warrior S14.
    They have to create entire, coherently themed sets for tiers to a likely tighter deadline, whereas the transmog helms are isolated, one-off pieces that raid patches won't be so dependant on getting done so the patch can be released.
  1. mmoc26ec95b6c6's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shaley View Post
    The people saying "microtransactions have no place in a subscription game" are the best. Says who? Who are any of you to say what is or isn't right for business?

    No one is going to unsub because of this. Anyone who says they will is just looking for reasons to unsub in the first place, and were going to pin it on the first convenient thing. People who come to the forums and rage and declare to the hundreds of people who read a particular thread that "This is the last straw!" "I quit!" "I'm unsubscribing!" have been ITCHING for a reason to quit.

    "Virtual Realms? Fuck this noise, I'm unsubscribing!"
    "Cosmetic pay shop? Fuck it, I'm done."
    "Only 14 raid bosses in Orgrimmar instead of 15? Fuck it, not worth my time"
    "Flex raiding for my alts, and friends&family? Fuck it, dirty casuals"
    "Defense of the Alehouse, an improperly data-mined battle ground isn't in 5.4? Fuck it, false advertisements."

    If you guys really meant it, you'd quit without any noise. Running to the forums and expressing displeasure for something so trivial as cosmetics that are completely optional is akin to a 2 year old throwing a tantrum at the grocery store because her mommy won't buy her cookies.
    I dont get how a person can be that simple minded, because most of the people only say that its dumb in their opinion to add certain things into the game. And those things might be a valid thing to quit the game for them. And I hardly see people ragin about anything, they rather express their opinion about it and the consequences are them quitting the game.
  1. Anjerith's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by iLLuuu View Post
    I dont get how a person can be that simple minded, because most of the people only say that its dumb in their opinion to add certain things into the game. And those things might be a valid thing to quit the game for them. And I hardly see people ragin about anything, they rather express their opinion about it and the consequences are them quitting the game.
    The person you are quoting is saying that these people do not quit the game because of these issues, they just like to complain and make meaningless threats.

    Which is largely true, since we see those same people make the same threats whenever these issues come up on these forums.
  1. theredviola's Avatar
    Well, guess this seals the deal. I'm not returning to WoW until it either goes B2P or F2P. With so many items at such a significant cost WITH a sub, that kills any desire I had left to resub any time soon.

    The art looks great though, I hope all who get them will enjoy them.
  1. Shaley's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by iLLuuu View Post
    And I hardly see people ragin about anything
    Are we reading the same forums?

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by theredviola View Post
    Well, guess this seals the deal. I'm not returning to WoW until it either goes B2P or F2P. With so many items at such a significant cost WITH a sub, that kills any desire I had left to resub any time soon.

    The art looks great though, I hope all who get them will enjoy them.
    Case in point.
  1. mmoc4359933d3d's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Anjerith View Post
    Here is a (better) analogy
    That was a total fail, sorry.

    You're buying 2 separate products from 2 different manufacturers who are not in any way affiliated. Why would you even try to compare that to a sub-based game that is allowing microtransactions? You don't pay the gas station $15 every month. The only thing you provided an analogy for is not having enough money to afford a luxury. That has nothing to do with the current situation. The point is - you already pay Blizzard regardless of whether they provide any new content that month or not; therefore, any and all art/sound/story assets they create IN HOUSE (so books, cards, toys are exempt as they don't make those themselves and it isn't a drain on the resources you are paying for) should be put in the game FOR FREE because you have already paid for its development cycle.

    Also when I said extortionate fees I was talking about their whole ethos of charging for anything they possibly can; faction and realm transfers for example - those are pretty "essential" to the play experience. They seem to think so too actually, considering the amount of energy they are spending just now (only took them what, 5 years?) looking to implement new realm-tech in an attempt to save their ailing game population.

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