Sneak Peek: Guardian Cub Tradable Pet

[thorax336]

It doesn't affect my gaming experience at all, so meh. Only morons spend real life currency for virtual pets anyway. It's the equivalent of buying tokens for Farmville on Facebook.

[Venteus]

It doesn't affect my gaming experience at all, so meh. Only morons spend real life currency for virtual pets anyway. It's the equivalent of buying tokens for Farmville on Facebook.

Yeah, but spending real life currency for monthly access to a virtual world is acceptable.

[Drakenus]

Yeah, but spending real life currency for monthly access to a virtual world is acceptable.

Have to agree with your comment...

[bloodwine77]

So Blizzard has added an indirect means to covert real currency to virtual currency. Instead of buying gold outright, they have provided a middle-step to make it more of a grey area. Blizzard inches a little more and more over the line, but they are doing it in such small, incremental steps over a relatively long span of time to cloud the big picture for most players.

[deef]

I said it once I say it again. It's a freaking pet. No one cares, no one wanna buy it, move along. Geeez!

[peterpan007]

[2. Trade] LFM Firelands - pst ilvl and ownership of Guardian Cub pet to be eligible for raid

[Deleted]

Hope you specified this as a reason to, so someone at Blizzard can have a good laugh.

"Any reason to why you're cancelling your account? Specify below:
Blizzturd is selling vanity items that doesn't affect my gameplay!!1"

Maybe he has principles? I wish more were like him and maybe this crap wont happen.

How you can say Blizzard effectively selling gold dosent effect gameplay beggars belief.

[Eruptor]

This is what WoW was missing!

[Jiggles]

The best argument I've seen that this pet won't have any effect on the economy is that there won't be enough demand for it. People saying that this pet's price will stabilize around less than 300 gold are wrong. Only an idiot would spend $10 on a pet to turn around and sell it for 300 gold. If the price tanked that hard, people would very quickly just stop selling it.

It seems, however, that Blizzard anticipated the demand problem, so Blizzard made this a single-use pet. Blizzard could have easily made a BoE item that, when used, destroyed itself and gave you a BoA pet. Blizzard didn't.

Still, though, there might be a lack of demand, because this pet is frankly kind of ugly. But consider the future: when Blizzard inevitably makes a sparkle pony pet. That thing would probably fly off the virtual shelves.

[DoctorDoomkin]

So Blizzard has added an indirect means to covert real currency to virtual currency. Instead of buying gold outright, they have provided a middle-step to make it more of a grey area. Blizzard inches a little more and more over the line, but they are doing it in such small, incremental steps over a relatively long span of time to cloud the big picture for most players.

And at what part does this make gold out of thin air? Someone still needs to kill animals to make the gold to buy the Nyan Cat. Nowhere did I see "comes with free gold". You're either getting a cat, or gold that sells less than other more rare pets in the game.

[Bullarkie]

Looks like a legit way to buy gold.

[Cows For Life]

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.

Remember when they said the one thing they would never allow was PVE to PVP transfers? That went out the door fast once they decided they could make more money on that and on the future faction changes.

Step out of the Reality Distortion Field for a second.

---------- Post added 2011-10-11 at 01:57 PM ----------

I dont understand why people are worried what other people do in game.

If playerA buys a pet and sells it on the AH for 1000g how does this affect other people? Does it affect your raid? Does it affect your battleground? Does it affect your Random Dungeon? ...

Personally I buy all pets for my main character only - hence will buy this one. Most pet collectors will probably do the same.

Some people who whatever reason can't afford 10 dollars - or wish to own the pet on more than thier mains may prefer to use gold to purchase this. Someone get poorer and someone gets richer. Money basically moves from playerA to playerB. The same amount of gold still remains in the game.

Step out of the Reality Distortion Field for a second.

Should a person be concerned with paid transfers if other people pay for it in the game? No? Should they care when said transfers turn a balanced realm into a one-sided PVP gankfest and PVE disaster? Should they care at that point?

Some people make excuses for everything. It's compromising former principles for greed. Nothing more, nothing less. Call a spade a spade.

[Malynn]

I am a crazy pet collector who has bought all the previous pets. I am not planning to buy this one. At least with the previous pets, I could sorta justify the money by rationalizing that the pet was account bound. All my toons, now and in the future, got the purchased pet. Not the case here. One time, one toon for $10? Nope.

[Deepone]

This is an interesting move. I'm really fascinated to see how it plays out.If Blizzard had allowed you to buy gold, the economy would be flooded and inflation would be out of control.However, they've instead required that the gold come from a player who is willing to buy a token that will be impacted by market pressures (if they're selling for 1000g will you spend $10 to get one and sell it? what about 500g?)So, will this change the economy at all? Probably not. The only thing that will happen is that people with an awful lot of money to burn will flood the auction house with pets that no one will buy.

---------- Post added 2011-10-11 at 07:28 PM ----------

So Blizzard has added an indirect means to covert real currency to virtual currency. Instead of buying gold outright, they have provided a middle-step to make it more of a grey area. Blizzard inches a little more and more over the line, but they are doing it in such small, incremental steps over a relatively long span of time to cloud the big picture for most players.

It's not about making it grey, it's about making the gold come from players. It's a HUGE difference to the economy. Printing tons of new gold = inflation. Creating a new item that people can sell to players = no inflation.

The reason this is important is that gold selling by blizzard would create a NEED to purchase gold. Why? Consider that your average, casual player makes 300g every time they play (the number isn't important). If you have 1000 players on a realm/faction playing regularly, then they generate 300,000g per day or about 9 million gold per month.

Now, you add a way to buy gold for $10 per 10,000g. Immediately people start to shell out the money. Let’s say that on average, everyone spends $10 per month on gold. That’s 1,000 x 10,000 = 10 million new gold per moth, so you’ve more than doubled the amount of gold that’s available. Prices, of course, go up because that 10,000g item is no longer all that prohibitive. Let’s say that prices go up uniformly (probably not) and that they double as a result.

So, now a player who does not buy gold makes 300g every day, but it’s now worth what 140g was worth before. Prices are all higher, and they can’t afford the same items they could afford, before.

With the model Blizzard is pushing with this pet, there’s no new gold in the economy. Perhaps a few people will farm a bit more to get gold to buy the pet, but that’s just a few. Overall, the impact on the economy should be very low. Some players will buy the pet on the AH, reducing their available gold to spend on other items, and some players will sell the pet and have more available gold. The economy remains in balance, tuned by the amount of gold that daily quests and drops provide.

---------- Post added 2011-10-11 at 07:32 PM ----------

Looks like a legit way to buy gold.

Probably not. I don't think these will sell very well. You'll probably see them go up for crazy prices on day one, and then a few people who have too much money to burn will start posting them cheap. Next thing you know, they'll be selling for short money with lots of excess on the market. I think the only way to win, here, will be to buy them when someone sells them stupidly cheap and re-sell. At least then, you won't be out re-world cash if the bottom drops out of the market.

---------- Post added 2011-10-11 at 07:36 PM ----------

Only an idiot would spend $10 on a pet to turn around and sell it for 300 gold.

Only an idiot, eh? Damn, we're down to our last few hundred of those on my realm... Seriously, there are going to be tons of people who say, "awesome, cheap gold!" before they do the math. Then they're stuck with a pet that won't sell. So, they keep undercutting each other. I think you'll be able to pick these up super cheap in a few weeks after release. But it still doesn't matter to the economy. As long as you have to farm up the gold (or get it from someone who farmed it), the economy doesn't change. Until vendors start taking Nyan Cats as currency, this doesn't change a thing.

[Idoru]

Remember when they said the one thing they would never allow was PVE to PVP transfers? That went out the door fast once they decided they could make more money on that and on the future faction changes.

Step out of the Reality Distortion Field for a second.

Fast?

It took almost 4 years for them to allow PvP-PvE transfers. That was 3 years ago and we still can't buy epics for cash. Seems to me that "making more money" is not all they care for.

Maybe you should join us in the real world.....

[Deleted]

Pet is cute

[Deleted]

Fast?

It took almost 4 years for them to allow PvP-PvE transfers. That was 3 years ago and we still can't buy epics for cash. Seems to me that "making more money" is not all they care for.

Maybe you should join us in the real world.....

Actually, this DOES allow people to indirectly buy epics with real cash. Thats what so bad about it.

[Jiggles]

Seriously, there are going to be tons of people who say, "awesome, cheap gold!" before they do the math. Then they're stuck with a pet that won't sell. So, they keep undercutting each other. I think you'll be able to pick these up super cheap in a few weeks after release.

There might be some undercutting in the beginning, but don't expect that to last. People will wise up and realize it's better to hold onto the pet, and then list it later for more, once the initial purchasing frenzy has died down. The $10 of "real" money they spent is a much bigger incentive to get a good value for the pet than you think.

[Deepone]

Actually, this DOES allow people to indirectly buy epics with real cash. Thats what so bad about it.

Not really. Right now, everyone's assuming that you'll buy these pets and sell them on the AH with ease. I think you'll see that turn out to be untrue with dozens of other people thinking the same thing, and the pool of people willing to BUY them being fairly small, and probably limited at first to speculators who will rapidly realize they're not going to be able to re-sell. The pyramid will collapse quickly and the price of the pet will probably stabalize at a level that most players aren't willing to shell out $10 for (if it were high enough to be a reasonable price, the sellers would out-number buyers... supply requires demand).

[Kaneiac]

You're glossing over a lot there, bud.

First, the default weapons are just as good as the unlockable ones. Most of the unlockable weapons are for fun, and they're often the weaker choice. I wouldn't care at all if Blizzard wanted to sell gear, if you automatically got a default gear set that was just as good as the store options. Second, while TF2 did have microtransactions added later in its life, it never had a monthly fee, nor DLC fees (Call of Duty, anyone?) for its updates. Of course, now it's completely free to play. Valve didn't have to do that, but it did.

Finally, why would Blizzard make WoW free to play? They've got defenders like you who are perfectly happy paying a monthly fee and full price for expansions, on top of all that revenue from "premium" items and services that are usually hallmarks of a F2P game. Without, you know, that pesky "free" part.

In any event, it's irrelevant whether WoW goes F2P in the future: we're talking about Blizzard's greed now, not some distant point in the future.

Right, it's not like TF2 blasts you with Mann. Co Supply Crates and special items such as that, that scream HEY PURCHASE A KEY IT'LL BE AWESOME. As I said, two different business models. Saying Valve doesn't care about profits as much as the next company over is silly - they both have shareholders to please.

Your 2nd topic completely contradicts your first: Why wouldn't Blizzard go F2P? Valve still had new people buying Orange Box - why make it F2P if they have people still buying it?

You're assuming an awful lot about items that are absolute, 100% vanity and are not needed. At all. Blizzard doesn't throw these things in your face in-game, either. For someone that doesn't visit any WoW site, read, a vast amount of players, they never know about this stuff. I still see people asking on a daily basis where they get the Guardian mount.