When did FREE stuff become a slap in the face?

[ZeroEdgeir]

They gave out pets before and people (like me) log in every year expecting them to do it again and are disappointed. If they never gave out the pets before I don't think anybody would be complaining about the temporary tabard.

And Blizzard outright said the first two years, 4th (Initial test of achievements) and 5th (Kind of a milestone) were the only pets.

Blizzard outright said last year, the year before, and the year before that, that we won't see new special rewards til milestones. Milestones like 10 years. Which is coming in 1 year. And my money says they will have to say it again this year.

[Deleted]

its not our bday, its wows bday, why did we get anything at all

Let me guess, you're not an adult yet? Typically, when it is your birthday, you treat your friends a drink, bring a snack for everyone to work, or anything really. Receiving birthday gifts stops once you hit age 20.

[-Superman-]

The real milestone is 10 years. When you get nothing for that, then you can complain.

I would agree with this. If we got nothing at all after 10 years, I would be disappointed. But, if it were just another Rep/XP tabard, I would be ok with that too. It's their anniversary, I am just helping them celebrate it. Now, WINTERVEIL for Christmas, I would like to see some new toys this year.

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Let me guess, you're not an adult yet? Typically, when it is your birthday, you treat your friends a drink, bring a snack for everyone to work, or anything really. Receiving birthday gifts stops once you hit age 20.

1/2 true. I bring food to share with others, but even at 39 (40 just around the corner), the presents still flow like water

[ringpriest]

its not our bday, its wows bday, why did we get anything at all

Exactly! Blizz should celebrate by charging everyone for an extra month!

[Sting]

Some people will complain about anything.

[Adam Jensen]

They gave out pets before and people (like me) log in every year expecting them to do it again and are disappointed. If they never gave out the pets before I don't think anybody would be complaining about the temporary tabard.

Still, Blizzard never promised a free pet every year, they never promised a mount, or anything else. They are giving you something for free, something they spent development time and resources on. There's no reason to complain about it.

[Annoying]

I guess they got tired of people whining about them "wasting dev time" on pets for handouts.

I'm pretty sure it's more like they realized: "Woah, people will pay money for these pet things! Why did we ever give any away for free?"

[Synstir]

9 years. People logging in between now and Dec 2nd are getting something FREE in honor of Blizzard's 9th year. They didn't have to do anything. At all. They could have just been like: "You know how much money we made this year?"



"...and you get nothing at all."

Next year we get a new, and amazing expansion, AND the 10th anniversary which will likely be something a bit more substantial. When other people have an anniversary, you get a cupcake. Say thank you for the cupcake and stop telling the person with the anniversary to buy YOU a present. Self entitled people really blow my mind

Happy Anniversary Blizz and congrats on 9 great years! Oh, and thanks for the WoW tabard, I am grinding rep like a mofo with this

I thought we had to buy the expansion?????

[Synstir]

I would agree with this. If we got nothing at all after 10 years, I would be disappointed. But, if it were just another Rep/XP tabard, I would be ok with that too. It's their anniversary, I am just helping them celebrate it. Now, WINTERVEIL for Christmas, I would like to see some new toys this year.

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1/2 true. I bring food to share with others, but even at 39 (40 just around the corner), the presents still flow like water

I agree the gifts keep flowing.... but usually it costs me more than i get from gifts!
It is not true that any celebration is free.... you always get something from it, be it food/drinks and stuff, sometimes live music, while dancing.
it is not true that the birthday guyu doesn't give anything, if that would be so, in my culture, one would only have 1 celebration whereafter nobody would show up for a second time.

[Annoying]

Yeah man, all those hundreds of pets that are in the game, they'll be taking them out and putting them on the store soon!

Way to slippery slope what I said. They won't be giving away new pets for free.

[Gozzu]

They gave out pets before and people (like me) log in every year expecting them to do it again and are disappointed. If they never gave out the pets before I don't think anybody would be complaining about the temporary tabard.

Im pretty fucking mad that it's only temporary yeah. I've subbed since the game got released, and most other games actually do reward veterans now and then.

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I didn't get shit free. I've payed for this game since it got released, and honestly, most companies do reward loyal customers now and then.
I shouldn't be happy that i can sub, they should praise all of us because we've bought the game.

[Moggie]

Dunno why people are QQing over no pets. It's not like they've given one out since the 4th or 5th Anniversary (that'd be 4-5 years ago...) so there really needn't be any expectations they'd suddenly give something other than the uber useless xp buff thing. =p

[Khaza-R]

I'm pretty sure it's more like they realized: "Woah, people will pay money for these pet things! Why did we ever give any away for free?"

Precisely this. That's why we will never get free event mounts or pets unless its a recolor, or requires minimal modeling.

[Imperviable]

Im pretty fucking mad that it's only temporary yeah. I've subbed since the game got released, and most other games actually do reward veterans now and then.

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I didn't get shit free. I've payed for this game since it got released, and honestly, most companies do reward loyal customers now and then.
I shouldn't be happy that i can sub, they should praise all of us because we've bought the game.

I never understood how people could act so entitled. It's a service. You pay for the service on its own merits not for the hopes that one day they'll pat you on the back and give you a nice bear that will follow you around. The mere fact that you care so much about in-game items should be enough proof that you are getting your money's worth. If you weren't, you wouldn't care so much.

That being said, if you want change, vote with your wallet and unsub rather than complaining on the forums about not getting something you had no right to expect.

[Khaza-R]

I never understood how people could act so entitled. It's a service. You pay for the service on its own merits not for the hopes that one day they'll pat you on the back and give you a nice bear that will follow you around. The mere fact that you care so much about in-game items should be enough proof that you are getting your money's worth. If you weren't, you wouldn't care so much.

That being said, if you want change, vote with your wallet and unsub rather than complaining on the forums about not getting something you had no right to expect.

You would have point of it being an unwarranted expectation if it weren't an industry standard and competitors weren't doing it. So in that case, no its not "entitled" for consumers to expect something. Its perfectly logical consumer behavior.

[Deleted]

Next year we get a new, and amazing expansion...

Shit I didn't realise WoD was free! Oh it isn't, I have to pay for it? and apparently that's something I should be glad of because they've dusted off a weak anniversary present?

...AND the 10th anniversary which will likely be something a bit more substantial

I'll have to remember that for my anniversary this year, sorry I've given you last years card again, I know it's a bit crap but in another year you'll get something really cool.

How do you think that one will go? :P

Honestly I'm not that bothered, but you can't say what we got was worthwhile? I'd rather have just got the achievement.

To give a quick history lesson:

Did you know that World of Warcraft is now Four years old?

We wanted to send you something to say thanks for sharing this game with us. Sure, the 4th Anniversary present is traditionally "Flowers"... but in WoW, it's "Bear".

With that said please accept this furry little friend! Just remember to hold his Fish by the tail, not the body... that mouth is bigger than it looks.

The WoW Dev Team.

If you can't guess that was for the massive milestone of 4 years and we got the blizzard bear.

How hard would it have been to recolour it? Oh sure you'd get people say "it's just the same things recoloured" but at least it's something.

[leaks]

Well don't worry. Even if they did give out pets the same people would just cry that they weren't as good as the store ones.

[Deleted]

I don't know what people want. Pets - Oh yeah, nice, so IMPORTANT! Honestly? The Tabard design has been out for years. It's probably the most exclusive Tabard outside of the Anniversary-weeks. I actually only saw one Guy from Blood Legion who had it. And since then never ever again. It was a one-time reward for something. Something big. I feel honored by being given the WoW Tabard on every Anniversary. It's a cool Tabard and I would die for it (or just give 4mil Gold for it).

[Mage of Rage]

My wife and I have spent over $3000 on WoW since this all started so many years ago.
Given how much we've paid in it's a little bit of a slap in the face that free-to-play and freemium MMOs dish out so much stuff to their players and Blizzard has spent two anniversaries with a copy-pasted "Thanks for all the money" in-game mail.

[alt-ithist]

Let me guess, you're not an adult yet? Typically, when it is your birthday, you treat your friends a drink, bring a snack for everyone to work, or anything really. Receiving birthday gifts stops once you hit age 20.

Wow I feel bad for you. Turned 34 on November 8. For birthday fiancé gave me blizzcon tickets, best bud covered flight and hotels, long time guildies covered me the entire weekend where only thing I covered were tips (people got tipped really well). Not to mention coming back home on Monday morning to truckload of gifts from friends and family. Other then "getting older" birthdays are the best thing in the world.