How exactly is the cash shop a problem?

[Candy Cough]

It's been here since Wotlk, then wow was at its prime, no one bitched. Now WoD sucks everyone begins to bitch about cash shop, what?
Blah blah blah all wod mounts are reskins. Does it even matter? It's not like every mount in vanilla/tbc were reskins either? just a bit over 10 store mounts then we have 500+ mounts you can earn ingame. It brings up the effort dilemma.

You should use effort to get the mount. We can compare this to the real life.
Let's use food and water as an example.
Effortless would be to just go to the store and buy food and getting water easy, that's story mounts for you.
Using effort would involve growing/producing your own food and getting your own water, earning mounts ingame for you. Either it be 1,000,000 apexis, 3% drop chance, 100 arenas/50 RBG or mythic raider. They all require extensive ammounts of effort, as does it real life. They also both take time.

Then we can also use the argument; "I pay for subscription, everything should be free" "I pay taxes, everything should be free" Basic services such as food should, but cosmetics and clothes shouldnt. Cosmetics and clothes are the cash shop. You can earn your own food with hard work, I can work for my own ingame rewards, but im not going to because im way to lazy, thus I'll just buy a store mount to get something cool without spending any actual time.

In reality we're all lazy assholes.

[Eleccybubb]

Because in Wrath it was 1 mount and like 2/3 pets. Now there's around £200 worth in there. It's ridiculously overpriced for a sub game but yes it is optional so you don't have to use it ofc. Only thing I own is sparkle pony and that was when it was first out. Also comparing a video game to real life is just silly at the end of the day. A video game is to provide entertainment, not feel like a job.

[melodramocracy]

No one bitched when the flying star pony came out? Ok.

[Eleccybubb]

No one bitched when the flying star pony came out? Ok.

Because it was the only damn mount at the time and was thought to be a one off.

[Derpling]

Because people will bitch and cry about anything, even purely cosmetic items that give no one an edge. They're incredibly naive and think there was ever a point where WoW or any video game not released for free was more about the game than about making money.

[Ordinator]

It's been here since Wotlk, then wow was at its prime, no one bitched.

It came out at the tail end of Wrath. Yes it was released at WoWs peak and oddly enough the game has been in decline since. And yes there were a ton of bitching. People got kicked from raids and groups for having the sparkle pony. Blizzard has done their best to desensitize us from the bullshit that is the cash shop. This is content that should be going into the game, not behind a secondary pay wall while the game is left bland and boring.

[Tehterokkar]

Because in Wrath it was 1 mount and like 2/3 pets. Now there's around £200 worth in there. It's ridiculously overpriced for a sub game but yes it is optional so you don't have to use it ofc. Only thing I own is sparkle pony and that was when it was first out. Also comparing a video game to real life is just silly at the end of the day. A video game is to provide entertainment, not feel like a job.

Why does it matter if there are multiple items that are the exact same thing(Pets/Mounts)?

They haven't added anything "new" since WoD pre-orders.

[Lochton]

It came out at the tail end of Wrath. Yes it was released at WoWs peak and oddly enough the game has been in decline since. And yes there were a ton of bitching. People got kicked from raids and groups for having the sparkle pony. Blizzard has done their best to desensitize us from the bullshit that is the cash shop. This is content that should be going into the game, not behind a secondary pay wall while the game is left bland and boring.

The people who kick people for having something from the store were just, and is just always the most childish and useless bunch of them all. I almost felt the need to buy the transmog helmets when I heard people kicked people for having them - and considering back then, I was Healer/Tank, and people didn't like kicking them. It is all boring attitude.

The store does nothing to you as a player, nothing at all but give the other something else that one might not have. I don't see people throw others out of cinemas for having a pair of sneakers that is bought from a special store.

And this topic is as dumb, deadly and old as anything.

We might be able to argue about if mounts would be in the game if they weren't in the store, some wouldn't and some might. We know at least two mounts wouldn't, and 3-4 pets as well. Doesn't remove anything from the actual game process, as it is created outside the main process of content.

[Acelius]

As long as the game has a sub-fee the shop is a problem. If the game was free to play there would be no issue but having microtransactions in a sub-based game is despicable.

EVERYTHING should be available by playing the game. Simple as that.

[Deleted]

Because WoW is a game with an annual monthly fee, not a f2p korean MMO.

[apoe]

Your analogy of video game cash shops = food/water IRL is possibly the worst comparison I've seen in my life.

[Quetlock]

Lets compare MoP mounts to WoD mounts, shall we? Instead of reskins, lets compare new and unique mount models introduced to the game, as compared to the store mounts put in in the same expansion.

Not sure where to put the horde/alli choppers, so leaving them out for now. I may be missing a few so don't crucify me. Also haven't included the pvp mounts, since its debatable if they qualify as different from the models they use. (and in any case 2 pvp mounts each were added in each xpac so it sort of cancels out).

MoP

In-game mount models-

-Cloud serpents (including the heavenly ones since they were the same model)
-Shado Pan tigers
-Mushans
-Warbringer mounts
-challenge mode birds
-Golden lotus cranes
-Yaks
-Armored skyscreamer
-Pandaren kite
-Klaxxi scorpion
-Kyparium rocket
-Geo synchronous World spinner
-the sky golem
-the JC panthers
-Shieldwall gryphon (the wyvern was too similar to old wyverns so not including it)


Store mounts in the same period:
-Fey dragon
-Armored bloodwing


WoD

In-game mount models :

-Riverwallow
-Talbuk
-Wolf
-Boar
-Gronnling
-Sky reaver from pathfinder
-Meadowstomper/Elekk
-Icehoof/cliffstomper
-Dreadwing
-Timewalking horse (dragonhawk uses the normal dragonhawk model)

Store mounts in the same period :

-Iron reaver
-Runesaber
-Grinning Reaver

Do you see the trend now? MoP had almost one and a half times the unique mount models that WoD has, and to top it all still had 1 less store mount as compared to WoD. This is on top of a 25% increased expansion price and a sub increase in may regions.

Let's also remember that the first legion mount we have seen so far is on the store - leading many people to speculate that legion's mount system is going to be the same or worse than WoD.

[owbu]

Google retarted horse.

Funny thing is people predicted why this would become a problem back in wrath of the lich king.
The frequency of unique looking storemounts increases every expansion while more and more ingame rewards are boring reskins instead.
If those store mounts existed in a vacuum, they really wouldnt be a problem. But they dont. There is a limited amount of artists working on horsies. Blizzard has stated multiple times, that hiring more artists is not a money problem, because there is just not enough talented people that fit in.
So every time a cool looking moose pops up in the store one reputation/achievement/x gets a nother feary dragon/boar reskin instead.

Which means the ingame store is partly responsible for that empty feeling you get, every time you log in and have no idea what to do.
Next to the garrison being a soulsucking grind of terrible design decisions, the outdoor development team being on vacation (or whatever else happened in 6.1) and the game being 10 years old of course. I didnt say it was a big part^^

Oh and I hope that blizzard is better than this, but *puts on tinfoil hat* I cant imagine that no one there has ever thought about how it influences mount sales, if the mounts ingame just look a liiiitle bit more boring...just saying.

[Jeleh]

Everything that's available on the store could also be an awesome quest reward from a story line which means something other than go from A to B.

That's my issue with sub based games having micro transactions also, your customer is being short changed for their sub.

[Radish Spirit]

Because it was the only damn mount at the time and was thought to be a one off.

Literally nobody thought that.

[Feindy]

in a game where you already pay for playing and have to buy the game every 2 years or so, i pretty much expect no need to pay extras for the content. especially when i feel theres more and more i can get for extra money and less for the "basic" payment every xpac

[Radish Spirit]

Everything that's available on the store could also be an awesome quest reward from a story line which means something other than go from A to B..

Where do you think they get the money to hire the artists to create the content for sale?

If the content wasn't for sale but was instead part of the game (which would COST money - designers to make quests, etc.) then there would be no incentive to create them.

They exist because they are profitable. If they weren't, they wouldn't exist.

Those are your two options. There's not some magical fairyland third option.

- - - Updated - - -

in a game where you already pay for playing and have to buy the game every 2 years or so, i pretty much expect no need to pay extras for the content.

Which is what you get. There is no need to pay for anything in the shop. So, be happy.

[apples]

if it costs money then people will complain about it

there is no reason or logic behind it

people will rationalize all day but you can loosely translate their rationalizations to "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH"

[Thage]

/looks at the recycled, generic, bugged mounts obtainable via gameplay in Draenor
/looks at the unique, polished, high-quality mounts released on the cash shop between 5.4 and 6.2

It might be because they're updating the cash shop while a) ingame accomplishments are being neutered by generic, boring mounts shared across every avenue of obtaining a mount in Draenor content, and b) they're busily updating the ingame cash shop while there's a content famine to make the Year of ICC and 5.4 look like a two-week layover. Priorities and all.

[Ratboy]

The way I see it, if someone else buying a completely optional and cosmetic item from the store is one of them things that keeps the monthly subscription fee from going up then I'm all for it.