Introducing the Pet Store

[Ceridith]

Look kiddo, if it's tacky don't buy it. Again, STOP BEING SO FUCKING CONCERNED about how OTHER PEOPLE spend their money. Worry about yourself, kk?

I didn't personally buy the pet and I likely never will because it does not hold that much value to me. That does not mean that I should go out and prevent OTHER PEOPLE from buying such a pet because I personally will not. You know why? Because that's really none of my fucking business. If it's "unacceptable for people at different degrees" then they 100% do not have to buy it. (And yes, if you want to end your account because of this, that's perfectly fine too.)

I think you mistaken the word "value" for "cost". It may cost Blizzard ZERO dollars to produce such a product (for argument's sake, let's say it's true), but it still has VALUE to some as long as people are willing to spend money to get a virtual pet. The entire game, as you said, is virtual. Yes you can play it, but at the end of the day you are paying money for nothing tangible. Just because YOU personally don't gain pleasure from having a minipet (and nor do I, personally), does not mean other people won't either.

Video games are the same way if you think about it. It costs money to develop, but once it's done, it's basically free to produce (save a couple of cents for a CD/DVD and packaging). And you're getting something that's virtual... on a disk. Should video game companies only charge to break even, then release the game as freeware as to not drive the "evil" Western commercialism machine?

The pet is the same way, on a much smaller scale. Again, if it's not worth the $10 to you, don't buy it. Stop worrying if the next guy will buy it or not. If you think it's a shitty idea, guess what? All you have to do is not do a thing. And if everyone thought it was a shitty idea, all they have to do is not do a thing. Blizzard's pet shop will be a failure, and they will go back to the drawing board. The system is working as intended. All you have to do is buy or not buy.

If someone wants to be a consumer whore and blow $10 a pop on these pets, they can go ahead. It's their hard earned cash for something worth a minuscule fraction of what they're paying, but hey, a fool is easily parted with his money.

What I am concerned about is the impact these things have on not only the game, but every single game Blizzard develops in the future. When Blizzard realizes they can A) give out vanity pets for free and have everyone happy, or B) charge $10 a pop to a handful of people who apparently have too much money and too little sense, why would Blizzard keep providing the playerbase with "free" (paid for by our boxed game sale and monthly subscription) content?

So where does it stop?

What's stopping a company like Blizzard from starting to intentionally exclude portions of what would otherwise be part of the core game, and starting to charge for them as DLCs or RMTs? The answer is nothing, short of a competent and aware consumer, which in reality, is very rare these days.

The pet store isn't really what's angering me, because it's a symptom of a much bigger problem. It's the whole road Blizzard has been headed down since they merged with Activision. The road where games suffer at the hands of corporate greed. Where companies charge significantly more than something is worth, or sell you a half-complete product at full price, then make you pay more than twice what you paid for the remaining pieces.

As a side-note, It astounds me that even after all of these underhanded schemes these corporate scum come up with to gouge customers, that they have the audacity to complain about piracy. If they would charge a more realistic price for their products, a lot more people would be willing to pay for them, rather than "steal".

[phoenix02]

What I am concerned about is the impact these things have on not only the game, but every single game Blizzard develops in the future. When Blizzard realizes they can A) give out vanity pets for free and have everyone happy, or B) charge $10 a pop to a handful of people who apparently have too much money and too little sense, why would Blizzard keep providing the playerbase with "free" (paid for by our boxed game sale and monthly subscription) content?

So where does it stop?

Assuming Blizzard is a profit-maximizing company, It stops roughly around the point when their profits go down because it's simply not worth (in the dollar sense) pissing off the player-base to appease those with "too much money". In other words, if they can provide "free" content and make up for lack of "paid" content by means of more subscription fees, then they would do that instead.

And if you're talking about blocking content from players who don't pay a fee, what do you call the Burning Crusade or the Wrath of the Lich King? Sure they take money to develop, but wouldn't you agree that they made massive profits off of those games? Are they now a greedy corporation because they are making a lot of money by investing in the developing of good game that allowed them to realize huge returns on investment? I don't know how much Blizzard made on the two expansions, but I'm sure the profits massively outweigh the cost, as well.

So expansion packs: okay. Pets: no. You may ask, where do you draw the line?

The answer: there is no line. Vote with your money, because that's what companies respond to.

[phoenix02]

As a side-note, It astounds me that even after all of these underhanded schemes these corporate scum come up with to gouge customers, that they have the audacity to complain about piracy. If they would charge a more realistic price for their products, a lot more people would be willing to pay for them, rather than "steal".

What's a "realistic price"? $5? $1? $free?

Everyone has different prices they'd pay for this pet. I'm sure if Blizzard charged $500 for an exclusive pet, SOMEBODY with too much money will go out will buy it. But Blizz probably wouldn't make too much money on it, since they would only be able to sell a couple of these. On the other hand, if they sold them for $0.50, they would sell a lot but not make as much on each transaction.

So price times quantity sold (revenue) is really what you're looking at when deciding a price. Blizzard thinks at $10 a pop they will be able to maximize profit. Obviously you are not willing to pay $10 for it, but they're betting a lot of people will.

Bottom line is, there is no "reasonable price" because that is completely subjective. You can charge one penny and someone out there will think it's unreasonable. Is $10 for a pet worth it? Then buy. Else, don't buy. It's really obvious, but that's all there is too it, really. Nobody is having money "stolen" from them.

[Príckenöveri]

Sorry, but if you aint buying it then you HAVE to insult those that do.

ITS LAW!

What??? :Ox15
Hmm, vanity pet buyers are ehm ... fat? and thy look like ehm .. nuns?... with baloons on theyre heads ? ....

Yes! I did it! 8)

[Alveredus]

What I am concerned about is the impact these things have on not only the game, but every single game Blizzard develops in the future. When Blizzard realizes they can A) give out vanity pets for free and have everyone happy, or B) charge $10 a pop to a handful of people who apparently have too much money and too little sense, why would Blizzard keep providing the playerbase with "free" (paid for by our boxed game sale and monthly subscription) content?

So where does it stop?

This is a valid concern.

My point is... They can only get away with charging $10 for this because some people value in-game vanity. It's one of the biggest motivating factors for some people. Getting $10 for each of these pets relies on the idea that the game you buy them for is worth $15 a month to play. Nobody is going to buy these pets unless the subscribe to the game. People who buy these pets are motivated by vanity and need in-game motivators to make the pets worth buying.

The value of any RMT is proportional to the value of similar rewards obtained in game. Without a steady supply or new rewards offered in-game, the RMT rewards are worthless.

The person who pays $10 for these falls into two categories:

- The person who feels similar rewards in-game take more than $10 worth of effort to obtain.

- The person who is motivated by vanity items enough to spend $10 on one, meaning that that's probably also a big part of what they pay their $15 a month for.

With this in mind, Blizzard CAN'T stop producing vanity rewards in game and expect the RMT items to sell. The success of the two are linked. If anything, they would introduce a LOT MORE vanity items in game and make them obscenely hard to get to drive up the perceived value of RMT items.

[Ibiteblacks]

What the F*ck is with people saying " the pandaren pet helps charity so i shall buy it!!!!"
"Cause it feels good to help charity". (hur dur)

If charity was such a big deal to them then why would they not give your WHOLE 10$ instead of half($5) of it.

People are so ignorant.

Just another folly way for blizz to make money.
The charity part is just a sad way to cover there never ending greed.

[Spirion]

Just an FYI

I cancelled my account because of this.

I'll probably resub for one month between now and Cata just to see what ICC is like.

But genuinely I have cancelled my account with the Pet Store as the primary reason.

I hope I'm not the only person to do this, I just wonder, will the money they make from retards buying vanity pets make up for the loss of subscriptions from people like me? I hope it doesn't.

Yep. It's a great service.

[sjeepsjifter]

any of you who were in doubt if blizzard is ripping off EU (and GB) players ... their latest move makes an end to your doubts:
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/11483...-regional.html

no more buying pets for $10 in non-US regions, people have to start paying €10/£9 real soon.

[Strangewayes]

The only way I can see this move by Blizz is just a chance to show to stockholders that the company is still growing and earning more money. Subscriptions have slowed and probably stopped at this point, and the overheads in transferring WoW China from one company to the other has probably cut into profits this financial year. Since the Charity pet is for two months only, Blizz is hoping initial interest will allow them just enough money goes to Charity tax offset without losing out on too much profit.

I am a pet collector in the game, I currently have 97 pets, and never buy the TCG pets because of the achievement and challenge is taken away. Now that WoW has a pet store, it's completely taken away my drive to collect pets. Since Blizz says more and more pets will be offered in the future.

If I want to keep collecting pets I'll probably be spending $100 on top of my subscription by the end of the next year. Sure these pets are cheaper than the card game ones, but if they were really against expensive pets, they would allow TCG pets for $10 in the shop originally. Now instead of good looking pets, the next patch for non-microtransaction customers will be just reskins of 4 year old pets. Yay.

This also worries me that there will be a slippery slope, pets now, then cool looking mounts, then vanity items, then what? Potions? Entry Level LVL200 items? Whatever Blizz thinks they can get away with without losing large amounts of customers in an influx, they will do. Maybe the change will be so gradual people won't even notice until you find you're buying Emblems of the Black Dragon for $10 next year.

People have made comments that the content patches in WOTLK have been lazily done and lacklaster, and finally there are non reskin pets in the game and they are charging for them? How about you do more for the game I AM PAYING FOR instead of spending most of the money I am paying you on development of DIABLO 3?

Some people will say "Just leave if you hate the pet store." But if a lot of your friends are in the game and you enjoy other parts of the game, it just seems crazy to just leave because of this one thing. So what do you do? You let the makers of the game that you like know your displeasure.

Anyone that excuses this due to charity for one month of the sales is just a Blizz fanboy in my eyes. You wanted the pet and the charity thing makes the $10 acceptable in your eyes.

[Teleria]

Just an FYI

I cancelled my account because of this.

I'll probably resub for one month between now and Cata just to see what ICC is like.

But genuinely I have cancelled my account with the Pet Store as the primary reason.

I hope I'm not the only person to do this, I just wonder, will the money they make from retards buying vanity pets make up for the loss of subscriptions from people like me? I hope it doesn't.

Congratu fucking lations, no one cares if you quit your game or fisted your anus with a elefant... do you want a medal for caring about others money? i personally bought the pet, you wrote just before that you donate 15$ a month to charity, but you cant spare 5$ for the panda which goes to a great cause IMO.. i see how hard it is for you to accept that other people might be richer than you are but thats just how the world is ...

/Care about your quit
and yes i said it.... ELEFANT

[phys]

I do like the idea of donating 50% of the Panderan monks profit to charity BUT why only the Panderan? why not donate the KT profit 50% too? w/e...

[hebina]

Dinneredit: Don't mind me!

[aimaidilo]

Deleted by Moderator

[anymetal]

Dinneredit: Spam removed.

[obmaj]

Dinneredit: Spam removed.

[Rorre]

I'm against ingame stuff for real money... But somehow i feel That it's okay since you donate 50% for the money!

[Kitita]

To those saying that these pets are worthless.

Well, in all reality your entire gaming lives are completely worthless, they are, they sell you graphics and gameplay that are really only bits of code, same as this monk, some people like playing Sports Sims, others play MMO's but they are all the same, bits of code projected onto your Screen/Monitor.

Simple really, it's all worthless garbage that you're supporting with your money. Now as far as the Monk and KT goes they are exactly the same, little bits of entertainment that Blizzard are marketing, they aren't selling the best items in the game for cash and they have said they never will. These things don't really affect gameplay they just look nice and do a few silly things.

All the same part of worthless as your usual parts of WoW, Madden, Call of Duty or whatever you want to play. Yet you still give money to games developers, I wonder why, perhaps the Entertainment value you get form these things makes it worth it for you? And maybe you don't find the Monk and KT entertaining, or you do but you don't want or can't spend money on them leading to a little green eyed monster called Jelousy raising it's head and spitting at those who can afford and enjoy them perhaps? I don't know, that's your issue to sort out.

Lets take this outside WoW, Movies are pretty worthless, as is music, these are all things people write and then project but they don't really add any value to life, imagine giving the latest Batman DVD to someone in a famine stricken region of africa, would it improve their lives?

Yet you keep supporting these evil industries....

Charity? It's a nice gesture but if I decide to buy these pets it wont be becuase of the charity, I already give to my chosen charity.

There are some really daft arguments in this thread.

Put simply, if you want the pets buy them, if not don't, don't pretend it infuriates you because of something you imagine Blizzard might do in the future, of course voice your opinions but don't invent scenarios just to inflict your jelous rage on everyone else.

[Azerox]

Even in EU only credit card payment .. lol what a nubstore.

Wanted to buy the kelthuzad pet, also for the good cause, they only accept visa,mastercard etc :S

Give me ideal or paypal payment, i mean why all those out-of date payment methods ...

[hotmaidi]

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