Almost half of all shop mounts added just in BFA

[Revamp Man]

That's because they are retiring some and because the 15th anniversary added 2

[Dziubla]

Rustfeather is NOT an "incredibly long spawn timer". It is 30-60 minutes tops and it is one time a day. If you think that is incredibly long you have never camped for the Time Lost Prroto Drake or Aeonaxx. THOSE are incredibly log spawn rates. Also, what you think is useless is not useless to others.

Except TLPD and Aeonaxx are 100% drop rate, Rust/Spiderboi/Soundless are not. ESPECIALLY Soundless, because you are correct in saying that Rust/Spider respawn pretty fast. Soundless does not. Add insanely low drop rate, and those mounts are much, MUCH worse than store mounts. You could literally buy ALL the items from the store faster than you will get Soundless, by simply farming gold instead of camping Soundless. Andt (depending on your luck) that's not even an exaggeration.

[Lochton]

Paying for expacs and a sub and theres a cash shop. It's ridiculous.

I hate that people just bend over and take it with the "its optional" shit. Removing things from a game to sell, Absolutely pathetic the state of gaming now. I can't wait for the next crash so we can clear out a few of these greedy corporations.

1.: Like the majority of MMO's?

2.: BUT IT IS OPTIONAL?!

3.: You have been TOLD during an interview in 2011 (if I recall) that the mounts on the store comes from side scribbles of artists. If the store wasn't there, then it wouldn't mean the mount would be in-game.

4.: Isn't it just as much greed to demand something for free that an artist made as a quick brain storm but wasn't meant to be in-game?

5.: A company gotta earn money.

[Zuvio]

So I was looking at the in-game shop and 6 of the 14 mounts you can purchase from the in game shop have been added in BFA


That's crazy to me, and the expansion is only like half over.

And those mounts will sell which makes Blizz $$$. So, don't you think it would be crazy if they didn't add those mount to the store? I know I never say no to a free pile of money.

Look at fallout 76 sub. People say bethesda is crazy for doing that. But lots of people are buying it. So what exactly is crazy in this situation.

Something is worth whatever a 'fool' is ready to buy it for.

(I put fool in quotation marks so people shouldn't be triggered if they went and bought it, it's a saying folks...)

[McNeil]

The shop has been the most aggresive we've ever seen during BFA. And with them bundling a 6 month sub to at least a couple of them it kinda shows the sad state of the game. In WoD they were even selling mounts in the shop which should have obviously been reputation rewards like the Grinning Reaver for the Laughing Skull Clan, instead they gave us a generic wolf as the exalted reward.

[Justpassing]

You guys know what money is, right?

[Lochton]

This. And they can be bought with gold now, making the tears that people cry about them even dumber than they already were.

I didn't think about the fact that if you have the gold, you have no problem anyways.. Haha...

[Zaanm4n]

I feel what most people forget to understand is the majority community of this game is in a position of being able to spend that extra money on mounts. I dont think the avg player of this game is someone who goes to school or lives with their parents. Yes thats no excuse but it is plain business sense. If i know my customer is able I will do my best to get profit out of the situation.
This isn't a fotm battle royale played by kids who have to save up 25-30 bucks over a course of the week to buy their fav store mount. Most of us playing this game make 100-150 bucks a day to care much about spending 25 bucks on something that brings us pleasure. Its optional u can do it if u want, ppl pointing out how a cash shop in a game tht takes a sub and initial pricing on expansions, well guess what gaming is a luxury.. they know their community is able to spend this much unlike before when it was way younger.
Someone whos been playing and playing past 12 years and now is in their early 30s find it way easier and enjoy the game way more since I dont have to worry about saving up for that 15 bucks at the end of the month, so i find no trouble in buying the epic pre-order to get a free mount and some cool hearthstone effects, cause i can and trust me, most of us can, thats why blizz does it and profits and does it again.

[Cæli]

Blizzard actually prefers you buy them with WoW gold, that's why they do as little as possible about the hyper-inflation.

blizzard started doing something against hyper inflation with bfa and will continue because it's more beneficial for them if gold actually has value, as opposed to inflating gold.

[Lochton]

it's not _as_ bad if you also take the 5-6 mounts currently on holiday into account.

but yeah nobody is denying they have got some quotas to hit to please the shareholders.

There are no proven quotas. Investors are happy as long as their investment is shown to work.

[Bigby]

I bought them all. Hope they keep going!

Don't ask questions, just consume products and get excited for the next product.

[MrKnubbles]

Paying for expacs and a sub and theres a cash shop. It's ridiculous.

I hate that people just bend over and take it with the "its optional" shit. Removing things from a game to sell, Absolutely pathetic the state of gaming now. I can't wait for the next crash so we can clear out a few of these greedy corporations.

You're assuming that if they weren't in the shop, they would be unlocked in the game somehow which isn't true. But, let's go ahead and assume you're correct. Would you be happy if these mounts were from Mythic content only? That would exclude a big part of the community. What if they were extremely accessible? Then they would be so common that they would lose their prestige. No matter what they do, people will always complain. Recruit a Friend came back with 2 new passenger mounts that you can unlock by spending zero dollars and people were saying that they felt obligated to buy a new account and pay for game time. That's not a problem with Blizzard's business model, that's a problem with the player base. I think microtransactions that offer cosmetic rewards are perfectly fine since they are optional purchases.

[Destinas]

Just for clarity's sake, here are all the mounts from the shop:

Wrath of the Lich King added the Celestial Steed.
Cataclysm added the Winged Guardian and Heart of the Asepcts.
Mists of Pandaria added the Armored Bloodwing, Swift Windsteed, Iron Skyreaver, and Enchanted Fey Dragon.
Warlords of Draenor added the Grinning Reaver, Warforged Nightmare, and Mystic Runesaber.
Legion added Shu-Zen and the Luminous Starseeker.
BfA added the Dreadwake, Sylverian Dreamer, Vulpine Familiar, Hogrus, the Alabaster Stomtalon and Alabaster Thunderwing.

The Armored Bloodwing, Swift Windsteed, and Grinning Reaver were removed from the shop.
The Dreadwake was originally a reward for paying for 6 months of game time, similar to Tyrael's Charger (which was in the shop in Taiwan, I believe, as well).
The Alabaster mounts come in one bundle for the same price as other mounts.
The Warforged Nightmare comes with a toy, so it's priced higher.
Hogrus and Shu-Zen have been released and themed off of the Lunar New Year's animal that year based off the Chinese Zodiac, meaning that we'll likely see more in the future. 2020 is the Year of the Rat, which may mean we'll see another mount in BfA if they make another.
Some of these came bundled with a pet, and some of these were sold for charity. This usually happens around Blizzcon.

Now all that said, I don't really care. I've gotten some of the mounts and I've been gifted a couple of the mounts for my birthday/Christmas. They've certainly ramped up how many they're selling in BfA, but I don't usually set out to buy them all myself. It's completely optional. I also think that it's all the more noticeable in BfA since Legion only had two mounts. This was a huge discussion in MoP as well when they added 4, so this isn't a new "problem" in the end anyway.

[Stickinator]

I mean rustfeather isnt THAT bad drop rate. Got mine the 2nd time i killed it before we got flying.
Feels pretty balanced drop rate to me!

[Mirishka]

Blizzard actually prefers you buy them with WoW gold, that's why they do as little as possible about the hyper-inflation.

WoW gold. If you buy them directly, they only cost $25. If you buy them with gold, you have to get 2 tokens to get the $30 to cover the cost, but Blizzard gets $40 total.

So sure, there "is an in game way" to get the mounts, but it means Blizzard makes $15 extra off each mount purchased that way. You're exchanging your time spent earning gold for someone else's money, and Blizzard laughs all the way to the bank.

*shrug* If people have the cash to buy and provide tokens that other players use, that's their business. It still gives those who are strapped for RL money an option and more options = good thing.

[Jodmos]

If they keep doing Lunar Festival (Chinese Zodiac) mounts I'll be interested to see 2023 (Rabbit) although Sheep and Monkey may also be interesting.

2020 Rat
2021 Ox
2022 Tiger
2023 Rabbit
2024 Dragon
2025 Snake
2026 Horse
2027 Sheep
2028 Monkey
2029 Rooster

I'm assuming Wow will still be going in 10 years.

[Kudos]

To me mounts have always been a prestigious thing, used to show off your achievement or even simply how 'lucky' you have been. I alternate between the Living Infernal Core or the Fel Annihilator. I would have liked the Jaina mount, but I haven't been playing. Respect for those who have that mount though.

There's no prestige in pulling out the credit card.

(In b4 bUt pEoPlE cAn bUy rAiD boSs mOuNtS. Yes. I'll still view that more highly than any store bought mount)

[rhorle]

There's no prestige in pulling out the credit card.

So? To some there is nothing prestigious about raid mounts either. What you think of a mount doesn't ultimately matter because you don't have to buy it. Everyone subscribes to play the game and earn items. Who cares if some pay a small amount more because they want to. The amusing part is it isn't about pulling out a credit card for a mount. Because you can pull out a credit card to buy a raid boss mount and you say you'll treat that higher then a store mount.

So it really is just some silly principle of it being in a "store" and not being able to be bought with a credit card.

[Radaney]

Why give the Eternal Palace Meta or Mythic Azshara drop a unique mount when you can give it a shitty yellow recolour and put the mount in the Store?

[Vakir]

To me, the problem isn't intrinsic to the presence of store mounts. To me, the primary issue is content that is blatantly removed in favor of being a store property.

A good example of this is both the Heart and Soul of the Aspects items. Madness of Deathwing on heroic drops a boring recolor of the Alexstrasza themed drakes. But Heart of the Aspects is blatantly the beam that Thrall shoots out to kill Deathwing. Even the mount journal entry implies that this is heavily connected to the lore of that fight.

Now imagine if Invincible was a store mount and Heroic 25 Lich King dropped a plagued green recolor of the armored frostwyrms from the meta achievements. At the time of it, it would only directly affect the top 0.1% of players. But in the long run, it's still content that's kind of deprived for profit.

And that's my beef with the store. It's not the reality of greedy businesses, that part is gonna always be there. It's the time put into those creations that deprives a major collection element of the game.

Can anyone really tell me that the Dreadwake couldn't have found it's way into a BFA zone, or Crucible? That the Celestial Steed couldn't have been an Algalon drop or a reward for the key or Reply Code quest? It's something to consider that developers and artists have finite resources.