Blizzard Store: Swift Windsteed Mount Now Available

[Malkazam]

1: Buy it

2: Ride it

3: Look around you.. everyone have it

4: Use another mount.

5: be Ashamed of yourself

[MikeyD]

And this thing is ugly. I wouldn't even accept $25 to ride it.

Get used to more of these in-game microtransactions. Like others stated, this will help them compensate for the tremendous loss in players.

[outflow]

That horn sticking out of the shield looks a little rude.

[Shekita]

God damn that's an ugly mount.....

[Deleted]

Why do you need a source? You writing a news piece about it or something?

It's pretty evident there will be a major slide. Just sample the forums. The forum community likely represents 1% of the entire player base, but if THESE people (the addicts who have to constantly be on forums discussing the game when they can't be playing it) are unhappy, then imagine what the 99% are thinking.

The next quarterly report will reveal one of the biggest slides WoW has seen yet. That will upset those who have no life outside of the game, but perhaps 'outside' is somewhere they should try visiting.

If the forums are to be believed, WoW has been dying since release. No seriously, it's been a shitstorm of complaints for 8 years now. Happy players are busy playing the game, not posting on the forums.

[Pachycrocuta]

I figured this would be a store mount when it was first data mined.

[Nerraw]

No one will know till 7-Feb-13

Ssssh, trying to call him out on his BS.

---------- Post added 2013-01-08 at 10:19 PM ----------

It doesn't take much to notice that servers are getting empty again. Have been since about 90 days after MoP release when pretty much everyone that left during Cata and returned realized MoP was just more of the same garbage, and then AP subscribers' years ran out.

So nothing more than anecdotal evidence. Thought so.

[furydeath]

Another mount I'll never buy woo

[Duster505]

Why do you need a source? You writing a news piece about it or something?

It's pretty evident there will be a major slide. Just sample the forums. The forum community likely represents 1% of the entire player base, but if THESE people (the addicts who have to constantly be on forums discussing the game when they can't be playing it) are unhappy, then imagine what the 99% are thinking.

The next quarterly report will reveal one of the biggest slides WoW has seen yet. That will upset those who have no life outside of the game, but perhaps 'outside' is somewhere they should try visiting.

Im not sure if the sub numbers will be much lower cause China just got MOP. But EU and US will be in bad state. 1st Quarter of 2013 will be even worse if they dont get 5.2 out before that. But we know that they will push it out even if its half finished. Thats the new BLizzard. We saw it happen with D3 and money matters more than players at this stage for them.

[Forgottenone]

1: Buy it

2: Ride it

3: Look around you.. everyone have it

4: Use another mount.

5: be Ashamed of yourself

You were so close, that may have applied to the Celestial Steed and Heart of the Aspects but not this one

1: Buy it

2: Ride it

3: Look around you..very few have it and rest laugh at it

4: Use another mount

5: be Ashamed of yourself

[ScottsdaleHokie]

So nothing more than anecdotal evidence. Thought so.

Nothing anecdotal about it, hard to miss when SW and Shrine of Seven Stars go from being packed to empty in a few months.

[bjornh]

AKA printing money. Except pixels cost less than paper.

[Santoryu]

Again Blizzard making people pay to make them look stupid, just like the celestial steed back in wotlk.

[shoooter]

Enough money to buy this in my Battle.net balance and they won't let you purchase things from the store with that money! Woe is me.

[Redblade]

First, MMO's remain the most costly ventures to develop and maintain in the gaming world. This hasn't changed from "7-8 years ago". Rest assured it is much more than a blip in their financial radar, so any way they can fatten up their bottom line would be welcome. Granted this would be true even if WoW were cheap, but it's not. At all.

The whole of Activision/Blizzards's development costs where less than half of what WoW generates, just to give you an idea how little WoW actually costs to develop.

Yes, we absolutley pay a subscription fee for them to continue to develop and maintain content...which they are doing (and currently at a much faster pace than previously). In addition to that they are also--once in a while--putting something extra and optional like this up for a separate fee. There are still a lot of "fancy" mounts developed and put in the game for you to earn in-game (the wind serpent mounts being prime examples along with their fancier lightning-encased brethren). This mount does not detract from the desirability of those others. They are still beautiful. Many are still relatively rare.

Yet the developers you pay spend time developing an item you have to pay extra for, something we didn't do in the past, nor should have to...

Also, these purely cosmetic premium additions don't do anything to "improve your experience" that the same types of items in the game don't. In fact, if you look at a great deal of the comments for most of the mounts they've sold separately, people generally seem to find them rather goofy or ugly.

Wasn't me that claimed it improved the experience, it was in a reply to such a claim.

As far as why people are willing to pay extra for them, it's exactly that. They are extra. Optional. Not necessary, and not an "instead of" for content they might have made for the game. Why, when this is blatantly the case, people get so uptight over these things--each and every time, without fail--is, however, truly bewildering.

The developer you payed for to work on the game is taking time off to work on something you pay extra for, how is that not an issue? And as Blizzard claimed on multiple occasions that the main issue with slow content delivery is just lack of hire-able developers and especially artists it actually takes away resources from the main development.

[Qly]

God awful goat/dragon cross breed abortion...
That is the ugliest thing i've seen in wow

[Skum]

The whole of Activision/Blizzards's development costs where less than half of what WoW generates, just to give you an idea how little WoW actually costs to develop.



Yet the developers you pay spend time developing an item you have to pay extra for, something we didn't do in the past, nor should have to...



Wasn't me that claimed it improved the experience, it was in a reply to such a claim.



The developer you payed for to work on the game is taking time off to work on something you pay extra for, how is that not an issue? And as Blizzard claimed on multiple occasions that the main issue with slow content delivery is just lack of hire-able developers and especially artists it actually takes away resources from the main development.

Blizzard is a business - they want to make money. If you don't like what they're selling then don't buy it. Why do people complain about such dumbass things? Most global businesses have additional things you can purchase alongside a main subscription.

The bold bit made me cringe. You're not paying a developer to do anything you clueless imbecile. You are paying Blizzard for a videogame - how they distribute their personnel is entirely their decision. If you feel as though what they are doing is detrimental to the end product to the point where you don't want it any more then stop your subscription and take your tears elsewhere.

To be honest, anyone that gets their knickers in a twist over this trivial issue should probably leave their parents basement and get a clue in life.

Infracted

[Nerraw]

Nothing anecdotal about it, hard to miss when SW and Shrine of Seven Stars go from being packed to empty in a few months.

It's nothing but your own experience, and the experience of a few* others. You have no solid facts or numbers to back up your statement.

*(Using "few" in regards to the fact that as of the last board meeting there was 10 million people playing the game)

---------- Post added 2013-01-08 at 10:33 PM ----------

Enough money to buy this in my Battle.net balance and they won't let you purchase things from the store with that money! Woe is me.

It's most likely an anti-botting thing. Imagine the amount of stuff D3 exploiters could buy with money earned from compromised accounts and/or botting.

[Forumchibi]

Snip

You're pretty much just asking why we should have to pay for anything, and why can't they just build it into the game for free, and thinking anyone who pays more than they should is being foolish.

The bottom-line for both sides is simply: because they can. On Blizzard's side, the money they make from these is like the subscription, it goes towards updates and maintenance, or else they would not be the massive company with a rep for good games the way that they are. If Blizzard can continue to make profit from something to improve their games and get themselves more money, they can and will do so, and it would be stupid of them not to. They'll probably make half a million bucks on this, if not more. That's why Blizzard does not make them free for everyone to get. You can call them selfish, but that's the nature of all MMO companies is to make revenue wherever they can on any service they think people will pay for - that's how F2P MMOs with in-game stores, like Guild Wars 2, where you trade money for items or currency keep going. The more money you can make wherever you can make it, the more successful you and your game will be. You could argue that every pay service should be free, but if WoW didn't have extra mounts, and all of their expansions and services were free, we would definitely not be playing the same game right now.

As for the people who buy the mount, no, they don't need them, they already have plenty. But if they love the way it looks and it improves how they feel while playing the game they love, then it is a worthwhile investment for them, and they are willing to give their money to a good company in exchange for a good product. For a one-time payment of $25, they can enjoy a beautiful mount on every character for the next, I don't know, 3-7 years, however long WoW lasts. The subscription fee is not really a part of this (unless you're tight enough on money where you just can't afford to even think about paying for this on top of the other), because clearly Blizzard doesn't need more of your money, but you're giving more cash to a company you trust to make a better product in the long run, and you get an odd looking mount for it. It's win-win. Now for the people in this thread like myself who think it's a hideous looking beast, we would lose $25 which is a lot worse than the ugly mount we'd be getting for it, and Blizzard doesn't gain or lose anything, which is why it's just a purely optional mount on the store - neither side loses out by not buying it.

[Deleted]

looks like it could have been a christmas quest reward, but nah why give anything to players for free
certainly not gonna buy it