Not cool Blizzard

[Renley]

I like mounts. I like to collect mounts. I like to support Blizzard. I have money.

Therefore, I combine these things and buy a mount from the store. It makes perfectly logical sense and I have 0 problem with it. I don't care that they spend a minuscule amount of time making these mounts compared to everything else they do. As someone else said, they've added..what...3 mounts since MoP? That's insignificant. Sure, they could have spent that time adding those 3 mounts in-game, but they'd have to spend more time figuring out how to add them, tieing them into an achiev, or new faction, or new event. They'd have to make logical sense to be earned in game. The store gives the artists the ability to be creative and add mounts to the game they otherwise would or could never add.

/2cents

[Mancowski]

Coolest mounts are earned in game for me.

Still love Some racial mounts, Wolves, Kodos and Mechanostriders. As for flying mounts, nothing is really badass to me, but the Engineering stuff.

That Fey Dragon is just a Drake with sparkles and a Chameleon head, lol

[Qly]

Its like you dont get the point. Remember the days before transmog where people would show off their new gear inside the big city? Remember the first time you got a glory of the X mount?

Mounts are not just vehicles in this game. They are trophies. If you dont realise that then you and me cant understand eachother.

Yes, and by that logic, an trophy for spending money is not really a trophy i'd like to showcase

[Renx]

It does seems like blizzard has been putting up a lot more MT mounts recently than the past. Though I'm not surprised with their constant sub loss for the past three years or so. It has picked up the pace recently so seeing Blizzard fire off a bunch of store mounts which do sell quite well from past history. That celestial steed sold a crap ton. It's just revenue for blizzard to bank on. People enjoy mounts and collections and don't mind spending the $25 for one.

I personally don't care, Blizzard can release all the mounts and pets as they want. As long as they keep putting ones in-game that are something new and don't focus all their art quality towards store mounts I don't mind.

[Dudemanguy]

Yes, and by that logic, an trophy for spending money is not really a trophy i'd like to showcase

If these cash shop mounts were actual mounts that you'd have to accomplish by grinding or doing hard content, I'd be more than happy. Now, all of the cooler mounts are owned by the customer's wallet. You can buy a trophy, but you still haven't accomplished anything other than buying it.

[Raiju]

Now here is a though. Maybe you are BOTH right. Maybe the shop keeps the sub cost stable? Maybe me buying a mount saves you 1 buck every month on the x-pac.

Who know? Does anyone? Does anyone really?

I know both things go towards gameplay

[cFortyfive]

Did you play at the time? You needed to overcome one of the hardest encounters ever put into the game to get Invincible, and then be the person who your guild decides deserves the mount out of the other 24 people in the group. Comparable to spending 20k at the AH?

Yes with the head coming later 2010 because my guild is retarded and rolls for mounts. I was only referring to the drop chance - anyone who was at that time in a raid guild had the chance to get it while that wasn't the case for the phoenix.

[Nemah]

I wont stand up and shout about it

Yet here you are.

blizzard has taken a turn that i simply believe is god awful. All(and i do really mean all) the new mounts that they have worked that little bit extra on all comes on the store instead of being hard earned in game.

How is it awful? Say you subscribe to a monthly magazine and they offer a new premium service that for $10 allows you access to some exclusive content on their website. Is that a "god awful" turn, or is it a company diversifying it's product line? You are wrong, too. There are a wide variety of mounts available in the game, with every raid tier, that look great....also rep-based mounts. Every expansion, almost.

[Asphyxiate9]

I'm a mount collector which makes me a bit of a sucker for things like this so I'll probably buy it. Don't really understand the hate that much though, if it was currency, raiding gear, or PvP gear i'd be up in arms but its just a mount... Won't stop me from using my onyx panther or sky golem though.

[Etrigan]

If these cash shop mounts were actual mounts that you'd have to accomplish by grinding or doing hard content, I'd be more than happy. Now, all of the cooler mounts are owned by the customer's wallet. You can buy a trophy, but you still haven't accomplished anything other than buying it.

This is probably my main issue with the unique mounts being dumped in the store. Yes, my X drake I earned for killing the final boss on HC is pretty cool, BECAUSE of the way I obtained it, but in the end it is just a re-skin. Meanwhile, Blizzard is focused on a new shiny unique mount for the cash shop.

Wrath was truly the last time a mount was cool because of the way it was obtained, AND how awesome/unique it looked.

[Raiju]

This is probably my main issue with the unique mounts being dumped in the store. Yes, my X drake I earned for killing the final boss on HC is pretty cool, BECAUSE of the way I obtained it, but in the end it is just a re-skin. Meanwhile, Blizzard is focused on a new shiny unique mount for the cash shop.

Wrath was truly the last time a mount was cool because of the way it was obtained, AND how awesome/unique it looked.

Iron juggernaut is not a reskin
Whatever the wolf is called is not a reskin
Galakras is not a reskin
Skyscreamer is not a reskin
Heavenly red cloud serpent IS a reskin (but all the heavenly ones are locked behind significant ingame effort, yellow less than the others)
Twilight harbinger/handmaiden/blazing drake was a reskin, but all versions of the model were only available from the instance
Pureblood/corrupted firehawk were reskin but once again only obtainable in the instance.

[reckoner04]

Personally, I don't have a problem with the store as it is.

However, the argument that it's "just cosmetic" doesn't hold. What would you say if Blizzard released the next raid without any textures, just white floors, white walls and white props, but offered a fitting texture pack on the store? It wouldn't affect your performance, it'd be 100% optional and you wouldn't be missing any gameplay value either - it's "just cosmetic". The correct argument in this case (which is obviously completely insane) is that the subscribers wouldn't be provided something that they usually were provided, since all previous raids were textured by default and therefore it shouldn't be moved to the store.

It's easy to see in the example I gave but not so much with mounts because they have never been released as regularly as raids. If the store wouldn't exist, would they have released the mount anyway? Would they have made the mount at all? We can't confidently answer these questions. I only know that the argument of store items being "just cosmetic" doesn't make any sense at all. Mounts, pets, transmog and so on are just as much part of the game experience as power upgrades, spells and so on are. Otherwise they wouldn't have been implemented in the first place.

In the end, Blizzard can do whatever they want, it's their game. It's only their ideals and reputation that will hold them back from bad business ethics, and what constitutes bad business ethics is mostly defined by what the consumers think is right or not. And the consumers aren't really in perfect agreement, as can be seen in this thread and many other places on the internet, so some people will be pissed off anyway.

[Dudemanguy]

This is probably my main issue with the unique mounts being dumped in the store. Yes, my X drake I earned for killing the final boss on HC is pretty cool, BECAUSE of the way I obtained it, but in the end it is just a re-skin. Meanwhile, Blizzard is focused on a new shiny unique mount for the cash shop.

Wrath was truly the last time a mount was cool because of the way it was obtained, AND how awesome/unique it looked.

I've been losing my patience with Blizzard with the past decisions being made within the last few years. Being a hardcore player has been less accomplishing, to the point where I don't worry about being in a guild to raid anymore. What's sad is how the Time-Lost Proto Drake is a really simple mount, yet it is more difficult to get than to spend 25$ for a shiny new mount in the cash shop.

[cFortyfive]

Iron juggernaut is not a reskin
Whatever the wolf is called is not a reskin
Galakras is not a reskin

Isn't galakras just a proto drake, the wolf the former rbg mount and juggernaut yeah well a boss downscaled ?

[Deleted]

Its a mount, it does not make you better, it does not make you go faster then on other mounts. I have the Fey Dragon, I bought the new one. But I do not care if they are obtainable in the game or has to be bought. I will join the whining army if they start selling gear or performance stuff in the shop.

Gameplay isn't everything. What about the design of Tier sets? What if all the well designed gear is only obtainable in the Shop and just playing the game normally rewards you with a bunch of ugly gear? It's the same as your mount philosophy, but I think it's a little gamebreaking by scaring away all the people who care about the total experience instead of solely the gameplay mechanics.

It's a slippery slope if you ask me. If they're going the way of microtransactions (which they are clearly doing) they better make the game free to play while at it. You can't have best of both worlds, especially with a game that is slowly dying... Oh well, guess we'll have to wait a few more years for WoW to go free to play.

[Etrigan]

Iron juggernaut is not a reskin
Whatever the wolf is called is not a reskin
Galakras is not a reskin
Skyscreamer is not a reskin
Heavenly red cloud serpent IS a reskin (but all the heavenly ones are locked behind significant ingame effort, yellow less than the others)
Twilight harbinger/handmaiden/blazing drake was a reskin, but all versions of the model were only available from the instance
Pureblood/corrupted firehawk were reskin but once again only obtainable in the instance.

Iron Juggernaut is a scaled up version of a model in-game since Cata, with some armor sprinkled on top. It is also a boss model.

Don't know what the wolf you're talking about is.

Galakras is a proto drake... In game since Wrath.

Sky-screamer is a mob model, used throughout patch 5.2 and on. Was not designed to be a mount specifically.

All the rest you already said, are re-skins.

[Raiju]

Iron Juggernaut is a scaled up version of a model in-game since Cata, with some armor sprinkled on top. It is also a boss model.

Don't know what the wolf you're talking about is.

Galakras is a proto drake... In game since Wrath.

Sky-screamer is a mob model, used throughout patch 5.2 and on. Was not designed to be a mount specifically.

All the rest you already said, are re-skins.

And all the store mounts are altered models of already ingame mounts/creatures, too. There is 0 difference there at all (and you ignored how the 'reskins' are all only obtainable within the raid instance, bar the first tiers)

Same to Cfortyfive, galakras has unique armor (a new model), the wolf has different armor (new model), skyscreamer/juggernaut being a mob model is just like bloodfang is a mob model.

[Raven]

Isn't galakras just a proto drake, the wolf the former rbg mount and juggernaut yeah well a boss downscaled ?

And isn´t iron skyreaver just a sky golem with other skin?, seem to have same flying pattern and flying animation.

[glowpipe]

No matter what anyone say or how much of a fanboy they are. Selling stuff in a cash shop. That you can not obtain in the game that you pay for. Is just insane.

Subscribers pay for those mounts. wages to the people making them. And then they sell them and earn even more.
People who buy the store mounts are actualy quite dumb. They pay for items they have already paid for. gg

[Bleys]

IIRC, the Heart of the Aspects was kind of a "look at the things to come" sort of mount, as up until that time that particular model didn't exist in-game.

Fast forward a little bit of time and you have Cloud Serpents that are obtainable in-game.

Here we are at a similar stage to when the HoA was put in the Blizzard Store and we have a new mount that can be purchased that points toward the Iron Horde and one of the models that was found in various locations of Outland.

It could very well be that Blizzard is attempting to get things out there and tested against a large enough audience that they can see how it works and move forward with other things?