Originally Posted by
The-Shan
These games lose a huge amount of their appeal the denser/more involved the microtransactions are. People want a form of escapism, and the moment you start involving dollar signs and allowing payment for ingame achievements, it starts to lose its luster, its sense of wonder. Just because most of them do it today, doesn't mean it's a good thing. During the renaissance of the MMORPG (2000s) games didn't have these cash shops in the west, at least not very prevalently.
People want to get lost in these games, and cash shops make that difficult. There's a reason the MMO genre is fading, it's because its so hard to get lost in them now, to get totally immersed and feel a drive to achieve. Cash shops aren't the only thing that contributes to this, but it's a huge part of it.
Blizzard compounded the blowback from this by making an entirely new mount that looks like its from retail on 'low' graphics. It doesn't look like a classic mount, and its gigantic, sticking out like a sore thumb. It looks obnoxious and it hurts the illusion of going back to a better time that people want out of TBC. I guarantee you it wouldn't have been as bad if they just threw the feldrake, rooster, or the nether rocket in and called it a day.