What's Your Opinion On The Blizzard Store Mounts/Pets?

[Pottsy710]

i'm fine with them making some extra coin on the side, as another poster pointed out, sub prices have never increased in the seven years this game has been out... if people buying items like this keeps sub prices from jumping, more power to em...

also, as was pointed out, nothing sold in the blizz store gives any real benefit in game outside of aesthetics... so long as blizz only sells vanity items, i'm fine with it... i would get annoyed if they nickel and dime their customer base for items that actually give you a leg up (BOAs, etc)...

---------- Post added 2012-02-15 at 12:53 PM ----------

i am not jealous. i have plenty of money to buy this mount if i chose to. i have NEVER paid extra for any pets/mounts, because when it started i saw exactly where it would end up; with more and more being offered as paid extras, that should be included in the subscription. sadly there were too many people only too happy to throw more money at Blizzard for sod all effort, so here we are today.

company gouging customers. shocking.

nothing blizzard sells in the blizzard store offers any tangible benefit in game aside from "looking pretty"...

[Defengar]

kind of pisses me of that what is probably one of the top 3 greatest mounts will cost 25 bucks... and that they put more effort into it than the heroic DS mount...

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I don't know if they already do, but the proceeds should go to charity (like the pandaren monk did) or to WoW's funding.

Beyond that, IDGAF.

[Lanthanum]

I have no problem with it, people are free to spend their hard-earned however they wish.

Blizzard must be rubbing their hands together though. Whenever they release something (especially a mount) for sale through the store, they have a queue a mile long of willing customers. Seems like easy money with small development costs compared to the game as a whole.

[Deleted]

its not that theyre for sale thats fine but i'd rather have them ingame as a reward fir a achivement

[wildemu]

The player base allowed them to do this. If those early pets flopped, you wouldn't be seeing this.

As a company, I say do whatever it takes.
As a gaming studio, this is a disgusting tactic used to gain funds and extend the dead period of lack of content.

[Deleted]

I'm very disapointed that this is a store mount, I was expecting to see this as a reward for a 125 or 150 mount acheivment, especially after seeing the chromatic pet for 150 vanity pets. I wouldn't be as annoyed and would be more enclined to buy it if some of the proceeeds went to charity, but as I see it they knew they could make massive amounts of money from it and took the funds for themselves.
The other point I hate is that this is one of the most unique and beautifull mounts I've seen in a very long time, and instead of putting it in game as a reward they try to gauge the playerbase for it. Someone on the official forums made a very good point that they say that they dont have the resources to make additional content and then they spend resources on one of the most unique models in game only to put it on sale for £17 a pop. I've got no problem with the entire wow population having it, but when they start changing the idea of the game from "Who can put time and effort into the game and be rewarded for it" to "Who has the biggest wallet", I lose a lot of faith in the company. I've tried to defend Blizzard for a while, and on many points I still will, but this takes the piss.

[Eroginous]

With the release of anything that Blizzard does these days there is some negative criticism (I use this words in it's loosest form) about the new mount.
I'd like to hear what everyone thinks of the Mounts and Pets that Blizzard sell.

I've personally not got a problem with the mount itself or fact it's being sold. It's something that gives no in-game advantage at all and is purely cosmetic and for the buyers visual benefit. Granted my only problem is that I'd like to see the profits used on content as the profit from such an item must be rather large.

I'm not necessarily asking for your opinion of the Mount/Pet itself, but rather your opinion on the selling of them.

For the most part, I don't have a problem with them. However, it does bother me that Blizzard releases mounts and pets for IRL money instead of requiring some sort of in game effort to obtain them. This new mount is amazing looking, and will be for a couple weeks. After a month or two, it will literally be everywhere and be regarded as 'an ugly piece of shit' or 'just another gay mount' because there is no rarity to it any more.

Most cool mounts in the game (Mimi's head, Invincible, Ashes of Alar, ect) are COOL because they are so hard to get or so rare, in addition to looking unique or cool. I bought one of the sparkle pony mounts back when it first came out, I saw it and it was pretty cool. Now it's a gay sparkle pony that EVERYONE has. Same with the Flaming Lion. Now that it's a really cool gigantic dragon, it's basically going to end up going the way of the Sparkle Pony and the Flaming Lion.

I would love to buy this new one, but I don't want to pay $25 to have the same mount that ANYONE can get by shopping the Blizz store.

On the flip side, if these mounts and pets were being sold for charity, with the proceeds going towards disaster relief or children's medicine, I'd be more than happy to pay out $25 for this thing, because at that point it has symbolism that it would have if I had obtained it in any other way.

I understand that Blizzard is a business and will do what's good for business, but it just doesn't make sense to me to support something that takes away individuality in a game that supposed to be all about individuality.

Just my 2 cents.

[Shofie]

This is definitely something customers actually want. Despite all the complaining we see on various forums about this, there are far more people not complaining and lining up around the block to get one. When I bought mine, I had to wait in a queue with 40,000-some odd people ahead of me.

There have not even been 40,000 complaint posts so far, though there have been a lot, I'd wager only a few thousand, tops. And the majority of the complaints just seem to come from people who wanted it for free, or wanted it to be much more rare. And if it were really rare, people would've complained about that, too.

It's a company, they are out to make money. Since the pets and mounts are entirely optional, I don't think there's much basis for complaint about them. Wildemu is right: It's the players that allowed this to happen-hell, WANTED it to happen. If no one had been interested in those early pets, then they would've stopped making them available on a micro-transaction level.

I for one would rather they do this than make a "premium" subscription like they were debating doing for awhile. This is a nice way to supplement Blizzard's income, while offering the players something fun and optional.

---------- Post added 2012-02-15 at 06:40 PM ----------

I was expecting to see this as a reward for a 125 or 150 mount acheivment, especially after seeing the chromatic pet for 150 vanity pets.

The 150 Vanity pet achievement is actually the Celestial Dragon, not a Chromatic one. Amusingly enough, the mount counterpart for that (the Celestial Steed) was also a pet store mount.

[vian]

Only reason I see for a person or group to complain about these, would be if they're 12 and can't use their parents debit/credit-card.
Or they live at home and are unemployed and thus, can't afford em.

[Deleted]

The 150 Vanity pet achievement is actually the Celestial Dragon, not a Chromatic one. Amusingly enough, the mount counterpart for that (the Celestial Steed) was also a pet store mount.

Thanks for the correction. Is there a chromatic pet? I now can't remember if I've seen one around

[wildemu]

Only reason I see for a person or group to complain about these, would be if they're 12 and can't use their parents debit/credit-card.
Or they live at home and are unemployed and thus, can't afford em.

principles, learn them.

[Deleted]

I have never and will never buy a pet or mount from the store. But if people want to buy them, then good luck to them.

I think a good analogy, would be going to the cinema, (which you have paid for), then going to buy popcorn.

[Pancaspe]

I'm more baffled people actually burn money on this crap.

Each to their own i guess.

$25? That is nothing. I spend $25 on a bottle of wine at lunch that I later piss out.

$25 for a great mount is a hell of a deal!

[Janaa]

Doesn't bother me in the slightest. I buy most of the store stuff, I won't be buying this one because I'm not fond of the colour. However that's my choice, as it is anyone else's.

Folks have an option of buying an add-on mount which costs as much as most new games, and if they want to, that's fine by me.

If they figure it's a waste of cash, thats fine too. If they're just upset because they can't afford it and other people can, they need to get over that quick-smart. It's going to happen constantly, everywhere in life.

[vindicatorx]

I don't really care if that many people are silly enough to spend money on an in game item thats their choice I don't care. As for how Blizzard used the money they get from it they make what 150 ish million a month I'm sure they have enough funding from that to spend on developing in game stuff. I mean seriously did none of you take any business classes every? You have a silly dragon mount that people will drop $25 on and there is no additional cost or end of supply of silly dragon mount yet large amounts of people will buy it. You would be stupid to not sell as many as you could.

[Rapti]

I think they focus too much on +extra money gain than on actual thing we pay for.
Thats my opinion.

[Fahrenheit]

Couldn't care less. I play a Druid, so I have only a couple of flying mounts (mostly Meta's) as I NEVER use them, I just use flight form. If they came out with a great looking land mount (for BGs) that I had to have I'd buy it.

[pakoa]

I wouldn't have a problem with it if it weren't for the fact that Blizzard constantly states they don't have time to update character models and would rather allocate their resources somewhere else. If they have time to design (off the top of my head) Tyrael's Charger and now this mount, that's two races right there that could have been updated. I'm sure more mounts/content has been designed than just those too mounts too.

[Janaa]

Couldn't care less. I play a Druid, so I have only a couple of flying mounts (mostly Meta's) as I NEVER use them, I just use flight form. If they came out with a great looking land mount (for BGs) that I had to have I'd buy it.

As an interesting note, at present this works as a land mount in BGs. I'd expect they'll need to stop like with most permanently-flying mounts.

---------- Post added 2012-02-15 at 07:02 PM ----------

I wouldn't have a problem with it if it weren't for the fact that Blizzard constantly states they don't have time to update character models and would rather allocate their resources somewhere else. If they have time to design (off the top of my head) Tyrael's Charger and now this mount, that's two races right there that could have been updated. I'm sure more mounts/content has been designed than just those too mounts too.

Based on its design, the mount model is being used in MOP. It's just an early release to get some cash.