/fangirl squee
There's some controversy regarding it's release, however.
Here's the basic info: You can now purchase two vanity pets for your World of Warcraft characters, though the Blizzard Store, for $10 each. These are digital downloads, and are not associated with any particular WoW account until you redeem the codes - this means that you can purchase multiples of either pet and Gift them to a fellow player by sending them a code directly to their email. Your friend can then click a link which has them log into their Battle.Net account and choose a WoW account they'd like the code associated with (if you have multiple WoW accounts, you have to select which one to link the pets with, as well - any characters transferred off the associated account LOSE the vanity pets until they get transferred back to the associated account).
There are two pets available: Lil' K.T. and the Pandaren Brewmaster.
The problem people have with this seem to be in two groups:
- OMG, they're starting with the Micro-Transactions! Mounts, gear, instances, whole expansions are next!
- How lame - they're pretending they're doing something for the charity, but they're really just in it for themselves and the profit. FAIL.
Now, everything that's been offered in the past year or so has had mild to no impact on my enjoyment of the game. People have taken advantage of all of these services, but I haven't experienced anyone actually abusing them yet. I've heard of a very few scattered incidents (mostly on WoW gossip sites), but even those have been pretty minimal. The services they've offered have been almost entirely cosmetic, especially since some of the nerfs to racials (I do consider the Priest racial bonuses to be racials, darnit, despite what other classes may think! They were reasons people chose Dwarves or Trolls or Undead over other races!). People on PvP servers may disagree, or people who are heavily into BG or Arena PvP.
On that subject, how have the newer services affected PvP, for those of you who actually participate in it? (mostly a subject for another day)
Back to the subject at hand, however!
While I can see a tunnel leading toward Micro-Transactions ahead of us, and ahead of WoW, I'm curious about the direction they've already taken us along. I'm impressed at how they've skirted the kind of services that would be really game changing by offering the kinds of services that players have asked for throughout the history of WoW, but managed to impliment them in a way that has the least impact to the WoW community at large.
Name changes can hide you, but if you're on a Friends list or Ignore list, you remain there, just under your new name. You can't hide that way - you'll need to transfer off the server and back on I assume to completely remove yourself from other players' radars, though I read a while back about a site that tracks where name/server transfer characters go for you, so that you have their new name and know their new home... which leads back to them watching for your return.
Faction changes may hide your history, but if you're in the habit of Ninja-ing, players WILL look you up. If they find out you're a recent realm or faction change, they'll look up your old name's history, and your reputation will continue to follow you. Again,your reputation is not so easily dodged for very long if you simply can't control your bad habits.
Vanity pets - oh how I love them. I've discussed my collection habit already, and probably will again in the future. These are pure fluff. They serve no purpose. But they don't cost $45 (as Grunty did), they don't cost over $100 to purchase from a lucky (or obsessive) WoW TCG player. It's $10 directly to Blizzard... and for this small amount, I am willing to use real world money.
The people complaining about the Charity as a front can go jam an alarm clock in their ears. Obsessive Vanity pet collectors who have a little cash to burn would purchase these pets regardless of the Make a Wish donation.
Blizzard could have kicked off their Pet Store and kept 100% of the proceeds for themselves, but they chose not to. Until the end of the year, they'll be taking half profit from the pet they knew right off the bat would sell like crazy. (I'm curious whether Blizzard will announce how much money actually wound up being collected for and donated to Make a Wish, after the New Year) Complaining about the Make a Wish donation makes you a Glass Half Empty person. Rather than, "Wow, they're doing a pretty nifty thing, " these people are saying, "Wow, greedy jerks. It's not enough, thus they shouldn't have bothered."
It doesn't have to be an all or nothing matter. All or nothing means someone loses. Why does anyone have to lose? Why can't we share? Why can't we be happy when we both win?
What are your thoughts? I admit that these are entirely my own opinions, and I'm lazy enough to not actually hunt up hard data since my blog is such a small one. ^_^
(I have one of each associated with my only WoW account XD)
2 comments:
Tis a slippery slope, indeed.
As a whole, I'm not particularly fond of "micro-transactions". It tends to lead to really bad things. However, Blizzard seems adamant that these things won't affect actual gameplay. As long as they are of the cosmetic nature, I don't mind so much. I just remain cautious about where it could eventually lead.
Still the whole vanity pet thing makes me wince a little. I mean, if I hadn't been wonderfully gifted the pets (<3!), eventually I would have found a way to get them. I don't mind spending a little for a vanity pet (or more, if there's more to the offer - like a trip to BlizzCon or a live stream of it XD). I'm just one of those that if I want it bad enough, I'll find a way to get it (while trying to be somewhat sensible XD).
But, I do hope they continue to add some "cool" pets in the game that can be OBTAINED in the game and not just by forking over some cash. That just seems to be the "right" way to get in game items, to me.
And hopefully they don't suddenly add 10 new pets that are super-awesome-cool that I have to have, or I could be in trouble. >_>
10 new pets in quick succession that are just too cool to ignore would be evil, and blatant. And would probably mean they'd have to use some manpower to cycle through new ones in such quantity that it would become it's own little side business for them.
And then I'd get burnt out and saddened at the whole thing, and I'd have to stop collecting. Sad Ninja Panda is sad.
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