15 Responses to How many WoW pets does it take to forget China?

1. xXJayeDuBXx says:

   November 5, 2009 at 10:56 am

   That was my thoughts exactly.
2. arbitrary says:

   November 5, 2009 at 11:04 am

   I was joking with Spinks about that this morning, esp as one of them is a Pandaren Monk.
3. sid67 says:

   November 5, 2009 at 11:18 am

   If you don’t like the micro transactions model (which I don’t) then this is bad news for all MMO fans. Follow the leader and all that.. :(
4. spinks says:

   November 5, 2009 at 11:37 am

   If it was true welfare, they’d give them away, which kind of misses the point ;)
5. Chris says:

   November 5, 2009 at 11:53 am

   I don’t have a problem with microtransactions. I also am fine with the “traditional subscription model.” But putting both in the same game leaves me somewhat conflicted. I mean, even in freebie games, I can choose not to buy junk in the cash shop. In WoW, though, there’s no way to avoid paying Blizzard every month. So why should I give them EVEN MORE MONEY to buy cosmetic pets, for example? Was the $15 I paid them last month not enough to pay for that development’s team salary?
6. painghoul says:

   November 5, 2009 at 11:56 am

   They’re not welfare if they cost *YOU* money
7. Wyrm says:

   November 5, 2009 at 12:06 pm

   They are welfare for those who just want to parade their game earnings without, you know, playing the fucking game.

   And people wonder why the common man is regularly fucked by big corps. Be it in gaming or in healthcare the biggest part of this planet’s population are just sheep (or morons) praying that the wolves won’t notice them.

   We’re like fucking turkeys cheering for christmas.

   I was just wondering how much longer would it take to this fuckfest to fully embrace the games market.

   Welcome to the brave new world.
8. Ravious says:

   November 5, 2009 at 12:14 pm

   Sooth.
9. Bhagpuss says:

   November 5, 2009 at 1:14 pm

   I love accessories in MMOs. Not planning on spending any money on them beyond the actual sub to play the game though. Plenty to get for free. As it happens anyway, those two particular “pets” are so unattractive and so inappropriate for any character I’m likely to play that I wouldn’t even use them if they were free.

   Why anyone would care if other people buy them is beyond me, though. Surely there must be about a billion more significant things to get worked up about other than whether a large corporation comes up with yet another way to get people to give it money. Blizzard doesn’t actually exist for any other reason than to make money, after all. It’s not a community project or a social experiment; it’s just another retailer, one that happens to develop and produce the product it sells.
   • Senorvandal says:

     November 5, 2009 at 1:37 pm

     @Bhagpuss:

     I don’t think it’s so much that some people may get worked up over what others spend their money on, more than that if enough people spend their money on these types of things (especially in a game that already charges a monthly subscription to play) it could set a precedent that more and more content will only be available through micro transactions. Pets that’s a vanity item, new hairstyles or clothing, fine… but who’s to say they won’t eventually start charging for exclusive content such as instanced dungeons that are only available if you’re willing to pay a fee to play them. It’s not that far if you consider that a number of EQ players were more than a little angry when word came out that the latest Legends of Norrath (Everquest Trading Card Game) expansion would have a loot card that allowed access to a instanced dungeon with unique content and items. Not exactly an RMT dungeon but not that far off either. IMO it should really be either one or the other for MMOs, either companies charge an up front subscription for people who want to play the game or they have a free to play game with a micro transaction system for people who want more from the game whether that be just vanity items or increased content… although i’m afraid we’ve already turned the corner on this one.
     • Wyrm says:

       November 5, 2009 at 4:26 pm

       Yep. That is totally it. And you can totally bet the farm that most of the ones who are saying “who cares” will be the ones who will whine more when devs will start charging 15$ a month just to log in the servers and all the rest is cash upfront.

       It’s like a health club who went from selling t-shirts and sports clothes and key rings to charge for time spent on each machine on top of the subscription.

       I am always amazed with this human mentality of “if it doesn’t affect me then I won’t care.” It reminds me of this: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Niem%C3%B6ller
     • sente says:

       November 5, 2009 at 5:27 pm

       “but who’s to say they won’t eventually start charging for exclusive content such as instanced dungeons that are only available if you’re willing to pay a fee to play them”

       Of course that kind of thing will happen. It has already been around for many years and usually go by the name “expansion”.

       Companies will add more payment options and virtual goods for sure. You always have the choice to not buy and not pay, no one forces you.

       The $10 price tag for a vanity pet is a bit steep, when there are other games that charge a 1/10th of that price for the same type of thing. But Blizzard will probably still sell a bunch of those.

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11. bub says:

    November 5, 2009 at 8:49 pm

    next stop (insert random dungeon name)only 10$ at battle.net*

    *must have (insert random) xpac to play.
12. willee says:

    November 6, 2009 at 8:53 am

    This is one big reason why I’ll probably never be playing another mainstream big-production mmorpg again. The large corporations that put out these games have a single goal in mind…make money. Micro-transactions are a great new way for them to do that. And I can’t say I blame them. I work at a very large corporation and the mindset every day with every decision is either “how can we increase revenue” or “how can we cut our expenses”. When you have quarterly earnings calls and a tremendous amount of pressure to grow the business that is the mindset that will dominate everyone’s thinking.

    The problem, at least for me, is that line of thinking is really bad for mmorpgs. That means those games will be designed to maximize revenue, and any time that is the case I’ve found that the games are adversely impacted in relation to what I like in mmorpgs because I’m not a mainstream player. I hate easy games. I hate instances. I hate that you can obtain an item or skill in the game not through playing the game but by entering your credit card information. All of these things and much more are now going to be prevalent in the big blockbuster mmorpgs to be released from here on out because if you are going to maximize your revenue then they have to be in there.

    And some of you may say “but isn’t making money the goal of every company out there?”. Well, yes it is, but there are companies out there who, along with making money, really just want to make a game they’ll enjoy playing. And that a targeted, smaller niche crowd will enjoy playing as well. Some of them, typically those who are not public companies but smaller indie shops with private investors – are as interested in making a great immersive game that they will love playing even moreso than squeezing every last penny out of the game they can possibly get (see: Eve and Darkfall. Hell, even Everquest before it went “bigtime” and people there realized how much more money you could make by giving it a “whore-over”), .

    And those are the games I’ll be playing.

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