$25 mount
April 15, 2010 in Uncategorized
I’m curious how people feel about the Celestial Steed. In the realm of “paid content” it seems to be fairly harmless, and on an individual level I don’t see anything wrong with being able to pay for things that you want. Is there $25 dollars worth of value here? Does the fact that over $2 million dollars have been spent on this bother anyone?
Backfire said on April 15, 2010
I like it. It means people can buy things if they feel it’s worth it to them, while (hopefully) giving Blizzard enough funds to continue to supply the experiences in WoW that make it so popular. My only problem is that I want it, but it’s not worth $35 New Zealand to me XD
Sabbath said on April 16, 2010
yeah. I mean if blizzard said “pay 25$ to be able to raid in addition to the subscription” then yeah. But cosmetic stuff? Whatever. Most games have pay for cosmetic upgrades.
Hibike said on April 17, 2010
It’s dumb and anyone who bought one is dumb. We all paid Blizzard $40 for an expansion that had months worth of content. Quests, dungeons, new items, and an entirely new class. Now people are paying $25 for a flying sparkle pony mount. A mount that is a quick reskin of Arthas’ mount. That’s over half of what we paid for an entire expansion pack.
Next thing you know they’ll be selling $30 Guild Tabards that give you butterfly wings, and $20 Scrolls that double your exp for a week.
Allargando said on April 17, 2010
Cosmetic upgrades are at the players direct expense. As a programmer, I think that it’s a nice way to really design something and have a direct method of progress and reward. I mean, if you designed the celestial mount, and it ended up making Blizzard, let’s say, $5million, I’m sure you would feel accomplished.
But at the same time, it allows the players a way to stand out from the rest, and another means of endearing the game further into their lifestyle. Warcraft is one of the only games out there that can be adaptive and become as much a part of your life as it desire it to be, on multiple levels.
So I agree with Sabbath. If they were charging more for core-game functions (kind of like FF XI’s famous $1 per extra character rolled) then I would be strongly against it. But to charge for something that brings you even slight happiness upon the existing joy, is nothing more than an intelligent business move, and a new way to attract more players.
Koriq said on April 18, 2010
As long as we’re able to earn better things from playing the game instead of buying stuff, I’m cool.
Aflax said on April 18, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpraJYnbVtE
Ehrzuli said on April 18, 2010
Yup, you’re not forced to buy it. I do want one, and I like the way that it phases as you learn new riding skills, so that you don’t have to discard it, but I do believe that $25 is pretty steep. Then again, I’ve paid just as much to move characters around to different servers.
Blizzard is a business; they have employees to pay and very expensive servers to run, and if they have found a way to make extra money that’s NOT raising the costs of our monthly payments, awesome. The more money they make, the better stuff they can make for us.
Opis said on April 18, 2010
I don’t know. I’m pretty opposed to the idea of “premium content” in a game that I’m already paying for. My mind has a hard time not villainizing developers for breaking a game apart into chunks and ultimately dividing the experience for its users.
In this case, it’s a mount. Not a big deal in terms of gameplay. However, it grinds my gears to know that the main marketing strategy of this particular offer is to instill in people the “me too” mentality. I think that mentality sucks, so I think this product doubly sucks.
It was bad enough when in order to get a mount that can carry 2 extra players on it cost, like, 20,000g. I blanched at that, but people ate it up. At least they didn’t have to reach outside the context of the game to purchase it.
This is just all getting too meta for a game with a story.
Backfire said on April 18, 2010
For me, when it’s a two-person mount for 20,000g (I got the cheaper version without the vendors for 8000g which I found entirely reasonable), it’s gold, not real money. In-game currency SHOULD be usable for something, thats the whole point of it – to earn rewards in game.
I don’t mind the new celestial steed as it isn’t anything special in terms of mechanics – we already have all the same speeds of mounts, and mounts that tailor to your skill are obtainable (Headless Horseman’s for example).
What I don’t like though, is when they release something that costs money and is BETTER than whats obtainable in-game – lately the two-person flying mount from recruit-a-friend. That can ultimately be bought, and no such similar item is gettable in-game.
Aflax said on April 19, 2010
I’ve worked for some pretty large Global IT organizations and am reasonably sure that the 100+ million a year that Activision is making off of WoW is not required just to keep it up and running. This is just more of the “Greed is Good” mentality that is crushing the world economy and yes I’m bitter from watching good people loose their jobs just so the ones in charge can continue to pay themselves excessive salaries.
Sabbath said on April 21, 2010
how much many have you spent on Little Big Planet DLC to try and make your sackboy look like a Gundam Hibike? Who gives a shit about DLC that doesn’t affect gameplay? It’s all cosmetic and literally is a persons call if they just want something to look different. And as always you have to admit that part of your anger stems from you hating Activision to begin with. A different company pulling the same move and you wouldn’t be so up and arms.
That being said. Fuck Kotick
Teq said on April 22, 2010
Blizzard has said that these additions were “at player request”. Given the sell rates I’m not sure I have any good counter-argument.
Opis said on April 22, 2010
I can field a counter argument:
The majority of players are Alliance.