With anything that Blizzard adds to the game that wasn’t originally imagined from the beginning, the community takes up pitch-forks and flaming sticks to hurl. Why such hate for an idea that gives us access to new vanity pets? I don’t know. Vanity pets in-game are just that. They serve no purpose other than to have a little buddy follow you around. They are a little add-on you can enjoy. Today Blizzard announced the opening of a store which would sell Pandaren Monk pet and a Lil K’T pet. Also to be noted is the fact that they will donate half of the money earned to the Make-a-Wish foundation, an organization Blizzard has a history with in the past.
Truthfully, some may take the gesture of giving half the proceeds to the company as a front. I don’t see why it would be perceived this way. To me, giving to charity is always good. Most of us go through our day with no thoughts of what we could do to help someone in need or even notice the various boxes in stores which are setup by charities. I’ve seen toothpicks, gum wrappers and pennies stuffed in there. I’d say the majority never put more than dollar in there in a year, probably even in a lifetime.
I understand some might see this as just a money-grabbing opportunity and my thoughts are not your thoughts. The truth is, the only way to motivate most people to donate willingly, is to offer them something in return. Is Blizzard looking to make money? Of course. They are a business. People forget this all the time. Do I think they are donating money just to ease into the in-game shop? No. If Blizzard didn’t already have a storied past with the Make-a-Wish foundation, I would be skeptical but I truthfully feel they are doing this because they want to help.
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November 4th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
SERIOUSLY. People are complaining but I none of them ever donate money to organizations. This changes nothing in game changes nothing about the experience.
November 4th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
…and HOW many people bought the Blizzcon feed for the pet alone?
Seriously. The players have made it known to Blizzard that they’ll pay extra for a vanity pet with no bearing on in-game functionality whatsoever. Anyone who complains is just wishing they had the $10 to spend for their own fuzzy brewmaster.
November 4th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
I dont think people notice that this is an optional choice almost blowing this up to where they have to buy this little panda. Maybe most of the anger is that a lot of people like the panda and blizzard isnt doing this with a less popular character. I think they are smart for doing so, I mean almost no one would pay that amount for a little worm that doesnt nothing to save such a likeable and known character for encouragment for people to buy it and inturn donte is a very smart move on there part.
November 5th, 2009 at 10:11 am
sure it’s a money grabbing opportunity but as a BUSINESS, Blizzard is entitled to making money.
that being said, how much less money are they making on a $10 pet vs someone who would buy cases and cases of cards for a rare pet or mount?
and think about your time – how much do you make an hour? how many hours have you spent farming pets?
i’d gladly spend $10 not to have to kill 4,000 whelps. …again.
November 5th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Spot on like always. I’m embarrassed at times how much people seem to rage about the smallest things.
November 5th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
It’d be cooler if they donated for the Lil’ K.T. as well, but I suppose they can do what they want.
I could see some people getting upset in a small way, because they feel that it’s just one more small door open that can lead to another. The same thing happened when they announced the faction changing, which is something they said they would never do.
I personally don’t care. If people want to pay for vanity then go ahead, but you have to wonder where this ends.
November 5th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Sometimes, to understand another person’s point of view, it helps to take a situation a little bit to the extreme.
Imagine a situation, where you have to ride a donkey, with a very low polygon count.
Suddenly, the company offers folks to ride a battle dragon, with nice animation effects and high polygon count. Except to get it, you have to hand over $1,000 bucks.
It is annoying to some. And I think, from the tone of your aritcle, that you actually understand that aspect of it.
But to you, the item is a little pet, and the charity is a good cause, so what is the big deal? That is a valid opinion.
But I don’t think you have the right to judge other people’s perfectly valid opinion that it is a slippery slope to delve into micro transactions. They do not want it. And what recourse do they have to try and make the game the way they want it to be? None. Their best hope is to voice their displeasure, and hope the company heads their concerns.
November 5th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
I think you might be missing the point about the charity aspect. I’m not a fan of the pet for purchase thing, but I have seen several valid and intelligent positions over the last 24 hours.
Now, with regard to the charity… They are donating 50% of the pet sales. That means, and lets aim low here, they sell 1000 pets they will make 5k off pet sales. Even after the man hours required to design and code the pet, they are making serious profit.
Since I would imagine, though have not confirmed, the process of ordering a pet and redeeming a pet code is all automatic, their investment of actual customer service hours with regard to delivery is almost ZERO. They are making 5 grand and all and they are doing under the shroud of philanthropy. This is what has some people upset. It’s an absolute farce to suggest Blizzard’s desire to make a buck could be superseded by kindness because it wasn’t. Sometimes doing the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing is enough, but Blizzard decided to take it a step too far and make sure they not only got back their initial investment, of which there was little with all the talent they have on staff, AND turn a profit under the guise of charity.
November 5th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Personally i don’t have anything against this extra store, but what i think some people believe, is that this is the first (maybe not even first) step towards buy-able items that will help your character in combat. I personally don’t think this will happen, but you never know. maybe Blizz will start with a potion you can buy or something, and then the game would have been changed for ever.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
“Do I think they are donating money just to ease into the in-game shop? No.”
Well, I do think that any multi-millon dollar business has an army of clever marketing strategists that do NOTHING “just because”.
I think they have forseen the negative responses and want to counteract it with the charity.
And the concern that the two pets are just the beginning is also very valid in my opinion. I mean, if you would like to sell tabards, titles, mounts or epics, how would you do it? Use something innocent and test the waters, ease it with some bonuses (charity) and then continue to the next step.
Now, if the players accept the pets, they will say later “hey, the new mounts you can buy are purely cosmetic, what’s the big difference to the pets”? Later “well, whats the big difference between a dragon and a mount?” and even later “hey, dragon mounts are worth more than epics anyways so you can buy this ring now”.
The best counter to this kind of tactic is in my opinion to be against it firmly and since the beginning.
And for something different:
As I understand it the money of the make-a-wish foundation goes to critically ill children, right?
So, I dont want to be mean here, but with the amount of money you use to grant an expensive wish to one child, couldn’t you just buy food to really save the lives of multiple children at once in countries where they are starving?
November 5th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
This is an issue on which I am very torn. I’ll be honest and admit that I bought both pets – two of each, even. Two for me, two for a friend who’s birthday it is.
I absolutely loathe the idea of microtransactions for items in game that people “need” or “want” in order to perform better. Free to Play games that will, yes, let you play for free, but if you want to actually accomplish something other than very basic leveling, you’ll need to shell out some cash to become strong enough to participate in the more engaging encounters. Armor, weapons, inventory space, travel abilities, potions, enchants, whole maps of the game, raised level caps – paying individually for these things would drive me up the wall.
WoW isn’t Free to Play. We pay our subscription. So IMO, items that actually affect how or what your character is able to do is the place where I would personally “draw the line,” as it were. Vanity pets don’t cross that line, but I will admit that I can very clearly SEE that line approaching, and that’s something that I do not like.
That said – people are claiming that the Charity donation is just a front, that it’s there to fool people into thinking that this pet store is a good thing. To those people I, as a vanity pet collector, must giggle and snicker. I collect vanity pets, the kind you need to farm up or hunt down in WoW. I have always had a keen interest in the TCG pets, however, paying ~ $100 to a middle man has always been such a turn off that I’ve totally written those pets off as an option. It’s not that paying real world money offends me, it’s that I’m paying a ridiculous amount to a middle man who got LUCKY… (and was apparently willing to spend ridiculous amounts of money on the off chance that they’d get some good TCG cards – that’s their choice, and not buying from those people is my choice).
In this particular instance, regarding vanity pets alone, I would have purchased these pets regardless of the Charity aspect of the matter. Only one of them even counts toward the Charity. That they’re doing it at all just seems like a sound business decision on a product they knew would sell like hot cakes at the beginning of it’s release, and obviously slow down over time. The Charity didn’t melt my heart. It does make me respect Blizz a little more that they’d even consider losing some of the pure profit they’d have other wise gotten from the Panderan purchases.
In the over all scheme of things, I’m very suspicious of where this particular practice will lead. People are already expecting us to be able to purchase in game mounts from the Blizzard Store, and while I do also collect mounts, I’m very definitely uncomfortable/unhappy with that idea. In game items that actually affect your character (make’em go faster, level faster, hit harder, take fewer hits, etc) are taboo for me.
So I can see that, “Vanity pets are no big deal, all the profit is at least going to the people who created and are supplying these pets,” but I can also see that, “This is merely the beginning. We’ve gotten sex changes, Faction changes, and Race changes. Soon we’ll have Class changes, purchased legendary armor, mounts, guild halls and bonuses, new zones we have to pay for between expansions. The snowball is growing and it’s rolling at an astonishing rate. This WILL get out of hand.”
November 5th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
I love the pets. Love the little KT dude, and my gf is in love with the panderan. You miss the point of what upsets people I believe.
I’m not going to have the panderan out much but I bought him anyway because, 1. It goes to a good cause and 2. It’s a pet. But people see this as a warning sign. All those neat little things like cool pets, fancy tabards, toys, etc. Well they are going to be taking more and more developer created content, and instead of just including it with methods to obtain in game, they will sell it too you.
So now you have the situation where instead of new pets (and other fun stuff) appearing in game via methods to obtain via in game, the majority of the best ones will instead be sold to you.
November 5th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
It’s interesting to note that actually, those little trays or jars that you see out in businesses aren’t always actually giving their proceeds directly to the charities. It’s my understanding that there are a few “charities” that “rent” those little banks and things out for moderate sums of money, like $20/mo, and then the store owner keeps whatever comes in, which could exceed that.
Anyway, I’m all for this. It’s cutting into Blizzard’s profits to do this, as I’ve explained elsewhere. So I really don’t see a down side if they want to do it.
November 6th, 2009 at 3:25 am
The storied past that any company has with any charity is that they do it for a tax-shelter. So come off of the my thoughts are your thoughts bit, really. They are changing their contracts with the people who have invested in the game originally which did NOT include micro-transactions, and now it is going to have some pure profit from them, so to make the investor agree they added a tax-shelter. Now all they have to do is develop their store and there you go. Blizzard sells gold. Now that you can see it for truth, know that it always was truth.
November 6th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
I for one, welcome our new Pandaren overlords.
November 25th, 2009 at 4:34 am
for me i don’t buy the pandaren even its cute or even the half price of buying it goes to charity or not, monthly subsciption is enough.
February 16th, 2010 at 6:56 am
the thing is, blizzard does not have to do anything for anybody. people would still buy the pandaran monks even if they offered as pure profit for them. Hoever, that said, I know the past history of blizzard and make a wish and it is simply an altruistic relationship. my hats to blizzard for being so revolutionary in giving proceeds to charity. The first Mjor computer gaming company in history to ever do such a thing.
February 16th, 2010 at 6:59 am
And white you could not be further from being wrong. if you actually did your research you would know the story of ezra chatterton and know that it is legit. He touched the hearts of many in blizzard, enough where remnants of him are still in the game as easter eggs. look it up and do not be so fool hearted to believe that blizz is just fdoing it for the money