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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Will you be buying either of the new vanity pets?
by Josh Rose 
Nov 30th 2010 at 8:00AM
Blizzard has been selling us in-game items for a while now; however, it has kept this to noncombat pets and mounts -- things that, outside of counting for totals for achievements, have little to no real effect on gameplay. Some of the items Blizzard does for self-profit, and sometimes it sells in-game pets for charity. People who buy the items get different reactions from the community; the sparkle pony especially got a lot of hate.
Personally, I have not bought any of the real-money pets, partially because I am not a collector and partially because I felt that paying for downloadable content should add something major to the game experience. However, I am considering buying the Ragnaros pet for one main reason: because Rags is my major epic memory of vanilla WoW, I always felt he was an awesome model and so imposing, and many of us went around saying "too soon" on Vent.
Have you bought any of the vanity pets? Do you buy them all as a completionist/collector? Do you pick and choose the ones you think look cool? Do you only buy the charity pets? Or do you avoid real money transactions in games altogether?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 12)
Aaron Nov 30th 2010 8:22AM
I'm a cook that has 3 toons with cooking hats and maxed Dal recipes (I don't want to think about how many dailies that took lol), so Raggy was an easy choice for me. I replace the campfire on all my toons with his summons button. =D I do wish a portion of his purchase went to charity.
TOO SOON!
Wulf Nov 30th 2010 8:27AM
2 Moonkin Hatchlings and a Lil' Ragnaros. My wife doesn't have much interest or history with Rag, as she's a late BC-baby, but she absolutely fell in love with the Moonkin at BlizzCon.
I'm personally trying to get A Plethora of Pets the first time I hit a mailbox. I already get Plenty of Pets (thanks Blizz for removing the original CE quests and just giving us all three pets in a box!).
Jari Nov 30th 2010 8:28AM
No thank you.
1 - I never ever use vanity pets in the game.
2 - If I did, there's enough already in the game for me to choose from.
3 - It's hard to show it off. This is just more "I spent 10$ IRL" than "I got a lucky drop!"
Zenith Nov 30th 2010 8:27AM
I'm getting Lil' Raggy, love his look and I'm still busy farming MC for bindings anyways. Also the new location of the campfire summon is a bit of a chore :p
(Admittedly scrolling through all minipets could take longer and I haven't tried making a shortcut for the fire)
gewalt Nov 30th 2010 8:32AM
Secondary skills macro:
#showtooltip
/cast [nomod] Fishing
/cast [mod:shift] Basic Campfire
/cast [mod:ctrl] Cooking
/cast [mod:alt] First Aid
Make that macro, use it to put all secondary skills on one button in the same spot for all your toons. never search for a campfire again!
(disclaimer: server is down so I cant double check my syntax, but im pretty sure thats what I use in game.)
LynMars Nov 30th 2010 9:19AM
I just pulled the fire out and stuck it on my secondary bars, along with most of my other skills. Like any other skill you can use.
I use a pet mod to cycle through pets when i hit the hotkey I set up for them.
Zenith Nov 30th 2010 8:27AM
I'm getting Lil' Raggy, love his look and I'm still busy farming MC for bindings anyways. Also the new location of the campfire summon is a bit of a chore :p
(Admittedly scrolling through all minipets could take longer and I haven't tried making a shortcut for the fire)
Chetti Nov 30th 2010 9:00AM
Couldn't you put his little summon icon from the pet list on one of your bars? I've got an action bar just for professions/skills.. first aid, cooking, the campfire, alchemy, fishing. I know others probably set those 'extra' bars for actual useful things lol but it works as quick access to my professions while I've got the bank window open to pull out stuff to make stuff. :)
Hoffa Nov 30th 2010 8:31AM
As soon as I get paid, I'll be buying two sets for sure.
Love the Ragnaros animations :D
Bellygrub Nov 30th 2010 8:44AM
I picked up both and a third Moonkin as a gift for a friend.
So many people look down on Blizz for only donating half of the profits of the Moonkin to charity...but they could have just chosen not to donate anything. They could have chosen to donate 50 cents. If they had chosen to donate the full profit people would still find a way to bitch. I was going to buy the pet anyhow. I'm happy something goes to chairty. I would never begrudge someone for donating money to a charity. No matter how large or small. I donate a percentage of my pay to Toys for Tots through a campaign here at work. Do you begrudge me because I don't donate my full check? Much like Blizzard I have bills to pay.
People need to jump down off their soapboxes and start living in the real world a bit. It was the same tired arguements last year for the panda. Yes Blizzard is a company. Yes they want to make money. Yes they want good PR from selling these pets.
This does not make the employees evil. This does not lessen what they did for Ezra. This does not lessen the million dollars they donated last year.
dancinglion Nov 30th 2010 8:33AM
Bought the Moonkin Hatchling for my wife. She plays a balance druid and was smitten by the cuteness. So I gifted it to her :)
joshbuddha Nov 30th 2010 8:33AM
I don't think it means buying for better performance in WoW, it is referring to other games DLC in which it is actual content, such as new dungeons or quests like in Mass Effect 2.
VSUReaper Nov 30th 2010 8:35AM
I hope to get at least the moonkin for me and my GF, but lil Rag might get left out like lil XT b/c its not going to charity.
Honestly, Blizz should put all the pets up for charity, and for more than 50% of proceeds. Not like they are strapped for cash atm...
Prof.Xomox Nov 30th 2010 8:35AM
I will not be, my daughter however would buy a dozen of those if she could. So in a way I will be buying one.
Lowlight Nov 30th 2010 8:36AM
Nope. Stuff like this is why they can't make time for a 6th anniversary pet or something simple like a 2010 Brewfest Stein. They literally made MILLIONS on sparkle pony and yet they can't return that investment into helping loyal fans with stuff they used to give away. That's a bad return for us, and purchasing these items just encourages it.
Also, I have like 85 vanity pets already and I usually forget to summon the damn things anyway.
N-train Nov 30th 2010 11:39AM
There are two things I think people forget when they make the "Blizz is so greedy, give us free crap" argument:
1) We've been paying the exact same monthly fee for 6 years, meaning Blizzard is actually making less money per subscription than they were last year due to inflation. Yes, we all know Blizzard is still a very well-off company and probably isn't worried too much about its financial future, I'm just saying that a monthly fee doesn't go as far as it used to.
2) They just gave us 70% of Cataclysm, their most hyped expansion ever (and probably most hyped Blizzard game ever, second to SC2 maybe) for *FREE*. We got levels 1-60 *with* new race/class combos without having to buy anything new. If you ask me, the Shattering was their anniversary present to us loyal players, and I'll take that over a vanity pet I'll forget about in a week any day.
I don't see the quality of the game slipping away and I don't see them selling anything online that gives any player any advantage over another (aside from the ability to burn, freeze, or maim critters in the way they see fit). Now let's all go enjoy 40-something revamped zones we got for free for Blizzard's 6th anniversary.
Bapo Nov 30th 2010 12:04PM
Well, don't forget they've been working on Cataclysm as well
Kuro Nov 30th 2010 3:44PM
> 2) They just gave us 70% of Cataclysm, their most hyped expansion ever (and probably most hyped Blizzard game ever, second to SC2 maybe) for *FREE*. We got levels 1-60 *with* new race/class combos without having to buy anything new.
The 1-60 revamp of old world content wasn't so much "70%" of the content for free. One of the problems you face with MMO's is a learning curve to get into the content. The 1-60 revamp was more about new-user retention than giving away content for free. After 5 years one could assume that the video game savvy market of folks with have enough time to dedicate to leveling toons was already tapped. The only avenue for expansion of subscriptions by stream-lining content and making it easier to reach level cap.
Persoanlly, I feel a slightly cheated out developement time that would have (in my very selfish opinion) been spent on the level-cap content because I'm not terribly interested in re-hashing the 1-60 experience. But if it helps keep the game going for a few more years by upping new player retention... wonderful. But it's hardly (IMO) a "anniversary present to us loyal players."
WoWie Zowie Nov 30th 2010 8:35AM
i will not be buying either. i prefer to earn items in-game by completing difficult tasks.
Chetti Nov 30th 2010 8:37AM
I haven't personally bought any of the vanity pets, I was gifted a sparkle pony for my birthday though. I will be getting a baby moonkin, and.. probably gifting one, if not 2 of them as well. I've got 2 druids, my main is a balance druid, the other a (disgruntled) resto. I'll be doing the worgen/troll druids as well - both of those will be balance. And the baby boomkin is just too cute.