Exactly my point of view.. reminds me of the ISK selling in Eve

My thought too, though not playing EVE, I didn't know if things were similar or not.

I don't plan to do this, but I am curious as to what the rate of exchange might turn out to be for Money:Gold once things even out.

@Amaxe - I do wonder if it'll start out at 99% of the current in-game value of $10 worth of gold is. Also, will we see people offering to trade pets for epics, too? People already trade BoE drops from T11/T12 raids to try to get one that they can use. Is a single pet worth one epic or two?

Poor Basil's head must be spinning right now as he tries to analyze all the possibilities of this.

I appreciate that they're at least not creating new gold - it's the Pet Store version of the card game items.

On the other front, I'm quite anxious to see how this will play in the illicit gold market. History suggests that providing a legal equivalent to an illegal activity will draw away the consumers, but will also drive the instigators to desperate acts. The unique factor in this equation is that WoW is not their only market. With any luck, they'll write off WoW as unprofitable, drop out of the account-stealing business, and move onto some other game. If not, they're going to get quite a bit more aggressive about it, and I don't think that will end well for anyone.

My guess is the amount of gold you get for your money is going to be a bit worse than what gold sellers are currently doing. People are going to be willing to pay a little more per gold in exchange for knowing that it's not going to get their account banned, and not having to deal with the scummy gold selling outfits.

I'm betting that peace of mind is worth paying for to most players interested in this.

This ^^^^^ is bad. I sense a large disturbance in the force. As if a million people screamed out at once. Wow. I never thought they would do anything like this. Sad, sad day.

"...we’re ok with it if some players choose to use the Guardian Cub as a safe and secure way to try to acquire a little extra in-game gold without turning to third-party gold-selling services."

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This reminds me of money laundering, only nerdier. Money laundering occurs in three stages: Placement, Layering, and Integration. In this case you want to launder your USD as Gold:

1 - Placement - Pay Blizzard $10
2 - Layering - Money is "converted" into a Guardian Cub
3 - Integration - Guardian Cub sold on the AH; USD converted.

I don't like that Blizzard is selling pets for real money, let alone selling them as BoU. Sure, it's no different than certain trading card game items, but I was never okay with those either.

All that said, at the end of the day this is unlikely to have a significant impact on the game in any way. The number of people spending real dollars for an in-game pet only to turn around and try - emphasis on try - to sell it is probably going to be very, very small. That and inflation is already so out-of-control in-game that a new pet is going to be but a tiny blip on the radar.

Verdict: Meh

"money laundering, only nerdier"

Don't take this the wrong way, man, but seriously, I love you.

I don't see this as gold selling. The gold sellers offer you a set amount of in game currency for dollars. Blizzard is selling a bind on equip object for $10, not gold.

Notwithstanding that the purchaser can auction off the pet, there is no guarantee as what, if any, in game currency may be realized.

I agree. I don't see this as any different than the fact that the TCG stuff is "bind on use". Personally, I applaud this. It's not as if people weren't already selling the other Bliz Store pets in-game, but bfore there was no way to know if the code would actually work before you paid. This just cuts out the possibility of scamming. Good on Blizz imo.

This is a good way to introduce the brilliant RMAH from Diablo to WOW. Within a year, every game will use RMAH, it is a revolutionary idea.

The difference between this and PLEX is that PLEX actually has value:

1. Who wants it? PLEX = game time. Everyone who wants to keep playing needs to get game time somehow. The cub is totally cosmetic. The only people in the market for a cub will be pet collectors and people who for whatever reason just want to have one.

2. How much do they want? When you use a PLEX, 30 days later it's totally gone. You need to use another PLEX or buy game time. The cub is use once have forever. Some players might want two or more for alts, but that doesn't compare to an EVE player's continuous need for PLEX every month.

Anyone trying to turn $10 into WoW gold will probably be sorely disappointed by how little they end up with.