Blizzard has finally revealed two new items in their World of Warcraft microtransaction based pet shop. The first is the train stomping Lil’XT, a small non-combat pet available for just $10. The other is the highly controversial Celestial Steed costing a total of $25. These pets are now available if you’re willing to wait the estimated 8 hours in queue with 160,000 other players.

The sticker shock probably has you reeling right now or if not then you may already be rushing off with your credit card to obtain your own shiny mount. Either way you see it, this is a big change for World of Warcraft and something that we need to take a good deep look at. I see three major aspects to this entire fiasco. The price, the community’s reaction, and how this impacts the industry. I will be delving into all three points below.

Price Comparison – Is $25 too much or not enough for the Celestial Steed?

This is worth $25 to some.

The price is steep, costing a total of $25 USD. Yet, is this price unreasonable for Blizzard to ask or is it right around industry standards? Well, let’s first start by looking at Blizzard’s own pet shop. Non-combat pets, which you can not necessarily interact with, round out at $10. That’s what the new Lil’XT costs and is well within reason. Yet, you can’t necessarily use them to fly around the world with nor can you sit atop them in Dalaran. So an increased price makes sense.

Comparing it to other games though, Blizzard is charging almost an arm and a leg for something that’s non-consequential to gameplay. The “La Maison” costs 50 FarmVille Cash in FarmVille which translates to $10 in non-moon currency. That same $10 can grab you an adventure pack and more in Dungeons and Dragons Online, a bigger backpack in Allods, and who knows what $10 in space bux can buy you in Second Life. More appropriate to the subject, the Pegasus mount in Runes of Magic is about $13 to keep it forever. That’s nowhere near $25.

 Of course, none of these things are as awesome as a glowing mountable pony, but are vastly cheaper. I see the price as being a bit higher than necessary. Maybe $20 would have been a better price point, but something is really only worth what others are willing to pay. Over160,000 people have given up their cash on the first day so we’re to presume that a lot of members of the community are happy with the price.

What do I think about all of this? I’m not going to buying one, but I won’t shun anyone who does. I bought a new wallet the other day which was way over that same $25 price point. However, with the way the community is responding, I feel that only people who have the spare cash and want to see their character on a pretty mount should get one. Wyverns are pretty lame looking, after all.

160,000 Waiting – Massive Zerg Approaching on the Purchase Queue

This morning the queue to buy this awesome glowing pony was well over 9,000. As of writing right now, the queue has exceeded 160,000 but is expected to go down as the initial rush has mostly passed. Some simple math tells us that 160,000 x $25 equals $4,000,000. That’s not assuming that some of those in the queue are buying a Lil’XT and a Celestial Steed for everyone in their family. I figure it probably averages out between those just buying Lil’XT, those buying a Celestial Steed, and those buying both. Either way it’s still a lot of money for something that’s not even tangible.

Why are so many people buying this mount though? To answer that question we have to ask what motivates someone to give up a nice steak dinner or a used copy of Pokémon to ride around on a glowing pony. Well, it breaks down to two things. The first being the need to have something no one else has in a game where everyone has everything. Of course, the mount is already labeled the “scrub pony” on my server, so whatever e-peen you’d gain is lost immediately by the fact that there are about 100 other players in Dalaran with it right now.

The other is the fact that Wyverns are ugly as sin and Gryphons are only cool looking the first 1,000 times or so you fly around. There isn’t much choice when it comes to flying mounts other than doing holiday quests for a year straight or become the uber elite and taking on whatever massive challenge the current raid dungeons offer.

There is going to be a lot of opposition, name calling, and childish attitudes from this the first few days but afterward the community will quiet down. Those with them may be made fun of, but honestly, who cares? It’s pretty, it’s neat, and it’s something different. Just don’t buy one expecting everyone go to “WOW HOW COOL” when it’s stabled next to the other 100 or so in Dalaran.

Industry Reception – Coming soon, $100 backpack extensions.

The new undead mount coming to a pet store near you.

The recent Allods Online drama regarding their shop and the $20 bag is old news now, but is relevant to this discussion. A lot of games get flak in the current state of the MMO Industry. If you have microtransactions then you’re usually just another free to play game. Yet, there are rumors of major AAA titles like Bioware’s Star Wars: The Old Republic may be entirely funded by microtransactions. This latest move by Blizzard does one thing that this industry has needed: opened the door for other AAA titles to go all out on microtransactions.

This move conditions all several million of Blizzard’s customers to accept paying a few bucks here and there for shiny baubles in an online world. Games coming up won’t be met with such resistance because people are used to it. More importantly, Blizzard’s own titles such as Diablo 3 can implement microtransactions without much resistance if everyone is already acclimated to the new MT based gaming climate.

I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing myself, but I have addressed this subject in our very own WoW Weekly Report (which you can read right here). I think that more games should embrace MTs and shed the redundant subscription model which just gates out people who have cash and are willing to pay, but don’t want another phone bill to pay each month.

So, are you purchasing one of these new ponies or are you going to be on trade chat calling out everyone you see with one? Let us know on the Ten Ton Hammer forums! 


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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Get in the bush with David "Xerin" Piner as he leverages his spectacular insanity to ask the serious questions such as is Master Yi and Illidan the same person? What's for dinner? What are ways to elevate your gaming experience? David's column, Respawn, is updated near daily with some of the coolest things you'll read online, while David tackles ways to improve the game experience across the board with various hype guides to cool games.

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