Poll Results: Buying In-Game Pets
By maryvarn on June 29th, 2010Posted In: NPC Blog,Polls,Video Games,World of Warcraft
On Thursday I asked if you bought the in-game non-combat pets from the Blizzard store. 885 votes later, we have this:
So 49% aren’t interested in buying the pets. (The first answer plus the third answer.)
At least 30% bought some or all of the pets/mounts, and let’s make it 33% since a lot of the “Other” votes were for people who bought the mount, not the pets, as indicated in the comments.
5% got them as a gift.
13% don’t play WoW.
I own the Pandaren Monk and Lil’ K.T. My family got them for me over Christmas. (Thanks again, family! 
) I collect pets, and wanted these for the novelty, to see what all the hullabaloo was about, and to get that much closer to the Lil’ Game Hunter achievement, which I now have. Blizzard was smart, releasing these over the holidays. I’d bet money that Lil’ XT has not sold nearly as well.
I don’t have a problem with Blizzard selling non-combat in-game items like this, and I have no problem with people buying them. But I understand why it could make some feel queasy. As paying subscribers, we want to know that Blizzard is hard at work on improving the actual game play, and not toiling away on profitable extras.
As for the mount, I don’t have any desire to buy it, or ask for it as a gift. I recently completed What a Long Strange Trip it’s Been, so I’m very happy with my 310% violet proto-drake I worked so hard to earn.
Yeah I got my purple proto as well, its very nice. Also have my rusted proto so no interest in buying mount.
I love love love mini pets though, always will. Its part of my hunter =P
Doesn’t being able to buy minipets kind of make the Lil’ Game Hunter achievement kind of pointless? I was something like 5 off completing it before I quit WoW. The fact that they started throwing mounts and pets away for virtually no reason at all was a part of why I ended up quitting actually. (I say part of. It was by no means anywhere near the main reason)
When there’s exactly 5 that you can buy, and, what, 120-something that you can get in-game? No, not really.
But by all means, overreacting hyperbole is awesome.
I got the mount before I finished Long Strange Trip, and now that I have the violet proto-drake…I’m more likely to ride the star pony, because I think the proto-drake model isn’t great to begin with, and I think it’s kinda hideous in violet. And as I understand it, the star pony scales up to 310% if you get/have a 310% mount.
As an alt-o-holic, I’ll go ahead and say that the ‘my little pony’ is very useful for when you level up new characters. You spend less on having to buy mounts because you’ve already got one, that scales with each bracket of riding you get. ^^ That being said, my violet protodrake is only on one character, sadly. D:
I almost don’t want to blame Blizzard for their semi-sudden ploys to wring more cash out of their loyal subscribers. Look at how much money Activision sucks out of people for extra songs on Guitar Hero. And since the companies are now related…
Whoever came up with the paid downloads for the GH series probably had a hand in the pet/mount store. Which makes me a little sad.
Which, I suppose, begs the question: Do you think Blizz is selling out, to provide more vanity items, etc. to the casual (but financially willing) player, rather than providing more rewards for players willing to spend the time/effort to collect pets and mounts?
I have all the things, AND the plushies that came with pets, though I missed the vote. I collect pets – 126 so far. So here is my take on these things:
- Pets by themselves should not cost $10. That’s a lot for what it is. $5 makes more sense – for something like KT or Pandaren or whatever, it doesn’t really do much. At least XT smashes trains.
- The pets that came with the plushies for $25 – the plushies are awesome. The pets are like a bonus. I would have bought them without the pets. And they’re super cute and well worth the $25.
- I didn’t buy the mount, my boyfriend bought it for both of us. I couldn’t in any way see spending $25 on it. WAY too much. BUT – it has come in handy more than once. I, too, have a Rusted Proto, a Violet Proto, and a Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher so there is no reason I’d use it on my main. None. BUT – I started a DK for farming a black tabby and had a mount 5 minutes in – which was cool. All my low level alts that I started to level I didn’t have to buy any mounts for them at all. I thought that was pretty neat.
It is, however, really really not cool looking. If you have a big scary looking toon, and you put it on this flying star pony, it is laughable. But it does look pretty awesome when you have either the animal blood on you or your disgusting oozeling out.
So my bottom line – I’m not buying any more of them that don’t come with plushies or other items but I will accept them as gifts if other people want to spend their money on them. I would buy them for $5 each, or $10-15 for a mount, if it’s really cool. But Blizz makes millions on the purchased DLC, so they’re not going to stop.
They’ve had buyable pets and mounts for quite some time now. There have been things you get if you buy into Blizzcon, and there have been rare cards in their trading card game that give you extras. People have purchased Blizzcon packages for the pets, and people have spent a ton of money on eBay for the trading card extras.
I prefer being able to buy the special pet or mount I want directly.
Blizz is a money-making machine. It’s built/created to do that. These pets were a great idea. The mount was an even better idea. My husband jokes that they just print money.
I have the Pandaren Monk and Li’l KT. They were birthday gifts from my husband though I had talked incessantly about buying them, so I don’t think that counts. Li’l KT is my absolute favorite pet next to my little phoenix. He cracks me up. His laugh is hysterical and I spend plenty of time just clicking him to make him laugh. Money well spent in my opinion!
The other pets/mount are just more money than I would ever want to spend on something virtual. I admit that the allure of a mount for all my new toons for all time is strong, but seeing them everywhere makes me happy enough to get my mounts the usual way. I’ll have my 310% mount in October and I did a lot of work to get it, so I’m proud to use that one.
A lot of that kind of attitude I see in friends who complain that the game is too easy now, and got all upset at level 20 mounts. It’s very ‘dog in the manjer’. Other people having nice things should NOT impact on your enjoyment unless you derive your enjoyment from having more/better than other people. And I kind of dislike that attitude.