Introducing the Pet Store

[Leviathonlx]

I don't really like the road I have been seeing Blizzard starting to go down in the past few months from a business standpoint. I am starting to actually believe the people that say the merger between Vivendi and Activision is starting to affect the way Blizzard does things.

[DracoDragon09]

Originally Posted by Leviathonlx

I don't really like the road I have been seeing Blizzard starting to go down in the past few months from a business standpoint. I am starting to actually believe the people that say the merger between Vivendi and Activision is starting to affect the way Blizzard does things.

I must say that after thinking about it for a bit, the pet store does seem Activisiony.

[fusion]

The overall tone of the article makes it sound like this is something new, when in-fact you can already buy tons of pets/mounts/other items via ebay/buying card packs of WoW TCG.

I'm sure Blizzard is making enough $$ from there as well. And compared to the 10? for each of the above pets, they're cheap considering what you would have to dish out for Bananas for instance.

[Nevermindz]

Originally Posted by Leviathonlx

I don't really like the road I have been seeing Blizzard starting to go down in the past few months from a business standpoint. I am starting to actually believe the people that say the merger between Vivendi and Activision is starting to affect the way Blizzard does things.

QFT.

I don't really like the idea about this but okay...
The thing I don't like is that, for Blizzard, 10$ = 10?. FYI, 10? = 14.85$ and 10$ = 6.73?... It's not surprising that Blizzard screws Europeans again, we're kinda used to it by now, it's not the first time, but it's still kinda annoying.
And the idea about donating 50% of the Pandaren Monk's price is good, but frankly, it's that that will push players to buy it. I can totally see that there will probably be 50% more Pandaren Monks than Lil' KTs.

[Tyranaes Meneo]

Originally Posted by Brachamul

I would respect this annoucement if, and only if, 100% of the money was given to the make-a-wish foundation.

It costs blizzard next to nothing to implement this system, it would be nice of them to participate in the costs by setting it up for free, and then sending 10$ straight to the foundation.

Instead it's just another way for them to make a profit, they're just using the foundation as a pretext.

As far as company promotions go, "50% of profit" is quite substantial, and before you go talking about the costs of setting this system up, that's 50% of profit, not revenue.

Of COURSE it's another way for Blizzard to make a profit; did you think they were in this MMORPG thing for the forum conversation?

[dapura]

Originally Posted by Nevermindz

QFT.

I don't really like the idea about this but okay...
The thing I don't like is that, for Blizzard, 10$ = 10?. FYI, 10? = 14.85$ and 10$ = 6.73?... It's not surprising that Blizzard screws Europeans again, we're kinda used to it by now, it's not the first time, but it's still kinda annoying.
And the idea about donating 50% of the Pandaren Monk's price is good, but frankly, it's that that will push players to buy it. I can totally see that there will probably be 50% more Pandaren Monks than Lil' KTs.

yesterday if i viewed the news i tought if they just set the same price in ? as is should be in $ we (europeans) should pay something of 6, 74?!!! instead of 10?/pet. why the F do we have to pay more then USA (14.84$!!!)

[Intie]

If you didn't know you can /drink with your Pandaren Monk or /bow to him. He will respond accordingly I love him!

[Jonno]

For the record, in British Sterling it's (merely) ?9.00

Oh the joys of business based money conversions. Dont put all the blame on blizzard though, online companies have been doing this for AGES.

Still looks cool, lil' K.T was a nice late birthday pressie for me and my lock ^_^

*edit* and as a responce to the above poster, i'm yet to find any emotes that react with KT like /bow does

[Epimolophant]

So it's official, Blizzard is selling virtual stuff for real money. It's no longer just a game anymore...

[Brachamul]

Originally Posted by DracoDragon09

Well, Blizzard doesn't have to make any donations. If they were very eager to make a profit, why would they bother with donating money?

If they just sold them for 5$, i wouldn't mind, i'd just think it sucks that people buy them. If they gave all 10$ to the foundation, i'd say it's great. But the bastard solution of going both ways feels very wrong.

What bothers me is that if they had just decided to sell the pets for 5$, everyone would have been shocked.

They are only using the foundation as a cover to make an extra profit. It feels dishonest to use them in such a purpose. It's like when people used to buy forgiveness from priests of the church. Money for your sins.

You can't buy the right to be greedy by being generous.

[Geschan]

Originally Posted by Epimolophant

So it's official, Blizzard is selling virtual stuff for real money. It's no longer just a game anymore...

Its been like that for some time now.. -> TCG

@thephoenix3000
You didnt really answer my question.. Does he do that every half eternity or does he slaughter every critter he comes along?

[damaniac82]

Sarcasm ON:

Can't wait to buy ingame gold via Blizzard store and then to get all the crafted epics for all my chars.

Oh wait... that'd basically mean selling gear for money. Damn.

Sarcasm OFF.

I hope they'll do this crap only with pets or maybe mounts. With the instances teleporting you inside like a BG, nobody will care about mounts anyway.

[adrenalize]

Originally Posted by Brachamul

They are only using the foundation as a cover to make an extra profit. It feels dishonest to use them in such a purpose. It's like when people used to buy forgiveness from priests of the church. Money for your sins.

You can't buy the right to be greedy by being generous.

How can a business be greedy exactly?

You know, since the whole point is to make money. They didn't even need to sell the monk with the donation, people would have bought it anyway.

[Jonno]

Originally Posted by Geschan

@thephoenix3000
You didnt really answer my question.. Does he do that every half eternity or does he slaughter every critter he comes along?

after sitting in the mass of penquins just outside the tournament grounds, he zapped 2 penquins in about 5mins of me mooching on forums and the like. So i'd say its regular, but not a mega critter extermination.

Presumably its the same rate of fire as Sleep Willy

Oh and at the people shocked at blizzard selling ingame fancy stuff - you can buy a gender/class/name/realm/faction/etc change already, and tecnically you can buy the zebra mount buy recruiting yourself for a few months, so its hardly a new thing

[DracoDragon09]

Originally Posted by Brachamul

If they just sold them for 5$, i wouldn't mind, i'd just think it sucks that people buy them. If they gave all 10$ to the foundation, i'd say it's great. But the bastard solution of going both ways feels very wrong.

What bothers me is that if they had just decided to sell the pets for 5$, everyone would have been shocked.

They are only using the foundation as a cover to make an extra profit. It feels dishonest to use them in such a purpose. It's like when people used to buy forgiveness from priests of the church. Money for your sins.

You can't buy the right to be greedy by being generous.

Everyone already pays $15-ish to play the game. If the pet was $5, would you buy it? If the pet was $10, would you buy it? The answer is no for both questions in my case. If you haven't donated any money to the make a wish foundation yet, then what does it matter where your money goes? You want a gain, something beneficial for your money. In this case it is a mini-pet which, because of it's price, is not going to be very common.

The difference between $5-$10 isn't huge. Not for the people who have bought it or are going to buy it. I believe that this is directed at a very select group of people who don't mind these micro-transactions to gain something that enjoy most, which is collecting.

/shrug