$10!? That's not what I'd call a "micro" transaction.
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I just can't do it. I would like a Pandaren Monk, or maybe a Lil' KT, but I can't justify paying for it. I like doing something in game that earns it.
There will be those who scrutinize the purchasers of these pets, but the $5 to charity portion of the Pandaren Monk will allow the Holier Than Thou attitude to prevail. I've got to say, if you want to give $5 to charity, go do that. Don't spend $10 on an in-game pet and say that because the company you bought it from gave $5 to charity as a result of your purchase that you've donated $5 to a charity. In fact, if you want to donate to a charity, do that. Go without an in-game pet so some kid who's not going to see 2011 can do something fun before he/she dies. Don't justify supporting microtransactions by saying it's a donation to charity.
I'm just really not for microtransactions at all and see this as a harbinger of the things to come. It's happened in other games and it's going to happen here. It's just a matter of time.
I'm happy to have supported a charity I approve of, but that's not the reason I bought the pets. I bought the pets because I wanted them, and I have enough disposable income to pay for cute electronic imaginary world pets.
I'm actually seeing this as more a way to cut out the CCG middle-man here, as they're functionally not different from the rare codes you'd get in the WOW CCG for vanity mounts, pets, lawn furniture, and so on.
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I just can't do it. I would like a Pandaren Monk, or maybe a Lil' KT, but I can't justify paying for it. I like doing something in game that earns it.
There will be those who scrutinize the purchasers of these pets, but the $5 to charity portion of the Pandaren Monk will allow the Holier Than Thou attitude to prevail. I've got to say, if you want to give $5 to charity, go do that. Don't spend $10 on an in-game pet and say that because the company you bought it from gave $5 to charity as a result of your purchase that you've donated $5 to a charity. In fact, if you want to donate to a charity, do that. Go without an in-game pet so some kid who's not going to see 2011 can do something fun before he/she dies. Don't justify supporting microtransactions by saying it's a donation to charity.
It's really kind of genius on Blizzard's part in a sort of "MWHAHAHAHAHA!" kind of way. The sort of people (with no insult to the OP) who are prone to spending money without much thought are precisely the kind of people who will not even consider that, they could, y'know, give $10 to charity instead of giving $5 to charity and $5 to Blizzard, and who will indeed by "Holier than Thou" about it (even if it's the first penny they've given to charity in years), and there will be so many of them, that there's no chance for any negative attitude towards the pets to prevail for particularly long. I mean, half your guildies (in most guilds) are going to end up buying that thing, so if you're expounding the evils of doing so, expect to get some put-out stares and pouting.
So, really, too late for any real objections.
As Seroster says, though, this isn't exactly a "micro" transaction. It's $10 cold bloody dollars for a bloody pet in a computer game. Like, if they were sending me an action figure of it as well or something, then maybe they could justify $10, but for a single imaginary pet? What? The margins are almost unimaginably vast. It makes the microtransaction schemes run by other companies (like Cryptic's MT for CO) seem utterly unambitious by comparison. Any other game, they'd be charging $3 for these, or less.
Also, it's going to be absolutely hilariously maddening to the sane/sensible when we find out various twats have bought these pets, yet refuse to pay for authenticators.
That said, I'll save my real outrage for when they offer something actually functional for real-world money. As yet, they've steered well clear of that, except with the dubious RAF scheme (which is at least convoluted and fancy, thus stopping it becoming "the norm"). My main concern is that they'll start selling Heirloom-type items for RL money - different and likely better ones than the extant ones, no doubt with the excuse that they're not endgame items so don't offer a real advantage. The day that sort of idiocy occurs is the day my final cancellation occurs, but WoW will be long on the slide before they take a risk like that.
JustJo - Come off it, let's not be politically correct for the sake of ActiBlizzard, a company run by the most contemptible money-grubbers in the mainstream computer game industry (to be fair). They don't call them that just like British National Party don't call themselves Nazis (or even facists). It'd be bad PR to call them that. Plus, it'd be hilariously off, because as noted, there ain't nothin' micro about them.
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Last edited by Eurhetemec; 11-04-2009 at 02:32 PM..
I'm happy to have supported a charity I approve of, but that's not the reason I bought the pets. I bought the pets because I wanted them, and I have enough disposable income to pay for cute electronic imaginary world pets.
I'm actually seeing this as more a way to cut out the CCG middle-man here, as they're functionally not different from the rare codes you'd get in the WOW CCG for vanity mounts, pets, lawn furniture, and so on.
I understand what you're saying. Blizzard didn't sell the codes from the CCG to the player. It's a bonus to those who play both TCG and WoW. Because not all TCG players want/can use all the loot cards, they can transfer them to other people. I'm ok with that.
It's the microtransaction part of it that I don't like. I could afford these, but I don't want to obtain them that way. Heck, I could afford to buy a second account with a few 80s on it and then buy a botting program to run them around and gather mats for my main. Doesn't mean I'm going to. I would rather make the things I show off in-game be from my efforts in-game.
Granted, that's also how I see all vanity items. I don't see them purely as vanity, but as a showoff item.
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