Thursday, February 5, 2015

Would You Pay For A Special Tame?

With the announcement of a new mount coming to the blizzard store it got me thinking once again about what I would be willing to pay for.  For many years I supported blizzard completely and freely spent my real life money not only on the subscription fee but nearly everything they threw up for sale at the blizzard store like mounts and pets.  I drew the line at the cosmetic helms and I have not purchased the last few mounts.  But I am not completely against them because, as many point out, they are purely cosmetic.

So that brings the question, as a hunter, would you be willing to pay for a special tame?

Pets are basically purely cosmetic now, unless you need a specific buff for your group you can bring any pet you like to a raid and they all do the same damage.  The look of your pet at that point is purely cosmetic 100%.  If you like cats, raptors, wolves, what have you, the pet you like can travel with you and hinder you in no way what so ever as all pets are created equal outside of the buff / buffs they provide.

Just as there are mounts with different skins they could release tames for hunters with different skins.  I know, depending on what pets they are, there are many hunters out there that would jump at the chance to get a pet they like the look of.  This gives blizzard a chance to basically soak a single class in the game as no other class has something like hunters have with pets that could be sold as a purely cosmetic piece.

I am not sure I like the idea.  I would rather the pets be put in the game and added with special taming conditions like many of the tames in pandaria, the tames at the molten front or even better a nice quest line like the one we got in warlords.  With that said, I would most definitely not dismiss the idea that I would, or might, be willing to buy a special skin if it were for sale at the blizzard store.

It would almost be like buying a transmog for your pet.  Instead of needing another slot to throw an armor piece in your void storage you need another stable slot to hold that skin.  Each time we switch pets it is sort of like changing their transmog.  I have multiple cats, a purple one, a white one, an orange one, but they are all cats.  Which one I use usually depends on which one I am in the mood for.  Changing a pet is like mogging its fur.  Do I want the orange fur today or the white fur?

So something like this could be argued as purely cosmetic, so it is prime to be something that blizzard could sell at the blizzard store.  But it could also be argued that part of being a hunter is the hunt and this removes that from the game.  Letting us buy a pet skin we like instead of the challenge of taming it would be akin to letting up buy a new tier piece instead of going through the challenge of earning it.

What do you think?
Will blizzard ever offer something like cosmetic tames for hunters?
Or more important, would you buy them if they did?

12 comments:

  1. While I'll never say "never," I doubt that I would purchase such a pet. I'm not against people -- including myself -- paying real money for such items. They would simply need to provide me an in-game advantage for me to shell out the cash. And since I'm against game-altering items being available for RL purchase -- it would degrade the game too much IMO -- that likely means I'll never purchase a mount or anything else from the Blizzard store.

    I tend to select mounts to use based on their scarcity. For example, I'll ride my Hero/Glory/Challenge mounts while they are relatively uncommon. Once every Tom, Dick, and Harry has one, they pretty much go forever out of my rotation.

    I'm a bit more pick-the-skin with hunter pets. I'm a cat freak in RL and often run with cat even though cats are easy to obtain. I do rotate spirit beasts as none are exactly tame-on-demand. Still, I'd be lying if scarcity didn't play some part in my choice of pet skin (assuming all buffs are covered, of course).

    And scarcity is also a factor in what battle pets I have run by my side as I'm exploring every day. The harder the pet is to obtain and the less common it is, the more likely I am to have it out.

    What this all boils down to is this. Anyone can purchase something with RL cash. And if anyone can have it, it does seem to have less value to me.

    Okay, I did just think of a pet/mount scenario that would perhaps lead me to spend RL money. If I needed one more pet or mount for an achievement that scored me another pet or mount -- and there was no realistic avenue currently available in game to get that extra mount or pet to put me "over the top" -- then I might make a purchase. I know that you favor earning these "the hard way," but that doesn't matter to me. I will still continue to run for those 1% mounts no matter what even after I get the achievement of the moment, so whether that rare mount/pet puts me over the top or not is of little matter to me. Each to their own.

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    1. I have no problem buying the 250th mount for my achievement instead of getting it the "hard" way. But as you said, if I can get it some way else I would prefer to do it that way. There are the new rep mounts I could buy in game and I refuse to right now because I want to get it with a drop. But I am not tied to that, I could change my mind if I get frustrated one day.

      I am with you for the most part because I like to be "different" as well with my mount selection but I usually use old standard mounts and pets, or at least old standard for me.

      The reason for this is that they are usually the most unique in game. I bet you see fewer people on my blazing hippogryph and white polar bear than you would on the yeti. And my mount just looks cooler. ;)

      All my characters have their own mounts that fit their personality, I am weird that way. I choose what fits them more than what I think will look special. My priest rides the headless horseman and I really hate around holiday time when everyone is on it. Boo. I am usually the only one I ever see on it except around that time of year, so I do understand what you mean.

      Back to pets. As a cat person if they put a really cool cat skin in would you consider it, or would you think because everyone can easily get it for 10 bucks you do not want it?

      Come on, you know you want the kitty. ;)

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    2. If I really liked the cat skin I would no doubt me more inclined to buy it simply because it is cat-oriented. That is true!

      I want to return to a point you made earlier, that pets are pets if you have the buffs covered. In other words, that the pet is simply a skin. I agree with you *and* I still don't play that way. My five pets pretty much always consist of the five pet families that I am most likely to need in a given situation even if that likelihood is almost nil. What this means is that I never have a spider with me. I love spiders. I love spider pets. And I cannot think of a need to ever have one in a dungeon or raid.

      Apparently, even though I was never a Boy Scout, I carry pets to "always be prepared." And yet since I love spiders and never have them in my stable, a better chestnut for me might be "always a bridesmaid, never a bride." :-/

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    3. I should be a saleman for blizzard, I just sold you a new cat. lol

      I don't actually play that way either, but it is fact, they are just a skin. Certain pets I have an attachment too. Perhaps even too much of an attachment for a digital game item. I leveled with them, I did things with them, they were and are special to me. I do not really gain any sort of connection to a pet if it were a difficult tame however. That does not make me feel attached to them.

      I still have my first pet, a cat as it would be, and I level with him each expansion, otherwise he spends his days in my stable. But he is so much more than a skin to me.

      I also do the "be prepared" thing with pets for a raid, but as a raid leader and now with the stable master in my garrison, I do have the freedom to change more freely than I used to it seems.

      I have that elite spider from tekknor forest in BC as my favorite spider. First spider I ever owned and still my favorite.

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  2. hi GE - check your regular email for an answer to yours the other day and by golly bill, don't take 4 months to answer!

    ok, with that out of the way, I only use 1 pet now but it is a spirit pet, whether Kronos, or Laq or whatever, it is a spirit pet. why? because it helps keep me alive and I it. I would like one of the Mists' brown tigers as a spirit pet, but it will never be.

    -roo

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    1. I know I know, I owe many people an apology for my late response. Was even going to make a post about it.

      It would be nice to see other "color" spirit pets. I would like that. More along the lines of how we get gara however, quest lines, no camping for days on end crap. I am too old for that stuff.

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  3. I just had another thought about mounts. I wonder if I will be more inclined going forward in WoD to use mounts independent of what others may be riding. I say this because your vision of garrison life has come true for me. There is now little if any reason for me to ever leave my garrison and actually see other people. On my main, I have the AH and banking set up. I have max apexis crystals for the moment, so no need to venture out for those. I have the achievements by and large that take place outside of instances. There is a new world boss that I'll probably go kill a time or two and then say "what is the point with a third kill?" On my leather worker, I venture to Nagrand about every three weeks and stock up on trapped animals for leather and then again, no need to ever leave. And with tradeskills being borked, once that LW is maxed and has his own stuff made, that too will stop.

    So ultimately, absent seeing guildmates in raids and during the odd invasion, I pretty much am not playing a MMO.

    I am a rock. I am an island. I can ride whatever mount I want to ride. Maybe I am actually the only person riding that mount. And if not but I'm never there to see that same mount ridden by another, does that other mount *really* exist?

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    1. Sounds like garrisons are working just exactly as I said they would. Sad, but it is not like it was hard to see coming. Great feature but would have been better if there were still solid reasons to go out. Sadly there aren't.

      But as you say, now any mount is unique, because you will be the only one riding it.

      It is nice to strut around on some of those ground mounts we have not had use for in years.

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    2. In Wrath I had a spot in Dalaran where I wasn't really moving from. Same in Cata, atop a little hill in Orgrimmar (sometimes jumping the small fences there in a circle). Same in MoP, I was usually flying small loops around the Shrine.

      Was having a place where other people stay parked the same as me (or jumping around) while I do basically nothing such a big thing?

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    3. I would say that it is not a matter of where we park ourselves -- garrison, hill, or shine -- or even if other people can join us in those places. The difference is that all previous expansions had viable reasons to leave those spots and venture into the world. Crafting was a good money-maker, so folks wanted to go out and gather resources. Crafting sucks in WoD. Dailies got folks to go out into the world for rewards and valor. In WoD, there is no valor and the apexis crystals daily soon becomes moot because there is so little on which the crystals can be spent. Pet battle trainers were in the wild and each provided a chance at a valuable reward. Today, the rewards from the WoD trainers not in the garrison are such that there is little reason to battle beyond the garrison trainer.

      Really, I could go on and on.

      The content that is in WoD is really, really good. It is just how some of it was implemented that was a strategic blunder.

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    4. @ James

      I always have "my" place as well. And as odd as it sounds, it pissed me off when someone else stood in "my" space. Go get your own space. This is mine.

      @To Bee

      I agree with the last statement. WoD is really good, but was implemented poorly. Sad for what could have been. We do need more reasons to leave our garrison.

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  4. I think it ate my previous comment, damn. Let's try again...

    If the look was 'cool' or dramatic enough, maybe. If the look was of a type not normally available, like a small dragon, probably. If was very unique, like a small group of little dinosaurs or a flock of attack ravens that circled your head, definitely. If it had a unique ability, like the ability to mount it, yes indeed.

    I too haven't bought the helms, I think they are unattractive and don't match any sets. If they sold entire transmog armor sets, again, depends on how cool.

    They could sell alternate demon looks for warlocks or alternate elemental looks for mages.

    Maybe alternate animations/particle effects for class abilities. Alternate hairstyles, etc.

    Anything that breaks up the bland similarity of character looks is good I think.

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