Anti-Aliased: Shut up people, come buy my horse
So last week's little diversion into Net Neutrality (and me apparently being a right wing liberal jackhole) was fun, but this week brings me back on track with things happening in the gaming world. And, lucky for me, there's been a spot of news yesterday that's just caught my attention -- World of Warcraft's new Celestial Steed.
Microtransaction discussions are nothing new in my column. From Cryptic to Free Realms, I've been all over the different payment structures that games implement. But, no matter the topic, one thing seems to stay the same: people really, really, really dislike microtransactions overall. The comments on these columns, and pretty much any other article we write on microtransactions, tend to end with angry commenters spewing their dissatisfaction.
And you know what? Good for them. If that's their opinion, then totally go for it! But, what I really hate more than anything else is when people have double standards. It seems that people really hate microtransactions, yet Blizzard's newest buyable mount doesn't have people quitting the game left and right. In fact, it seems everyone is cramming in to buy one!
Cryptic's got nothin' on this
Let's start from the beginning and explain what's going on here, shall we?
For those who are unfamiliar with World of Warcraft, Blizzard has opened up their own microtransaction area in the Blizzard Store. This new area of the store offers optional cosmetic purchases, like pets, for what is a pretty steep price. A normal vanity pet goes for the high price of 10 dollars in the Blizzard Store, making this less about microtransactions and more about macrotransactions.
Today, the Blizzard Store released the anticipated (and quite pretty) Celestial Mount for 25 dollars in their microtransaction store. The mount is account bound, meaning all of your characters can use it, and it allows you to both run on land and fly in the sky. It is, for all intents and purposes, a crazy utilitarian mount. The only restriction on it is that it can't fly at the 310% speed level until you own one other 310% speed mount.
And, yesterday, over 140,000+ people were waiting in line to buy it. That's right, you heard me, 140,000 people want to drop 25 bucks on a horse. And they're waiting in line to do it.
Double standards awayyyyyyyyyy!
Reading over the comments at WoW.com, people are veritably excited over the release of this mount. While there are certainly naysayers intermixed with the excitement, that comment page looks nothing like, say, one of our comment pages when we talk about Cryptic's item shop. Even WoW.com's poll is pretty much in favor of the mount being in the store.
