lil-xt
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Breakfast Topic: Would you pay for extras in a F2P WoW?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Lord of the Rings Online went free-to-play. "Free" is a questionable term, since they charge you for a fee for features you can technically live without but are still fairly important; things such as the gold cap, the ability to gain rested XP, and certain instances and PvP options require a fee. You get an enhanced version slightly above a trial, but you are still limited in what you can do in the free-to-play version of the game. While playing a game, I want to play the whole game, have the entire experience, and not feel as if I have been shortchanged by being on a limited version. Personally having purchased some of the Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age DLC, I would still have to pay for the added functionality. Not being able to fully advance my character and see large amounts of content would irritate me more than the cost would. Not being allowed to make use of content would make me feel like I was missing out. I want the choice of whether or not I do this instance, raid, or battleground. Could you imagine attempting to zone into Icecrown Citadel and seeing a message that says, "Requires a V.I.P. membership"? WoW has sold us a few items for extra money that are not required, but not having a Lil' XT or a sparkle pony doesn't affect your game functionality. LOTRO offers things like more bag spaces and removing the gold cap and even priority login for those with V.I.P. accounts. So if World of Warcraft decided to follow the LOTRO model and go semi-free-to-play, would you just play the free portion? Would you pay for the V.I.P. portion? Would you buy the other nickel and dime upgrades they have on top of that? Or would you quit WoW altogether, feeling as if Blizzard had shortchanged players by making us pay for things like bag space, PvP and raid availability?
no no no no NO NO NO NO
If you've spent any time hanging out in Dalaran recently you've no doubt seen your fair share of flying star unicorns and probably have heard non-stop the lamentations of Lil' XT. There was previously a bug that caused Lil' XT's sounds to be sent out to a much wider range than they were supposed to be heard. When a few dozen people have them out it can get quite annoying. There's now a hotfix that disables some of these sounds. It's not a complete solution, but it's better than turning off sounds all together. Vaneras is an EU community manager, and we're not sure if the hotfix is active in the US. However, if it's not in the US right now I'm sure it will be soon. Vaneras A hotfix was recently applied, which temporarily disabled some of the sounds Lil' XT makes. The issue was that some of his sounds were flagged in such a way that they play for everyone around him and not just the player that owns the pet, an annoying problem to be sure. We can't alter volume or who the sounds play for through a hotfix so the temporary workaround is to disable them completely right now until the proper fix can be patched in later. source
Breakfast Topic: What are you willing to buy?
The Celestial Steed and Lil' XT went live the other day to the delight of many, the disgust of a few, and one mother of a checkout line. Toward the end of the day as I write this, the line for purchasing the mount in the North American store clocks in at 148,108 and climbing. I think it's safe to say that the shiny horse, at least, has been a runaway success. I haven't yet bought anything from the Blizzard store, but I come from a long line of suspicious New England cheapskates for whom saving 10¢ on bulk toilet paper was a day for the diary. Most people don't seem to have a problem with RMT (Real Money Transactions/Trading) as long as they're kept to things that don't exercise any real influence on the game. If they're just for fun and they don't give anyone an unfair advantage -- we ask reasonably -- what's the big deal? Then again, it makes me a bit sad to see brilliant new pets and mounts head straight to the store while things like the moonkin and Tree of Life models have languished for years without updates. Oh well. Everyone has mounts and pets, but not everyone plays a druid (more's the pity). I have to admit that Blizzard selling formerly TCG-only rewards like the Path of Cenarius might make me reconsider, although I'm not sure it'd be great policy for them to undermine the card game's rewards. Have you bought anything from Blizzard's store, and do you think they should sell anything in addition to pets or mounts? Or, to put it another way, what would you love to buy?
Win a pony from WoW.com
Is $25 too steep a price for you to pay for a pony made of stars? $10 too much for a train-smashing vanity pet? No worries, because we're giving away two of each right here, right now on WoW.com. To enter, leave a comment on this post between now and the same time tomorrow. To be specific, the contest ends on April 16th at 5:00 PM EDT. Winners must be legal residents of the United States or Canada (except Quebec). You may only enter once, and winners must be 18 years of age or older. Four winners will be chosen at random. The prizes up for grabs are: Two Celestial Steeds worth $25 each Two Lil' XTs worth $10 each Click here for complete official rules.
Queue for Celestial Steed and Lil' XT is above 140,000
The picture it says it all... If there was any doubt in the popularity of the new items, this is all you need. For virtual items to be going so fast and furious is unheard of. But here we have it. The most that WoW.com has seen is the number reach around 70,000. It could be more or less when you get in-line to buy one. Edit at 4:45 p.m. EDT: It's now above 80,000, which is nearly 10 times OVER 9000. Edit at 7:30 p.m. EDT: The queue is now above 140,000. Coverage of the new purchasable in-game mount and pet today: Initial Blizzard Store Discovery Mount available to be purchased Poll: Selling the Celestial Steed is... WoW.com will be giving away a few Celestial Steeds and Lil' XTs soon. Stay tuned and keep an eye out for the post!
Celestial Steed, Lil' XT now active on the Blizzard Store
The Celestial Steed mount and Lil' XT pet are now active and available for purchase at the Blizzard Store. Both the mount and the pet are account bound, meaning any current and future characters on a single account get them. Use the following links to get to the items now to buy them: Buy the Celestial Steed mount - $25 in the US or 20 euros in the EU Buy the Lil' XT pet - $10 in the US or 10 euros in the EU The mount will operate at whatever level of riding skill you've trained. This includes both ground mounts and flying mounts. We now also have a blue post on the matter: Nethaera -- Pet Store Additions We're pleased to be able to bring two new additions to the Blizzard Pet Store: the miniature robot Lil' XT and the Celestial Steed, the first mount to be available there. These fun options are available exclusively through the online Blizzard Store. [http://www.blizzard.com/store] For more information, check out the Pet Store FAQ, which holds answers to most common questions: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=29845 source
Celestial Steed mount and Lil' XT pet to be sold on the Blizzard store
Early this morning our staff uncovered pictographic evidence of the Celestial Steed and Lil' XT Pet being sold soon at the Blizzard Store. The image is no longer in their front page rotation, but likely it won't be gone for long. We don't know any details. That's all there is to say on that. So any speculation about price, functionality, etc... it's all just that. Speculation. We do know, however, that this is the first mount being sold at the store; and the first useful in-game item you can directly buy with real world money (if you don't count the mounts from the WoW TCG game). Video of the steed after the break.
Patch 3.3.3 PTR: Build 11643 notes
MMO Champion's got the goods on an upcoming build of patch 3.3.3. Mounts and pets But first, check out Lil' XT! Doesn't your Lil' KT want a lil' company? No idea where this lil' guy will come from as of yet, but it could be a future purchasable pet joining the likes of the Pandaren Monk and Lil' KT! Both the Celestial Steed and X-53 Touring Rocket (screenshot) now have their own spells and have 310% flying speed. Icecrown Citadel There's been some issues with absorption effects like Power Word: Shield not benefiting from the raid buffs that Wrynn and Hellscream provide. That will be addressed shortly with patch 3.3.3. Strength of Wrynn and Hellscream's Warsong now also boost the effect of damage absorption spells. Glyph changes These changes could be temporary and could be reversed at any time. They're not in the official notes. Death Knights Glyph of Icebound Fortitude now always grants at least 40% damage reduction. Priests Glyph of Scourge Imprisonment now reduces the cast time of your Shackle Undead by 1 sec. (Up from 0.5 sec) Rogues Glyph of Feint now reduces the energy cost of Feint by 20. (Up from 10) Glyph of Expose Armor now increases the duration of Expose Armor by 12 sec. (Up from 10 sec) Glyph of Deadly Throw now increases the slowing effect on Deadly Throw by 20%. (Up from 10%) Other changes Warlocks Dark Pact now has a 100 yards range (up from 30 yards) and ignores the line of sight. Patch 3.3.3 brings about small but noteworthy changes to the World of Warcraft. From a faster CoT, to putting those old Frozen Orbs to better use, to changes to the auction house -- there's several things all WoW players need to know. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3.3 will keep you up to date!
