ASnogarD said:
As it has been stated a few times already, it isnt the item itself that is the issue its the implication that comes with it...
Is it that hard to imagine Bobby ...err Blizzard feeling sorry (*retch* koff* *heave*) for the casual players and offering them a competitive set of PvP armour that allows them to join the PvP fun without all that stressfull grinding.
(PvP armour set for only $35 , skillz sold seperatly and one Arthas pet free with each Frostmourne you buy extra, only $25 or $65 for the pack (armour and sword, incl free pet))
Gotta agree with this man. I haven't browsed the entire thread as I've read through several threads on 4chan, all of which had 200+ posts of meaningless banter about the ethics of this business move. To address the common points though:
$25 is a lot of money in terms of gaming. New games on the latest consoles will cost you just over double that on release. An extra pad so you and a bro can play together would cost about that. It'll buy you ~half a year of online subscription to Xbox Live so you can enjoy all of you multiplayer Xbox games with an online community. If you're feeling cheap, it'll probably buy you 1-2 old, preowned games which can give a lot of bang for their buck if you choose wisely and enjoy single player games. I'm sure that people looking at this situation with an air of sensibility will see that there are a lot of other, gaming related, things that you can spend your money on which will give more enjoyment than a reskinned mount.
Now for the common counter-arguments:
"But it's my money, I can choose what I want to do with it". Yes, you can. However, by purchasing this you have let Blizzard and other companies know that as a gaming community, we are feeble and easily controlled. By purchasing this, you have let future designers/developers know that someone will pay half the price of a game for a skin and convenience. See my quote for the consequences of this. Using a similar example, games used to be far cheaper on release (in British terms it used to be £40 as opposed to £50 around the dawn of this console generation). By buying games at this price, we have pushed the price of release games to £45 as standard and higher in exceptional cases such as Modern Warfare 2. By buying a game released at £50, we show companies we are prepared to accept this price. The profit margin is huge on games and £5 here or there will not put a dent in larger companies. Anyway, I'm not here to argue that point in this post, so I'll continue...
"But it looks good". Purely subjective. There are a lot of mounts in-game, few of which cost real life money and amongst those you can probably find one that can replace the void left by not having a Celestial Steed. If you spend $25 to look pretty when you fly/travel long distances on ground, you have more money than sense.
"But I make a lot of money and can afford to throw money at this". You can spend $300 on a pile of horse manure and it's still horse manure, albeit an expensive pile of it. It doesn't make you superior to anyone else or justify your purchase, it just shows that you'll pay a lot of money for a little product.
"But I'm unique with my new horsey". You're unique just like the other 80k people who own one. Do I actually have to expand on this point more?
"You're just jealous because you're poor and can't afford this sweet mount". Okay, you've got me there, I am poor. I'm a university student whose gaming binges come from the scraps I can pull from my loan when the bills are paid. Being poor doesn't mean that I don't know what my money is worth though. £15 is a fair price to see a live band, because I could easily spend more than that on an evening getting pissed, do something I regret and have a terrible hangover the night after. £40 is a fair price to pay for a game which I will replay several times over the course of a month and then resell for £30. $25 for a reskinned item which I could purchase with in-game money without having to spend 8 hours watching a countdown on a single webpage, waiting for my opportunity to buy a virtual item which has a "limited stock", which I can then unlock on my game that I have not only had to pay for every expansion disk for, but also have to pay a monthly fee to use an account to play the game. No, that's not a fair price. Pardon my French, but that is fucking extortionate.
People who are embarrassed by this purchase will defend their point to justify their purchase. These people I have some grain of sympathy for.
People who are not embarrassed by this purchase will gloat and belittle those who haven't purchased a Celestial Steed, defend their point avidly and are the reason that people who play WoW are stereotypically viewed as being pathetic, alongside examples of Asian players who kill themselves from playing the game in an addictive manner and parents who neglect their children because some pixels in a game matter more to them than their own child's well-being.
I imagine a lot of this post, especially that last part, will get me moderated in some form or another. At least I've put my argument out there.
Tribalism out.
