Sometime yesterday Blizzard released the Winged Guardian in its online store. Cue the conversation over micro transactions, digital ego boosters, business practice and more people being wrong on the internet than you can shake a stick at. Personally, I'm beyond upset. Let me tell you why.
I think the mount is absolutely gorgeous. I love the way it moves, I adore the detail and texturing and the glowy bits. Simply put, it's the WoW mount I always wanted. Some of the newer dragons and the proto-drakes are close, but this one, this is it. Someone said elsewhere that it reminded them of The Lionking. There's a reason why that was my favorite movie growing up - something about the stylized, beefy-looking lions hits my aesthetic buttons, and this mount has it all.
Okay, now we have established that I want it like burning.
So, really, what's the problem, you say?
I don't have anything against micro transactions, actually. I think they're a prefect solution for giving everyone access to most features and still support development in a free-to-play game. I'm not a fan of restricting something categorically, so I prefer those systems that allow for a way to unlock that content in game through some kind of challenge or grind - I support selling in-game currency or unlocks that would otherwise take a long time above selling elite or exclusive items needed for progression. I also do not mind cosmetic items.
My favorite business model is what Arenanet is doing for Guild Wars - you buy the game, giving them a serious infusion of money on release and then you are free to play it forever, while adding only cosmetic or convenience items to the store. I tend to buy these without remorse because I like supporting the game developers and they always give me the choice.
There's a psychological factor here, beyond the economical. Micro transaction in a free-to-play or hybrid model give me the feeling of control. Guild Wars vanity items (costumes in particular) usually come in pairs that are cheaper as a package deal upon release, but the package deal has an expiration date. It gives the whole thing a sense of both saving money and urgency, no matter what actual value you attach to digital vanity items. It certainly makes me feel good upon buying an item in their store and that's something.
Now, Blizzard unfortunately presents the most costly alternative. They are already holding my characters hostage. I do pay the same amount of money for a WoW expansion as I would for a Guild Wars one, but that still leaves me with €12,99 a month for nothing but the privilege to access my characters and enjoy the social interaction the game provides. Upkeep and support costs are high indeed, but not that high. So here I am, already thinking that Blizzard is too expensive compared to other similar services.
Enter the pet store. I would love to buy some - or all - of these. I'm not morally opposed to micro transactions or fluff material added for extra money, I'm really not. Just recently I bought the first Dragon Age 2 DLC item pack because it was pretty (and provided some interesting lore, but mostly the stuff is nice to look at). But Blizzard is killing me. €20 is too much for me. Not economically, but psychologically. I can't really justify it to myself. That's two months worth of playing time or half an expansion.
Here is the core of it: I would love this mount. If I had a significant other, I would drop anvil-sized hints until they bought it for me (let's be honest here, I'd prefer this to a bouquet of flowers or some cheap yet affectionate jewelry any day of the week); if something like a birthday or any other gift-giving holiday was coming up, I'd make noises about this to any of my lovely gifting-inclined family members. But none of that is an option. I have to make this decision for myself and my principles are warring with my desire and this dissonance is making me very unhappy.
If I bought it myself, I would be marginally less unhappy - the underlying issues would still be there and I might hate myself in the morning but at least I'd have a OMFG FLYING LION THAT GLOWS. The only other way to reduce that dissonance is to convince myself that the lion isn't all that good, possibly loudly and in public, so that I can feel others agree with me.
Or I could camp that Time-Lost Proto Drake until my head turns blue, whichever.
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