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Earlier this week, Blizzard introduced us to a pet guardian cub coming to the Blizzard Store near you. This pet costs the same as all the other pets, except it has one unique feature. It is limited to a one time use and it is Bind on Equip (BoE).
Earlier this week, Blizzard introduced us to a pet guardian cub coming to the Blizzard Store near you. This pet costs the same as all the other pets, except it has one unique feature. It is limited to a one time use and it is Bind on Equip (BoE). Unlike the other pets in the store, this pet companion can be sold for gold or traded in game.
At first, I was against this idea because it might be a step closer introducing Real Money Trading (RMT) into the World of Warcraft. However, this isn't RMT, but I do have some valid concerns and issues.
This guardian cub is being placed in our inventory by the Blizzard Store instead of entering a loot code. We can determine the destiny and future of the guardian pet once purchased. You can expect to get this item one of 3 ways: buying/trading for it, Buying it at the store, or getting it as a gift.
In this article, I will use arguments for and against the concept. I will let you judge the merits of the argument in comments below.
There is only three reasons why I am against this concept of trying to buy this pet on the auction house or paying 10 dollars at the Blizzard Store.
Some people are too attached World of Warcraft and to their companions. They might spend 100 dollars for 10 Guardian Cubs because they are broke and have alts where they cant afford to get the gold necessary. They need to lower the price to reflect the availability change.
$10 Dollars equals 6000 gold right now judging from Google. For 6000g, I would pay for this pet in game if Blizzard was offering it as a gold sink like a Tundra Mount. But no one in their right mind will sell it for correct market value. They will start the bidding high at 20k or so. We are at the mercy of supply and demand. What are the chances we see this pet for a reasonable sale in game?
Will Blizzard raise the stakes by offering 25 dollar 1 time use mounts next? That’s a lot of disposable income needed for single use mount. Whats next? $5 dollar pet biscuits and $50 tabards?
This is reason why I do not mind the items being for sale.
This is not Real Money Trading because the gold in game cannot be exchanged for real world money. Until that option happens all the trading is gold to gold. Its just that the items your purchase outside of game for cash are special loot cards or blizzard store pets. The quantity is controlled, set, and tracked by the Blizzard. At the end of the day, Blizzard controls everything outside of game and inside the TCG. These special loot cards have a specific value set by the rarity market. Some common loot cards might take be in 1 out of 15 packs and an epic loot card is placed in 1 out of a 100 packs. Lets say a pack cost 4 dollars. Blizzard already made 60 bucks off a common loot card. The chances that care is an epic rare loot card very small. Most loot cards on the auction sites are commons or rare TCG items. The epic cards sell high are sell fairly quickly because of supply and demand. That is why Blizzard does not mind its customers selling loot cards for cash. They made their money from you already. Your just converting your winning loot cards. While the transaction does not need to take place in game or require the video game to play the TCG.
Only hackers, scammers, and gold farmers illegally sell gold for money outside the game. They are also able to convert in-game items to a currency. This is the definition of RMT. Loot card scamming is a different issue and unrelated to this article.
So these are the reasons why I have concerns for and against buying a pets or even mounts with a one time use at the Blizzard Store. Either way, ready or not, its going to happen. We will have to deal with it. World of Warcraft has been good to us. Once we see the ability to exchange gold in the game for cash or subscription time outside of the World of Warcraft, we will begin have a problems with Real Money Trading. Until then, we will continue with the current trend in Virtual Goods and Monetization from Blizzard.
I didn’t look up or research the actually chances of finding loot cards per pack. I was just giving you an example how the value is calculated on loot card exchange sites.
This article also appears on my personal page at www.mbhahn.com.
Follow me on Twitter: @mbhahn
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