wow Celebrate 15 Years of World of Warcraft With Alabaster Mounts

[Stan 5,239]

Blizzard added two new Alabaster mounts to the game shop. You can purchase them now for $25 or 25 EUR. If you purchased the 15th Anniversary Collection, you will receive them automatically.

Blizzard (Source)

Celebrate 15 glorious years of conflict and camaraderie in Azeroth with a pair of majestic alabaster mounts* —living stone tributes to the loyal flying creatures that have long served the Horde and Alliance.

Alabaster Stormtalon (for Alliance Characters) and Alabaster Thunderwing (for Horde Characters)

Take to the skies in grand style and purchase yours today!**
*Mount not available in World of Warcraft® Classic.
** Players who purchase these mounts this way and also attach a 15th Anniversary Collector’s Edition to their World of Warcraft account by March 31,2020 will receive a $25 credit to their Blizzard Balance. (The amount of Blizzard Balance credited to your account will be based on the original purchase price of the digital version.)

[dartbodman 64]

Okay now these are kind of cool.

[Abom 31]

Reskins of stuff I've owned for years for $25.

Nope.

[Resnar 37]

Me too I love to celebrate something by having to pay a reskin

[Valhalen 1,484]

Are they seriously charging people for this? Pay for a discolored mount to celebrate 15 years of paying a monthly fee for a game?

The like/dislike ratio of the video is laughable, by the way.

Edited August 6, 2019 by Valhalen

[PatrickHenry 293]

Best thing about having mounts for sale you dont want ...

...not being forced to buy them ?

 

[Dejo93 1,023]

39 minutes ago, Valhalen said:

Are they seriously charging people for this? Pay for a discolored mount to celebrate 15 years of paying a monthly fee for a game?

The like/dislike ratio of the video is laughable, by the way.

Amen, seeing that makes me happy

[Kratom 0]

Wish it would be an in-game thing... meh.... at least it has a cool tie-in with the calia lore and Eonar etc. Bought it 20 mins after it came out, shouldn't have but if I have an opprtunity to get something that will never ever be available again, I've got to take it.

[Ylothrian 14]

Quote

reskin

I think they ran out of budget so we just get the HD skeleton

[Lawrenz 105]

11 hours ago, Valhalen said:

Pay for a discolored mount (...)

3 hours ago, Ylothrian said:

(...) so we just get the HD skeleton

I am really surprised by people who have no appreciation for art whatsoever, and blindly bash stuff because they are dissatisfied by something else (like microtransactions).

I have to say, i dislike this, being in the store, as well, and would like it to be a completely exclusive thing to the anniversary edition (even if that includes me never getting it). It being in the store, devalues the pride people would have from getting it in the special game edition, which is really saddening ?

Best would be, if they would start a questchain or achievement connected to the anniversary ingame, and give it as a reward.

But besides all this, it is a beautiful mount. The little stone cracks look awesome, and the color is nicely chosen, giving me an impression of a gargoyle-statue. Having those decent and not to bright particle effect on the wings, hinting to magic bringing those statues to life. Man i love this mount.

 

Edited August 7, 2019 by Lawrenz

[Undeath 67]

Hmm, white and grey re(dis)color of standard models or almost 2 months of game time? Lemme think...

[Valhalen 1,484]

3 hours ago, Lawrenz said:

I am really surprised by people who have no appreciation for art whatsoever, and blindly bash stuff because they are dissatisfied by something else (like microtransactions).

I have to say, i dislike this, being in the store, as well, and would like it to be a completely exclusive thing to the anniversary edition (even if that includes me never getting it). It being in the store, devalues the pride people would have from getting it in the special game edition, which is really saddening ?

Best would be, if they would start a questchain or achievement connected to the anniversary ingame, and give it as a reward.

But besides all this, it is a beautiful mount. The little stone cracks look awesome, and the color is nicely chosen, giving me an impression of a gargoyle-statue. Having those decent and not to bright particle effect on the wings, hinting to magic bringing those statues to life. Man i love this mount.

 

Don't get me wrong, the mount IS pretty, but it is not worth buying. And considering this is a celebration, they should have made this an achievement reward for everyone that logs in on WoW's anniversary (or something else). We already have to pay for subscription.

In my head this looks kinda like "Hey, come celebrate WoW's anniversary... By spending MORE MONEY." If Blizzard wants to attracts its playerbase back in WoW, this is definitely NOT the way to do so.

Edited August 7, 2019 by Valhalen

[Kuarinofu 78]

Holy *filtered* the likes/dislikes ratio on the vid. People are easily offended these days. Yea, this feels kinda greedy, "celebrate the anniversary by buying something from us" but as the game industry stands today, I don't think this is that is as INFURIATING as it seems in the comments.

[Lawrenz 105]

33 minutes ago, Valhalen said:

Don't get me wrong, the mount IS pretty, but it is not worth buying. And considering this is a celebration, they should have made this an achievement reward for everyone that logs in on WoW's anniversary (or something else). We already have to pay for subscription.

In my head this looks kinda like "Hey, come celebrate WoW's anniversary... By spending MORE MONEY." If Blizzard wants to attracts its playerbase back in WoW, this is definitely NOT the way to do so.

Yeah, exactly. I totally agree. I just wanted to mention the undeserved bashing of the looks of those mounts. Thanks for clarifying.

As i said, i would even be fine, if it is JUST for the special edition, and not additionaly on the store. The greed is so obvious. ?

[Arcling 898]

At least actual rewards from anniversary are good, Deathwing-like mount and pet. Much better than these. That dislike ratio on video only gets bigger...

[ThomasC 65]

Gotta throw my 2 cents in here...

On past anniversaries, we would get a tabard or an achievement, which is pretty minor in terms of effort. This mount is not just an uncolored re-skin, a tremendous amount of work went into the skin and effects on this asset, which requires multiple teams of highly paid designers, engineers, QA, release management, and more to get this thing into production. I was definitely surprised by the price, but to give away this asset for free when it has no connection to the current expansion or experience doesnt make sense.

Also, would like to insert the obligatory comment about how all the items in the shop can be bought with gold and there no difference between this thing and the transmog yak, brontosaurus, and other gold-locked items.

 

Dont forget - blizz is a game studio owned by a profit company. Their goal is to generate revenue so of course they will add items into the game that can be bought with money - its smart business. What blizz does differently is they allow players to buy any of that stuff with gold earned in game. Its not greed, its just reality. 

If you dont like it, then stop playing AAA games

[Arcling 898]

4 hours ago, ThomasC said:

(...)I was definitely surprised by the price, but to give away this asset for free when it has no connection to the current expansion or experience doesnt make sense.

Well, they already did shop mounts with themes related to certain expansions, so this is not a rule they will follow.

 

4 hours ago, ThomasC said:

Dont forget - blizz is a game studio owned by a profit company. Their goal is to generate revenue so of course they will add items into the game that can be bought with money - its smart business.(...)

If you dont like it, then stop playing AAA games

No offence, but that's a very shitty excuse. It doesn't have to be that way, at least now there are some laws against gambling, perhaps at one point there will be enough pushback against some other types of transactions. Also, it is greed, that excuse might only work in f2p game, but not one with subscription. That being said, in-game rewards for this event will be much better, as I posted above, so these two will likely be quickly forgotten by players.

[jinsu2301 273]

Before I say anything else, I'm not a fan of the shop mounts. I think they are overpriced, like most store items and services, and there really is no reason for them to be on the store.

What really surprises me is not the dislike number on the video (that has always happened since the introduction of TRH) but that people are not even close to being this upset about vendor mounts that can be bought with gold, and that gold can be bought with tokens, making them effectively "store mounts". And it works the other way around as well. I have bought several store mounts just with tokens because of how broken gold farming was in WoD and Legion (in fact, I haven't spent a single dime on WoW since the token was introduced).

Again, not saying that this makes it alright, I'm just saying that vendor mounts for gold are just as stupid yet no one seems to care. I would've really prefered it if they had kept these specific mounts as CE exclusives.

[Ragingwolf 310]

Due to the series of events this year because of BFA and Blizzard Entertainment I am surprise that these basic mounts are not a gratuity gift to the playerbase as a celebration of 15 years of World of Warcraft.  Yes they are basic and pretty and I understand I don't necessarily have to purchase them.  And apparently if people pre-ordered the 15th anniversary bundle they will not have access to these mounts till Oct./Nov. unless Blizzard bends the rules and allows those players to get their mounts in advance.  However it seems just about every 2 months or so I am seeing a brand new gimmick or mount being added to the cash shop.  It does tend to make me worry for the future of this game.

But that is just my two cents on the topic.  

[PatrickHenry 293]

I see a whole lot of complaining about these mounts. 

Theyre ugly / lame / not worth it?  dont buy it.  Yeesh. 

They are STILL offering the CE pack or did before at least the WOW store ran out.

Theyre STILL having the ingame event and mount/pet.  

This whole "EVERYTHING SHOULD BE FREE" mentality is more lame than the mounts you DONT HAVE TO BUY.  

[Ragingwolf 310]

8 hours ago, PatrickHenry said:

I see a whole lot of complaining about these mounts. 

Theyre ugly / lame / not worth it?  dont buy it.  Yeesh. 

They are STILL offering the CE pack or did before at least the WOW store ran out.

Theyre STILL having the ingame event and mount/pet.  

This whole "EVERYTHING SHOULD BE FREE" mentality is more lame than the mounts you DONT HAVE TO BUY.  

I usually ignore the cash shop for the most part unless I intend to pre-order an expansion or use a Token.  Very rarely do I buy a mount from the cash shop.

Yes they are however some places will not allow the release of codes for redemption till the time of the games release or when the CE is released.  Which means even though players have bought the CE version, in advance, they will not be able to redeem those mounts till release date unless Blizzard changes this rule.

And I do like those type of events because it gets a lot of the playerbase involved to obtain them as a whole.  My Guild Leader is thinking of organizing an all Guild Run once this event goes live.

I'm not stating everything must be 'free' I just find it odd that Blizzard would pick a simple mount design, throw on a new shade of paint, then hang a price tag on it where you can get several versions of that mount ingame from lesser to greater via achievement or purchase from a vendor with gold.  If anything I thought it would be very interesting if they spruce up a Scarab Mount or a type of Fire Elemental instead to tie in the release of Classic.  If Blizzard wants to be repetitive and continue on this trend then ok...however when Blizzard takes a discontinuation or removal of armor xmog sets (eg. Rated PvP armor sets) and start slapping a price tag on them or start initiating a loot box system in the cash shop then it's time for me to move onto a different game.    EA did this to SWOTR to the point where new and relative content may not be released/playable 6 months to even 2+ years but have the ability to be sure to push items in the cash shop on a weekly basis instead.  I do NOT want to see Blizzard go down this path.

 

[PatrickHenry 293]

9 hours ago, Ragingwolf said:

I do NOT want to see Blizzard go down this path.

 

Neither do I.

But them reskinning a mount has nothing to do with their unwillingness to get a expac ready to go in 2+years.  

I just dont get the anger over this.  

What can be more 'classic' than THE faction mount?  Its even made of stone like its old AF.  

and the best part about it is YOU DONT HAVE TO BUY THE THING!  

It took them 15 minutes, maybe a few hours to design, it didnt make expansions push back for months, nothing. 

Its not some crazy 'cash grab', its not detrimental to the play of the game, its not turning into Pay2Win...  heck its not even the ONLY thing theyre doing for the anniversary!  Im just at 100% a  loss over the absolute tantrums people are throwing over this.

[Ragingwolf 310]

7 hours ago, PatrickHenry said:

Neither do I.

But them reskinning a mount has nothing to do with their unwillingness to get a expac ready to go in 2+years.  

I just dont get the anger over this.  

What can be more 'classic' than THE faction mount?  Its even made of stone like its old AF.  

and the best part about it is YOU DONT HAVE TO BUY THE THING!  

It took them 15 minutes, maybe a few hours to design, it didnt make expansions push back for months, nothing. 

Its not some crazy 'cash grab', its not detrimental to the play of the game, its not turning into Pay2Win...  heck its not even the ONLY thing theyre doing for the anniversary!  Im just at 100% a  loss over the absolute tantrums people are throwing over this.

Short version simple is not eye appealing for a 15th year anniversary when simple has already been in the game for over 15 years imo.  I myself will not buy these mounts but I am not going to discourage those that want to add them to their collection. If you want them go for it in the end it is your money that you are spending at the end of the day.  Last I checked the video that debut these mounts had a  24k down votes; a lot of people are still upset and unhappy with the results of BFA and Blizzard in general.  Hence why I mentioned earlier that if Blizzard/Activision  wanted to reassure and make amends with the playerbase it would be wise to make a gratuity gift (not an ingame event) and rebuild/regain the respective consumer/players' trust again on a business stand point.   Telling people they have no right to be upset, hate the company, or not even look into the cashshop and move on is simply adding more salt to the wound...I know it's annoying but what else could you do eh?

If Activision says add it Blizzard will be force to do it under contract obligations. There is no if's, and's, or but's about this horrid truth of working for a corporation.  You either comply or get ready to start looking for other places of employment while they get someone else to work with them.   The WoW forums are riddled with constant requests of said loot boxes for WoW and the more this is asked the more tempting it is for Activsion/Blizzard to give in to these requests.  The other day I came across an individual that was literally begging Blizzard to make the Essences of 8.2.5 obtainable through the cash shop because they did not want to work toward/grind for them ingame.

P2W comes in a various assortment of forms; this is not what I am worried about for WoW.  I am worried that the temptation to give in to some of these requests will eventually come to fruition even if wished they do not.

Edited August 9, 2019 by Ragingwolf