Blizzard has brought the most expensive mount into the MMORPG for the 20th anniversary of World of Warcraft that has ever existed. Former Blizzard employee Jason Hall, known as PirateSoftware, explains why this is bad for WoW and Blizzard in the long term.
What kind of item is this? The mount is called “Gold-Embellished Trader Brutosaur” and is available for purchase directly in the cash shop for €78. In the US, it costs $90.
The mount is very large, thus striking, and has 2 NPCs on board that offer unique services that players would otherwise have to go to the city for: one can summon an auction house and a mailbox.
The mount has already sparked a heated debate in the community for several days. Financially, however, the mount seems to be a huge success for Blizzard.
“Symbol of Greed”
What the former Blizzard developer criticizes: Jason Hall worked at Blizzard as a technician for 6 years. Looking back, he says that he was terribly underpaid and had terrible working conditions. He eventually moved to Amazon Games, where he earned significantly more.
In a video from November 11th, which immediately attracts a lot of attention, he describes the $90 mount as a “symbol of greed” for Blizzard. It is downright absurd: the mount is covered in gold and even carries an auction house. The mount represents greed and is “the worst bullshit” he has ever seen actually going live.
Nevertheless, the event for the 20th anniversary of WoW is actually great and shows a lot of goodwill, but the mount “is just shit”.
“Reminds me of Star Citizen”
This is what bothers him about the mount: Hall says:
- The old mount was a status symbol. It cost 5 million gold, and one had to find ways to earn that gold.
- The new mount can be obtained by anyone willing to spend more money on it than on a AAA game, about one and a half times as much money.
Nonetheless, PirateSoftware says: The mount will certainly make Blizzard a huge amount of money, but in the long term, it is poison for the game:
That’s a $90 mount in a video game. It reminds me of Star Citizen. You buy a luxury car, one with collector value, that’s what you’re buying here.
The mount creates isolated monoliths in an MMORPG
What does he see as the biggest disadvantage? The mount takes an important aspect out of the MMORPG: the walking to the auction house, to a social hub.
If now everyone has their own auction house with them and no longer has to go to the city, it turns players into islands:
I don’t think there should be such a thing. […] Now you have this weird problem where you have mounts with a function and sell them for $90. You now carry a city with you. That takes something important out of the game: Because before, it was cool to go to a vendor and get the stuff done. There you could see other people.
Now you play an MMO, but create isolated monoliths that isolate players.
PirateSoftware believes: Strategy will fill cash registers in the short term, cost money in the long term
These consequences does he foresee for WoW: Hall says the mount symbolizes Blizzard’s attempt to squeeze as much money as possible out of the remaining whales and damages Blizzard’s image.
Overall, this will alienate players and lead to a loss of money. In the long run, this is a short-sighted strategy, a “losing strategy”.
Are there also microtransactions that he likes? Hall praises the charity pets from Blizzard that are sold for a good cause. Those are initiatives that he can fully support.
The most important thing about microtransactions for him is that they are truly “micro”, meaning cheap. A microtransaction that is more expensive than a AAA game he considers obscene.
Although PirateSoftware often and gladly complains about his former employer Blizzard, the company still holds a very special place in the life of the current content creator: 17 years after the legendary WoW episode, we finally know who the MMORPG nerd from South Park is
