World of Warcraft Dragonflight is not yet released, but collectors are already unhappy. Blizzard has to take back a mount on the very first evening of the alpha.
World of Warcraft has not only held up over the years because of its gameplay, but also because of the many other things you can do in Azeroth. Especially collecting various items is part of it – right at the forefront are mounts. The major milestones, such as 100, 200, or 300 different mounts, are further rewarded with additional bonuses. This should also happen in Dragonflight – but fans immediately take to the barricades. Because they feel deceived.
What happened? The alpha of Dragonflight is live, and many are already roaming the Dragon Isles. Thus, the massive data mining has begun, and many new contents are already viewable. There is a new achievement awarded to characters who possess at least 500 different mounts.
As a reward for that, you get the 501st mount on top – a large yeti with a saddle.
That was at least Blizzard’s original plan.
Why are fans angry? The yeti mount triggered numerous negative comments. Whether in the official forums or on fan pages, almost everywhere there was criticism that the yeti should be the reward for 500 collected mounts.
There are already several yeti mounts in the game, and it would have essentially been just a “recolor” – that is, a reskinning of an already existing mount.
In the eyes of many fans, this is absolutely unworthy of the achievement of having collected more than 500 mounts. Accordingly, the comments are quite negative, such as:
- “Boring, ugly mount. One could hardly make a more boring decision for the achievement.”
- “Yes, this is disappointing. At least it’s … something. But in an expansion that revolves around dragons, getting a ground mount from Warlords of Draenor feels bad. Like, really bad.”
- “Gah. I mean … thanks for the achievement when I log in, but … the yeti is one of the least popular mounts ever.”
The timing is also quite unfortunate, as World of Warcraft has just offered a new mount in the shop, which is also available for completing a 6-month subscription.
Blizzard promises immediate change: On the same evening, Blizzard spoke out in the form of developer “Chimes” in the official WoW forum. He said:
Yes, we agree. The yeti will be replaced with another mount in a future build (not a yeti), but that may take some time. Feedback like this is always helpful, and please remember that things you see in the alpha can still change.
This calms the fans for the time being. That it was a “placeholder” yeti is, by the way, unlikely. Because the achievement was named “Thanks for the Carry!” and the mount was the “Carrier Yeti” – Blizzard had already thought about it matching well.
Which mount will replace the yeti is still unclear. Let’s hope it will be something more exciting that fans will be satisfied with.
Would you have liked the yeti? And how many mounts have you actually collected in WoW?
If you want to collect mounts – you can easily get a few in Shadowlands.
