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This post is in no way meant to attack any individuals, and though one of the situations is very specific to Rawrcast, and its audience, my opinions on the situation do not reflect the views of either Stompalina or Hafrot.  The truth of the matter is they may not accurately reflect my opinion on the situation since I am presenting two extreme occurrences for the sheer purpose of creating a dialogue within our communities, both the exclusive Rawrcast community and the greater WoW community.

As many of you know, the Celestial Steed has hit the Blizzard store, and there has been a ton of discussion on Twitter, the blogosphere, and even the forums.  Many of the players involved have started their end of days counters. They ingested so much cheap tequila while watching 2012 that they believe not only was the movie great, but it was true.  As an aside, if I could offer one piece of non-WoW advice, it would be to never, under any circumstances, purchase tequila that is packaged in a plastic bottle and is in the $5-$10 range for a handle.  It’s just an emergency room visit waiting to happen.

The Celestial Steed Acquisition

Polly Paladin is cruising the blogosphere and realizes the Blizzard store has started selling a mount for $25.  This mount is, to Polly, relatively high on the cool factor.  She realizes the sheer number of people buying the mount may, on some level, reduce the overall coolness of the mount, but it’s something she likes and not only can she purchase it, but if/when she does, it is not only available to Polly, but to every single one of her alts on her battle.net account.  In many ways, it’s a bargain for a cool mount since it requires almost no WoW time sink, and Polly’s salary affords her the luxury of purchasing the mount without forcing her to compromise her quality of life or that of her household.

The Rusted Proto-Drake Acquisition

Now, on the other end of the country, we have Dotty Druid.  She thinks the Celestial Steed is actually ho hum, and has had her eye on the Rusted Proto-Drake since patch 3.1.  Dotty Druid is a guild leader, and though she wishes to go back into Ulduar and acquire her drake, her guild has decided they would rather spend time on the current tier of content.  As is expected of any leader who chooses not to fall the sweet, sweet allure of tyranny, she has decided to lead her guild into the direction they choose to go.  As a result, the coveted drake is becoming a more and more unobtainable goal because Blizzard has said they intend to remove the ability to acquire them.  That is until lady luck decides to knock on Dotty’s door.  In this case, the good lady has decided to stop by because Dotty has made friends with some members of the top raiding guild on her server.  This befriended guild has decided to escort Dotty through Ulduar knocking out one achievement after the other so that she can obtain the mount she really wants.  Dotty, like Polly, was able to obtain her mount without compromising real life responsibilities or her “in-game responsibilities” that many of us all have like raiding schedules, mat farming, or gold making.

So Who Deserves the Flaming?

Now, I’m sure most of you have an opinion.  We know blogs everywhere have an opinion.  We know almost everyone on Twitter does.  The thing is, they are all wrong, if only because no one can actually be right when it comes to an aspect of WoW like obtaining mounts.

Polly’s Problem

The only real problem with Polly purchasing the mount is the stigma of “those who would NEVER, EVER, EVER pay real hard earned cash for something so trivial as a mount in a video game.”  The haters, who incorrectly bring up the slippery slope argument, will tell you that if mounts are sold then Blizzard might not stop there.  “When will I get to buy Shadowmourne,” or “how much will T11 cost me when cataclysm hits,” they ask?  Of course, the irony is many of them rant about the potential sale of useful in-game items while berating anyone who will purchase the Steed because it has no real effect on your game play, and thus is relatively useless.  You can’t do anything with the steed you can’t do with a few days of farming some gold, but the naysayers are pulling off one hell of a misdirection.  A beautifully orchestrated misdirection because not only do they want to guilt you for purchasing an absolutely useless mount that serves only cosmetic purchases, but they want you to also believe the sale of such a useless vanity object also means the future sale of useful in-game items.  I’m oft reminded of a Totalbiscuit tweet when I start hearing all the cries alarming the WoW community of the impending downfall of Azeroth, “Applying Fox News logic to real world situations – ‘It’s cold, so global warming is a myth’, ‘It’s dark, so the sun has been destroyed.’”

So now we are applying what can, I’m sure, affectionately, be referred to as Fox New Logic to WoW?  I could be out on a limb here, but isn’t that more likely a sign of the downfall of WoW than the sale of any vanity mounts?

Dotty’s Dilemma

Now, Dotty has a completely different issue.  Some players, those who feel they “earned” their drake, might feel like Dotty didn’t earn her mount because she was “carried” through the content by superior players who have cleared it several times back when it was top tier content, and potentially several more now that they out gear it.  I found one of the most interesting nuances to the whole situation was that while discussing the situation, Danny Deathknight shared with his and Dotty’s audience that there were times, in the encounters he hadn’t seen, where he felt like he was a liability.  Of course, I’m sure feelings like that could easily be attributed to Danny’s ideas about guilt and as Dotty likes to tease, his Mormon upbringing.  Ultimately though, the biggest problem is the perception that there is a problem which doesn’t exist.  Are you thinking, “huh,” to yourself right about now?  Let me try and clarify.

WoW, above anything else, is a social game.  Our greatest achievements should come from working with others.  If we weren’t supposed to work in teams, why not just make it a regular RPG with expansion packs or patches that allow us to work on content as a single player.  WoW isn’t intended to be played that way.  You are supposed to play with other people, period.  You can do countless things in WoW alone, and until recently, we had someone telling us all about those possible activities.  I’d be so bold to suggest that Darth Solo’s farewell stemmed from the idea that WoW, though solo friendly, just isn’t intended to hold the attention of a single player doing his own thing.

The perception among some could be that Dotty “used” a group of players to get her coveted mount, but unless she had them all locked in a basement with electroshock collars attached to them until the Ulduar run was finished, the group of “used” players weren’t used at all.  We all have choices in WoW, and as long as the players weren’t coerced or blackmailed into the run, Dotty did exactly what the developers intended for her to do.  She played the game in a social setting, and was able to obtain her mount through the single most important byproducts of WoW, friendships.

So there very well could be a camp of players who feel like their reward for Ulduar hard modes were cheapened because Dotty was able to obtain the same mount, but they fail to realize she had to wait much longer than many of them did.  Oh ya, they also fail to realize, IT’S JUST A FREAKING MOUNT PEOPLE!  The gear from the hard modes is obsolete at this point, and the only reason anyone really has to go back into Ulduar is for those mounts.  Remember Dotty is a druid so she has her own “mount” in the form of flight form.  The drake is nothing more than a cosmetic application, and, when compared to flight form, one much less functional because of the casting time needed to summon the drake.

In All Honesty

As I am sure many of you have deduced, Polly Paladin could be my paladin Rhabella, and Dotty and Danny are easily recognizable as Stompalina and Hafrot.  I say could be because though I have yet to purchase the Steed, I am seriously considering it.  The only thing currently holding me back is the infestation of the mount on my server.  It is absolutely insane just how many there are.  I have no qualms about making the purchase, and like Mullets said recently on twitter,

“Now I find sparkly pony to be mount I would want.
For my priest. Cause it fits so well with his sissy vibe. Ya feel me.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.  The mount isn’t about the purchase, for me it’s about the mount that I want to see on a specific toon.  I would love my little cataclysmic gnome priest to be traveling around on a star pony.  Is spending the $25 really any worse than logging in every 7 days onto my mage because I want him on a green proto-drake?  I can tell you right now, after months of trying to get that damn mount, I would happily dish out the $25 to avoid that egg opening in disappointment one more time.

Remember, WoW is what you make it, and even if you don’t like how someone obtains a completely cosmetic addition to a functionality they have already, you probably shouldn’t be quite so belligerent or condescending because it really is just a game.  WoW geeks face enough jokes from their non-WoW friends already; do we need to bicker with each other?