Wildfire Riders

Well, and judging by the queue length, Blizzard made a LOT of money off these guys. Like... LOTS.

http://www.leafshine.net/2010/04/my-lit ... -pony.html

Even if we give the queues a 60% accuracy rate, that's still Blizzard dancing to the tune of a million bucks off of Sparkle Ponies. I suspect we'll see more mounts in the future.

Dravir wrote:At the end of the day, Blizz is a business, and I hear they're about making the money. This is one of those smart business ventures that enables them to let us keep playing the game, and maybe keeps some people interested for longer than they thought they'd last.

Who needs IC reasons to have fun toys?

I do!

And if I really wanted it enough, I'd get it despite ic reasons. But for now, I look at it as another way to keep me from spending more money.

Well, of course it cost them money to make it. It cost them the grand total amount they were paying the staff artist who did the reskin to work on it for the hour or two he probably did, as well as that of the network admins and accountants for keeping the online store up and running as people went to buy.

That seems like "nothing" in the big picture, though it ain't. Still, Blizzard has long since reached the point where they can charge money for something it doesn't take much visible effort to make, and they'd be foolish to pass that opportunity up, particularly since it doesn't even remotely affect game integrity--no matter what knee-jerk forum posters and bloggers might say otherwise.

Not that self-assuredly cynical declarations of "they're going to start selling gold next!" are any less entertaining than they have been.

The only thing that worries me is the little bar saying '40% of stock left.'

It's a digital item, they shouldn't NEED to worry about stock. I do not like the idea of these only being open to folks who waited through the queue today. (Note, while it said 6 hours, took me only about one and a half- I just kept an eye on it while I was cooking lunch) My guess is they may just be releasing them in waves, if only to save their online store the traffic for people wanting to buy other things. If that's the case, then really I've got nothing to worry about.

[edit]

Out of curiosity, I poked my head in and tried to buy some gametime:

Currently in Queue...
Position: 151083 - Estimated time: 10 hours
84% of stock left.

So yeah, most likely it's simply a thing on their site to prevent complete lockdown of the store for days.

[edit2!]
And I'm wrong again! It's the number of codes for the horse remaining, which the company just needs to generate more of as needed. Right! No un-needed limits on virtual items.

Best anyone can tell Bell, that's partially a holdover from their also selling real actual THINGS (like gryphon babies). I want to say there's a blue post about how there is no limit on digital items, but that may just be hearsay at this point. Still, nobody yet has run out, and there has been various % remaining all day (sometimes magically going back up again), so I'm not thinking it's a huge thing.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... 1&sid=1#14

Tha'd be the post you're thinking of, Anna!

Bellesta wrote:While I don't think this is entirely applicable here, I still sort of look at it from the same point. I'm not hurt by hundreds of people having the same special mount, nor will it cheapen the stories I write with it. (Yeah, I did get myself a new horsie as a 'going away gift' to myself for my move Plus since seeing it I've really wanted it for Adel as sort of a product of all the RP around Algalon I did with Tif)

This. It gives up a nice chance for some follow up RPz, of course I'm getting one.

And this was really the best part of it.

He wanted it to be obtained via some uber hard mode so when HE was flying around on it, people would know how HARD he worked for it.

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2010/04/15/ ... ly-ponies/

My little sparkly pony, all the way to the bank... If nothing else, they've successfully proven that their fanbase both can and will buy mounts and not just pets XD (especially if they fly. and are sparkly ponies).

To be sure, Lil'XT cracks me up, especially how he blasts Clockwork Rocket Bots and Train sets.

lil XT is pretty funny. And I think Verdus is going to break down and get one, just because he hates those train sets so much.

I do love the Lil' XT.