Let it go and move on. I hate locking blog comments, but if it comes down to a flame war I'll have to.
1. Funny comic, made me Lol.2. Kinda want that horse, but meh, I'm broke.3. Don't bring the almighty wrath of Malgayne and his beard come down and smite you all. 4 Take the Trolling back to 4chan.
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
I think it's pretty clear where Blizzard thinks the line is. There are three types of items they feel it's appropriate to pay money for, and those are:
Everyone has their own viewpoint and apparently there is no reasoning to be had on either side.Sure, it may be viewed as a bit extreme to rush out and spend money on an in-game item, especially a mount such as this. However, there's no real effect on the gameplay.Let's look at it:Your character is eligible for their first mount at level 20.Apprentice Riding costs 4 gold, the mount itself costs 1 gold.If you purchase this Celestial Steed mount, you get the mount on all of your characters, present, and future. You spend $25 and have saved 1 gold so far. (Notice that training is still required).Based on WoWWiki's chart on mount prices, you save a grand total of 161 gold, which could have easily been made without going out of your way while leveling.No big impact on gameplay, right?Don't want the horse? Don't like it for whatever reason? Don't buy it. It's not like it's a mandatory item. At the same time, don't ridicule and call those who do buy it "insane", or "stupid". If they want to spend $25 on a few pixels, what harm is it to you?So Blizz has decided to put an in-game item on sale for real world cash. OMG :O They're behaving just like a corporation! Grab your torches and pitchforks! It's no different from the vanity pets already on sale, except as stated above, you save a marginal sum of gold on not buying mounts.People have asked "How is it different from buying gold?"In the act of buying gold, players gain an advantage that is unhealthy for the game balance: they can easily gain virtually limitless amounts of gold with absolutely no effort in the game. Not to mention, gold is bought from third party companies, most of which are not trustworthy, and use shady tactics like hijacking accounts to fund their gold supplies.Now, as to whether it's viable or not to pay $25 dollars for a few sparkly pixels:If you can afford it, and don't mind paying extra money towards a game that you already spend money on (for shiny pixels, no less), then there's absolutely no harm done.Once again, OMG :O Blizzard Inc. is acting like a corporation, grabbing money wherever they can! Big surprise. The best way to show your disgust at this is to not buy the mount.