Blizzard is giving away a $3,000 mount for free and some players are annoyed, here’s why they’re wrong

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is getting hot, and as you can imagine, there’s a big push from the gnomes behind the wheel at Activision Blizzard to build up the hype for the launch. They’ve been in bad PR for a while, after all, and thanks to the trash fire surrounding Overwatch 2, the company needs a win. How will you generate excitement? Giving away a ridiculously expensive mount for free.

The company plans to do it via Twitch, a great way to ensure hordes (and alliances) of people flock to the new expansion’s live streams, in theory anyway. Sure you can just keep streaming, mute the tab, and then spend your time on something else, but the marketing team can still point to the game’s high ranking and viewership numbers on Twitch and claim success.

The only problem is that they are giving away the fel drake and the Dragon Kite pet. Both were originally obtainable through the now-discontinued trading card game World of Warcraft, and have thus far become largely unattainable to the casual player. With that exclusivity, the dragon has become quite a valuable item. Sell ​​for around $3,000 on online marketplaces like WoW TCG Loot.

As you might have guessed, this has caused quite a stir in the WoW community, especially among mount collectors who have always been some of the game’s most passionate and dedicated players. For some, ownership of the feldrake was the crown jewel in their mount collection. A true rarity, whether purchased for a large amount of real-world cash, in-game gold, or in a lucky pack that was opened years ago.

“With the addition of Fel Drake as a Twitch drop. I want to start by saying I don’t own a Fel Drake, but the addition of a TCG mount as a Twitch drop has eliminated TCG mounts as the last remaining investment to fight gold inflation,” he writes. RichNasty on the WoW Forums.

“All TCG mounts now have the potential to be given away to the entire WoW community, where before they were in limited and finite supply. This means that no one will feel comfortable paying millions of gold for a mount that can be given away for free at a later date.”

This is a financial angle on the broader argument made by those against Fel Drake Twitch Drop. Over time, mounts like the fel drake, which are not something the average player can get, have become the last real status symbol left in WoW. One could argue that Gladiator mounts, which require a player to reach a high rank in a limited PvP season, but since even that has been sullied by a largely uncontrolled boost scene in World of Warcraft, you’re left with few pieces of Truly intact trophy. on a digital WoW collector’s mantelpiece.

Those who take this side of the argument are right that this is a step Blizzard hasn’t taken before. However, for every person who espouses the virtue of WoW-exclusive mounts, there are apparently 10 who laugh at the situation, grinning from ear to ear as they’re about to get a new mount for free, while racking up the worth of codes. of pre-existing Fel Drake. and the collections of an incredibly specific portion of the player base.

“Everyone please remember that Fel Drake Twitch Drop is from November 28 to 30, it is very important that as many people as possible see it”, is the title of a thread written by user Ill_Excuse_997 on the World of Warcraft subreddit. His stance is jubilant, hoping that this promotion will be successful enough to encourage Blizzard to continue distributing TCG mounts in future promotions. It’s the position of the mountless masses, clamoring for a dragon that looks far worse than many incredibly common mounts already in their collection. They do it for the same reason people like to see NFT stocks crash or pretentious modern art go awry: because it’s funny.

But let’s quickly break down why Blizzard would do this. First and most obvious, the vast majority of players will not be negatively affected. Less than 0.1% of players own it, and an incredibly small fraction of players will actually collect the gold needed to purchase it. It’s a move that will lead to an overwhelming uproar of cheers from most, and a relative groan from collectors.

Secondly, of all the mounts, it is one that was already made accessible a few years ago. In Mists of Pandaria, players could duplicate items and sell them on the auction house. Yes, if detected, these items could be removed and the mounts would disappear from your collection, but a wave of much cheaper feldrakes flooded the market nonetheless. If the Fel Drake is a gleaming crown atop a player’s mount collection, it’s made of fool’s gold.

But there’s a reason why the Fel Draco’s free gift to WoW players doesn’t matter, and one that many may have missed. Mounts no longer matter in WoW. They haven’t for years. With each major patch to the retail version of the game, a dozen or more mounts are often added. Many of them recolor the same model, a practice that devalues ​​mounts the moment they’re available, because who cares about your creepy hand mount, when I have one that’s exactly the same apart from a slight green tint.

In retail WoW, no one looks at your mount and says “WoW” unless you’re AFK on a Swift Nether Drake or something, but even with those truly special mounts, most players don’t know or care why. is special Mount saturation killed mount value years ago, this is just one of the bones left crumbling to dust.

Interestingly, if you’ve played classic WoW, you can still experience a bit of the golden old days when mounts meant something. Not the bronze dragon, no one cared about that, but the Proto-Drake of Lost Time, or the Black Proto-Drake, or Invincible when he comes out! When you see them in the wild, it actually means something. The Fel Drake has meant nothing to virtually no one in over a decade.

So yeah, go watch a Dragonflight live stream if you want. Get the fel drake as a prize! Jump on it in-game, fly over it for a while, and then throw it in the collection tab forever. The only thing Blizzard has done with this promotion is to give most players a good reason to check out the game as the release date approaches, and perhaps also shatter the tombstone of the actual value of the mount. But hardly anyone visited, so whatever.

For more Blizzard-related news, we have a report on Phil Spencer commenting on the Microsoft acquisition, saying the investigations are “justified” but confident it will happen.