Monday, February 22, 2010

Succumbing to Temptation

i spent $61 (including shipping/handling + tax) on both the Wind Rider Cub and Gryphon Hatchling today. X_x

Key features:
Available for a limited time only

Catch him now before this offer, like the Gryphon Hatchling/Wind Rider Cub, flies away!
yea, that made me "lol". what an effective marketing ploy. make any item a limited offer and you're bound to get an increase of sales for at least the first few weeks or so.

anyway, hopefully they will arrive in the mail within the next couple weeks. my order is still "pending" which can either mean they're flooded with orders or their inventory hasn't actually been stocked with plushies yet. we'll see how long it takes from start to finish.

i must ask myself, though, what's the difference between buying blizzard petstore pets and ebay'ed TCG pet loot cards? how do i justify buying one but not the other?

i really don't know how to answer this yet. the obvious answer would be: "the petstore items are cheaper than the TCG loot cards." money is still money, no matter the amount though. so... i don't know.

i'm disappointed that blizzard didn't add a nonprofit organization tag to the two new plushies. it would have helped take the edge off of paying more money to enjoy a game. helping a nonprofit organization while offering items that people can amuse themselves with would have been hitting two birds with one stone. i guess blizzard doesn't see it in that light.

to be honest, i'm not too thrilled about the plushies, but i figure that i can always give them away as gifts to young family members. it feels a bit rude to give them away to older friends/family members though. without the pet codes, it's pretty much only half a gift (even if the recipient doesn't play WoW themselves).

in the end i'm feeling a bit torn and slightly guilty. i still can't seem to find reason within myself why is it ok to spend money on official blizzard store items but not the tcg items up on ebay. the direction in which this whole microtransaction thing is taking me is also worrisome.

part of me feels as though i should have waited it out to see if the "limited time offer" only applied to the plushie(s), and the cub and hatchling would be made available as stand-alone pet codes in the future.

i guess i'll just have to wait and see if i end up kicking myself for being so impatient and spontaneous.
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Perks N Peeves by Quintessence is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.