In case you missed the reveal at Blizzcon 2011, MMO-Champion has a straightforward review of Pet Battles.
Keep in mind that even though that all of this was officially announced by Blizzard, there are still no guarantees that everything listed will go live with the next expansion. Things could change between now and the release of MoP.
Also keep in mind that there are still MANY MANY things that we just don't have enough information about yet. So unless it's listed on this review page or stated by Blizzard elsewhere, everything else is speculation for now and we really need to just wait and see how things play out.
The features that I hope make it into the live version of MoP even if everything else doesn't: Account wide pets and unique player-given names for companions! Yes please! :D
As for Pet Battles in general... well I'm still really torn about it. Part of me is curious and would definitely try it out, while another part of me is somewhat resistant. The things that I worry about are how this new feature will affect the pet collecting community, pet collecting gameplay, and vanity pets overall.
It was stated that it would be entirely optional, but it was also mentioned that Pet Battles would "unlock countless more pets". I'm the type of person that doesn't enjoy being pigeonholed into a situation where there's only one route to take. I like my options (but not too many as that would get overwhelming) and I enjoy having some sense of control over my style of gameplay.
So IF participating in Pet Battles is the only way to access these "countless more pets" then I don't see how it would be considered "optional" content for a pet collector. If a collector wanted to obtain and unlock the new companions, what choice would they have? If this turns out to be the case, it would be more of a pet peeve than pet perk for me. We'll see.
In any case, MoP will definitely bring about some changes for pet collectors and it's just a matter of time before more concrete details are revealed to us.
Perks N Peeves by Quintessence is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
The pet battle announcement is what spurred me to start collecting pets. I had about 20 pets that I'd picked up here and there, but didn't really ever think about them or really care about them. Since the Blizzcon announcement I'm up to 155. I have a lot of guildies that started collecting after the announcement as well.
ReplyDeleteEven if you're forced to participate in the pet battle system you have to think about how increasing the popularity of pets will cause Blizzard to make even more new pets. Anything that causes players to have more interest in them is a good thing. The average player only has about 30 pets, so it's not something most players really care about right now.
I'm sure there will be pets that you need to battle to get. But that's really no different than the way things have always been. I'd love for there to be another way for me to get a Mr. Pinchy other than fishing, but there isn't. I have to keep fishing those pools.
@df8952a6-3ce7-11e1-8bb8-000f20980440: "Optional" has and will always be subjective and relative, and I have no qualms with this. There are some pets that definitely require participation in other aspects of the game, however they are not overwhelmingly abundant. Blizzard is hyping up Pet Battles so much that if they don't add a ton of companions to this new feature, it will be a let down for those excited about it. Then again, if they add a ton of pets exclusively to Pet Battles, others who are not so into it will feel disenfranchised.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the way Blizzard is presenting Pet Battles is that there would be no impact on any gameplay if someone chose to not participate. This isn't exactly the case, and while it's a seemingly minor detail, it still shows (and irks me) that they still have this sort of "pet collecting's not a big deal" mentality.
I'm definitely all for bringing pet collecting to the forefront of gameplay and having more join in on the awesomeness that is companions, but is Pet Battles the answer? *Shrug* It could be, or it couldn't be.
By implementing this feature a number of different possibilities could be the result. The nature of pet collecting could change from a more individualistic, non-competitive activity to a more competitive and social style of gameplay. Older collectors who have known pet collecting primarily as the former may become discouraged from participating to avoid the competition, while newer players would probably find it irritating that more seasoned collectors criticize their reasoning for collecting. I'd hate to see a large rift or divide split the community into two, but that may very well happen too.
This new feature has the potential to change vanity pets at their very core, maybe for the worse or maybe for the better. We just have to wait and see what will happen.
I think I wouldn't mind a handful of pet-battle only pets- Unless I hate it I'm looking forward to the feature- but I'm not a fan of there being 'countless' ones just from pet battles. I just hope they're not unbelievably rare or hard to get!
ReplyDelete@Saberella: Agreed! My hope is that Blizzard keeps all types of pet collectors in mind when implementing the new companions. Not everyone is going to want to fight over a pet, nor is everyone going to enjoy simply buying one. Compromise and balance is what's needed, and the mentality of pet collectors also should be taken into consideration.
ReplyDelete