Game Diplomat's Interview with Mumper

The Game Diplomat recently had an interview with Mumper about everyone's favorite minigame, Pet Battles! There's a summary of what was discussed on the interview page, but here are a few things that I took away from it.

- If players show even more interest in pet PVP, there will be a reason to put more into that aspect of the game. One possibility is implementing a "pet currency" and set number of matches played to earn said currency per week (sounds similar to how arenas work).

- Second set of BC raid pets will be released eventually, but it's unknown exactly when. Other raids may or may not receive pets as well. Whatever "fits".

- Overtuned pets are generally because of experiments with new abilities/combinations. It's never the intent to make a pet overpowered/very strong.

- Beasts of Fable was an attempt to create new and engaging content without having to require a long chain of prerequisites. The NPCs weren't tuned as well as devs would have liked.

Aaand what we've all been waiting for, details on the Unborn Val'kyr!

- Random set of spawns all across Northrend.

- Players can only affect how it spawns by catching one.

- Pet interaction: It will ressurect dead non-battle critters! :D

Yikes, hopefully the Unborn Val'kyr won't have a devastating low or slow spawn rate. With such a large area to search, the hunt for this wild pet might be even more frustrating than waiting for the Minfernal to pop up in Felwood. x_x

Other than that, I'm pretty curious about how high of an interest there is for pet PVP. Part of me hopes that it's only average, about as high as pet PVE, mainly because if there is a "pet currency" a la arena points style, it would start to feel somewhat mandatory to pet PVP. If new pets are implemented and can only be purchased using pet PVP points, that would definitely be disappointing (not just for me, but for others too, I'm sure).

PVP is just not my thing, so if I feel that I need to PVP in order to stay "competitive" (in terms of collecting and maintaining my collection, not necessarily ranking), Pet Battles and eventually collecting will lose its appeal.

This was one thing that I was concerned about when Pet Battles was first announced. In order to keep collecting, you pretty much have to PVE battle these days. I was hesitant at first, but came to accept the system. However, if PVP is added to the equation, and the equation can't be completed without it, I think I may have to take a step back from it all.

I know it's pretty stubborn of me, but mandatory PVP is where I have to draw the line. One or two pets, I'll grit my teeth and go through the motions. But if an arena system is implemented for Pet Battles, where points are absolutely necessary to keep your collection relatively complete, I just don't think I can handle that.

Of course, we'll see. Nothing's been set in stone yet, and developers are probably still brainstorming a number of ideas to make Pet Battles even more interesting/fun.

Coming from someone who's a collector first, pet battler second, I have to admit that this minigame is getting pretty complicated. Well, at least compared to the simplicity of collecting. :P Good thing? Bad thing? Hard to say, plus it's subjective. I'm just going to see how things play out and collect everything I can in the meantime.