Saturday, April 21, 2012

Details On MoP Pet Trading

MMO-Champion has a translation of the WoW China Developers Q&A, and within it there were two responses that answer some large nagging questions about pet trading and Pet Battles in MoP:

Q: Will there be any rules about pet trading? Will we be able to trade pets of limited editions (like Panda Cub) or Blizzard Store pets (like Wind Rider Cub)? How about achievement pets?

A: We plan to allow players to trade Blizzard Store pets excluding Guardian Cub (because it's not BoP and it's unique). Collector's edition and other limited edition pets (like Mini Tyrael or BlizzCon pets) will not be tradable, either.


Q: You said earlier that not all pets can take part in pet battle system. What are the exceptions?

A: Currently the exceptions are pets with humanoid children models. They will not be included in pet battle system. Nor will the Guardian Cub.
So there you have it! Confirmation that Blizzard PetStore pets WILL be tradable (except for the Guardian Cub), but CE and other limited edition pets will NOT be tradable.

Big bummer for those hoping to finally get their hands on a Murky or the original CE pets. Then again, I think we all kind of knew that this is how Blizzard would choose to handle the VERY rare and exclusive companions. If they had allowed them to be traded, their stance on keeping some pets "rare" would be flung out the window completely and they wouldn't be able to use that excuse argument in any future situations. :P

Not to mention it would be opening a can of worms that I think should be remained closed. Some want to be able to trade the CE companions, while others don't. There's really no room for grey in this specific debate, so best to avoid it completely and continue doing what we've been doing which is not trading these rare and highly desirable pets.

As for the exceptions in Pet Battles... I suppose I can understand why they would leave out any humanoid children models, but at the same time that just makes Pet Battles feel wrong altogether. What about the Elwynn Lamb? The White Kitten? All those fluffy and very passive animal-like critters that seem out of place in a battle scenario? There are baby animals in our collections too, not just children.

If Blizzard is deeming it inappropriate that a child-like "pet" can't pick up a toy sword to play "knights and dragons" or a toy gun for "cops and robbers", why are we sticking cute little creatures into arenas to bite, scratch, and fight it out with other adorable pets?

This is touching on an ethical issue here, so maybe a longer post is necessary to discuss it in depth.

Lastly, my best guess why the Guardian Cub won't be allowed to battle is because of the special coding that's used to make it BoP for the first 24 and then suddenly switch to BoU. I bet something weird happens when that code is mixed with the Pet Battles code. Maybe the cub goes super saiyan, and becomes the ultimate, unstoppable killer. :P

4 comments:

  1. Maybe the cub goes super saiyan, and becomes the ultimate, unstoppable killer. :P --- That was really funny.

    :( no CE pets for me, not that I ever would have had the gold to buy one anyway.

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    1. @Tadedra: Yea, nevermind the real life cash amount required for most of the CE and no-longer available pets. I can't imagine those pets going for cheap in-game either. Better to just leave it the way it is, and not have them tradable imo. Keep it simple.

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  2. I was expecting to not be able to fight with the Squires or anything else with a humanoid children model. Blizzard has always made children in-game completely immune to damage and dying. There's definitely a taboo in killing children, though not a similar one for killing baby animals. (Yummy, veal!) So....whatever, I suppose.

    On the other topic, now I'm wondering if I'm mean enough to make a team of pets with my original CE pets. It would probably be infuriating to some people to see a panda, zergling and mini diablo on the screen and know they wouldn't be able to obtain them. I'm just not sure if I'm THAT evil. ;p

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    1. @Rachelle J: What would be even more evil is if Blizzard gave certain pet team combinations extra bonuses (like in the old-school arcade button mashing games).

      So for example, if you had all three vanilla CE pets on a team, they would get a super buff that reduces damage by 3% or something like that. Now THAT would be evil. :P

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