What, free 80s? INSANE.

Gray Matter: I'm Annoyed: An SoR Rant:

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a grumpy old man rant about how hard I had it back and my day. I think the Scroll of Resurrection is a good idea and that the rewards provided were intelligently chosen. When evaluated entirely on its own, I can't find fault with the SoR.

I'm annoyed because it's hard not to look at these rewards and ask "what about me?"

I started playing this game in December 2006 and I have maintained my subscription without a break for over 5 years. I've paid for the original game along with all three expansions. I've also paid for 14 server transfers, two faction transfers, and a name change. And this doesn't even include the things not tied to my account like the books and WoW branded peripherals I've purchased.

Wait, what's going on?  That's right, as Graylo says, if you Recruit-a-Friend, that friend can have 

One character immediately bossed to level 80.  Wow.

Okay, let's get this out of the way.  Contra Graylo, I am a grumpy old man here.

If you've done RaF before, and your friend is, say, at level 20, now you can restart and boost them to 80 without any of the learning in between?  As if people didn't know how to play now...  That's insane.  I mean, they've already made it insanely easy to level, and now they're giving out 80s?  If you want to add an 80 to an account than already has an 80+, fine, but this is crazy.  Wow.  Just wow.  Even if it is, apparently, a "limited time offer".

And now that I think about it, even letting those with 80s have another is wacky.  Me as a prot warrior at 80?  Hahahahahaha.  Hilarious.  You should at least be forced to take a driver's test first.

I could understand allowing a toon account to, say, start a DK without having leveled another level 55 character, perhaps, but this cheapens the game experience something wacky.

And yes, there should be some nice bonus for keeping your account active.

The Burning Crusade Improved! Now Free as in Beer!

Well, TBC is now free.

World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade -- Together at Last! - World of Warcraft:

In addition, anyone who owns the original World of Warcraft, regardless of when they purchased the game, will automatically be able to access all of the content and features from The Burning Crusade expansion at no additional cost. It’s time to set forth from Azeroth, adventurer -- Outland awaits!

The question is why. I mean, Matlocker, my alt account alt that I got to play a little refer-a-friend, is excited. I paid something like, what, $15 for WoW Old World at Xmas with a $5 dollar gift card back, so now I've gotten a month and an expansion for $10, which wasn't bad.[1] I guess maybe this will convince alters and friends to run ten more levels o' fun, which takes another month or two. (Now Matlocker would like his free 10 days to try BC out. ;^D)

Of course this means that BC boxes in Gamestop etc now, if they're still out there, are worthless. Woe to those who buy. I hope they've pulled the SKU. Beware habitual eBayers.

I guess this is good in that Blizzard can get rid of one bit flag. Now everyone can hit BC. Still, I can't imagine that's a huge savings. Perhaps now they have one less client to test. That would be worth a bit of time==cash.

But are there tons of level 60ish characters running around who got Vanilla and stopped? Am I missing something? Though if we assume those folks wouldn't buy BC but will play a month if it's free (especially with a quick email prod), 1% of 11 million * $15 is still a lot of dough, I suppose ($1,650,000).

[1] Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking. A $5 gift card isn't worth a full $5! You're right. It's hard to spend a Gamestop gift card at Burger King. But if you're going to spend that $5 at Gamestop immediately anyhow, well, it's worth $5 to you.

Cenarion Hatchling: See, that wasn't so tough, was it?

(the above image unethically stolen straight from Blizzard's site)

After totally screwing up the moonkin pet and Make-a-Wish where half went to charity and half straight to Blizzard's pockets, Blizzard learns most of their lesson with the Cenarion Hatchling for Japan.

For every Cenarion Hatchling purchased between now and July 31, 100% of the $10 USD adoption fee will be donated to the American Red Cross's Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami relief efforts. This support will enable the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, emotional support, and other assistance to victims of this disaster.

About the only thing wrong here is that it'd appear the Hatchling will continue to be sold for cai$h after July, and Valve's fundraiser headgear went kaput once the fundraiser was over. But now I'm splitting hairs. Sorta.

EDIT: Okay, I'm not splitting hairs. Why every pet doesn't give all $10 to the Red Cross right now, I don't know. I like the Monk, I'd rather have the $10 goes somewhere useful, but it's straight cash to Blizzard's pockets. I really prefer the Valve, get it for a donation or don't get it at all, remember this the next time you sit on your hands hard sale better.

Valve shows Blizzard how to give to charity

To follow up on my post on the vanity, ur, charity moonkin pets from last year, here's Valve, selling hats for Team Fortress 2, and doing it The Right Way. I'm not going to fault Valve for not paying their taxes out of their own pockets. Give to Caesar and all that.


Team Fortress 2 Blog:

Today, we'd like to offer a chance to help out at a time when that help matters most. To support the relief efforts currently underway in Japan, we're introducing three limited edition hats and two special noisemakers to the Mann Co. store. The 'Humanitarian's Hachimaki' ($7.99), the 'Benefactor's Kanmuri' ($19.99) and the most prestigious 'Magnanimous Monarch' ($99.99) will be available from now through April 6. All proceeds (net of applicable taxes) will go directly towards the Japanese disaster relief fund that the American Red Cross has set up.

What's more? They point you to the website directly to donate if you'd prefer to use it as a tax deduction and potentially give more by giving the same.

While your Mann Co. store purchases cannot be written off as tax deductions, those who would prefer to donate directly to the American Red Cross fund can do so at their website.

That wasn't so hard, was it?

Hey, wow, I'm buying a moonkin pet FOR CHARITY!!!1!

I couldn't believe the venom directed my way when I was a (admittedly) a little snarky on WoW Insider about the moonkin vanity charity pet announcement last year. I sorta suggested to the folks saying how wonderful it was that buying the pet would give $5 to Make-A-Wish Foundation that they, um, could give twice as much if they, say, gave the charity all $10.

Blizzard wasn't being magnanimous. Add up the amount they make on the pets, subtract the amount they spent making the pets, and you still got a number that's a bit larger than zero. And if you divided the amount of cash they make each month by the amount of cash they gave to a charity with the last pet, well, it ain't a real high percentage. I, iirc, even admitted that they could be giving more elsewhere and that even the cash they pay their employees could very well be going to charities as well. Still, my guess is that Blizzard isn't tithing.

They used charity as a cover discourse for profit. Come on folks. If you want to donate, donate. And heck, if you want to waste money on vanity pets, waste your money and own it.

Nice to see that somebody else agrees.

Hey, I'm famous! Sorta. In April of 2009

Look, I was quoted on WoW Insider... [1.Local]: Patch week patter:

Some readers ranted that $15 a month should provide smooth, uninterrupted service. Others felt that at something like 50 cents a day, they were getting a reasonable value.

'Interesting comments on the worth of WoW,' observed Jalindrine. 'The 50-cents-a-day logic, though, is obviously flawed. The question isn't 'Can I afford to spend 50 cents a day on a product?', but 'How many products/services can I afford to buy at 50 cents (more or less) a day?' Every so often, WoW's the one not worth it, which is much harder to realize when you're literally addicted.'

I think I got the tone right on that one. Post is here, followed by a perplexingly incoherent response. I often wish I didn't feel compelled to post on message boards, blogs, and websites, but finally realized back in my Slashdot days that it wasn't going to stop. ;^)

Fighting terrorism with WoW

Thought others might get a kick out of my payment schedule. Looks like, if you add in a few bucks for the initial buy and the BC expansion, I'm averaging about $7.70 per month on WoW since I bought in. Though I'm tempted to be happy with all that I've "saved" by not keeping my subscription current for 48 months (48/6 * $77.94 = $623.52 + $40 (WoW) + $40 (BC) = 703.52!), it's still painful to think I pay that much for a game I only play half the time. Month by month, that's only about a $5 savings monthly to have turned WoW off. *sigh*

	Date:  Amount:  Billing Plan:  Status: 2/27/09 N/A 10 day Wrath Trial Expired 5/13/08 $14.99 USD One Month Recurring Expired 5/12/08 N/A One Day Credit Expired 4/12/08 $14.99 USD One Month Recurring Expired 8/9/07 $14.99 USD One Month Recurring Expired 7/8/07 $14.99 USD One Month Recurring Expired 6/6/07 $14.99 USD One Month Recurring Expired 4/28/07 $14.99 USD One Month Recurring Expired 3/26/07 $14.99 USD One Month Recurring Expired 2/19/07 $14.99 USD One Month Recurring Expired 1/17/07 $14.99 USD One Month Recurring Expired 5/10/06 $14.99 USD One Month Recurring Expired 3/6/06 N/A Three Day Credit Expired 2/19/06 N/A One Day Credit Expired 11/19/05 $41.97 USD Three Months Recurring ($13.99 per month) Expired 11/17/05 N/A One Day Credit Expired 8/17/05 $41.97 USD Three Months Recurring ($13.99 per month) Expired 5/16/05 $41.97 USD Three Months Recurring ($13.99 per month) Expired 5/13/05 N/A One Day Credit Expired 4/13/05 $14.99 USD One Month Recurring Expired 4/10/05 N/A Three Day Credit Expired 4/5/05 N/A Five Day Credit Expired 3/5/05 N/A Free Month Expired

Not exactly a victory. Wonder how much I've thrown into UO?

In any event, I've been wondering if I should postpone buying LK until after a few more months of leveling in BC. There's lots of XP back on the table [EDIT: Idiot. You ob have to have LK to get levels over 70. Dolt.], and a few more instance runs should do Jal proud. Still plenty of good gear to grab too compared to quest rewards, if I can find enough folk to instance. I'm hoping there are enough Death Knights flopping through BC.



By the way, somebody grab me one of these, okay? Figurines of your "little dude," as we like to call Jal around here, for just $130. If they get the Druidic Helm of Second Sight right, I'm interested. I think I'd have to equip the Illidari-Bane too, just because it's the most impressive looking hardware I've got right now, maybe with my very old skull off-hand from Darkshire. Man, I'm a geek. ;^)