Posted by pixiestixy on Friday, June 12th, 2009 - 34 Comments
Tags: 3:2, complaints, controversy, cost, forums, give me my money back, gold, gold refunds, Mount, new content, Patch, patch 3.2, price adjustment, qq, refund, Zarhym
I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but it looks like one of the greatest points of contention regarding the recently announced mount changes for 3.2 will continue to upset players of WoW. In comments both on my post here at Project Lore and on the official WoW forums, posters have begrudged the major price dips for mounts because they had to pay so much more when they bought their mounts. Some have gone so far as to suggest (or demand, in some cases) that Blizzard refund their in-game gold.
Not surprisingly, blue poster Zarhym has responded to these requests in a couple of different places in the forums. After the complaints started rolling in Wednesday, he said:
“We have no plans of offering in-game gold refunds on item costs to compensate for this content change, as has always been our policy.”
Later on, in an individual thread asking for refunds, he expanded on that point:
“It’s truly a great thing that online gaming has expanded to the point where a game can grow and evolve over time with new content. As a gaming company, we can look back with hind sight and make changes to update older content within the context of everything that has come since.
Several times over this has led to price adjustments in a number of areas, and we do not reimburse items or money due to changes in content. There are simply too many variables and too many changes each content patch to attempt to compensate anyone who’s been negatively affected by a change.”
Now this doesn’t seem like a hugely unexpected revelation. As he said, I can’t think of any other time that Blizzard has made any overarching gold refunds for in-game price adjustments. I’m also not sure that anything has ever decreased in price across-the-board this drastically before, but I can’t say for sure.
But still, this has been a major point that has players up in arms, and it probably will continue to be controversial. I predict that all the hoopla will die down once patch 3.2 comes out (whenever that is - it may still be awhile), and people start getting cheap-ass mounts for their level 20 alts. Plus, all those other changes that also are planned for 3.2! Personally, I can’t wait.
One thing I’m still undecided on - what’s the verdict for all of you who are on the verge of buying your mount? Do you wait for the patch, however long that may be? Or do you shovel out the cash so you can get the benefit of faster travel now? And if you do, will you QQ about it?
Related Posts: Patch 3.2 Brings Cold Weather Flying to Level 68 Alts, Zarhym Announces Big Mount Changes for 3.2, Mount Run: Deathcharger’s Reins, Mount Run: Reigns of the Raven Lord, Mount Run: Swift Razzashi Raptor,
By Drstealth on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 11:46 am
This is how it should be. If refunds were given, the amount of QQ would only increase.
By Unforsaken on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 11:47 am
It really doesnt bother me that mounts will be available at lower lvls and for cheap. But i do aknowledge the fact that grinding out gold from doing dailies and quests o be able to afford my riding training was a pain, but that gives me an experience many of the new players will never have.
By Ommadon on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 11:48 am
My level 62 Hunter alt is waiting for 3.2 to get his normal 150% flying training. No point in waisting money now that we know the change is coming. But if only i would have known sooner! I would have saved the 5k spent on my main’s epic flying and waited for reputation bonuses to come into play >.<
By Vên on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 11:49 am
@Drstealth … agreed >_> Still, I want gold back on my hunter. I bought all my mounts for him before 2.4 damnit
THIRD LOL
By Vên on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 11:50 am
By Vên on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 11:50 am
WTB ability to edit comments for 2 typos…:(
By Arassar on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Well, I haven’t hit 70 on my mage yet so I haven’t spent 1k on flying training, but now I’m thinking I might wait and just work on my Thrallmar rep so I can get a 20% discount when 3.2 comes out.
By attack attack on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
i dont see why ppl r QQ about this its only a mount its not like mount give u more dps or healing
By Shnoo on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
There has already been 2 other mount price reductions one in Vanilla one in BC. In Vanilla those (like me) who had bought their epic land mounts for around 1k+ gold didnt get refunds… in BC no one got refunds.. so why should you now? because you spent more? In today’s game 1000 gold is nothing whereas 1k gold in Vanilla was like hitting the jackpot… like Zarhym says.. there are too many changes with each patch to make it the correct amount
By noobalicious on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
crying about not getting ar efund for the mounts is just as stupid as going to Best Buy and crying because they won’t refund you money when your computer model is discounted and other people now get it cheaper.
By Alayea on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
I agree that a refund would be impossible to work out, and that there should be none. (I’ll admit it doesn’t stop me from feeling annoyed, though.)
By Wyndgem on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Really? No refunds are news? Whomever would expect a refund is just a greedy bastard.
By Claymore on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
My feeling is basically im screwed ive wasted all this time to grind down enough gold to get the gold for epic/cold weather flying and those are the ones NOT getting reduced PFFtt, the should just make a npc near the mount vendor that either refunds you some gold depending on how many mounts you have or perhaps gives a questline whose only purpose is give players larger amounts of gold than usual so it doesnt feel like such a shaft
By cocopuff on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
“There are simply too many variables and too many changes each content patch to attempt to compensate anyone who’s been negatively affected by a change.” what a douche bag how hard is it to send to send anyone who had thier epic ground or normal or epic flyer egual to how long they had it would that really be so hard
guass all the people with brains went on vacation early it sucked when blizzz didnt return the moen spent on epicland mounds it sucked when the same thing happen in BC now tehy are repeating the same mistake for the 3rd time 1 time ok you learn from 2 times not to bad but to make the same mistake 3 imes you just have to be completly brain dead what am i supostu do wait till they lower teh lvel cap to and the teh cost to one silver in order to save my money this is not what i am paying 15$ this is suppostu bring in more players? i laugh at you i knwo this wont be the mistake blizz ever made their are many players who are on the ropes to continue thier subscription or not its a very thin rope and this may break it for many if enoough people “QQ” maybe blizz will come to thier sances
By Xian on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
WTS basic English lessons to cocopuff. >.>
By Spwany on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
i’m not paying for my cold wheather flying or epic flying till the patch comes out, i means whats the sence
By cocopuff on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
i wont take it
By Sidas on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Nearly every large company will grant retroactive refunds on purchases. It’s called customer service.
The fact that Blizzard thinks they are exempt from this shows how up their own buttocks they are imo.
The only people who are not annoyed by this are people with one high level char (or none). I recently paid for epic flight for 2 chars, and normal flight for 2 others. That is a lot of gold that should be coming back to me.
By WML on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
LOL awesome… You know, sometimes there really is benefit in being a VERY casual WOW player: I have yet to fork out my gold for mounts, or even riding training for some alts.
Even so, I wouldn’t be bitching about paying too much even if I was in a different situation. How many times have you gone out and bought the latest piece of kit you thought you needed, i.e - Plazma TV, only to see it either on sale or superseded by the new LED TV’s? Prices/products change, fact of life, deal with it.
By Hank on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
People’s pettiness is what we ought to QQ about.
By Sidas on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
“People’s pettiness is what we ought to QQ about.”
What incredible insight…
By Hank on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
ty
By drake on Saturday, June 13th, 2009 at 2:46 am
should give them a discount in future things just sumthing to stop people qqing
like few potion etc
By Aggrø on Saturday, June 13th, 2009 at 2:49 am
I didn’t expect them to give refunds, just for the simple fact that they’ve never done that. I find it rather laughable that some people actually thought they would do that.
It would be like asking for a lvl 80 Shaman, because your mage was nerved (just an example, I don’t pay attention to nerves or buffs)
By Agadax on Saturday, June 13th, 2009 at 3:35 am
“Excuse me. Yes, hello. I purchased this car for $24 000 two years ago, but I noticed that you now only charge $18 000 for it, so I would like a $6000 refund”
“I’m sorry, sir, but there is no way I can reasonably refund you that money. You purchased the vehicle at then-retail price. Have a nice day.”
Sound devious and underhanded? Of course not. That’s how things work. Now if you QQ’ers are able to put 2 and 2 together you might see a parallel between this anecdote and Blizzard’s stand on the mount cost refund. If not, please go retroactively throw yourselves off a cliff.
By Jason on Saturday, June 13th, 2009 at 9:42 am
I have 2 alts at 65, and I han’d bothered to by the epic ground yet, so this will work nice. I’ll be able to get there ground and there first flying cheeper
Questiong to people? not that flying is 150% and epic flying is 280%, are you still going to rush for epic. I wan’t going to really with alts anyways, but with the normal being faster I’m really not going to bother now. 5k gold for only 130% speed for alts isn’t worth
I also have a few other alts that I have buy thigs for, I have a mage at 12 and a druid at 40. I got lucky on my druid, when he hit 30 the normal mount droped for 40 down to his lvl. Kinda made the travel form usless though, and its so much fun
By Claymore on Saturday, June 13th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Hi i just got this iphone and i see youre lowering it in price in like 2 weeks can i have a refund?
Att: yes you can
Yeah thats how cust serv works, sometimes you have to make the customer happy, and really does it cost blizzard anything?
By Kay on Saturday, June 13th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
While it is true that some businesses will give you a retroactive refund on an item that goes on sale that you bought at full retail price, it is usually within a two week time frame, not months or years later,and that is only at their discretion, not on your demand.
Gathering enough gold for different elements of the Game, like your Mount, your Professions,your Class Spells etc. by selling things on the AH, or farming mobs that drop cash, or selling stuff to vendors is all part of the Game.
It is a part of every kind of RPG out there. If say Final Fantasy put out a game with armor and stuff costing large amounts, then a year down the road re-released the game and there were reductions in the prices of everything are you going to demand a refund from them?
Just because WOW is more interactive does not mean it is any different.
I think the people QQ’ing the most instead of just accepting it as a part of the game are the ones who bought their gold from those “Farmers” instead of earning it themselves.
By Bamii on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 10:55 am
@cocopuff
Seriously, I have to stop reading these blog’s because your posts make me so angry ! All that crap and not one period ? Add in all of your spelling errors and SOMEHOW YOU STILL SPELLED DOUCHE CORRECTLY ?? I don’t understand you but please stop posting on every single blog especially because you are one of the “First” posters.
/submit
/throw monitor out window
By Snaggly on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I agree with bamii, cocopuff your english makes you sound like you are missing a chromosome or two and really just enrages me, and apparently other readers too.
By aadjed on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 2:23 am
Yes, companies do give refunds, but not on items bought even 2 months earlier. But what i am mostly amazed about is that ppl want a refund on gold they never even touched. We are talking about IMAGINERY gold. It took me 3 weeks to get enough gold for epic flight n swift flight form, but I do realise it wasnt REAL gold. What would u do if you get 5K gold refunded? Buy that rediculously expensive travellers mammoth? And complain it couldve been cheaper if only you had spent a week longer to get the extra rep?
By some nooby guy on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 7:02 am
if you buy something then you agreed in paying the money that it costs to buy it so why do you then QQ about it?
life isnt fair!
GET IT BABY
now go get your momma and get to bed!
By phil on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 11:54 am
lol lots of QQ going on about it personal i dont mind it…heck gives me areason to farm heroic shatterd halls on my 80 * only has base flying* i might not even buy epic flying since base flying is going up to 150…i cant count the number of times i’ve lost out on a titanium vein because of someone on a bronze drake desideing he’s faster so might as well take it while im killing a mob * alliance not horde..they just try to gank me lol!.
By phil on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 11:58 am
@ ven lol *wtb edit button as well lol* and asking for a refund on gold?..im a casual player i dont play alot but i can make over 1kg in a little over a few hours with my dailys i do all 25 in a day hand them in at 2:30 wait 30 mins and do them again 13g per daily plus all the green’s and greys that are worth 1g each or more * fishing daily gives grey’s worth 25g-35g some times..asking for a refund on gold..would you ask for a refund in a game of monopoly if you luxry taxx went down?. IT’S a game deal with it