Putting the "Cat" Back in Cataclysm

Image:  Blizzard.com

Yes, that's a cat with wings.  Yes, it's on fire.  Yes, it can be yours if you play World of Warcraft and pay $25.

No, I don't think I'll be buying it.  And I'm not sure hordes of other WoW players will, either.

The Winged Guardian is the second mount Blizzard has put in its online Pet Store, and is arguably a big step up from the Celestial Steed (aka My Little Sparklepony) in terms of model and coolness factor.  It's also going to cause a second wave of uproar from anti-microtransaction players that feel items like this should come with their subscription fee.  In other words, whiny gits.

Full disclosure:  I bought the Starpony the day it came out and I'm still glad I did.  So why am I digging my heels this time around, and predicting other people will do the same?

Part of it is budget:  things are tighter now than they were in the heyday of Wrath of the Lich King when the Starlight Express Stallion was debuted.  $25 is not an insignificant hole in my budget, and I think the bulk of other WoW players are feeling the same financial crunch.

The other is utility.  The Starry-Eyed Surprise was such a big seller (to me included) because with one purchase, you get a free land and air mount for every character you have and will ever have.  Every time I make a new character there's another Starry Steed waiting in the mailbox, along with half-dozen pets and hand-me-down heirlooms from my higher-level characters.  No more dropping hundreds of gold throughout my alts' careers just to get them from Point A to Point B in a hurry.

Today those Constellation Chargers are gathering dust on my Mounts page for all but two of my characters.  While it looked great in the frosty blue skies of Northrend, it's not the greatest thing for running around dusty and dirty Kalimdor where all my toons level.  A lot of the prestige in mounts overall is cosmetics:  while my blood elf mage looks perfect flying from place to place on a horse made of stars, my troll warrior looks better on a raptor and my goblins are all driving their badass trikes.

This definitely won't be the last purchasable mount we see; common sense says Blizzard will release one each expansion, primarily because they're just so good at making tons and tons of money in an awful hurry.  I'll most likely wind up buying one for my wife, who turned her nose up at Horsa Major but has been giggling at pictures of the mount and saying "Here, kitty kitty..."