After Blizzard soberly announced the deployment of new Twitch Drops on the occasion of the release of the World of Warcraft expansion Dragonflight, players are once again caught in the crossfire, further dividing the community: is it normal that the Feldrake is obtainable for free, he who was once so prestigious?
A very questionable choice…
The least we can say is that the American publisher knows how to get noticed! If many players do not know where this controversy comes from with regard to the Feldrakeothers are well aware of the double problem that such a free and so accessible offer poses.
To understand the current debate regarding this mount, it is therefore necessary to know that this mount was one of the rarest in the game so far. And for good reason, it was in fact one of the rewards of the World of Warcraft trading card game whose edition stopped in 2013.
To get the Feldrakeso you had no choice but to get your hands on the card of the same name from the expansion Timewalkers: War of the Ancients published in 2012. Naturally, it was extremely rare, so rare even that it was estimated at one for every 264 decks of cards on average. It is little, very little! Thus, and like all cards of the same kind (the famous Spectral Tiger for example), the players who obtained it had two options: enter the in-game code associated with this card to ride this superb drake, or sell the card on certain auction sites, EBay in particular to name a few.
In the second case, prices quickly soaredand the end of the edition of the collectible card game did not help: the Feldrake is for example sold at $4,000 as of this writing. And if some would assume that no one buys a mount at this price, think again: a player, for example, recently acquired a Spectral Tiger for the modest sum of €4,300!
And this is where the appearance of such a mount among Dragonflight’s Twitch Drops rewards list poses a problem: if the lucky little ones who had obtained it by chance by opening a pack of cards are disappointed to see their mount extremely rare become a “common good”, those who had paid thousands of euros to get their hands on it see red. And that’s quite understandable!
The other problem that Feldrake pose, it is Blizzard’s lack of involvement in loot drops offered through Twitch and Prime Gaming. If some games, Lost Ark for example, offer unique rewards in this way, the WoW publisher is content to throw in food rare and / or formerly paying objects already existing in the game. A laziness that some see from a evil eye since they expect a minimum of innovation, even if it is completely free content. Ah well we are demanding on WoW, yeah!
… But a fairly just cause?
However, Bizzard’s stance isn’t as dramatic as it looks for ordinary gamers. In fact, it’s even quite good, provided you haven’t spent a single euro for the Feldrake a few years earlier !
The World of Warcraft trading card game is a veritable gold mine widely exploited by some players in search of a few thousand euros. Since the end of its edition in 2013, the prices of the rarest cards from which they come, often mounts, easily cross the bar of one thousand euros. A real parallel market over which Blizzard has absolutely no controland which completely locks access to these prestigious awards which are “prestigious” only for their astronomical value in reality. And that, neither Blizzard nor players like it: it’s not house policy for an in-game item to be prestigious simply because of its real-money prize.
Well then, of course one could imagine that theWoW publisher could ban the sale of such items on parallel markets. It would surely happen elsewhere! But the other ready-made alternative, at a lower cost and which gives it the right role to prevent making money on the backs of its players (and of itself eh), it is quite simply to reclaim these extremely rare objects and offer them free of charge to its players. Two birds with one stone: we break the dark and unfair economy of these cards, and we please thousands (millions?) of players!
The only real problem such an idea poses is once again on the side of those who got their hands on the Feldrake before Twitch Drops and who spent at best a few tens of euros to obtain a package that contained one for the end even their favorite mount to wander everywhere in Oribos, at worst downright thousands. And there… Blizzard’s position is difficult to defend. Although… We could tell you that these parallel markets do not represent reliable and sensible means of obtaining these frames, and therefore the buyers are ultimately solely responsible for their purchase. That may even be the way Blizzard sees things, hence these seemingly thoughtless Twitch Drops! But hey… We still understand your frustration if you are one of the few to have obtained this mount this way.
In the end, the Feldrake is so rare and so unattainable for the overwhelming majority of players (and by far, far) that Blizzard’s choice doesn’t actually seem so absurd. In fact, it’s probably the best way to reclaim those relics of a bygone era without breaking the bank and allowing them toaccess mounts they would never have had for lack of real money. And sincerely, we much prefer to have free Twitch Drops who offer us mounts from the TCG instead of them being added at €50.00 in the shop. And they thought about it, that’s for sure!
After that, once again in terms of good innovation… There is undoubtedly a little effort to be made, we grant you that. It sounds a bit like recycling, this way of bringing out already existing content to offer it to ordinary players… But it seems to us to be a good thing as it is!
twitch
On the occasion of the deployment of the Dragonfight extension of World of Warcraft, new Twitch Drops are appearing, including a mount as famous as it is rare and other cosmetic objects. One thing to do: follow your favorite streamers on Twitch during the event!