Except that we’ve had the cash store with mounts and cosmetic items and battle pets for 12 years. People keep saying exactly what you’ve said, but it hasn’t happened. 12 years. Still not selling “gear.” Nothing but cosmetics.
So no.
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May I ask a question? Does it hurt more to have the general public dislike the work, or having the artist vision changed multiple times through collaboration before it can be presented to them?
I’ve always imagined the latter would be the toughest pill to swallow. 
Okay. I’m responding to the OP who somehow thinks Blizzard selling this means more money in the artists pocket which is quite frankly delusional.
But I’m already paying for the game, and the game would be a better product with these things as rewards within the game. The fact that you don’t see this as a problem is what’s wrong with the gaming industry / community now.
I pay for the game and then I pay to play it. There was a time when doing either one of things “entitled” you to everything in the game. Whatever, times change and this isn’t even remotely the point. My argument is that everything on the store would’ve been better off obtainable in-game. We’ve had so many mount reskins as achievement rewards for the last two expansions while brand new, amazing models went on the store. Why? Why is this okay to you? Why should any of those store pets not be rewards for difficult pet battle achievements? Why should this new armour set not be a reward for a long and challenging night fae quest line for example? The one exception is when Blizzard sell something for charity, but other than that the store ONLY hurts the game.
I’m confused why is the sub reddit and the forums so crazy over store items? This is not something new, they have done them in the past and will do more later on.
Anyone who cares about the integrity of the game has hated this from the beginning. Pets, mounts, whatever, it’s all bad for the game. The fact that now it’s a cosmetic set just means it’s getting worse.
Back in the day once artists finished their work for a company, they were fired. Now they’re kept on staff, but again, they have to earn their keep. That’s why these things exist. It’s why DLC exists. So staff who worked on the game can keep their jobs, because otherwise they’re redundant and they will lose out.
On top of that, Blizzard is more or less supplying a market demand that has existed for 12 years.
Not since 2007, but as you said, times change.
And that’s not always feasible. Keep in mind that while artists are free to work on these side projects, along with a few other staff members (such as animators, riggers, QA testers etc) putting these things in the game as a reward for a quest chain, or an achievement, requires more staff to work on it. That means it costs the company more money to develop and takes developer time away from other projects which may be more important.
Because I studied game development and know why these things exist and I can understand it perfectly as a result.
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not the same thing! when you commission an artist for a piece you get the piece. you can then re sell it, it belongs to you. when you buy an art asset in a game you are just paying for the right to use it within the game. blizzard TOS plainly states the real money peer to peer transitions are strictly banned. don’t even at me! I’m a big advocate for artist compensation, but the artists here are on blizzards payroll. they are compensated. the only ones making money off this is blizzard. with an extremely overpriced micro transition in there monthly subscription based, buy to play game. its greed and when you try and defend this you are siding with corporate greed over consumers.
So just to clarify; the items on the store are there to justify keeping artists on full time? Those 30 or so items? And they HAD to go on the store? Blizzard are that desperate and need that revenue bump?
Absolutely, that’s a fair point. No need to put these things into the game right away, especially not at crunch time. Surely all those mount / pet reskins are literally just a database value on the achievement right? I see no reason to put unique and impressive mounts on the store. They’re all animated and ready to go, the work has been done, the achievement is in the game, yet they choose to give us a reskin.
I understand that companies want to make money, that’s very clear. Just a shame they’re willing to run their games into the ground to do so.
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That’s part of the job if you’re working for someone else. Not a tough pill to swallow at all.
It’s not a matter of desperation. It’s a matter of the artists earning their keep. I’m assuming you don’t run a business judging by your comments here. But generally speaking, businesses don’t keep redundant employees around. If there’s no work for an employee to do, they’re not going to keep paying that employees wages and benefits when they can simply fire them.
Which is why side projects like these exist and are developed between major projects.
Those side projects still cost companies money to develop though, and Blizzard is not a charity. Everything costs money, as a responsible business they are required to earn back the money it cost to produce these items and they do that by putting these items on the store.
I can’t answer that as I do not work for Blizzard. I don’t know what their internal processes are like, but I’d expect there’s far more to it than just a few ones and zeroes in a database.
You bring up the quest chain for example in an earlier post. That would require quest designers, UI designers, narrative designers, QA for bug testing etc. And since you’re saying you’d want a lengthy quest chain for some of these, that means a lot of time needs to be devoted, more if its a secret reward like Jeneflur or the Waist of Time cosmetic, because you can’t put these chains on the PTR and ask players to test them, given that it’s supposed to be secret.
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Explain how it’s bad for the game.
^^^ This.
Also people who haven’t worked for game companies don’t understand how game budgets work. If you work for different projects within the same company, when you do your timesheets, you have to pick the right project or it’ll cause issues because money is coming from different places depending on different factors like publishers, etc.
Side things like store mounts are not always part of the main budget so saying that you should get them for free because you already pay for the game is not exactly accurate.
The artists get paid, Blizzard gets the money from the store mounts and transmogs. Everyone’s happy. The hate is only directed towards the people that made the transmog be put behind a paywall.
The people that hate the artists for designing something are also probably the same people that hate Night Fae because it doesn’t fit their all black transmogs.
How would they be redundant? They could literally make the game better? The artists can keep working and being paid, just integrate their work into the game like they did for the first oh… I don’t know, 10 years of the game (yes, I know we slowly got a few mounts / pets before then)? Imagine if all the work the artists did went into the next patch, how good would that be? Good enough to even draw in more subs and earn money the right way. Because that’s what the incentive used to be as opposed to the quick, greedy and lazy methods people are defending here.
Yes, it would take a lot of time and effort, and it would also be just another thing that could contribute to a great expansion. But a quest chain is one of a hundred options, literally anything in game is better than it being on the store.
They could be updating old armour sets with new resolutions blizzard could put in for quest lines. Or working on the new patch art?
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Because entering your card details is not “playing” a game. Wouldn’t you rather earn this set somehow? Imagine if everything you can purchase on the store was obtainable by doing things in game. Imagine how much content that would be. Imagine how much we’ll miss out on in the future when Blizzard see how many people buy this and continue making more.
Tell me, which one of these is better for the game?
“Congratulations! You reached Torghast floor 50 - Sprite Darter’s Wings unlocked!” (Just an example, replace with literally anything)
or
“Thank you for your purchase.”
It’s not criticism of the art. It’s criticism of the business practice of selling cosmetics for extra money in a subscription game. Especially for things that could fit so neatly in a part of the game, which they do so damn often with mounts!
Well ok, I’m sure for some it is criticism of the art as well. But that’s ok too. Criticism is a part of the art lifecycle. You put something out there and it is judged by the masses. If you aren’t prepared for criticism you keep it to yourself. It’s why artstation has a comments section. And by and large people love and celebrate the blizzard artists for their work. Doesn’t mean you have to love everything.
Speaking of celebrating, anyone else gonna get Sam Didier’s new book? I’m gonna ask Santa for it.
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I literally just told you why.
Game companies are not like retail shops where staff can just go and do another job when they’re not doing their main duties. Everything is scheduled via timetables and budgeted. It is not possible for an artist to ‘improve the game’ on a whim, because that work isn’t on the timetable, and it isn’t in the budget.
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That’s not how it works. They can’t keep paying artists for random stuff. There’s a finite amount of art that’s needed for a project and when that’s done, they give them side projects like the transmog set so they can justify paying them. Games usually have pretty strict budgets so they can’t keep people around for no reason.