Here’s an example of the type of timetable you’ll see if you work in game dev.
https://akatosh96xx.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/untitled-3.jpg
If you’re a concept artist for example. You’re only on the timetable for that particular part of the project for 7 days. Then you need to work on something else. So when you’re between the major parts of the project, you need to do something else on the side to justify what you get paid every week.
i can explain all of this. its called investors. there are many games now that make alot more money than wow, and wow’s investors expect wow to pay them profits as if they were still number one in the industry, and they arent. microtransaction free to play games are wiping the floor with them and they have to keep cutting corners to show the same profits. thats exactly what this is all about. its why former devs have extolled the virtues of not being listed on the stock exchange and keeping creative control of their product. do you hear me?
Okay! So assuming this is true, why are we just getting a cosmetic set now? How on earth did they manage to pay these artists for all that time while simply putting their work into the game (Gosh what an idea)?
That still doesn’t explain how it’s bad for the game. It’s like going to the salon for a haircut and expecting free hair dye because you paid for the appointment.
You’re paying for a service. Hair dye costs the hairdresser money so you have to pay extra for them to use it.
Does that mean the hairdresser is greedy?
It costs Blizzard money to make the mounts/pets/transmogs. It’s the same thing.
I hear you, and that makes a lot of sense.
It’s been in the game files for a while actually. Again, these projects are done on the side between major jobs. The Dreadwake was in the game files and datamined long before it was revealed as a 6-month promotional item. Likewise for many of the other mounts and items. These things are done, planned in advance for release, and released on schedule depending on the marketing team.
What part of ‘it isn’t on the timetable and isn’t in the budget’ did you miss exactly?
What are you talking about? Store mounts have been around since Wrath, and there were helm transmogs on the store as well.
I am an artist, and there’s two occassions to where I find this acceptable:
1 - The art is placed in yet another paywall after we’ve already paid.
2 - The art actually looks garbage.
Imagine I order a commission of my orc DK noob char here…
and I recieve back a potato.
I’d not be happy.
Same is if they make something that I deem ugly.
It’s just how it is.
Imagine! - And as said; this is coming from an actual artist who do commissions.
i think their only big sin is character boost. everything else is fluff and has no impact on endgame. its just cosmetics. but boost, thats different. with the squished levels, boost is gonna be even more glaring, but the problem is, they are in a death spiral and subs and in store items, are the only consistent things to keep this game going. i dont blame them. they are up against games who can make thousands of dollars per player in a single day
That makes sense, but it costs Blizzard money to make every single thing in WoW, and we pay for that when we buy the expansion and the sub. Who determines which pets, mounts and cosmetic sets go onto the store and which go into the game? Honestly asking, where would you draw the line? If the next lot of tier sets in Shadowlands were literally a slight recolour of the first one, and the store simultaneously got amazing new class sets, would you have a problem with that?
Depends if it’s part of the main budget or not. If it’s extra, you’ll have to pay for it.
Probably, yeah. But so far everything in the store has been fluff, as it should be.
Nothing man! I just realise that the timetable and budget prioritise money over the integrity of the game now.
Fairy nuff
Let me break down this whole budget bit.
All game development is done via a strict budget. Developers have X amount of money to spend on developing a game and that is a constraint that limits what they can put into said game. If they use up all the money in the budget and the game isn’t finished, they have to ask for more money and if the publisher decides it’s not worth the investment, the project stalls until the money is budgeted, or it gets cancelled.
So in practice. Let’s say you’ve got $10,000 as part of your budget for a project (it actually costs millions to make a game, but I’m sticking with relatively small numbers for the sake of this example). $2000 of that is allocated to art development. Once that art development is done, the artists can’t just start working on another thing to put into the project unless they’ve got money to spare. Most of the time they won’t, because wasting money is a big sin in game development, so every dollar is counted and used whenever possible.
Side projects, like mounts and such, are done outside of the budget. They don’t have money allocated to their development, so that money has to be recouped by the developer/publisher. That’s why they’re side projects. That’s why they generally cost money to purchase.
it’s really bad though, i’m not paying for it. it, at the very least, needs more booba
Be honest, how much did you want to say that 
Nah thanks for the explanation though. I still wish it could be different but I understand it better now.
You didn’t come across as thick-headed so, it didn’t cross my mind. It sounded like you were genuinely unaware and that’s why I explained things. Had you come across as thick-headed I wouldn’t have bothered, because generally speaking, it doesn’t matter what you tell the thick-headed folks, they won’t listen.
And as I have said more than once, the set is nice, but the reality is I would rather there be a way in game for us to earn it because we already pay expansion fees, and sub fees. And something cool like that should be in the game with a proper quest. The cash shop is lazy.
The artist was already paid and works for the company. It’s not like they went and picked someone out of college to try and help them in their art career!
I don’t have a problem with the cash shop, but your take on the artist(s) who designed this is silly.
Its not our fault the artist used their creativity as part of a cash grab.