Okay so after a restless night’s sleep, I’ve come to this conclusion: I do understand why they’ve decided to stop supporting pet battles. I get it from a bottom-line business perspective…but it’s still a mistake…and I’m not sure Blizzard/Microsoft has realized it yet.
World of Warcraft has a major community toxicity issue, and pet battlers are a non-problematic group of players. We are essentially a free and easy source of revenue. We just pay our monthly fee and go about our business. We stick to ourselves. We (largely) don’t whinge and cry and throw tantrums. We do engage in dungeons and other events specifically to get pets…and we bring our non-problematic energy into those spaces.
By ending pet battles, you have dis-incentivized us to engage in those spaces. The more harmonious players you remove from the community…the more the cesspool will thrive. Just as they often do in real life, the squeaky, toxic, annoying wheels will get greased until the whole wagon is a sloppy, dysfunctional mess.
I’m now of two minds about this situation. On one hand: I’m annoyed with myself for spending so much time and money on digital pets. (I had it to spend, and would never put myself in financial jeopardy for a video game, of course, but think of all the other tangible things I could have done with that time/money! Buyer’s remorse is real. 
) I’m also righteously angry that they announced these changes after we pre-ordered Midnight. This should have been clearly communicated prior to taking anyone’s cash. Shady behavior from any company inspires me to spend much less time and money with that company going forward.
Once more for the people in the back of the board room: Shady behavior from any company inspires me to spend much less time and money with that company going forward.
On the other hand: Contrary to popular sentiment on internet forums…and conspiracy theories about them trying to tank WoW so they can reboot it after The Last Titan…the Blizzard team is (probably!) not sitting at headquarters brainstorming ways to alienate us. Ion (presumably!) doesn’t wear devil horns at meetings and ask people for ideas on how to “make players quit—whatever the cost!” They have a lot to balance, and a lot of squeaky wheels to grease. They’re stretched thin from budget and staff cuts. Something has to give…and as much as we may wish otherwise…there are bigger fish to fry from a cold-hearted, bottom-line, business perspective.
Conclusion: I do have a life, other hobbies, an emotionally demanding job, and a family…and leveling pets takes a significant chunk of my already sparse free time. But my pet score on Warcraft Pets is important to me. I have truly enjoyed that particular chase. I will never be number one, but I have spent days of my life catching rare pets and leveling them up to 25 to see that score rise. If we can still collect level 25 pets in the world—easily—with none of this “capture them in your bag before you can see the rarity” nonsense (please fix that right away!)…or if we have a good option for upgrading them to rare quality once we catch them…then sigh I suppose I can live without the battles—and achievements—themselves.
I still hate it though.
And it’s still a mistake.
There will be more outrage over this once people hear about it. The news is pretty fresh. One only needs to look at Warcraft Pets to see the amount of engagement. You have to log in periodically to keep your name listed…and there are thousands of players on that site. So people are logging in. They are engaging with this content. And they are doing so…unproblematically.
PS—To Blizzard: Some players will quit over this decision. Others will just decrease their time spent in the game…until they dwindle away. And if you lose enough “statistically insignificant” groups (as we pet battlers seem to be viewed) you’ll eventually be left with nobody but the no-lifers and whales.
PPS—The difference between this and archaeology is that people didn’t pay cash money for archaeology upgrades. I never paid for a tripped-out shovel with 25% better artifact finding capacity. I did pay for store pets, and pre-orders, and even a few times for WoW tokens to buy pets on the AH that were not accessible to me otherwise. Why? Partially to collect them because they’re adorable…and partially because of their battling abilities. That being said: cancelling a previously offered service is a standard business practice—no matter how much customers have spent on said service—and we have no legal right to a refund (though they should give one in good faith). It was my choice to purchase those pets. They never promised evergreen pet battling content. But the way this “cancellation” has rolled out is extremely—extremely—shady.
PPPS—Guys…here’s some mom advice: Losing pet battles is a huge deal to some of us. Go and get yourself a nice treat and pamper yourself. We will make it through this. <3