I’m talking ‘value’ not as a function of gold or $, but personal value.
I thought of it during my play yesterday when I got not one, but three mounts, all in the same game session. And I couldn’t help thinking back, as one does in bouts of nostalgia.
When I started playing (on my first character, my beloved Troll mage who still exists) she was utterly poor, hardly a gold to her name. Got to the right level and had nowhere near 40g. So my friends, who cursed me with this obsession, gave me 40g and I purchased my first raptor mount. I was thoroughly in love, and at no time back then did the idea of getting another mount even occur to me. It wasn’t a dream, it just didnt seem possible to me.
Nowadays I have hundreds, more arrive in my collection all the time - and the majority of them mean nothing to me. They arrive, they are there, I glance at them, and I move on. The value of getting something so easily obtained has become as close to zero as it can get.
I can’t help wishing for that early thrill of getting something either through the kindness of others or the real effort involved (my first gosh wow mount was a green protodrake that took me many weeks to get from those damned eggs). I know there is no going back but I still can’t help feeling a bit sad. 
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No. And here’s why:
Everything in the game has little-to-none meaning. If you find something extremely hard to get, its subjective to the user if they want to go for it or not. I can tell you right now there is a BUNCH of people who REFUSE to make the purchase for some cosmetic items in the in-game shop.
But when I purchased the Blue Fire Phoenix, I felt like I did something incredible. Turns out I did: I supported the Devs and my favorite game.
And that could be a legendary quality.
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Absolutely, such reactions are subjective. I imagine there were people who got the Serpent mount from the Sha after x hundred number of kills back in the day who went, nice…next? We’re all individuals.
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Value of an item is going to be subjective due to your reason for wanting it. If you primarily care about an item due to its rarity, then yeah. If it’s because you like the way it looks, probably not. And then some like to collect just for the sake of “number go up”.
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yes, exclusivity is part of appeal.
Definately ‘number going up’ is a thing. Blizzard generally work on that reaction with set rewards for certain high numbers.
Yes. Easily obtained things mean nothing to me because they’re easy to obtain. Who cares? Anyone can get them. I take personal enjoyment in having things that’re difficult to obtain. Exclusivity is a driving force for me as a player.
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Personal is personal, though. I don’t care who has what. If everyone had the Ethereal Soul Trader mailed to them tomorrow, it wouldn’t matter. That pet is valuable to me, personally, because my hubby gave me the gold to buy it after I spent a crap ton of real money on the card game to no avail. So it’ll still be valuable to me regardless.
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I easily got Eye of Kezan in my vault on like week 2 of Normal and it didn’t lessen the value for me. If I have to trade something for it, but it was easy to obtain, it doesn’t lose value. In this case I was trading my time.
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I think it really depends what we are talking about. I think it’s great to have rare and even extremely rare things. But I don’t think gear should ever be that way in this game. Everyone should have access to everything in a competitive landscape
Watch the masses with popcorn in hand watching the people complain on the WoW forums that they can’t play the game for some petty “reason”. Lol.
Yes or No: if something in the game is easily obtained, it has far less value
Maybe. It depends on the item and how much it means to you. For those who are collectors that value may be based on how rare it is but to others that means little to nothing. It might depend on increasing your power, it may depend on how it looks, it could be anything. The decision would be up to the individual.
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yes.
the shadow phoenix is an incredible mount, much better than the ashes of al’ar. but nobody uses it since it’s common.
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Me personally, it’s gonna be a no. Something harder to obtain doesn’t have any more value than what was easier since this is a video game. They are Pixels that I don’t actually own.
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No. It’s all just pixels anyway.
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Ngl, I did stop using the Baby Blizzard Bear though after they gave it out with the anniversary event.
I have to say no. The things that have “value” in game to me have it because there is a meaning to them. My Defender of a Shattered World title is valuable to me because it symbolizes me doing something I thought I would never do while current. My magic rooster if valuable to me because it is the first gift my now husband gave me in game. The achievement What a long strange trip is valuable to me because I PvPed to get that and I hate PvP. I wanted the free 310% flying that bad. pours one out for her orphan that killed before it was hot fixed
Things that have good memories are valuable to me. I don’t care how many people have the same thing. This one is mine and it is special to me.
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If it’s easy and simple to get (like buying from a vendor or AH) then it has little value.
If it’s easy to get but requires a significant investment of time (Sinrunner Blanchy) then it has some value.
If it requires skill, effort and time to get then it likely has great value (at least to the one who got it).
To be fair, value is subjective as, what might be trivial to one player could be a satisfying achievement to another.
sparkliest 
