WoW Has Offered Subscription Mounts for Eight Years. Why Are We Still Doing This?

Blizzard announced another six-month subscription reward, which means the World of Warcraft community has once again assembled for one of its oldest traditions:

Pretending a completely optional mount is holding them hostage.

This time it is the Sunflare Driftmoth, a fluffy Skyriding moth included with WoW's six-month and twelve-month subscription offers. Players who already have an eligible recurring subscription receive it at no additional cost, and anyone who wants the mount without committing to the subscription can buy it separately.

Pretty straightforward.

Unless, of course, you have spent the last eight years sustaining yourself entirely on manufactured outrage.

Blizzard first bundled the Dreadwake mount with 180 days of game time in September 2018. Players who were already using an eligible six-month recurring subscription also received the mount at no additional charge. The bundle even saved players money compared with paying month to month.

That was during Battle for Azeroth.

We have gone through the rest of BFA, Shadowlands, Dragonflight, The War Within, and into Midnight. Blizzard has repeatedly offered cosmetics to people willing to purchase longer subscription periods.

This is not a new policy.

It is not hidden in the fine print.

It is not a sudden escalation in Blizzard's monetization strategy.

At this point, a child born when the first subscription mount released is almost old enough to read the same complaints people posted about the Dreadwake.

Actually, considering the quality of some of those complaints, the child may already have surpassed them.

World of Warcraft is a subscription-based game.

Blizzard wants people to remain subscribed to its subscription-based game.

I am not sure what people think they have uncovered here.

Businesses generally prefer predictable recurring revenue. Customers who commit to a longer subscription period receive a reduced effective price and some cosmetic items. Blizzard gets greater certainty that those customers will remain subscribed, while the customer gets cheaper game time and a mount.

That is the transaction.

You are allowed to decide it is not worth it.

You are also allowed to subscribe for one month, play whatever content interests you, cancel, and return later.

Nobody from Blizzard is going to break into your home, grab your credit card, and force you to ride the moth.

I basically no-life WoW.

It is the primary game I play, and I already know I am going to remain subscribed. Locking in a longer subscription period saves me money on something I was already going to purchase, and Blizzard throws additional cosmetics into the deal.

Of course I am going to take them up on it.

That does not make me a victim of predatory psychological warfare. It means I looked at a product I already use, saw that the longer commitment offered better value, and selected the option that made sense for me.

Someone who only plays for a month at the beginning or end of each season should probably make a different decision.

That is fine.

Different purchasing options are allowed to serve different customers.

Yes.

Obviously.

Nearly every continuing part of an MMO is designed, at least partially, to give players reasons to continue playing.

Raids release over time. Seasons have progression curves. Weekly rewards reset. Events rotate through the calendar. New patches arrive every few months. Collectors pursue mounts, transmogs, pets, achievements, and housing decorations.

Retention is not automatically a dirty word.

A live game needs players to want to return. The relevant question is whether the game provides enough enjoyable content and value to earn that continued engagement.

A cosmetic mount attached to a discounted subscription option is about the least complicated version of that arrangement imaginable.

There is no player power attached. You do not need it for your raid. It does not increase your Mythic Plus score. Your character will not lose twenty item levels because you refused to purchase a moth.

You either want the subscription offer or you do not.

This discussion always bleeds into the equally exhausting argument about timegating.

Whenever Blizzard spaces content out, someone immediately declares that the only possible reason is to keep people subscribed longer.

And sure, retention is part of operating a subscription MMO.

It is also true that without some form of pacing, players will consume an entire season in two weeks, complain there is nothing left to do, and then explain that Blizzard failed to provide enough content.

The game already supports returning late.

Catch-up systems allow players to enter during the final weeks of a season and compress months of progression into a relatively short period. You can unsubscribe, come back later, and clear through most of the seasonal progression substantially faster than someone who played from the beginning.

That seems like a pretty reasonable arrangement.

Players who enjoy being there throughout the season get a paced progression experience. Players who prefer to arrive later can blast through the accumulated content.

You do not have to play WoW every week.

You do not have to remain subscribed all year.

You might miss some limited-time cosmetics, but choosing not to participate in a promotion is not the same thing as being harmed by it.

People have started using the word “forced” so loosely that it has almost stopped meaning anything.

A company offering an item you want under terms you do not personally prefer is not force.

You are being presented with a choice.

Purchase the longer subscription and receive the mount. Buy the mount separately. Ignore the mount entirely. Continue paying monthly. Cancel your subscription.

Those are all available options.

You may dislike those options. You may think the mount should be earned through gameplay. You may think the cash shop should not exist. Those are at least coherent positions, even when I disagree with them.

But acting like a completely cosmetic moth has trapped you inside a twelve-month financial prison is fucking ridiculous.

None of this means every possible monetization decision Blizzard makes is automatically good.

There are legitimate conversations to have about pricing, limited availability, cosmetic quality, the balance between shop rewards and gameplay rewards, and whether too much of the art team's best work ends up attached to purchases.

Those discussions become harder to take seriously when every optional promotion is treated like a human-rights violation.

If Blizzard attached player power to a long-term subscription, that would be a problem.

If subscribers received stronger gear, additional talent points, or some form of competitive advantage, I would understand the outrage.

That is not what is happening.

It is a moth.

A pretty cool moth, honestly.

Blizzard has been running versions of this promotion since the Dreadwake in 2018. The modern offers continue the same basic structure: commit to a longer subscription, pay less than the month-to-month rate, and receive some cosmetic rewards. Existing eligible subscribers generally receive the current promotional items automatically.

You do not need to like subscription mounts.

You do not need to purchase one.

But after eight years, we can probably stop acting surprised that World of Warcraft would like players to subscribe to World of Warcraft.

I am going to keep playing either way.

You can give me the moth.