Every time I see one of those in game, I think of a youtube video 'Retarded Lion Mount'.

Something I really hate about Blizzard is how they just LOVE to re-use models and patch them together to call it a "new thing". Take this thing for example: Saber body, Gryphon wings, Horse legs while flying. Ok, the armor model is pretty nice and unique (for once). Make a Flying Turtle instead. =P

It's the Mugen Lion from Haruhi-Chan! WITH WINGS!

Just quit MMOs its not worth the time and if you still want to playing dont leave your where you should be

Virtual Mounts are just a shitty cash grab by a company long out of ideas.

Hats on the other hand...

Yes that's true. But to be entirely honest, the author never really SAYS "OMG GO BUY THIS HAT IT'S AWESOME!" As far as I'm aware, the author PARODIES the rage over hats a whole ton.

You know what pal? You should read the Cracked Article 8 most annoying internet commentators.

[url=#user_comment_59008]@João[/url]: My reading is excellent thank you. Your writing however is not. Basic mounts don't fly in fact they barely trot. You need to be more comprehensible or more knowledgeable I'm not sure which.

[url=#user_comment_59017]@pong[/url]: They hire them at 6 figure salaries from corporations to run the charities like a business. Did you know that if there isn't a immediate need for the blood you donate the Red Cross will sell it?

Wow some people will bitch about anything.

There aren’t very many Charity CEOs who are millionaires. Most of those who are millionaires were already millionaires in the first place...

[url=#user_comment_58995]@Gamesman[/url]: and you know nothing about reading apparently

[url=#user_comment_58759]@João[/url]: You are so wrong it actually funny. Mounts useless in wow? lol Some quest can't even be accessed unless you have a flying mount. Obviously you know nothing about wow.

[url=#user_comment_58813]@lolocopter[/url]: Because when you donate 20$ to a charity maybe 1-5$ makes it to the actual problem the rest is used to pay the chairman's million dollar salary and corporate jet. Not kidding true facts. Check the salary of the CEOs if you think it unlikely. Charity is a business now.

[url=#user_comment_58862]@Sackboy[/url] replace Blizzard with Valve and mount with hat.

Dis is not a Team Fortress 2 comic!

3/25/2011 noon: 29 comments

3/26/2011 midnight: 69 comments

Holy crap, the debating went insane in these past 12 hours.

@lolcopter

Children are the most cruelest creatures on this planet. They have shitty jokes, they break everything, they enjoy torture and never clean up after themselves you can't hit them if they do something wrong and they are both lazy and stupid.

Haha... this is so true... but I'm not wasting any more money on this crap. :p

[url=#user_comment_58813]@lolocopter[/url] why does anyone pay any amount of money for anything they want instead of saving starving children!? Thank goodness at least you can show us the way by selling your computer and canceling your internet in order to save more kids.

[url=#user_comment_58813]@lolocopter[/url]: Theyll make more then what Rift did. Rift is terrible and everyone knows it, so no one bought it.

Guys you are missing the point.Blizzard already makes tons of money form you as it is.They are getting even more greedy.Why not just give teh mount to loyal players for free?FFS you get free mounts even in F2P mmos!And if you want something more fancy well in F2P it makes sense.But not here!

Why is it that blizzard can release a mount that looks "fancy", and with this fancy mount they will earn 1/3rd of what Rift made from their game release. I cant believe people would rather spend $20 on a bit of data then feed a starving child with $20. Just sheep following the herd I guess.

[url=#user_comment_58807]@Anrik[/url] What I mean is, if they didn't introduce these vanity mounts, the monthly cost still wouldn't increase, the two things aren't connected at all. I don't care about them selling these things, I'm just pointing out that there is no connection there.

Besides, no one is forcing people to buy these things, so why is it even an issue? You don't need this guy or a Celestial Steed to play the game.

[url=#user_comment_58794]@Pong[/url] -- It's not necessarily about "cutting even," no good business "cuts even," they make profit and make room for growth, they update their technology and hire on new staff. But in any case, I'm fine with this so long as they don't start selling gear. Vanity items =/= a good player.

"Would you rather people buy these things or see your monthly fee go up?"

That implies they are in dire straights and would need to up the monthly fee just to cut even. I love Blizzard, they are my favorite company, but they are just doing this for extra cash. It isn't something they NEED to do.

I'm a mount farmer. I have my red dragonhawk and spent a lot of hours going for whatever mounts I could, but I am not in the least upset by Blizzard selling some mounts and vanity pets for a nominal price. Would you rather people buy these things or see your monthly fee go up?

I don't mind stuff like this happening as long as it doesn't give some players a huge leg up in the game.

For example, at the start of the Polycount Update, I saw a few players who had store-bought items (they said so themselves). It was clear they were because they couldn't use them very well.

It's Skittles!

@lol@losers

people still use newspapers?

except that it shits up the game.

It isn't as simple as not buying a product, its about liking 99% of it and that other 1% is this bullshit.

If you don't want a product, don't buy it. That simple.

i know i like this comment but im getting s little pissy about the disappearance of pyro spy engie-tan sniper-tan and heavy-tan. SUREASLY!!!!!!!1111111one one one

@lol@losers Yeees... because not wanting to waste money on the WOW equivalent of a diamond studded license plate automatically means you can't afford it, AND that you have no job! Your logic simply ASTOUNDS me. /sarcasm

(cont.) I mean, is she getting money from valve or some kind of marketing racket i'm not aware of?

[url=#user_comment_58734]@pong[/url], since when is mentioning hat i mean team fortress 2 when doing comics like these hypocritical? I'm pretty sure the comics she's been doing about the surplus of hats have been making fun of the craze.

This makes me think of the 3DS comic all over again. You know, the one where the guy is going to buy the useless mounts, and then chews out nintendo for making the 3DS a reasonable price for that kind of technology?

If you're complaining you can't afford the 25 bucks to buy this mount you should uninstall wow and spend that time looking over news papers for a job.

still, not very funny, and yes i know about titanic and co :) you are right on that one... *hits troll now button*

[url=#user_comment_58761]@THane[/url] comics started trolling in politics.

I liked the time and effort it used to take to claim a new mount as your own. to me it showed that you were willing to set your mind on a goal and go for it, but now any player with alittle extra $ from mommy and get these new mounts... i for one have stopped farming mounts. thanks blizz

i guess there was a time when drawing comics was about being fun, not about trolling...

if you think 20$ for a mount is cheap, you are playing wow wrong

in fact, mounts are pretty much useless in wow, you need the basic ones to level, outside that they have no use

if you need to farm materials or even need gold in wow you are playing it wrong too

the only way to win in wow is stop playing

Ok sure, it costs REAL money.

BUT, DANM!! That mount looks SWEET :3

Well i can only envy how deep your wallets are guys.Afterall you payed your acc and expansions and monthly fee,and now mounts from Cash shops.
No offence but its stupid and greedy.The idea of buying mounts or social stuff like that is more logical in F2P mmmos,like Perfec World.Better play that:P

[url=#user_comment_58739]@Abyssangel[/url]: I've seen that line of logic before, but in a game like WoW, that logic just doesn't hold up. Cash store items change the in-game world (even if only a little). There are now mounts that a skilled player can never obtain in-game. That changes the game, even if you don't buy them.

I play a lot of WoW and have to say That 20$ for an account wide (meaning all your alt get one) scaling flying mount is actually pretty cheap. Hell you can't even go to the movies or but a meal on a date for that. Not seeing the big problem or controversy. Someone wrote a lot of code for that mount.

Anybody who complains about blizzard selling mounts better buy all their clothes at Goodwill (or whatever equivalent is where you live) since paying for those brand names clothes is stupid. And you sure shouldn't be spending money on something frivolous like beer.

For the folks who argue about the "vanity" of people buying this "useless" mount, xkcd had a good comic about that:

http://xkcd.com/871/

@random person: "u do forget tho that when the spectral steed was released it gave people who bought it instant 320 mount speed"

If only you could be any more wrong.

Funny how people would spend SO FREAKING much to buy useless, and I really mean useless vanity items, but yet never give a dime to those in need.

I should freaking start selling scanty shit on the net too, and tell everybody how special it is when its not...

People still forget that this game is for everyone and they don't enforce you buying one,the mounts very good,if you like it buy it,if you don't like it leave it to the people that want it!

Go to MMO Champion and keyword search the Celestial Steed.

Look at the first entries about it.

CLEARLY, some of yalls need to be reminded that when that mount first came out and was previewed, people all over the game were "I want! I must have! /firstborn" to get it.

u do forget tho that when the spectral steed was released it gave people who bought it instant 320 mount speed

says the hat fortress 2 comic-maker-tentacle

You forget such a mount is optional and won't affect gameplay in any way unlike the majority of other games utilizing microtransactions to get equipment ten times better than you would normally?

Imagine having to buy your way to raiding. That's when you should complain.

[url=#user_comment_58716]@Bob[/url] ... yah charity... riiiiiiiiiggggghhhht.

@Citation?: A semi-recent article seems to refute that comment actually

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/5

[url=#user_comment_58707]@Nirual[/url]: You forget the name of the game: Maximize profit no matter what. If they can eke out an extra hundred thousand from a store mount, they will. You forget that Activision Blizzard is only beholden to stockholders that have no accountability whatsoever.

I'd comment on how Blizzard is greedy and all that but I actually like the look of this mount ._.

No way in hell I'm buying one but I still want one.

Hey Blizzard, this is for charity, right?
...Right?

Fun fact: I thought this was about another MMO until I noticed the snowflake on the guys hat.
You see, there are are a lot of MMO's who do that now. Except more gameplay affecting and expensive. I don't even think Blizz makes a lot of money from those items compared to the subscriptions.

Look at your mount, now back to mine. Sadly, yours isn't mine. But if you'd stop paying just a monthly subscription and threw Blizzard a bit extra cash, yours could be as awesome as mine.
I'm on a lion.

JESUS CHRIST IT'S A FLYING LION, GET TO THE CHOPPA!!

Admiral Crunch is right, this is a desecration of a sacred lore (which Blizzard created and owns). 9_9

I like these insanely expensive store-only mounts. They help me immediately recognize people who would drop that kind of money on something so frivolous. They're generally not my type.

Yeah, what could be the worst that could ever happen. "What if we change the fact that there are no female druids?" Your words.

Blizzards just stalling with these things until they all go "WOOO DIABLO THREE,DUDE".
After that they will go "WOOO WOW TWO, DUDE"
...
Also, genius on the blizzard/monopoly guy.

[url=#user_comment_58664]@HAcoreRD[/url] "Blizzard lost a lot of subscriptions since cata." Can I get a source? And no, don't say "If you just googled it..." because you're the one making the claim. Also, no anecdotal evidence please. Just because you and all your buddies stopped playing, doesn't mean they lost a lot.

Williamgood: How about you go die in a pit of fire?

Can anyone else see this guy being all like "dohoho"?

You should do a comic about the relief hats Valve is selling.

Here comes Guild Wars 2.

This is what we like to call "The Final Nail In The Coffin".

Blizzard lost a lot of subscriptions since cata. Servers are less populated. If 1 player buys a mount they're paying for 1 player who quit + $5 extra (20 bucks a mounts VS 15 bucks a month), so this is no doubt to help replenish lost revenue. Can't blame Blizzard. Exploit people like TF2 w/RL $.

Shut up and take my money!

Jesus Christ, it's a FLYING dragon! get on the mechanostrider!

Blizzard is Mr. Winter? Awesome.

Eh, there will always be vanity items; the only person that has a leg to stand on in getting ticked off would be the compulsive collectors that can't afford the mount. Which would be odd, considering that people spend will untold hours collecting ONE pet.

Extravagant, technically-overpriced stuff has always had a home in charity events. IIRC, Andrew Hussie just sold a bunch of little squid plushies for $100 apiece for Japan. This is actually one Valve move I'm perfectly okay with.

I mean, seriously, things are pretty messed up over there.

Lol hope next comic is about the stupid donation (99$ hat? pffft) amount on tf2 =/

maybe theyll make the "burning lion of awesome" mount for charity?

If you were going for a Monopoly Man look, you got it perfectly.

[url=#user_comment_58636]@StarPilot[/url]: I was actually thinking of Michigan J Frog because of the 3rd Panel, hence the reference. :)

Anyone else think of Scrooge McDuck from Ducktales when they saw this?

the game that plays itself.
also:
the game that games you.

http://tinyurl.com/5tsnvwo

I have no problem with the store mounts, they do nothing as far as the actual game's progress goes.