Equally obtusely I could say Why.
Why should they be available. It’s just oh no I must have every single thing there can be nothing special.
There is a huge amount of stuf in the game that is available forever. So there really is no issue with the odd items that are time limited.
However this just boils down to different viewpoints. I hope that when they say things are time limited they stick to it and don’t just give in to petty demands.
I don’t think it’s right to do release things now that were specifically time limited. I think diminishes all the efforts people made then. If they aren’t time limited rewards then there is no issue with diminishing.
Oof. I definitely didn’t think it was worth 5M. But it was the only brutosaur mount in the game, it was a passenger mount to boot, and I wasn’t going to miss my potentially only opportunity to ever have a brontosaurus brutosaur mount in the game. The AH functionality is indeed very nice, but I’d just as easily had paid less for just passenger seats instead.
“Exclusive pre-order downloadable content!” for most games just means “available for a fiver 1-2 months post-release”.
The thing that annoyed me with the long boi is that they weren’t upfront about their intentions. Had they said at the start of the xpac, this will only be available for this expansion and will go with prepatch, or next expansion, then people would have known that they had to farm a lot of gold.
Instead we had a datamined achievement that lead to questions and a lot of people rushing or buying tokens to get the mount before it vanished to the realms of the BHAH.
I did grind 4m and as someone who does not play the AH that was a lot of effort. I bought the final 1m but I do know some who outright bought the longboi completley with tokens.
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Here is Ion Hazzikostas presenting Artifact Weapon skins during the Legion announcement panel at Gamescom in 2015:
Notice how some of the appearances he’s showing are in fact those players could later obtain from The Mage Tower.
Surely when players saw this presentation and Blizzard shortly after opened up for pre-purchases of Legion, then the expectation was that what was shown was part of the product you paid for. Otherwise it would be false advertising.
Why is it then deemed reasonable that throughout most of Legion you cannot obtain these appearances that Blizzard have otherwise gone out of their way to advertise as being part of the product that the customer was paying for?
And when Blizzard finally chooses to make the appearances avaliable they say that they will remove them again after a short period of time despite not having enclosed that detail when people purchased the product. How is that reasonable?
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Let’s split the difference and say desirability has a few factors attached to it. Both looks and scarcity are part of the equation.
And Blizzard seem fully aware of that and exploit it as much as their conscience allows them to, which is a lot.
I’m fine with it for the mogs. I have no problem with “I was there” limited time stuff. I know you disagree.
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They regularly reminded people that the appearances for MT only were limited.
EARN YOUR MAGE TOWER ARTIFACT APPEARANCE
If you haven’t yet earned your Artifact Challenge appearances for your class, you still have time. To help aid you on your quest, the Mage Tower on the Broken Shore will offer the quest 24/7 from now until the release of the pre-patch.
To get started on your classes’ Artifact Challenge appearance quest, you’ll need to visit War Councilor Victoria at Deliverance Point on the Broken Shore. The first time you take on the challenge is still free, but it will cost you Nethershards for each following attempt.
Once the Artifact Challenge quest is no longer available, if you’ve earned the base challenge appearance for your class specialization, you’ll be able to continue earning the three alternate tints for that specialization’s Artifact at any point thereafter.
To gain access to the Artifact Challenge quest, you’ll need to be level 110, have earned all 35 Artifact Levels for your weapon, and have completed the quest line to unlock access to the four new traits that became available with Patch 7.2.
It’s not even as if you can’t earn EVERY other artifact appearance, the exception is just the Mage Tower ones.
It’s optional, don’t like it, don’t do it, I never had the chance to do it when released or on its return, so something new for me is all good.
in other words, im special you don’t deserve what i have got in legion.
game would reach 12 million again if people could get all items that were removed. Period.
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No. They reminded players of that after the fact. After they had added them - late in Legion - they told players straight-up that they would in fact also be removing them by the end of the expansion.
At no prior point had they hinted at this being the way these appearances would be handled (gee, have I seen that approach elsewhere? Hello Brontosaur mount!). They kept that quite the well-hidden secret.
And when they did disclose this detail it was after a sizable period of Legion’s timespan had already passed, the business strategy being plain, so we may as well call it out for what it is:
They created FOMO.
Fear of missing out.
It was a cheap trick to encourage players to keep playing the game to get those appearances before they went away.
It’s a sleazy way of doing business that’s as unfit for a shady car salesman as it is for a billion dollar game company.
There’s nothing reasonable about it.
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Don’t be stupid. Millions didn’t quit because a few mog items aren’t available.
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I was clearly clairvoyent at the time knowing that my artifact appearances were only available for a short period of time. Along with all those others who were trying to get them done before the deadline hit.
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And yet, that’s not the most ludicrous claim I’ve seen today 
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It is very reasonable to expect players to be clairvoyent with regards to what they should focus on obtaining in the game and when?
Yes, I see that clearly now. I was the unreasonable one here expecting Blizzard to disclose such details prior to purchase or simply not design the game in such a manner in the first place.
My fault. I should just be a clairvoyant. Silly me! 
C’mon…
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I’m still waiting for my Dance Studio 
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Yes, and I am practising my clairvoyence so I can predict the next Brontosaur and not get screwed over again by Blizzard.
Fantastic company.
To you maybe, to quite a bit of people some mogs are desirable because they are more “rare”.
But considering they gave out a recolored Mage Tower skin already, they should definitely bring back recolored version of others as well. Considering the excuse they gave out was straight up BS.
I honestly find it hard to believe that you would not buy an expansion based on one appearance of many not being available forever.
It was meant to be a challenge mode but solo challenge and for that reason it was time limited. If anything bringing back the Mage Tower now shows what an awful concept it is. Nothing is the same as back then, we don’t even have the weapons, abilties, talent trees, gear etc from back then.
I loved the Artifact weapon skins system. The bulk of it was available for ever. Just the ‘challenge’ one wasn’t. If I am so inclined I can still go and do it on alts to get looks I didn’t get. I only really care about Paladins but I have friends who did every single look including all the mage towers.
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Of course. With so many people playing WoW you’re going to find all opinions and preferences represented.
I am still going to say that there are more players who make remarks about the avaliability of Artifact Weapon appearances from The Mage Tower than there are those who make remarks about the Unpainted Mechanostrider.
Rarity matters, sure, but I think most players just want to be part of the cool kidz. And those Artifact appearances are cool.
And I think Blizzard are quite well-aware of this too. Hence why they tend to make the cool stuff limited in avaliability and not the mundane or insignificant stuff.
No, but it’s a point of criticism. As a consumer I damn well feel that I have a right to access the entirety of the product I have paid for, regardless of when I choose to access it.
Blizzard can lawyer their way out of that, the sleezeballs that they are, and they do.
But then they get my criticism in return.
That seems entirely reasonable to me.
I’m not going to thank them and ask for more when they deliberately act to screw me over as a customer.
I have nothing against Blizzard’s design and gameplay systems. I will fanboy Blizzard’s game design more than most around here.
But they owe it to their fans and their customers to be honest and upfront about their reasons and intentions.
But too often they are not.
So they get hate.
And they get a lot of hate these days. So maybe they should reconsider the relationship they have with their fans and customers and not try to screw them over at any chance they get.
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