WarcraftPets 2nd interview with Cory Stockton

[Gendou]

The second WarcraftPets interview with Cory is up right now.

• For Patch 5.2, some adjustments were made for a few pets that had respawn rates that were lower than intended.
• Pet Battle "end game" includes more Tamer battles, but Blizzard would like to expand into other areas and aspects of the game for the more seasoned battlers.
• The pet level cap could be raised in a future expansion. Additional bonuses that are rewarded as a pet levels up are also being considered.
• It's unlikely that family-specific Battle-Stones will become BoE in the future, but they may address the redundancy of "useless" Battle-Stones.
• Epic quality pets will probably come to WoW in patch 5.4 or possibly 5.3. These epic pets will most likely need to be caught, while an epic Battle-Stone is another possibility.
• Pet "gem slots" that would alter a certain stat of your choice is an idea being considered.
• Future patches may include a way to track your Pet Battle PVP wins.
• Interested in summoning your entire active pet team out all at once? It's a distinct possibility in the future.
• Because highly exclusive pets hold a lot of prestige, they are unlikely to be re-released and will remain coveted prizes for those who've obtained them.
• The pet for BlizzCon 2013 may not be a murloc this time around. What will it be...? Stay tuned!

[Gendou]

It's unlikely that family-specific Battle-Stones will become BoE in the future, but they may address the redundancy of "useless" Battle-Stones.

A stone grinder would be nice.
Turn in two redundant stones for a random stone? Or turn in five redundant stones for a specific stone?

Epic quality pets will probably come to WoW in patch 5.4 or possibly 5.3. These epic pets will most likely need to be caught, while an epic Battle-Stone is another possibility.

This is such a bad idea on so many levels.
They'll either make it so that every pet can be upgraded to epic, in which case those of us who have struggled to get Rares will go insane trying to re-upgrade our 500 pet collections; or they'll make only a handful of special pets epic, in which case we'll all be forced to use those in battles because of the stat differences.

Pet "gem slots" that would alter a certain stat of your choice is an idea being considered.

That could be interesting.

Interested in summoning your entire active pet team out all at once? It's a distinct possibility in the future.

Hell yes.

Because highly exclusive pets hold a lot of prestige, they are unlikely to be re-released and will remain coveted prizes for those who've obtained them.

Fine. Don't re-release them. Release reskins. EVERYONE WANTS A BABY MURLOC, CORY.
Not an armored one or a space one or a dinosaur one or a demonic one - just a plain baby murloc.
It doesn't even have to do the song-and-dance with the hat and stuff. Just a little mmmmrbblgh baby would be great.

The pet for BlizzCon 2013 may not be a murloc this time around. What will it be...? Stay tuned!

It'll be a Titan.

[Poofah]

[*] Pet Battle "end game" includes more Tamer battles, but Blizzard would like to expand into other areas and aspects of the game for the more seasoned battlers.

Very vague, but surely he means PvP?

Epic quality pets will probably come to WoW in patch 5.4 or possibly 5.3. These epic pets will most likely need to be caught, while an epic Battle-Stone is another possibility.

This is such a bad idea on so many levels.
They'll either make it so that every pet can be upgraded to epic, in which case those of us who have struggled to get Rares will go insane trying to re-upgrade our 500 pet collections; or they'll make only a handful of special pets epic, in which case we'll all be forced to use those in battles because of the stat differences.

Totally agree. It's very hard to imagine an implementation that would make this an improvement over the current gameplay. We already know what happened when certain pets only came as Uncommon--they simply weren't used, and it will be no different with Rare vs Epic.

This is especially bad if only wild pets are obtainable as epic. That would make all prior pets useless, the same way that a new xpac makes the old xpac's gear useless. This *might* be ok if you can only have 1 epic pet in a team: at least then the non-epic pets retain some purpose. Otherwise it's a disaster. Pets and pet battles are compelling to me precisely because they are not a treadmill, which is what the regular game has been since TBC launched. Pets I got back in vanilla have the same cosmetic appeal they had back then, and they're on an equal footing with current pets in pet battles.

Unfortunately the two aspects of pets are at odds here. Pet battles are a game, and to keep a game fresh and interesting, you have to make changes over time. An easy way to do this is to simply deprecate older game pieces after a while (like in any successful CCG, for example). But the most compelling thing about pet collecting is that pets retain their value over time (where 'value' is how much you enjoy having the pet, but of course that's tied directly to the pet's usefulness in battles now).

Because highly exclusive pets hold a lot of prestige, they are unlikely to be re-released and will remain coveted prizes for those who've obtained them.

I really wonder what they consider 'highly exclusive'. They've already re-released Bananas and Dragon Kite via the BMAH. Mini-Tyrael codes were recently given out as a prize for comments on this site and a few others (which I appreciate, by the way!). But it does seem a bit at odds with his comments.

[Yalina]

Just listened to the interview. He seemed dead set against any kind of murloc, even just a recolor, because it would take away the prestige of those who attended Blizzcon in 2005. He even admitted that they'd done other baby murlocs in other countries, but seemed very anti any kind of new baby murloc for US servers.

[Clatong]

I thought it would be kind of fun if we could quest to obtain a set number of epic upgrade stones, even if that number was 1 per account. That way we could choose our favorite pet to upgrade, and probably wouldn't throw off the balance too much.

The same idea could apply to something like 1 per family per account, as well.

[Jalad]

Just listened to the interview. He seemed dead set against any kind of murloc, even just a recolor, because it would take away the prestige of those who attended Blizzcon in 2005. He even admitted that they'd done other baby murlocs in other countries, but seemed very anti any kind of new baby murloc for US servers.

As someone who only started playing in wrath, this suck But I can see how those who were around in '05 (or the people who have paid thousands of dollars for Murky on ebay ) might be pissed off were they re-released somehow.

I don't know... I enjoy my collection, and I enjoy having a large number of pets. I do not receive any joy simply from having something others don't, though. They want it to be unique? Then make it hard to obtain, maybe? And it isn't like it has to be the same... a recolor would suffice.

I could see why people might be pissed off about stuff like, say, Bananas and the Baby Ape... or the Hippogryph and Cenarion Hatchlings. But had I these pets, even a slight change in model and/or move set would appease me.

Perhaps that is just me, though?

On another note, summoning your entire team would be AWESOME! They could make that ability some sort of achievement award, perhaps?

[Spyro]

Fine. Don't re-release them. Release reskins. EVERYONE WANTS A BABY MURLOC, CORY.
Not an armored one or a space one or a dinosaur one or a demonic one - just a plain baby murloc.
It doesn't even have to do the song-and-dance with the hat and stuff. Just a little mmmmrbblgh baby would be great.

EXACTLY! I would be 100% pleased with a baby murloc that didn't dance. Maybe make it smaller than the orignal. Maybe some change that doesn't detract from it's baby murloc-ness like make it a girl and put a bow on it's head, but something small, not all dressed up or anything like that.

[Quintessence]

Totally agree. It's very hard to imagine an implementation that would make this an improvement over the current gameplay. We already know what happened when certain pets only came as Uncommon--they simply weren't used, and it will be no different with Rare vs Epic.

This is especially bad if only wild pets are obtainable as epic. That would make all prior pets useless, the same way that a new xpac makes the old xpac's gear useless. This *might* be ok if you can only have 1 epic pet in a team: at least then the non-epic pets retain some purpose. Otherwise it's a disaster. Pets and pet battles are compelling to me precisely because they are not a treadmill, which is what the regular game has been since TBC launched. Pets I got back in vanilla have the same cosmetic appeal they had back then, and they're on an equal footing with current pets in pet battles.

I'm torn whether or not I'd want to see epic quality pets. I agree that if only a handful of epic pets are made available, while the others aren't allowed to be upgraded or it takes ages to do so, we'll likely end up only using those few epics. It'll make for somewhat boring gameplay over the course of things.

But, as you said, things need to change to keep it interesting.

Rather than epic quality, perhaps they could simply raise the level cap and add a way for players to manually adjust the stats of their pets. That way your pet can be "upgraded" even further but still keep everything somewhat balanced. Epic pets would probably throw everything off balance at the moment.

Because highly exclusive pets hold a lot of prestige, they are unlikely to be re-released and will remain coveted prizes for those who've obtained them.

I really wonder what they consider 'highly exclusive'. They've already re-released Bananas and Dragon Kite via the BMAH. Mini-Tyrael codes were recently given out as a prize for comments on this site and a few others (which I appreciate, by the way!). But it does seem a bit at odds with his comments.

I think exclusive refers to the special promotion pets that are available only from special events like Blizzcon or the first release of a CE expac. TCG pets probably aren't in the "highly exclusive" category.

Oh and btw, the Mini Tyrael codes that were given away on Wowhead and WarcraftPets weren't from Blizzard. They were from Wowtcgloot.com which is not run by Blizzard. So technically, it wasn't re-released, and they were just extra unused codes. Would be amazing if Blizzard had more codes for giveaways, but doesn't seem like they're interested in boosting the number of people with these very very rare pets.

[Poofah]

I think exclusive refers to the special promotion pets that are available only from special events like Blizzcon or the first release of a CE expac. TCG pets probably aren't in the "highly exclusive" category.

Probably so, but it would be very helpful if they'd come out and say which is which. Should I buy a Grunty on ebay, or a Soul-Trader, or a WotLK CE? Which (if any) is going to get reissued, or has the potential to be reissued?

Would be amazing if Blizzard had more codes for giveaways, but doesn't seem like they're interested in boosting the number of people with these very very rare pets.

Sure, and I totally understand why they want some rare things to stay rare. But here again the collection aspect of pets conflicts with the game balance aspect of pet battles. If a 'highly exclusive' pet is also top-tier in pet battles, then people who don't have it are at a disadvantage. They can't reissue those pets because it would wreck their secondary market value, and in turn undermine the perceived value of future CEs or other promos. But if they want pet battles to be taken seriously in the long term, they need to put players on an even playing field. At least within reason. It's reasonable to make obtaining the best battling pets take some effort, but it's not reasonable for them to only be available for $100+.

[Risk]

They need to buff stone drop rates because it's just not worth it at the current rate right now. Hour+ a day for 0-1 stones? Not feeling it Blizz.

[Tahsfenz]

They need to buff stone drop rates because it's just not worth it at the current rate right now. Hour+ a day for 0-1 stones? Not feeling it Blizz.

You mean it's not fun going a week+ at a time without seeing a stone?

[Laraven]

Hmm, I love pets, but when MoP made sooo many more available, they kinda lost me there...

releasing 300 plus pets has been fun, but I hope it's not the norm. There is soo many pets I have not even had a chance to summon them all yet. So while I do love my pets, I hope they plan to go back to the normal a few here and there.


I really hope they don't make pet battles far too hard. This is a fun little side game for wow, and shouldn't make me want to pull my hair out trying to play. So gemming or adding stats to mess with? Pass.

Keep it simple and fun. Don't over do the pets, let each one be special and unique. We do NOT need any more rat or maggot reskins to collect. Seriously, how many differnt names can you call the same pet?

As far as the battle stones, I think the drop rate is fine. We don't need epic stones, just give us a few epic pets and one legendary pet per expansion or something.

I would like to see more pet interactions with your toon and other pets. More unique interactive pet abilities. Bunny laying eggs, kewl. Skunk chasing cat, cute! But how bout a sea gull that can poop on your friends heads giving them a debuff for the day? Or a fowl mouth parrot that calls ppl names and taunts?

But yeah, don't mess with a good thing too much IMO.

[Ysabell]

Interested in summoning your entire active pet team out all at once? It's a distinct possibility in the future.

Just grabbed myself a third Minfernal in case this goes live at some point.

[Gendou]

They need to buff stone drop rates because it's just not worth it at the current rate right now. Hour+ a day for 0-1 stones? Not feeling it Blizz.

You mean it's not fun going a week+ at a time without seeing a stone?

Ugh. That's been my week. So discouraging.

Using my mage, hitting up the five pre-Pandaria tamers usually takes 30-45 minutes.
But the Pandaria circuit takes another hour, hour and a half - even using preset teams via an addon.

And with the addition of the new elite pets to the Pandaria circuit?
Yeah, they definitely need to increase that drop rate. I can't keep this up.

[Opallena]

I have to agree with people here on the epic pets... while i want them to be availiable, it would be daunting to upgrade all (by that time) 500+ pets to epic even if some non-wild pets automatically got the epic treatment. I don't want to feel like i have to use just a handfull of pets though because their stats are better than the rare quality pets, especially if tamers are tuned towards those special few epic pets.

I can also see where they're coming from with the murlocs, but I would love to have just a simple plain murloc that looks like murky. I was lucky enough to obtain Deathy, but it's just not the same. perhaps availiable as an achievment reward that super hard to get?

[Stabya]

Including Epic Capturable battle pets will ruin Pet PVP making it more lame than it is now

(ok, maybe it will be less lame for 5.2, but even after nerfing rediculous pets like FFF and O/P abilities, it still needs more rewards and achieves)

When he said redundancy of useless stones, I wonder if he thought about the completely useless polished battle stones available with justice points. Who battles with Uncommon green pets anyway? Thats kinda like offering new CATA gear for MOP)

But it was nice to hear from him. Good Job