World of Warcraft is offering players a twelve-month subscription reward for Dragonflight as well as Wrath of the Lich King Classic, and players aren’t quite sure what to make of it. Though not in its current format, the subscription rewards program for World of Warcraft started at BlizzCon 2011, where an Annual Pass was unveiled that came bundled with a copy of Diablo 3, guaranteed access to Mists of Pandaria’s beta, and awarded the Tyrael’s Charger mount for players who subscribed to World of Warcraft for the full year.
As the years went by, Blizzard Entertainment would come to employ this format during the content drought periods of an expansion pack, offering World of Warcraft players exclusive mounts and transmogrification outfits in exchange for guaranteeing their subscription for the next six months of the game’s content cycle. These subscription offers became frequent enough that many players started to take notice, and even criticize what they felt was a predatory business practice.
Despite the backlash, it seems that the rewards program has been a financial success for Blizzard, as the company has unveiled a new subscription offer for Dragonflight and Wrath of the Lich King Classic, offering four mounts and two pets for players who subscribe to World of Warcraft for the next twelve months. The shift from six to twelve months, as well as offering the service on the eve of Dragonflight’s release, left many players on Reddit bewildered.
The rewards introduced through this twelve-month subscription are: Telix the Stormhorn, a lightning-themed beetle that functions as a flying mount; a Gargantuan Grrloc ground mount in the shape of every Warcraft fan’s favorite amphibian; the Nether-Gorged Greatwyrm mount from the recent six-month subscription program; and a Lunar New Year pet reward that Blizzard has yet to reveal. Furthermore, Wrath of the Lich King Classic players will receive an exclusive Festering Emerald Drake mount, a Tabard of the Flame, and a different Lunar New Year pet from the retail version.
It is important to note that World of Warcraft players currently paying for the Shadowlands six-month subscription program will not have the money difference refunded, and will be billed for the new twelve-month program immediately. This has caused a commotion in the community, and fortunately, it seems that Blizzard Entertainment might easily fix it by offering those subscribers an option to “upgrade” their subscription plan.
While there will always be an argument that these high-quality World of Warcraft mounts should come as in-game rewards rather than store purchases, the timing of introducing a twelve-month subscription incentive less than four weeks away from the launch of a new expansion is curious. Players are already worried that like Shadowlands, Dragonflight will also have a long content drought before its first major patch drops. Though Ion Hazzikostas went on record saying that content cycles in Dragonflight would be better handled, the precedent introduced in Shadowlands still remains.
World of Warcraft is available now for PC. Dragonflight launches on November 28.
