Honestly. Lately, tweets about flavor things like pets, items, transmogrification make me scratch my head more and more. It all sounds so... arbitrary. Just take the next few tweet responses from Dave Maldo:
Aw... that's a real shame. That weapon and shield are beautiful. Any chance for them to be added? Maybe along with glaives?
Shield too big & glaives discouraged internally, but maybe! Ideal time would've been back when BE warriors were introduced. T_T
Can we ask why glaives are discouraged?
Some decisions, old & new, are flavor, or lore, or art; just "gut"/feels stuff. Sometimes they change, sometimes not.
Speaking of funky gas masks... any chance of making that thing transmoggable? With or without the backpack.
A chance, perhaps, but it's not quite in line w/ current item/reward philosophy.
I mean? Seriously. I know that, in this regard, Dave Maldo is just really the messenger. He might have had a say in all these decisions, but that doesn't mean it's his fault that things are like this.
Nonetheless, this feels so silly.
Shields are too big? Glaives not being an acceptable obtainable reward is a tradition because of old decisions and 'feelings'? A completely normal model not being transmogrifiable because it doesn't 'sparkle' with their current item/reward philosophy? Ten times what.
This all feels like Ghostcrawler's "We don't like hydra models." comment times three.
Fine,
you guys don't like it, but you are creating this game for your customers. That you enjoy it is good for you, but you are catering to those who pay you. Many of those customers have wanted glaive models (that already exist in the database and just have to be made available) for years and the answer is just straight-up "yeah sorry, gut feeling. we don't really like people running around with that because we don't like the look."
Shield too big? Huh. So Bulwark of Azzinoth doesn't exist? Elementium Reinforced Bulwark anyone? No..? Brutal Gladiator Shield Wall then? That just vanished, I guess?
My whole peeve with this is that it seems that Blizzard is keeping a lot of players from obtaining or doing things they have wanted for a long time just because it "doesn't feel good" to them? And I am not talking about huge changes, like making hunter pet airplanes, or giving mages the ability to wear plate armor. This is aesthetic. Poor conduct, really. Broadening the aesthetic horizon and availability should be encouraged, not blocked/walled away because of silly things like 'developer gut feelings'.