Rak'Shiri changed colors

[erwil]

There is a straw somewhere and it will break the camel's back sooner or later. I don't get how anyone thinks it is a good idea to constantly call Blizzard out on issues like this, because there are more pressing issues right now. Like... I want a Devilsar Spirit Beast.

I liked your post, and I agree with it. It's something I'm sure most people here are thinking about, but are trying to find a solution that'd please everyone.
I honestly wish people to take a look in the mirror and revaluate things before being offended by all this.

PS: Gief devilsaur spirit beast. :<

[Allua]

Well let me put it like this. Do you have some token from your childhood? A plush toy, a book, anything that you treasured and that brings up lots of memories when you look at it? Well throw it away and get a new one, fresh from the shop. You won't see any difference and it will bring up the same memories, right?

Well these pixels, some of them dating five years back, are as material to people as other tokens. I'm lucky that only one of my treasured buddies goes through a change, and that happens to be Ghamoo-ra. I love the new skin and see it as if my Chapa got older and wiser through our travels and experience. But if she was a common turtle, I wouldn't change it for the new Ghamoo-ra skin as this would NOT be the pet I loved.

[Pike]

As I mentioned on my blog, I'm not exactly a happy camper with this change. My teal kitty and I go way back; there are symbolic reasons why I picked the skin and there would be something hollow about just going and getting a new one. Is it logical to feel this way? No, of course not. But to quote a wise woman from Star Trek IV, "Whoever said the human race was logical?"

To clarify though, I am not upset with Blizzard. I do not think they are committing some giant offense. It's not going to be the end of the world if this change happens. I'll live with it. It just puts me off a bit. It's like taking away Tree of Life all over again (Tree of Life was the entire reason I rolled my druid(s) to begin with.)

In the end I have no problem with making emotional connections to a bunch of pixels. I love plenty of inanimate objects in my life (I love the friggin heck out of my wristwatch and my car), so of course I would feel similarly to a block of pixels in game. Feel free to call me nuts, I'm used to it.

[Ziarre]

I admit, I was dismayed to hear of the change to Rak'Shiri. Griever is my eldest pet, having been with me since 57--and I still have mixed feelings. On one hand, I won't have to camp for a lovely skin that I've wanted for a very long time. On the other...I do not know if Griever would be the same without his teal fur. I have tamed Shy-Rotam, yes, but only Cataclysm will tell if I rename to keep him teal...or if Griever is Griever, regardless of color.

[Pent]

Well let me put it like this. Do you have some token from your childhood? A plush toy, a book, anything that you treasured and that brings up lots of memories when you look at it? Well throw it away and get a new one, fresh from the shop. You won't see any difference and it will bring up the same memories, right?

Well these pixels, some of them dating five years back, are as material to people as other tokens. I'm lucky that only one of my treasured buddies goes through a change, and that happens to be Ghamoo-ra. I love the new skin and see it as if my Chapa got older and wiser through our travels and experience. But if she was a common turtle, I wouldn't change it for the new Ghamoo-ra skin as this would NOT be the pet I loved.

Actually, I don't have anything like that. Most of my childhood stuff was lost in a storage unit that my parents couldn't afford anymore about 20-25 years ago.

On the other hand, I would LOVE to get a new Nintendo (NES) system and I would gladly throw my old one away.

I can easily rationalize this.... You can touch the items that you personally love from your childhood... and unless your childhood was five years ago (the pixel's date in your post... not slamming you) and you can touch your WoW pets... the meaning is different.

Next!

[Tahlian]

How about the fact, as I have repeatedly pointed out, that the night elf starter skin is the ONLY, repeat ONLY - did I mention ONLY? - starter pet look that is solely available to non-starter non-night elves on a rare spawn? Every. Single. Other. starter pet skin is on a commonly available beast. Just get to the right level, travel to their location, drop in and tame. No searching or camping needed.

Nobody has argued the need for the riding tiger white skin to be available and tamable in the game. It needs to be on a commonly available beast, just like all the other starter looks, not on a rare spawn.

[Pent]

As I mentioned on my blog, I'm not exactly a happy camper with this change. My teal kitty and I go way back; there are symbolic reasons why I picked the skin and there would be something hollow about just going and getting a new one. Is it logical to feel this way? No, of course not. But to quote a wise woman from Star Trek IV, "Whoever said the human race was logical?"

To clarify though, I am not upset with Blizzard. I do not think they are committing some giant offense. It's not going to be the end of the world if this change happens. I'll live with it. It just puts me off a bit. It's like taking away Tree of Life all over again (Tree of Life was the entire reason I rolled my druid(s) to begin with.)

In the end I have no problem with making emotional connections to a bunch of pixels. I love plenty of inanimate objects in my life (I love the friggin heck out of my wristwatch and my car), so of course I would feel similarly to a block of pixels in game. Feel free to call me nuts, I'm used to it.

The bold and underlined part destroys the rest of what you said, heh. "skin"

The last time I checked... I could touch (and even smell) a car and a watch.

[Pent]

How about the fact, as I have repeatedly pointed out, that the night elf starter skin is the ONLY, repeat ONLY - did I mention ONLY? - starter pet look that is solely available to non-starter non-night elves on a rare spawn? Every. Single. Other. starter pet skin is on a commonly available beast. Just get to the right level, travel to their location, drop in and tame. No searching or camping needed.

Nobody has argued the need for the riding tiger white skin to be available and tamable in the game. It needs to be on a commonly available beast, just like all the other starter looks, not on a rare spawn.

I'll argue with you, but on a different level.

What makes the NE starter pet different than the other starter pets? It is a mount skin.

I can see why Blizzard made a mount skin and then threw it on a rare... can you name another mount skin that is on more than one beast?

I am talking about beasts with the mount skin that inhabit an area... where more than one is walking around in an area that has a mount skin.... BTW... there aren't any.

I am guessing Blizzard thinks that mount skins are special and should be on named mobs.

[Pike]

The bold and underlined part destroys the rest of what you said, heh. "skin"

The last time I checked... I could touch (and even smell) a car and a watch.

Semantics, my dear! This is all actually a rather long story but I did not go into the rest in detail because I already did so on my blog and I didn't feel like regurgitating it here. It goes beyond being "skin deep". I also do not personally believe that being able to to physically handle something makes it any more interesting and/or special than something that cannot be handled. When it comes down to it, it's all atoms and electronic processes.

That said I am not trying to argue with you, I was actually trying to agree with your post, while also chipping in that I'm a bit odd to feel this way and accept it as such.

[Slickrock]

Sigh.. at the rate some are complaining here, if I was a developer, I'd say screw it, and never deploy a new skin again, since no matter what you do, someone isn't happy.

Perhaps all the pets skins should be available at the trainer as non-exotic non-rare no-camping/effort-required?

Things change in the game.

I imagine BRK would write an interesting story about his cat changing color (don't remember if his is the one that changed or not) and would move on.

Frankly, it makes sense that Rak'Shiri and Shy-Rotam are not the same skin anymore. Having a quest mob and a rare-spawn with the same skin is very odd.

[Slickrock]

Semantics, my dear! This is all actually a rather long story but I did not go into the rest in detail because I already did so on my blog and I didn't feel like regurgitating it here. It goes beyond being "skin deep". I also do not personally believe that being able to to physically handle something makes it any less interesting and/or special than something that cannot be handled. When it comes down to it, it's all atoms and electronic processes.

Then I would argue that if you ever lost that pet and had to re-tame or have a GM restore, it still wouldn't be the same pet, because that record in the Blizz database would have have a different time-date stamp. It would like an clone that replaced the original... maybe an evil clone...

I much prefer to think that the spirit of the beast is there, and that superceedes skin changes and retaming at a later time...

edit:

Let's ask it a different way, are you attached to the skin, or the date/time/event in which you tamed the beast? (do you love your BF for his soul, or the way he looked when you first met him?)

edit2:

I think BRK's was purple, but the point still stands...

[Astratia]

-points to signature in link-
Lets put our thoughts here as well ^_^
Thank you all for the many ideas.

[erwil]

Sigh.. at the rate some are complaining here, if I was a developer, I'd say screw it, and never deploy a new skin again, since no matter what you do, someone isn't happy.

Not quite how the art world works. If someone spits on you, you just /carepolice, keep on going and doing your stuff and try to get better at it. The internetz making matters worse, since people are used to being fed with a golden spoon.
I miss BRK. :<

[Pike]

Semantics, my dear! This is all actually a rather long story but I did not go into the rest in detail because I already did so on my blog and I didn't feel like regurgitating it here. It goes beyond being "skin deep". I also do not personally believe that being able to to physically handle something makes it any less interesting and/or special than something that cannot be handled. When it comes down to it, it's all atoms and electronic processes.

Then I would argue that if you ever lost that pet and had to re-tame or have a GM restore, it still wouldn't be the same pet, because that record in the Blizz database would have have a different time-date stamp. It would like an clone that replaced the original... maybe an evil clone...

I much prefer to think that the spirit of the beast is there, and that superceedes skin changes and retaming at a later time...

edit:

Let's ask it a different way, are you attached to the skin, or the date/time/event in which you tamed the beast? (do you love your BF for his soul, or the way he looked when you first met him?)

You are preaching to the choir <3 I apologize if my posts are unclear. I am not interested in taming a new cat because I love my current one, regardless of his color. It is perhaps silly to feel this way, but I embrace the silliness.

[Tahlian]

I'll argue with you, but on a different level.

What makes the NE starter pet different than the other starter pets? It is a mount skin.

I can see why Blizzard made a mount skin and then threw it on a rare... can you name another mount skin that is on more than one beast?

I am talking about beasts with the mount skin that inhabit an area... where more than one is walking around in an area that has a mount skin.... BTW... there aren't any.

I am guessing Blizzard thinks that mount skins are special and should be on named mobs.

Actually, you're wrong. The Winterspring Frostsaber mount has the same skin as the Winterspring Pride Watcher beast...a commonly available cat, once again.

[Slickrock]

Sigh.. at the rate some are complaining here, if I was a developer, I'd say screw it, and never deploy a new skin again, since no matter what you do, someone isn't happy.

Not quite how the art world works. If someone spits on you, you just /carepolice, keep on going and doing your stuff and try to get better at it. The internetz making matters worse, since people are used to being fed with a golden spoon.
I miss BRK. :<

Yeah, I miss BRK too...

Part of the problem is that Blizz hasn't been consistent, which leads to confusion and angst. I'll agree that it is odd to give the NE's that model to start, but I don't see why it should cause so much angst. Really.. the skin was available only one way for a long time, and now a bunch of NE noobs will be running around with it. Perhaps that's the real angst? A bunch more will have that model now?

Really, with all the new skins and all the stable slots, there's plenty of room for everyone...

[Senna-Umbreon]

Okay then.. Pent, I honestly cannot believe what you are saying. I just can't. *Shakes head, facepalming at the same time*

As for the 'just go tame a different pet with the same looks'? Yeah... NO. My first special pet was a cheetah. Dishu, to be exact. His name was Duma. I adored the little kitty.. He was my main pet. Always with me. No matter what quest I was doing. Fast foward to about a month after WotLK released.. I did something really really stupid. I got a Dreadsaber from the Basin to replace Duma. Well, not really replace. He had the same name. I had come up with a story to explain it.. But even then, it was not him. And so for the last two years, I've been repeatedly re-taming Dishu.. No matter how many times I get him again.. It's not Duma. Same skin. Same model. SAME DAMN MOB. BUT IT'S NOT DUMA.

So.. To avoid one of my infamous silly and pointless arguments.. I'm just going to ask you to quit acting like just because you don't feel that way about your pets means that you can tell everyone else to just suck it up and do the same. We're not all heartless robots.

[Pent]

The bold and underlined part destroys the rest of what you said, heh. "skin"

The last time I checked... I could touch (and even smell) a car and a watch.

Semantics, my dear! This is all actually a rather long story but I did not go into the rest in detail because I already did so on my blog and I didn't feel like regurgitating it here. It goes beyond being "skin deep". I also do not personally believe that being able to to physically handle something makes it any more interesting and/or special than something that cannot be handled. When it comes down to it, it's all atoms and electronic processes.

That said I am not trying to argue with you, I was actually trying to agree with your post, while also chipping in that I'm a bit odd to feel this way and accept it as such.

Trust me. I am not arguing with you for what you said about certain things.

I can easily see that our views are different, and I am not telling everyone that they shouldn't care for anything that they can't actually see and feel because that would miss up the whole viewpoint on Religions, the Easter bunny, and Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper.... and I am not getting into that argument.


Let me add something... I do not have Rak'shiri, and I do not have Shy-Rotam as pets... I have had them both in the past and when it came to me needing stable space I had to ditch them. I really like the skin color, but with the last patch upping the stable size to 20 (with an extra 5 you can have with you) instead of 100+ slots... the old skin and the new skin of Rak'shiri is going to get passed over.

The way it was looking about 2 months ago.... I was going to tame the Winna's cat and keep Ghost Saber as my only "cats", and right now I have Ghost Saber and Shadowclaw tamed... with the wanting desire to get Winna's cat too... three cats are too many on my "main" hunter and I'll be lucky to be able to keep two of them. Winna's cat (green cat) for sure and maybe one other... we'll see how the chips fall.

[Pent]

I'll argue with you, but on a different level.

What makes the NE starter pet different than the other starter pets? It is a mount skin.

I can see why Blizzard made a mount skin and then threw it on a rare... can you name another mount skin that is on more than one beast?

I am talking about beasts with the mount skin that inhabit an area... where more than one is walking around in an area that has a mount skin.... BTW... there aren't any.

I am guessing Blizzard thinks that mount skins are special and should be on named mobs.

Actually, you're wrong. The Winterspring Frostsaber mount has the same skin as the Winterspring Pride Watcher beast...a commonly available cat, once again.

Hmm... I did not know that they shared a skin. For some reason one looks different than the other to me... and no, not just the size.

I really didn't know that.

[Pent]

Okay then.. Pent, I honestly cannot believe what you are saying. I just can't. *Shakes head, facepalming at the same time*

As for the 'just go tame a different pet with the same looks'? Yeah... NO. My first special pet was a cheetah. Dishu, to be exact. His name was Duma. I adored the little kitty.. He was my main pet. Always with me. No matter what quest I was doing. Fast foward to about a month after WotLK released.. I did something really really stupid. I got a Dreadsaber from the Basin to replace Duma. Well, not really replace. He had the same name. I had come up with a story to explain it.. But even then, it was not him. And so for the last two years, I've been repeatedly re-taming Dishu.. No matter how many times I get him again.. It's not Duma. Same skin. Same model. SAME DAMN MOB. BUT IT'S NOT DUMA.

So.. To avoid one of my infamous silly and pointless arguments.. I'm just going to ask you to quit acting like just because you don't feel that way about your pets means that you can tell everyone else to just suck it up and do the same. We're not all heartless robots.

Does... nOt... coMpuTe... oVeR-hEAtiNg... iNEVitABLe...

But seriously... alright. I get what you are saying, but a skin is a skin.

I am wondering if a psychiatrist could help you out to a point where you thought a rhino was your Duma.

All joking aside and mainly not to get you any more upset with me or my views... I GET what you are saying, but I see it differently.

Is it still allowed to think differently? I wonder if Blizzard knows this.

I'll open a ticket.