14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard has just pulled another rabbit out of its hat and has a new, little gimmick for World of Warcraft fans. The company has introduced the Pet Store for World of Warcraft, where one can buy, as of now, two brand-new, non-combat pets. This way, Blizzard can add the micro-transaction feature to its pay-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game without dropping the monthly fee, but, most importantly, without bothering anybody, since the acquisitions don't really affect the gameplay.
The first pet available is the Lil' K.T, a “chiby” version of the powerful necromancer of Warcraft III, Kel’Thuzad. He's available for $10 and the site itself says that what he “lacks in size, he more than makes up for in sheer malicious intensity.” The evil may not be toned down, but Blizzard did decide to make the item BoA, or Bind on Account, so, this way, he'll stick to whatever characters you have on the account you activate him on.
The rest of K.T.'s desperation placed on the site offers more details, but it is most of all absolutely delicious. “Watch with misplaced pride as he randomly freezes critters and laughs maniacally at your vanquished PvP foes.” If anything, it will save us the “lol-plus-endless-others” macro.
The second pet made available in the store is the Pandaren Monk, also available for $10. The well-raised diplomat will bind to players' accounts as well, and follow them around and respond to the greets he receives from other players. For every purchase of the Pandaren Monk that is made by December 31, 2009, half of the paid cost will be donated by Blizzard to the Make a Wish foundation.
This way, little children everywhere will remember the company and the kung-fu fighting panda bear that granted their wish, and, hopefully, in the near future, will purchase a WoW subscription. In order to purchase one of these items, you'll need to merge your World of Warcraft account with a Battle.net one, a merger that will become mandatory anyway in order to play WoW.