Digital goodies are nothing new when it comes to Collector’s Editions and when pets are involved, that’s a pretty huge draw for me. However, that wasn’t always the case. I remember lining up for the midnight launch of the Burning Crusade with Navimie when they asked if we’d like to buy the Collector’s Edition. When we asked what the difference was, he said some stuff (which I can’t remember) and a pet. We both said no, we don’t need a pet. Hindsight anyone? In my defence, pets were few and far between back then (and took up bag space) compared to the 700+ virtual ones we have today.
Collector’s Editions were only something I’d started collecting since the release of Wrath and have ordered the Physical and Digital Deluxe Editions ever since. Sadly, that means I’m still missing the first four pets from vanilla and BC but that’s another story.
When it comes to other Blizzard games, I’ve never really wanted to play anything other than WoW so buying other Collector’s Editions just didn’t make sense – that was until the Annual Pass back in 2011. Not only did it include a very sweet mount, it also included Diablo III as part of the incentive. I really tried to get into Diablo but it just wasn’t my kind of game, even after Coolidge gifted me the deluxe Diablo III: Reaper of Souls edition.
In May, I finally caved and ordered the Heart of the Swarm Digital Deluxe for (you guessed it) the Baneling pet – only I had to order Wings of Liberty too. Bah! I wasn’t happy about it but I did it anyway. Sadly, there was no way to order Mini Thor from the previous Collector’s Edition since the expansion had already been released… that was until Blizzard released Starcraft II: The Complete Collection which includes everything you see below.
Considering the whole thing costs AUD$129.95 and I’d already paid AUD$64.90 in May, I was only expecting to pay the remaining $65.05 but when I tried to do this a month ago, I was unsuccessful.
Needless to say, I wasn’t too impressed but heard a ‘fix’ was in the works. Two nights ago, something had clearly changed but was not ideal.
Well, no. Not when I’ve already paid half!
I ended up purchasing the standard Legacy of the Void for $54.95 and then upgrading to Deluxe for an extra $20. The next day, I was feeling a bout of buyer’s remorse so had submitted a ticket for two or (hopefully) three refunds. If all three were granted, I would probably have purchased the Complete Collection as I originally intended. Only the last two were reversed.
At this stage, it seems rather futile.
Edit: I re-opened my ticket to see if I could get some sort of credit to use on a Virtual Ticket or even Legion. I was told this wasn’t possible but there was one workaround – a couple of key codes to reimburse me for the two games I’d pre-purchased.
Again, this isn’t quite the solution I was looking for but at least Blizzard is willing to provide some sort of compensation once you purchase the Complete Collection. Then again, who would want to buy the standard version of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and the Heart of the Storm (Digital Deluxe) from me?
At the end of the day, it’s still a steep price to pay for three battle pets.
I know, the things we go through for our pets. Wow, I’d forgotten those days. I remember Cat only had one pet because of the bag space. She had her wolf she pretended was her dog. He’s still with her and is her fishing companion.
I remember buying the prairie dog from Thunder Bluff. It was a funny looking thing but even then I wanted to collect all the pets.
I just bit the bullet and got the pack as well because I missed out on Wings of Liberty collectors. Gah, painful! But Mini-Thor~! Yay!
It is! Did you have any of the deluxe editions previously?
I had Heart of the Swarm collectors.