Example, Blizzard have introduced a Pet Store of sorts. A place on their store website where you can buy little companion pets that can’t be found anywhere else. The pets don’t do anything. They just follow the player around and act cute. They don’t engage in battle, don’t come with any stats or boosts or laser-eyes or anything. They’re just there. You pay for the cuteness, and that’s it. Oh, and 50% of the money spent on one of the pets goes to charity, which is quite nice of ‘em.

Therefore, until Blizzard starts murdering babies and begins selling teleporting features or Tier 19 gear to players instead of just adorable pets, where part of the money goes to charity, Then they’re nowhere near what SE has done.

Which is quite depressing, since a few years ago we all would’ve scoffed at the idea of them doing anything like what’s considered the norm now.

Just nobody clamor around for a new expansion while you’re in the middle of one anymore, ok?

Call now and I’ll throw in the Nexus Cape, absolutely free! Feeling separated from the rest of your party? This convenient item allows you to zip straight to your party leader’s location faster than a speeding Thief. It can be used in just about every Original and Rize of the Zilart area you would want to be in, AND, you can even use it to conquer the infamous Parradamo Tor of Attohwa Chasm, without even breaking a sweat.

That’s right, you get BOTH the Shantotto Pants, and, as our gift to you for being suckered in to buying the first two, the Nexus Cape: a ZERO real-world-money value, yours for only $9.99.

Don’t delay! Due to congestion on or around the date of the version update, it may take some time for the contents of “A Shantotto Ascension” to show up in FINAL FANTASY XI after purchase. It is recommended that if you are considering a purchase of “A Shantotto Ascension,” you do so before the version update. So call now!

. . .

{Thanks for the offer, but I’ll have to pass.}

When I hoped that S-E would be doing something awesome to tie all the add-on’s together, and thus make up for the poor quality of each, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. I mean, it almost seems like this amounts to more bribing of us, and not even with a fourth augment-selectable piece. Instead, it seems like they’re bribing us with the opportunity to not hold up our parties any longer than we need to. Handy, but not even a fourth piece of equipment (or any number of equipment) with customizable stats would be enough to persuade me to pre-order or buy the add-on at all, especially if it turns out to be as low quality as the first two.

If I’m going to buy the add-on, I will buy it for its content. The equipments really would be nothing more than bonuses, if A Shantotto Ascension turned out not to be that bad. But I still stand by what I said: I’ll wait for the jury to reach a verdict on this one first this time. I was fooled twice before, and the second one was “shame on me.”

This fails as a decent “bonus” and therefore as an incentive, so it’s pointless no matter how you look at it.

And I’m not QQ at how lame the item is because I wouldn’t play the expansions if I was given them. I’m loling at SEs business acumen.

Behemoth’s Dominion / Valley of Sorrows but no Dragon’s Aery?

Cape Teriggan but no Zi’tah?

None of the Treasures of Aht Urhgan areas even though they said that the player must have been to that area before.

For that matter, none of the Wings of the Goddess areas either.

And the whole HP thing in towns? Why is that needed? Is some unfixable code that would cause the server to crash not allow that to happen?

D: Uh ohs.