So not so long ago, dataminers working in the World of Warcraft data mines found Trader’s Tender shop assets, leading to the presumption that players will eventually be able to just buy the stuff outright instead of earning it in-game. However, according to a GameSpot interview, Blizzard game director Ion Hazzikostas says that the game is definitely not going to sell Trader’s Tender on the shop… by itself. As part of a bundle of other things? Oh, that’s totally fine. But it won’t be sold by itself.
In the past, we might have offered as part of a deluxe edition or some big bundle, a specific pet of our devising. Well, many players would look at that [pet] and say ‘I don’t like the look of that, that aesthetic seems lame to me.’ But we have a new tool now in the form of Tender that gives players potentially more choice, more agency in picking something they like. It shouldn’t be too far-fetched to imagine we might have some significant bundles coming up later this year that may include some Tender as a part of them.
Naturally, the datamined option isn’t going over well with players as a whole, especially as one of the stated goals of the Trading Post was making cash-shop items available purely through gameplay. Hazzikostas insists that the primary way of gaining Trader’s Tender will remain in-game activities, of course, so that option remains there… even if it does appear from the response that you will have some options to just buy your way to some Tender after all.
