So I play WoW a lot.
Yeah. I like World of Warcraft. I play it a lot. This is a post about something in WoW called "vanity pets" or non-combat pets. I collect them, in-game, because many of them are adorable. A certain robot-girl requested some screen shots, so here there are, under a cut. Enjoy. :D
So WoW has dragons, and this is one of the many dragon pets. It was given away to celebrate WoW's 5th anniversary. Everyone thinks it kind of look like it has downs. It's cute though, and has an amusing animation if you've ever done the Onyxia raid (a big ol' dragon fight).
There are also a lot of "normal" pets you can collect in game. Normal, as in, creatures you would find in our world as well. Here are a couple of mine:
I think this one looks like Leto. I spent days farming it though, as only one semi-rare mob (NPC) drops it and only sometimes.
A little heart will show up above Stinker's head if he sees a black cat (like the one above). He'll then chase the cat and the cat will run away. It's adorable, and I love it. You get this pet for collecting a shitton of pets.
This one is a reward for doing a bunch of Thankgiving-specific events. He has a rather unique animation that I am loathe to spoil. Suffice to say, it's quite surprising the first time you see it.
In order to get this chicken, you have to complete a quest ("CLUCK!") which you can only get by flapping your arms at clucking like a chicken... at a chicken. So I spent a good 5 or 6 minutes in game doing that so I could get my pretty white chicken. Yeah.
I love this guy, he's hilarious and adorable. You get him by running enough dungeons with strangers. The Blizz development team actually sends you an in-game mail that says, "...we heard you like pugs. So here's a pug for your pug, so you can pug while you pug." To explain, PUG is short for Pick Up Group. This guy has one animation in particular...
Yup. The butt-scoot. He turns around and sniffs the ground after too. He'll also bark at you and hop around, really quite adorable.
I wasn't sure where to put this guy, so I decided he'd be my transition into the more fantastic pets I own. He's a colorful snake. I like him 'cause he's pretty. He's also much more interesting than the other snakes I own, which are kind of boring.
This is a baby crocolisk, one of the examples of how WoW takes normal animals and... twists them slightly. You can't see it well in this picture (I fail at screen shots) but Toothy here, and his kin, have six legs. I think this guy is adorable. You get him doing fishing quests. Fishing is boring. He is worth it.
This is a giant blue moth. It's actually smaller than the much bigger NPC moths in the game. This is an Alliance pet (my main is Horde) which can make it harder to get sometimes. Honestly though, getting these guys is pretty easy, and there's usually a couple on the Horde auction house.
I changed the color on this a bit so you can see the pink a bit better. You get this pet during an event called Brewfest. Three guesses what you do at Brewfest. In addition to seeing pink elephants, you might also see...
A wolpertinger. Unless this guy is your pet, or you're in a party with someone, you can only see it you're completely smashed. Yes, you can get drunk in-game. Your screen gets really fuzzy and you can't walk in a straight line. A fair number of holiday quests require you get completely wasted too.
This is the Halloween-event pet that I'm happy to have. If you stand still long enough, he'll plant himself into the ground, so he just looks like a jack o lantern sitting at your feet.
I accidentally left out his name when I took a screen shot, but this is a Leaping Hatchling. I am insanely proud of this pet, since I got him the hard way (he used to drop off a rare mob you had to sit around for hours to wait for then kill before someone else who was sitting around did). He's one of the raptors, which I'm in the process of collecting. Now and then, he'll run away from you, then leap back to where you're standing with a cute little screech.
I also like to show this one off, as I spent three days killing a certain kind of NPC over and over and over again until they dropped him. I might have started screaming something about them giving me one of their babies or I'd continue the slaughter.
This is another one I worked waaay too hard for, but he's so cute. You have to be at the highest reputation with an otherwise rather worthless (but very cute) faction to get this guy. Days of killing things for this one, but unlike the Azure Whelpling, I always had an end in sight.
Oh the Argent Gruntling. Yes, this is, in fact, an orc child. He carries things for me (like the flag on his back, which I can change) and will soon be able to do errands for me. Technically he's my squire, and not really a vanity pet, but I always wonder about the Argent Tournament giving me a slave child as a reward.
So those are a small fraction of my vanity pets (seriously, I have not even begun to get into the many kinds of birds I have, jesus). I even skipped a few up I uploaded (mechanical squirrel and ghostly skull) because I am tired of cropping photos. Last, I leave you with the first pet I ever got, which is certain to please a certain robot-girl.
Isn't he cute?
So WoW has dragons, and this is one of the many dragon pets. It was given away to celebrate WoW's 5th anniversary. Everyone thinks it kind of look like it has downs. It's cute though, and has an amusing animation if you've ever done the Onyxia raid (a big ol' dragon fight).
There are also a lot of "normal" pets you can collect in game. Normal, as in, creatures you would find in our world as well. Here are a couple of mine:
I think this one looks like Leto. I spent days farming it though, as only one semi-rare mob (NPC) drops it and only sometimes.
A little heart will show up above Stinker's head if he sees a black cat (like the one above). He'll then chase the cat and the cat will run away. It's adorable, and I love it. You get this pet for collecting a shitton of pets.
This one is a reward for doing a bunch of Thankgiving-specific events. He has a rather unique animation that I am loathe to spoil. Suffice to say, it's quite surprising the first time you see it.
In order to get this chicken, you have to complete a quest ("CLUCK!") which you can only get by flapping your arms at clucking like a chicken... at a chicken. So I spent a good 5 or 6 minutes in game doing that so I could get my pretty white chicken. Yeah.
I love this guy, he's hilarious and adorable. You get him by running enough dungeons with strangers. The Blizz development team actually sends you an in-game mail that says, "...we heard you like pugs. So here's a pug for your pug, so you can pug while you pug." To explain, PUG is short for Pick Up Group. This guy has one animation in particular...
Yup. The butt-scoot. He turns around and sniffs the ground after too. He'll also bark at you and hop around, really quite adorable.
I wasn't sure where to put this guy, so I decided he'd be my transition into the more fantastic pets I own. He's a colorful snake. I like him 'cause he's pretty. He's also much more interesting than the other snakes I own, which are kind of boring.
This is a baby crocolisk, one of the examples of how WoW takes normal animals and... twists them slightly. You can't see it well in this picture (I fail at screen shots) but Toothy here, and his kin, have six legs. I think this guy is adorable. You get him doing fishing quests. Fishing is boring. He is worth it.
This is a giant blue moth. It's actually smaller than the much bigger NPC moths in the game. This is an Alliance pet (my main is Horde) which can make it harder to get sometimes. Honestly though, getting these guys is pretty easy, and there's usually a couple on the Horde auction house.
I changed the color on this a bit so you can see the pink a bit better. You get this pet during an event called Brewfest. Three guesses what you do at Brewfest. In addition to seeing pink elephants, you might also see...
A wolpertinger. Unless this guy is your pet, or you're in a party with someone, you can only see it you're completely smashed. Yes, you can get drunk in-game. Your screen gets really fuzzy and you can't walk in a straight line. A fair number of holiday quests require you get completely wasted too.
This is the Halloween-event pet that I'm happy to have. If you stand still long enough, he'll plant himself into the ground, so he just looks like a jack o lantern sitting at your feet.
I accidentally left out his name when I took a screen shot, but this is a Leaping Hatchling. I am insanely proud of this pet, since I got him the hard way (he used to drop off a rare mob you had to sit around for hours to wait for then kill before someone else who was sitting around did). He's one of the raptors, which I'm in the process of collecting. Now and then, he'll run away from you, then leap back to where you're standing with a cute little screech.
I also like to show this one off, as I spent three days killing a certain kind of NPC over and over and over again until they dropped him. I might have started screaming something about them giving me one of their babies or I'd continue the slaughter.
This is another one I worked waaay too hard for, but he's so cute. You have to be at the highest reputation with an otherwise rather worthless (but very cute) faction to get this guy. Days of killing things for this one, but unlike the Azure Whelpling, I always had an end in sight.
Oh the Argent Gruntling. Yes, this is, in fact, an orc child. He carries things for me (like the flag on his back, which I can change) and will soon be able to do errands for me. Technically he's my squire, and not really a vanity pet, but I always wonder about the Argent Tournament giving me a slave child as a reward.
So those are a small fraction of my vanity pets (seriously, I have not even begun to get into the many kinds of birds I have, jesus). I even skipped a few up I uploaded (mechanical squirrel and ghostly skull) because I am tired of cropping photos. Last, I leave you with the first pet I ever got, which is certain to please a certain robot-girl.
Isn't he cute?