WoW sticks to its tradition by dropping a $90 mount during a controversial patch. Of course, players buy enough to form herds.

World of Warcraft has made a lot of positive improvements in recent years. These include a more alt-friendly system of warbands, a greater focus on character-driven stories, and a general easing up of the grind. There's still a grind. It's still World of Warcraft, but it isn't as bad as it was. The future is bright and--what? There's an $90 dinosaur mount available? Balance patches are a big thing? Ah, crud.

World of Warcraft has had a rough time recently. It seems that Blizzard is trying to keep players from getting tooexcited by the positive direction of the overall game. I won't get into the details, as Blizzard have already started applying hotfixes. But it's been a clunky introduction to the atmosphere.

Blizz, the dependable brand, has a cure: a very expensive dino that also happens have an auction house and a mailbox attached to its side. It's called The Trader's Gilded Brutosaur. It costs $90 (PS50). Many players are buying this mount, which I can only assume to be a case of madness. (Or the fact that there is only one other mount with a mobile bidding system in the game and it costs 5 million gold.)

"Maybe we do deserve unfinished/half-baked patches and sh*tty balancing of classes after all," writes an numb player in the game's subreddit, under an image with $90 dinosaurs flooding streets. The writer writes with the same dread that a scientist would feel watching a kaiju knock down a skyscraper in a movie.

Blizzard has just hit the jackpot. From r/wow

"The universal reaction to one of the worst patches we've ever had is to spend an entire expansion's value of money." Another player adds, "This is what we chose, yeah." Another player thanks Todd Howard directly before posting the large, gaudy dinosaur next to the infamous Oblivion Horse Armour. This meme of a microtransaction has been in the public consciousness now for almost 20 years.

Thank you Todd Howard from r/wow

I didn't want to take Reddit at its word, so I decided to fire up The War Within again and see if anyone was wearing their prehistoric bling. ? I thought. This is just a localised joke. I had logged out right next to Brann Bronzebeard, in Dornogal. I made it literally three steps before I ran into a herd. This was also during non-peak EU times. The meme is real.

Honestly? Maybe we do deserve this. I don't think we have any right to complain about the microtransactions if Blizzard is able to slap some armor on a dinosaur that has a little utility and if people flock to buy it in literal herds. This thing is more expensive than many full-priced video games, but I can't deny that it has a certain appeal.

It's a big, loud billboard that announces your lack of financial scrutiny. It's like a huge, loud billboard that declares your lack financial scrutiny. It is, therefore, incredibly funny. We've opened Pandora, we've got on the floor and now everyone is doing the dinosaur. Hey, Microsoft is at least making some money back.