WoW getting fluffier

This is somewhat related to the previous post on mudflation, where it was stated that the long time people spend at the level cap before the next expansion comes out increases the mudflation problem, because they get stronger all the time through accumulation of gear. Which is correct only insofar as people spend their time getting stronger by acquiring gear. But if you look closely at what many people do in the current TBC endgame, you'll find that not all of them are after gear that makes their characters more powerful. A lot of time is spent going after fluff, which serves only as status symbols, without actually doing anything to the stats of your character.

A good example for level 70 fluff is the Netherwing Drake or Nether Ray mounts. You need to get to exalted with the Netherwing and / or Sha'tari Skyguard factions to get these mounts. But you also need the artisan riding skill for 5,000 gold to use them, and they fly exactly as fast as the epic flying mount you can buy for 200 gold. Getting any of these alternative epic flying mounts is pure fluff, you spend a lot of days gathering faction for a reward that is just changing the look of your mount.

In a way gathering the 5,000 gold for the artisan riding skill is also kind of fluffy. Yes, the epic flying mount is much, much faster than the normal one. It is much more practical to get around, and very useful in gathering resource nodes. But for doing most quests the epic flying mount doesn't help you. And in a dungeon or raid the epic flying mount is no help at all. Not having one is not hindering your progression in any way.

The last patch also introduced a sporebat non-combat pet which you need to be exalted with the Sporeggar to get. WoWWiki calculated that you need to kill over 1,000 mobs to farm that reputation, which to me appears to be a lot of effort to get a non-combat pet. The patch also introduced daily cooking quests, with rewards like a rare recipe for chocolate cake which does absolutely nothing, except promising to make you "very happy" and give some fireworks special effects when you eat it. Fluff at its finest.

Of course there is nothing wrong with fluff. As I said, it actually helps against the mudflation problem. And as long as the player *want* fluff items that just look good, there is nothing wrong in providing fluff as reward for quests or reputation gains. The only problem is that often at the start of a quest chain you don't know what the final reward will be, whether it is fluff, good gear for your class, or good gear for somebody else's class. As you wouldn't want to do a long quest chain to find out at the end that the reward is something you don't want, you are forced to look up the rewards in advance on the various third party websites and guides. But that is a completely different subject for another post.