3 Years and No Veteran Rewards in WoW

Happy 3rd Anniversary World of Warcraft!

World of Warcraft was first launched on 11/23/2004. As we approach this third anniversary, I find it curious WoW hasn't implemented a Veteran's Reward Program yet.


What is a Veteran Reward?
It's a unique item or privilege that a game gives its players after paying ("actively subscribing") for x number of months (3, 7, 12, 24, 36, etc..) of game time. Not to be confused with:

• Items with "veteran" in the name
• Rewards associated with Honor Points and Battleground Tokens or
• Reputation rewards

... because a "Veteran Reward" is simply a thank you to players without regard to level, xp, reputation, accomplishments, etc...

All players have their own ticking clock based on when they started. Although obviously large groups of people will hit milestones (and gifts) at the same time (e.g. a group who started when the game launched in their country).

Veteran Rewards in World of Warcraft
For some reason World of Warcraft hasn't embraced this concept, even though it might add to the consideration of some players who have left WoW but are thinking of coming back. (ahem)

Although to be fair, during holiday events WoW offers one or more free and fun items with at least something for every level. I haven't seen that in many other MMOs, and to the extent that another MMO may have free items at a holiday event, I would venture that they were inspired by World of Warcraft.

Now if only World of Warcraft would be similarly inspired regarding Veterans Rewards.

Blizzard's comments so far (that I've found):

• In November of 2006 someone on the EU forums suggested veterans rewards. There was no Blizzard response until another poster suggested a pet cat that got fatter with each year's subscription. A blizzard poster responded with: Hehe, a fat cat would be cute ;). This was telling only in that it was a complete waste of blue ink.
  
• Then In September 2007 Drysc commented that:

  It's something we've talked about, to be sure, but we have no plans at the current time to implement any such [Veteran] rewards.

Examples of Veteran Reward Gifts in other MMOS:

• Tabula Rasa's 1-Month Emotes (They're getting started early.)
• City of Heroes Wings (See more in video below)
• Star Wars Galaxies Deeds (and the plethora of other items) Also includes sample "Anniversary Awards" for anyone who is playing at the time of an anniversary.
• Ultima Online
• EQ2 Potions, etc.

This City of Heroes video highlights some of the first gifts available in their Veteran Rewards Program:


And if you find yourself laughing ... "Bah! World of Warcraft players wouldn't care about stupid kilts, even if they're free." - then I have just this to say to you...

... Turtle Mount...

...hundreds of dollars on eBay.