Countdown to "Zookeeper" Title

[Stabya]

My real life Calendar says the first day of spring is Tommorrow (Wed March 20)

Since wow only has two seasons, does that mean the Qiraji Guardling will be available then?

Does anyone have an official date "Summer" begins in Azeroth?

I didnt see anything on the Game Calendar

[Ysabell]

In the past, two seasons in WoW was true. I think we're all in for a letdown tomorrow though.

Mumper has multiple tweets stating that they'll spawn in summer and that we're only just now getting to spring. Summer solstice is June 21st, if I were a betting man that's where I'd be looking though it may be a more arbitrary date like when the owls left.

[Ratshag]

There's no reason to assume that pets follow the same seasons as fish. Since the snowy owl was out for exactly four months (Nov, Dec, Jan, and Feb) it seems likely that the guardlings will be too (May, June, July, August). If I've guessed wrong and they're out tomorrow, though, I won't complain.

[Casca]

Just turned midnight a few minutes ago, but I can't see any. So it's either March 21st, or we have to wait a few more months. :/

[Gilneas]

Just turned midnight a few minutes ago, but I can't see any. So it's either March 21st, or we have to wait a few more months. :/

May 1st is my best guess.

[Aislinge]

It's just gone March 21st here on Oceanic Servers. I'll let you know if they're up.

Edit - Ok, there is a LOT of people camping for them (being CRZ) but nothing has shown and no one's seen anything. However, the servers are just being pulled down...

Edit 2 - And we're back and nope Heaps of Scarab Hatchlings and whatnot but no Guardlings

[Stabya]

I think long ago before WOW, there was a similar wait.

I think they called it... The Great Pumpkin


We had a few people (including me) assuming the Guardlings would be up today since we thought there were two seasons

[Rivana]

I'm still catching Winter Squid today instead of Summer Bass.
A bug? Blizzard? Yep.
I opened a ticket on the fish - average wait time 5 days, 19 hours.

My take on the Qiriaji Guardling is, OPEN A TICKET!
It is the only direct way to communicate to Blizzard.
Enough QQ and we will at least get an answer.

[Talmar]

Winter Squid and Snowy Owl did not coincide with each other. Didn't Snowy Owl's show up on 12/1/12? If that's the case then I'm guessing a 5/1/13 or even a 6/1/13 showing for the Qiraji Guardling

[Rivana]

Winter Squid and Snowy Owl did not coincide with each other. Didn't Snowy Owl's show up on 12/1/12? If that's the case then I'm guessing a 5/1/13 or even a 6/1/13 showing for the Qiraji Guardling

No, I believe that Snowy Owl showed up Nov. 1. Some claimed it was a bug, but I don't know of a Blue post or tweet to confirm or deny. Here at THE SOURCE for all-things-WoW-pets, the Qiraji Guardling is listed as "Summer". The only other thing "Summer" in WoW is Summer Bass, so people logically assumed that Summer was, well, Summer! Not "Fish Summer" and "Pet Summer".

But I don't really care much, except that I wasted a bit of travel time, pet hunting time, and fishing time today. I'll not waste anymore time on it - I just parked an alt at the AQ entrance and I'll check again when I see something here or on the WoW forums.

[Quintessence]

Mumper confirmed on Twitter that the Qiraji Guardling still has a few months to go.

It would appear that the owl and guardling follow the "real world" seasons, except they seem to spawn 1 month ahead of the actual solstice. December being the beginning of winter (owls spawned in November), and if we apply that logic to the guardling, June is the beginning of summer so earliest they may show up is May.

[Gilneas]

Which is what I keep telling people. :p Seemed the most logical when the owl came out. I think they put them closer to real seasons because it would let them do say a spring or fall pet at some point too. And I don't think the fish were ever meant to be an indication of WoW's seasons. Just so happens they had them spawn during two seasons each.

[NathKnave]

I'm hardly concerned with this one at all right now. It'll come when it comes as far as I'm concerned. When it does, I plan on letting some of the more hard core collectors fight over the initial spawns while I wait for things to settle down. I won't have to worry too much about what I need to capture, since Humanoid Battle-Stones haven't been a problem for me to get. I've gotten over a dozen that I can't use so far and I've been using them for friends and guild-mates every time I get more than five (these should seriously stack higher or be bind-to-account).

[Aislinge]

^^^ this

I have to agree with Nath. I was out for sheer boredom and well, being up with the flu But much like the Snowy Owl, I'll leave my catching until later in the season. Sure, I won't get the title as quick but, to be honest, marathons over sprints - once you have the title, then what? I'd rather take longer and enjoy it. I don't need pet battles becoming another chore! >.<

[Spyro]

Mumper confirmed on Twitter that the Qiraji Guardling still has a few months to go.

It would appear that the owl and guardling follow the "real world" seasons, except they seem to spawn 1 month ahead of the actual solstice. December being the beginning of winter (owls spawned in November), and if we apply that logic to the guardling, June is the beginning of summer so earliest they may show up is May.

They also stop spawning early. Winter ended on March 19 but it seems nobody saw an owl since February.

I wish they would follow some sort of standard.

[Rivana]

I wish they would follow some sort of standard.

Me too.
This is definitely a Blizzard Dilbert moment.

The Pointy-Haired Boss asks, "When does Summer begin?"
Dilbert then pops open Google and types in "summer begins", which yields:
The astronomical summer (Northern Hemisphere) 2013 begins on
Friday, June 21
Then as the PHB begins to nod, Dilbert interjects, "BUT..."
The Fishing Design team decided years ago that Summer begins at Spring Exquinox, which is March 20 this year.
The PHB, confused, begins to say, "So in our software, Summer begins with the Spring Equinox..."
Dilbert interrupts again, "BUT..."
The Battle Pet Design team decided that they didn't want Summer to start when Spring began. So they had a series of design meetings and decided that Summer begins on May 1."
The PHB, now even more confused, asks, "So in our software we have two different dates for summer beginning..."
Dilbert: "Yes, neither of which correspond to the real-world calendar. And don't even ask about summer on the Oceanic realms that are in the Southern Hemisphere..."

[Stabya]

It's nice to see some people are at peace with Getting the Guardling whenever they get around to it.

For me, and I am sure many others, we are going to try to get this ASAP.

Titles are Fads pretty much. If you like titles, you want them sooner (unique) rather than later (ZZZZZZ another zookeeper)

[Poutinette]

Don't forget that when MoP started, it was still summer, but no Qiraji, they don't even follow their own rules.

[Rivana]

(Hopefully you will pardon my "rantishness", but I find this fog around the "last pet" annoying.)
OK, I don't know what's up with Blizzard. This whole "seasons" debacle is a painful reminder to me of why I recently took a long break from WoW - no One Big problem, just "death by a thousand cuts" - a cumulation of many little annoyances that drove me away.

First, facts as we know them -- People have pointed out that the Snowy Owl was out for 4 months, Nov. 1 to Feb. 28; therefore, "Pet Winter" (as opposed to "Fish Winter") was 4 months long.

"Pet Summer" has not yet started. However, anyone with a rudimentary grasp of the calendar may notice that there are 12 months and 4 seasons, and if "Winter" is 4 months long, then the math doesn't add up ("real" seasons obviously last 3 months).

So anyway, people are contacting GMs - personally, I don't know how they are getting through, because my "fish ticket" about still getting Winter Squid on March 20 had a wait time of - get this - 5 days 19 hours! I work in computer support, and that is the worst "first touch" wait time I have ever seen and would be completely unacceptable in any support organization I've ever worked in.

OK, back to topic. So we have people contacting GMs reporting that no, there is no "Fish Summer" and "Pet Summer", but just "WoW Summer", which began March 20 -- obviously incompatable with the Blue Twitter that "Pet Summer" is not yet here. We have unconfirmed guesses from players who think "Pet Summer" will begin May 1. We also have reports from people who report that a GM told them "Pet Summer" starts June 1.

How about Pet Summer beginning May 1?
I have not heard anyone yet claim that a May 1 date was told them by a GM, but those who apply logic and mathematics would argue that you could force a pattern - if "Pet Summer" is also 4 months long, like "Pet Winter" was, then May 1 - August 31 will be "Pet Summer". Then "Pet Spring" and "Pet Fall" are only 2 months each. Hmm. Whatever.

What about Pet Summer starting on June 1?
This date is reported confirmed by GMs. If we parse Mumper's twitter, "a few months" would fit better with June 1 than May 1. But... If "Pet Summer" begins on June 1, and if "Pet Summer", like "Pet Winter", is 4 months long, then the end of "Pet Summer" will be Sept. 30. Which brings up a question:
Where was Qiraji Guardling at MOP release last year on Sept. 25 during "Pet Summer" 2012?

But this is all speculation; as usual, we are met with a wall of ambiguous and conflicting "information"...

[Dazzles]

Wouldn't telling a player when the pet will spawn constitute as a game hint? Hasn't anyone who has played this game with any significance learned that that is the #1 thing they will not give is game hints?

Let's be honest, there is no date or season they HAVE to follow. Pet summer could be May-Aug or it could never arrive because the bronze dragonflight keeps turning back time and making us experience "winter" over and over again.

While I understand that you're ranting -- and completely observe that aspect of your post....

I want to point out that Game Masters do not develop the game and they don't give game hints. Part of the reason why the wait time is this high (and always this high after every major patch and expansion) is that people ticket in for things like this. At the very worst you're asking for a game hint, at the very best you're submitting something that could minimally be considered a bug (since it was confirmed to not be spawning soon, I'd say it is working as intended).

So *IF* the game master has the information you want (which they may or may not have) they will not give you game hints. If they do *NOT* have the info you want, you'll be told to post on the forums. And *IF* the situation is not working as intended, you'll be asked to submit a bug report.

At the end of the day -- there are plenty of other things to do in this game besides get the qiraji guardling. Yes, it would be awesome to have it and have zookeeper. But complaining about the wait time on tickets, and then submitting a ticket you pretty much know they can't resolve -- does not make logical sense to me

I wish you luck though!