World of Warcraft- the Pandas are Coming!
I'm not part of the fandom in question, but found this via another thread.

Purchasers of the exclusive Collector's Edition release of World of Warcraft received, in addition to other goodies, their choice of an exclusive in-game "pet" not available to other players. Some purchasers opted for the panda cub. Aww.

So, present day, and a Blizzard event in Korea (where the CE was never sold) is offering its attendees (who may be from North America) panda cubs for their WoW accounts.

Minor wank breaks loose. To be fair, some of these people reasonably feel that the CE was misrepresented as having content that would only be available to purchasers.

However, you've got those who view panda ownership as some kind of exclusive club...

You're missing the point. It doesn't matter if over a million people had the collector's edition. The point is that they are all part of a group of players that own a collector's edition of World of Warcraft. Now when you see a panda, you won't really know for sure. To me, that takes away a lot from the value of having a CE panda cub.

And those who think this constitutes legal consumer fraud.

The World of Warcraft Collector's Edition "exclusive content"
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/misc/insider/021/collectorsedition.html

The "exclusive" Collector's Edition Soundtrack CD
(Sold for a time on the Blizzard online store)

The "exclusive" Collector's Edition Art Book
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=1q6Fap0DUo&isbn=0744007259&itm=4

and now...

The "exclusive" Collector's Edition Panda Pet

are now being made available to people who didn't purchase the Collector's Edition of WoW.

I wonder what U.S. business laws have to say about this?

Deceptive advertising?

Breach of contract?

Fraud?

Others have difficulty with the concept of ownership.

I don't care if they are from Mars - hands off my panda.

Quite a bit of difficulty.

Defend what? My right to keep what I paid for? To not be robbed? OMFG! - now, I don't necessarily mean just you Caerah - not trying to flame you or anything) but . . .

What planet are you people from?

And then there's this...

Why cant you make a walking fortune cookie or something else if it has to be asian

I'm not sure whose side the next poster is on, but damn if he doesn't sum up my feelings.

BUT... BUT... Baby pandas!!!!