Currently, if you get a gift card you recieve a pet (normally a pet that no one would ever use or desire to use). I think in addition to the pet every $10 gift card should give 1 pet training points reset, 1 free mana potion refill, and 2 one hour morphing potions. I think this is fair given that gift cards cost twice as much as online credit card purchases (many people don't like to run up credit card balances or even use credit cards). A 10% chance of also recieving a mega snack pack would also be a nice touch.
Keep in mind that the more people use and try these sort of things, the more they are apt to use them again in the future, so it might even be a boost to give everyone a hireling along with the card. Purchasing a gift card every month should be like a mini-Christmas so that players will want to open them and keep purchasing them every month as opposed to deciding not to continue playing the game (yes, every time I purchase a new card for subscription I ask myself if it is worth it or not and it fails to be a good exeperience cause I know the pet I get for the extra expense I incur is going to be useless to me... if it were good I could easily just mix for it with someone else who has it).
You have the option of where to get your gift card from, which lets you choose which pet you want. Asking for more to be added to the card is just getting greedy. You already have the advantage of getting a pet with a card when you redeem the gift card. I am a monthly subscriber and don't get a pet each month that I renew. Each method of paying for the game has its advantages and disadvantages but asking for more to be added is asking a bit much.
As for getting pets no one would ever use, I have several of the gift card pets and use most of them on one wizard or another. Ever heard of the Defender Pig? If you are an avid PvPer, as you say you are, then you already know that you can get the universal resist from him which will help greatly in the arena. At Christmas time allot of the pets give dragon blade which I use ALL the time when farming with my balance wizard. So they do have useful pets with these cards.
Lastly, how is the gift card cheaper than using a credit card? I have purchased both and a 10$ online purchase equals the same amount of crowns as the 10$ gift card only the card gives a pet. The point about some people not wanting to use a credit card is correct, but there is no difference in me buy the card at Rite Aide or my just coming to the site and buying the crowns EXCEPT for the pet I would get from the card.
