Quote Originally Posted by Asierid View Post
Various minions and mounts for subbing x amount of days. Free.

Recruit friends! Free mount and item.

List goes on.
Veteran rewards are there to encourage people to stay paying customers. The friend referral system is there to get more paying customers.

Of the things you listed, the gold paint is the only thing that was an unusual, nice gesture. They messed up a little and gold paint wasn't gettable for a day after they said it was in the game, but giving 4 pots of paint to everyone just like that to make up for it was nice of them.