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World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria: The Pandaren Starter Area
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Over the past weekend, we had the opportunity to check out the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria expansion now that the non-NDA-bound closed beta has begun. We've got a lot to share about MoP so keep reading!
Mists of Pandariais a really ambitious expansion for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. The disenfranchised will blow it off as another lame attempt at the company to get back missing Azerothians, but really… they’re missing the point. Mists is probably the first time since Blizzard first brought us into WoW that they’re trying to really bring something for everyone back into the game. One of the reasons World of Warcraft was such a success in 2004 was because it was the first MMORPG that was for both the hardcore and the casual gamer. It worked on each level. As time ground on the expansions came and were mostly about progression – whether by level or gear – and less and less about a world to explore and enjoy. Along the way to its massive success as the decade defining MMO, WoW lost its sense of wonder. Mists of Pandaria is a return to form for World of Warcraft.
Read more of Bill Murphy's World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria - The Pandaren Starter Area.
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Comments
A playable Panda Bear Race in the realm of Pandaria just seems so childish to me. It just feels like a cheap grab or yearning for the asian market.
At this rate, I wouldn't be shocked if Blizzard tried to entice the teenage girl crowd with a playable Vampire Race that has been split into two internal factions: Edwardians and Jacobians.
Pandaria just doesn't feel right and I won't be playing it. This is just my opinion, though.
"By level 12 when I left the giant turtle’s back for the normal lands of Azeroth"
This sentence is what really has me struggling to look forward to WoW's next expansion as an ex-player of the game. So, you do the cool turtle's back starter area untill level 12, but then you have to grind all the old content from 12-85 again if you want to be a monk? Or will they just let scroll of res. players returning skip all those levels to 80 anyway?
As and ex-player who might have been interested in returning to the game for MoP & the new class (or even panda race) the idea of having to sludge through 73 levels of old content i've already done on other characters several times is completely off-putting to me. The hour or two you get in the new starter zone isn't enough to warrent going through the old stuff yet again. I'm sure it will put off alot of returning players too.
So after level 12 it's all the same ole garbage.
How much is this expansion going to cost? Anything more than 2 dollars is to much cash for a Zynga product.
I totally agree with the comments on this thread.
I don't see the evidence to support the author's views in the article.
I want to be excited. But, ugh...
Its going to be AAWWEESSOOMMEE, all you no-fun-grandpas can go shopping for more slippers!
It's so cool to hate on WoW. It's been cool for 7 years.
Haters can hate all they want. It's not going to spoil how much I'm looking forward to this
Cataclysm was very meh IMHO. I enjoyed the leveling experience, but there was not enough to do at 85 and what there was to do wasn't fun because it was either the same as WotLK or in the case of heroics, too time consuming and frustrating to play with a PUG because of the increase in difficulty. It seems Blizzard realized that and is trying to fix it in MoP. I don't care if some of those things are obvious Pokemon or Farmville ripoffs. As long as it's fun. Furthermore, I don't give a damn about the whole Kung Fu Panda thing either. I've wanted to play a Pandaren ever since before WoW came out and that predates Kung Fu Panda by a long shot. Now I'm finally getting the chance and the female Pandaren is cute as all hell. Disneyish? Hell yeah - not gonna argue there for one second... but I love her anyway. Childish because I wanna play something like that at the age of 39? Perhaps. But it's my life and if it turns out there's no such thing as Heaven or reincarnation, it would suck not to have done something I consideer fun just because somebody else thinks its childish. So, warm friendly panda hugs from me to all the haters
I'm a big ol' fluffy carewolf. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
I can't fault the whole 12-85 thing but as a minor bone of sorts I'll throw you the reminder that you get the content 85+ as well for existing characters or as a reward for slogging though 12-85 content all over a gain lol.
Can see Blizzard's angle too, make players run through all the same content with a few changes here and there and they think it will feel like twice the content.
I think I will buy and play it a little, if only because the collectors edition, which will no doubt have the same re-hashed content all over again, will complete the set on my shelf.
That Panda in the screenshot is brown. Brown pandas are caused by inbreeding. WHAT KIND OF SOCIETY CAN WE EXPECT IN PANDERIA, BLIZZARD!?
I'm sure the starting zone is fine, the Panda race just doesn't really appeal to me though and neither does WoW anymore.
On the topic of the 12-85 grind, there is no way Blizzard is going to redo the zones again just for 1 race to level to cap. I think the monk should have been like the deathknight and start at 55 in its own zone or a 2nd race should have been released along side it so it doesn't feel like the expansion is a bit meh (I haven't seen anything for higher level players or for people who can't be bothered with Pandas).
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
Is it me or does that "Panda" look like a female dwarf with some copy and paste features? Looks more like a mix between a drawf and a bear....
Cata was bad because the redid every zone from 1-60. BC and Wotlk were both great. MoP will be great, you can tell they are adding a ton of different things fo people to do at cap.. the problem with cata is the only thing to do were heroics, which were much more difficult than what most were used to coming out of wotlk.
But yet, it is cool to hate.
I can't believe people are hating on the fact that 12-85 will be the same leveling content as before. Show me a game that redoes all it's previous content completely every expansion. MoP is an expansion, not WoW 2.0. You'll get a new race, starting zone, new features like pet battles, scenarios, challenge modes, a new class on the monk, and level 85-90 content together with 14 new raid bosses, 2 world bosses, 9 heroic 5-man dungeons, hundredts of new items and monsters. Seriously, what ese did you expect? A relaunch of a completely new WoW?
I think what Azrile was saying was that Cata was bad because of all the time and resources that were spent revamping the old world rather than being used to make more, interesting, new and unique end game content. That led to the lack of end game and getting bord and burned out quickly. Since they do not have such an undertaking for MoP, they were able to spend time on things like challenge modes, scenarios, pet battles, etc.
skip this- n just go to the article below-ats where its at!
Pandas and Pokemon is Blizzard's answer to SWTOR, Guild Wars 2 and The Secret World.
Either someone at Blizzard wants to lose their job, or they know their competition is so lackluster, they just wanna prove it by turning their 2003 April Fools joke into an expansion and still release a product that beats them into the ground.
2-3 months after SWTOR, I'm starting to think it's the latter.
People keep repeating the mantra that "Pandaren have been in Warcraft lore a long time now!", but the thing is, I don't think many of us here give a damn. I'm willing to bet the majority of us aren't Warcraft lore junkies, and no matter how much you insist Pandaren have been in older games and the novels (because I definitely have a ton of interest in reading mediocre book adaptations of a video game!), it still just looks overwhelmingly like Blizzard is trying to market this game to 10-year olds and grovel for Mothers Against Videogame Violence and Addiction.
amen.
i mean, there's a reason pandas are endangered.
its cool to hate. it has been like this for so many years :x
*tilts head*
Habitat destruction and poaching, coupled with the low adaptability of pandas and their terrible fertility?
I mean, lets be honest: real pandas are multiple times cooler than these god-awful cartoon cheese-balls Blizzard is spewing on us as a player race. So I'm not sure I'm seeing the connection.
*shrug* It's been cool to hate for years because Blizzard has been steadily dropping the age of their target demographic for years. Honestly, I was a denier up until Pandaren, but my God, seeing the next player race as big happy panda bears is a bit too much. That, and it's obvious to everyone that the "war" in warcraft has been gone for years now. All the conflict has been directed against the Burning Legion/Arthas/whatever dragon flight that was in Cata that I never bothered caring about... Outside of Battlegrounds, as far as I can see, the Horde and Alliance are one big happy family, no matter what B.S. Blizzard spews in marketing.
It's all very sanitized now.
A game HAS to be dark and gritty, or else it's childish. Look at Minecraft during daytime, it's for kids man, but at night - ooh zombies, scary, mature, awesome. Magic the Gathering is of course also childish.
Modern Warfare 3 though, now that's a mature game right there only played by grown-ups.
Let's ignore the fact that they're actually bringing WAR back to Warcraft.
Eleanor Rigby.