Mists of Pandaria

[Simond]

Every time someone talks about how 'Pandarens are a joke' I can't help but picture them as this bloke now: http://youtu.be/9UwYSreSL3o?t=8m27s

[Merusk]

My destro lock always felt like my fire mage, back when I played them both in LK.

Ditto. And the affliction lock felt a lot like a shadow priest with a pet. dot, dot nuke.

Soul shards aren't entirely gone, though.  They're not the bag item they used to be but you've got that 3-tick indicator now that starts out full but then empties.  (wtf is it with the designers and 3-combo-point systems? Pallies and locks both and I expect Monks to be similar.)  I think that's what they're going to have not the old system.

Every time someone talks about how 'Pandarens are a joke' I can't help but picture them as this bloke now: http://youtu.be/9UwYSreSL3o?t=8m27s

Me too. While I'm not thrilled with the talent changes the guys whining about Pandarans seem to take themselves and the game too seriously.  There's been a constant thrum of desire for them and the brewmaster since the game first launched because of the one included in WC3.  It's not a huge surprise they'd make it into the game eventually.

[Kirth]

Achievements will now become available at the Battle.net account level. Many achievements will be shared among characters, including those for raiding and maxing out professions.

This alone almost makes me want to resub....

[sinij]

I think wows decline has less to do with cataclysm crazyness and more to do with dozens of free2play games nipping at the heels with less and less gamers growing up with subscriptions as the preferred model.

I know you are trolling, but you are playing with fire by saying thing like that. Remember why these games are F2P? Because they got run into the ground by trying to compete with WoW. Even with full-on Retarlism expansion these games could not compete with WoW.

[Merusk]

Achievements will now become available at the Battle.net account level. Many achievements will be shared among characters, including those for raiding and maxing out professions.

This alone almost makes me want to resub....

A player explicitly asked about mount and pet-granting achieves, these will not be account-wide when the system launches.

[Kirth]

Achievements will now become available at the Battle.net account level. Many achievements will be shared among characters, including those for raiding and maxing out professions.

This alone almost makes me want to resub....

A player explicitly asked about mount and pet-granting achieves, these will not be account-wide when the system launches.

I'm ok with that.

[Merusk]

Ok, just wanted to state it as lots of folks seem to be excited about that so they don't have to do old raids and long strange trip on alts for the mounts.

[Ingmar]

I've played Warlock off and on over the years, and while I've never quite gotten one to max level, at no point did I ever think "Man, this feels like my Mage but with a pet and a second resource system."

I can certainly understand Blizzard's line of thinking with the addition of spec-specific resources for Warlocks, but I question how much of it is necessity and how much is change for change's sake.

Were you playing destruction? That's the one they specifically singled out as being 'mage like'. Affliction's resource thing isn't changing (they will still use the soul shards) and I guess demo is just going along for the ride since they wanted to fix destruction.

[Ingmar]

Pandas? Really?

Cock off.

Cow men, regular bear men, hyena men, wolf men, all fine... but pandas? YOU GO TOO FAR, BLIZZARD. 

[Fordel]

HERE AND NO FURTHER!

[Ingmar]

Meanwhile, the fat silly walrus men are going "shit, I hope nobody remembers us!"

[Fordel]

They are having a dinner party with the rainbow colored birdmen.

[Simond]

[Cadaverine]

A race of anthropomorphic pandas living on some lost continent is somehow less serious, or more ridiculous, than goat men from outer space crashing to earth?   I can't fathom why gamers, and players of WoW in particular, aren't taken seriously.  

I'm actually somewhat interested in this expansion, even if it's a long way off from live.  Sadly, it won't fix the thing that turned me off most of all, the other players.  

[Sjofn]

Meanwhile, the fat silly walrus men are going "shit, I hope nobody remembers us!"

I remember them, I'd play the shit out of a fat, silly walrus woman.

[SurfD]

They forgot the snake people, cathorselion people, and birdelf people as well.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Call the bird what it is, a skeksis.

[Rokal]

I know you are trolling, but you are playing with fire by saying thing like that. Remember why these games are F2P? Because they got run into the ground by trying to compete with WoW. Even with full-on Retarlism expansion these games could not compete with WoW.

You are such a shitty troll. Game that has replaced WoW for many people? F2P game built from the ground up as a F2P game, doing extremely well. You could have seen this by noticing how active the League of Legends board is compared to any other game-specific board or thread on this website, or by stepping out of your bunker for a few days. Honestly, just stop posting.

[koro]

I'd love a playable Arakkoa race.  

I've played Warlock off and on over the years, and while I've never quite gotten one to max level, at no point did I ever think "Man, this feels like my Mage but with a pet and a second resource system."

I can certainly understand Blizzard's line of thinking with the addition of spec-specific resources for Warlocks, but I question how much of it is necessity and how much is change for change's sake.

Were you playing destruction? That's the one they specifically singled out as being 'mage like'. Affliction's resource thing isn't changing (they will still use the soul shards) and I guess demo is just going along for the ride since they wanted to fix destruction.

Nope, I played mainly Demo and Affliction, with a little flirting with Destruction.


And Xfire is about as accurate a representation of a game's population as my left nut. You may as well be quoting VGChartz.

[sinij]

I know you are trolling, but you are playing with fire by saying thing like that. Remember why these games are F2P? Because they got run into the ground by trying to compete with WoW. Even with full-on Retarlism expansion these games could not compete with WoW.

You are such a shitty troll.

I guess there is a reason "following section is paid advertising" line put in newspapers, some people have zero ability to detect PR BS. WoW "dethroned" by LoL? LOL! As much as I want to see WoW era to conclude, it isn't happening yet.

[Rokal]

I think a sample size of 19 million gamers is pretty valid. Whether or not you agree with the article, here is what you need to take away from it that is relevant to this discussion: there are F2P games nipping at WoW's heels that aren't failed subscription games. If you don't think a popular game like LoL is competing for WoW's community, you are kidding yourself.

[sinij]

From the link:

As of today, 15 million people have registered to become League of Legends players. Each month, over 4 million people log in to play.

4 mil / 12 (factor of F2P to Sub revenue ratio) = about 333K subs. Respectable number but not anywhere close to putting a dent into WoW, even if you assume every LoL player is ex-WoW and stopped subscribing to WoW to play LoL.

This number DOES show that WoW should pay more attention to PvP, specifically Arenas, but even if they don't they have nothing to worry about from LoL.

[Simond]

http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2011/october/art12.jpg

"Long ago in an ancient land; I, Aku, shape-shifting master of darkness unleashed an unspeakable evil" etc. etc.  

[Azazel]

I note that for all the hand wringing nobody is willing to disagree with my assertion that reviews of SWTOR will specifically contrast the tone and narrative of SWTOR to WoW and specifically the to Pandaren expansion.

Who the fuck cares? Reviewers will find a point of contrast towards the #1 game in genre in their reviews of a newer game? Really? You fucking think?

Shit, next you'll be telling us that reviews of Battlefield 3 and MW3 will compare the two games.


Or to paraphrase.. you:

Do you really think you are making some sort of novel point ..?

[Ratman_tf]

A race of anthropomorphic pandas living on some lost continent is somehow less serious, or more ridiculous, than goat men from outer space crashing to earth?   I can't fathom why gamers, and players of WoW in particular, aren't taken seriously.  

No, the whole game has gone from semi-serious with a joking side, to 4chan meme-a-thon retartedness. Oh, look! The game has murlocs! Therefore every NPC should make a fucking fart joke. 

[Ingmar]

A race of anthropomorphic pandas living on some lost continent is somehow less serious, or more ridiculous, than goat men from outer space crashing to earth?   I can't fathom why gamers, and players of WoW in particular, aren't taken seriously.  

No, the whole game has gone from semi-serious with a joking side, to 4chan meme-a-thon retartedness. Oh, look! The game has murlocs! Therefore every NPC should make a fucking fart joke. 

Rose-colored glasses, dude. I wielded a rolling pin for a few levels at vanilla release, my mage friends all had radar dishes on their hats, and the hardest fight in Stratholme was a ghostly mailman that made Karl Malone jokes. WoW has *always* been silly.

[Miasma]

Only two of the current playable races are animal based, Tauren and Worgen.  They are based off of legends which are dark and interesting, Minotaur and Werewoves.  They were pre-anthropomorphized for us, that's why they are easily tolerated.  Pandas are just straight up talking animals, cute ones.  Listing all the other races based off animals are red herrings.

I would hate the idea of having to group with playable murlocs and tuskarr too but at least they aren't adorably cute.  Whenever I play now all I can do is imagine how I would feel about some of the cooler quests if pandas were involved.

- Tirion Fordring challangeing the Lich King on top of Ice Crown citidel, he is a panda.
- Following Thrall into battle in the undercity, he is a panda.
- Fighting Nefarion, his humanoid form is a panda.
- Culling of Stratholme, Arthas is a panda.
- Panda Maiev Shadowsong confronting Illidan.
- It was AV weekend, Panda Drek'thar.

God damn it.

[Ingmar]

OK now make them all gnomes, or goblins.

[Miasma]

I'll stick with the worst case scenario - pandas.

[caladein]

Gnomes are worse unless everyone is a gnome, then it's just normal.

[Ingmar]

Yeah frankly every single one of those I think would be even more silly with some Wilfred Fizzlebang-voiced gnome compared to some serene-sounding monk panda type. Or Fat Tony the goblin who knows a guy.

[Setanta]

I'll stick with the worst case scenario - Space Goats.

Fixed for relevance.

[apocrypha]

Cow men, regular bear men, hyena men, wolf men, all fine... but pandas? YOU GO TOO FAR, BLIZZARD.  

To be honest my "this is ridiculous" response would be lessened if there was anything that actually sounded interesting about this expansion. Or if the pandas had some kind of long entrenched place in the game world outside of an April Fools joke and a seasonal event about beer.

I'm not really finding myself reading any of the features they've announced and thinking "Wow! That sounds awesome!". The only things I've heard of since stopping playing WOW that have made me think about resubbing are transmogrification and LFR, but they weren't enough to actually bring me back.

I also thought that the Draenai and Worgen and Blood Elves were pretty ridiculous too if that makes any difference. Telling me that you don't share my feelings about pandas is fine, feel free to feel how you like. But apparently telling me that how I feel isn't valid for some reason seems pointless to me. It's not going to change my feelings, but feel free to try if you want. Knock yourself out.

[Ingmar]

Hey, you don't like what you don't like. I mean, I still hate the stupid motorcylces. I just find the reactions staggeringly illogical here.

[Ratman_tf]

A race of anthropomorphic pandas living on some lost continent is somehow less serious, or more ridiculous, than goat men from outer space crashing to earth?   I can't fathom why gamers, and players of WoW in particular, aren't taken seriously.  

No, the whole game has gone from semi-serious with a joking side, to 4chan meme-a-thon retartedness. Oh, look! The game has murlocs! Therefore every NPC should make a fucking fart joke. 

Rose-colored glasses, dude. I wielded a rolling pin for a few levels at vanilla release, my mage friends all had radar dishes on their hats, and the hardest fight in Stratholme was a ghostly mailman that made Karl Malone jokes. WoW has *always* been silly.

Defias questline. Onyxia attunement quest. The Paladin mount quest. WoW wasn't always silly all the time.