Mists of Pandaria

[canicus]

I don't think they've exactly lost their way, I think too much of any game and you're not going to see it like when you first played it, because it's just more of the same. Cataclysm wasn't a bad expansion, it's just too much effort was focused on touching up the 1-60 leveling experience, and that took away from work they could have put in for max level. it needed an overhaul though and it's good that they got it done

although, I do believe they might be sacrificing some lore just so they can push out more content for people to kill bosses, etc.....

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Orly? Huh. What about PvP? It's it still a pain in the ball sack to get basic gear when everyone else has the latest pvp gear and stomps on you ad nauseum?

Couldn't tell ya, I stay away from MMO PvP as much as possible since it tends to devolve into "my gear > your gear" or "my class > your class" crap, or even worse, CC trains stun-locking you until death. If I had to guess I would say that yes, you will get roflstomped for a considerable amount of time on an undergeared character in PvP.

 

[Baldr]

Oh forgot about the music, best music in WoW by far, I always hated most of WoW's music. I think I may buy the soundtrack when it comes out. Reminds me a lot of Jade Empire.

I'm surprised you say that. In my mind at least the music was quite possibly the most consistently good element of the game and its expansions. I mean Shaping of the World and the Song of Elune are just such great fantastical themes I actually know the names of the songs... do you realize how rare this is?

Not just the early songs either, I've liked pretty much all the music for the game. Hell, even Karazhan had a certain creepy greatness to its music. I loved how the farther up the tower you got the more ethereal and strange the music got till finally the climactic finish.

Matter of face I just straight up loved Karazhan. That place was a brilliantly done dungeon experience, probably my favourite in WOW. The fights were great, the visuals were superb, it had some great backstory behind it and the music was fantastically creepy.

And that's my problem with WOW as last I played it... there's just no sense of ambience or story. No rhyme or reason, just a bunch of stuff being thrown in because Blizzard thinks it might be cool. To be fair I'm one of the minority of gamers who played WOW because they legitimately loved the previous Warcraft rts and was eager to explore the settings and story hinted at in that series of games, but still of all the amazing things Blizzard could have done I feel like their current path is the easiest and laziest. I mean the generic 'asian themed expansion featuring ninja/kungfu/samuria/alloftheabove' is a hallmark of MMO creative slumps. Ultima Online, Everquest, and Age of Conan just to name a few different generations of MMO that've done the same bloody theme.

And so knowing the series lore I know there are just so many more interesting places the series could have gone that would have much more sense. Gameplay isn't enough to keep me playing an MMO anymore, nor is the community. No one I know even plays WOW anymore! If I were to return it would be because the games story has finally stepped up to do something interesting that I want to witness and be a part of...

Mists of Pandaland is not that. I'll pass.

(On a side note this was a lot of fun to type up. Love listening to all this music again!)

I admit there are some great older themes.

Storywise, I think this expansion has significantly improved story. There are only a couple races in Pandaria, Jinyu, Hozen, Mantid, and Grummie which you'll be taking quests from, but 90% of the time your dealing with the Pandaren. Pandaren society is pretty complicated, there a number of factions: Brewmasters(Artisans), Tillers, Anglers, Shadow-Pan(warriors-Monks), Golden Lotus(Priest-Monks), Cloud Serpent Riders, and Lorewalkers. Not every faction gets along with each other. I think they could have played up the mis-trust of the Pandaren of the outsiders(including the Wandering Isle brethren)

Previous expansion factions, basically have go a particular zone, meet with this faction that has lived in this Zone for some magical reasoning, pretty basic. In Pandaria, while each faction may have a hub, it not unusual to meet the same factions in different zones, each marked by their logo.

The problem is there is the whole expansion, your either fighting against the other player faction, mantid, mogu or sha, not enough diversity. Ok you defeated one Mogu boss, well the next boss going to be another slightly different looking Mogu.

Then of course there is Wrathion, talking about cryptic things that are going to happen in future expansions. So at least there is a long term goal/story for this game.

 

[The Madman]

I admit there are some great older themes...

snipped, don't worry, I read it all!

...Then of course there is Wrathion, talking about cryptic things that are going to happen in future expansions. So at least there is a long term goal/story for this game.

See, here's the problem... I don't care at all about any of that. It's all just new crap Blizzard whipped up specifically for this expansion to fit with the whole Asian theme. Never heard of any of it before save the Pandaren Brewmaster, and even that was just a gag mercenary hero from Warcraft 3.

Instead of making up new stuff why not either elaborate on what's already there or expand into locations already known about by never seen? That's what any decent fiction does. I'm so sick of Blizzard starting a story or creating a new character or location just to abandon them in favour of the next new shiny theme. What about Kul'Tiras? How're they doing? That's an entire human kingdom, one of exactly two supposedly still remaining and we've never even heard anything about the place. Speaking of which why when they did the whole Cataclysm revamp thing is Stromguarde still a hole in the ground? Why isn't Danath over there kicking up hell...

And for that matter, where the hell is Turalyon and Alleria? Turalyon was at one point the defacto leader of the entire bloody Alliance and he's just poofed. Is he in the Twisting Nether? That's awesome, why can't we go there too and find him? But even just returning to Azeroth what the blazes is going on with Azshara? She's supposed to be pretty much a living god easily comparable to Arthas or Deathwing, yet despite knocking on her front door we've seen and heard a grand total of zero from her... which just brings us back to the Old Gods, I played enough of Cataclysm to know they were setting up revealing the latest of those bastards so what ever happened to that? Or the Titans? Or even the damned Burning Legion and freakin Sargeras, the biggest baddie in the entire Warcraft setting. Hell I'd settle for even just seeing Kil'Jaeden again considering he's still out there as well.

I could go on and on and on, that's just pointless stuff floating around my brain box. So while Blizzard are happy to whip up new crap I'd much rather they'd have finished what they already started or at the very least made some basic attempt to resolve these things. Any one of those questions could easily have been retroffited into an expansion. Hell, mash a couple together; Where's Turalyon? He's stuck in the Twisting Nether trying to survive against Kil'Jaeden's Burning Legion with Sargeras lurking in the background. What's up with Kul'Tiras? Azshara, that's what.

But no, they went with panda. Freakin panda.

I got no problem with the guys showing up, whatever. But an entire expansion that just adds more nonsensical characters and arc to an already nonsensical story without resolving a single one of the lingering major threads?

No thank you. If I ever come back to WOW I'll save it for something interesting.

 

[Baldr]

I admit there are some great older themes...

snipped, don't worry, I read it all!

...Then of course there is Wrathion, talking about cryptic things that are going to happen in future expansions. So at least there is a long term goal/story for this game.

See, here's the problem... I don't care at all about any of that. It's all just new crap Blizzard whipped up specifically for this expansion to fit with the whole Asian theme. Never heard of any of it before save the Pandaren Brewmaster, and even that was just a gag mercenary hero from Warcraft 3.

Instead of making up new stuff why not either elaborate on what's already there or expand into locations already known about by never seen? That's what any decent fiction does. I'm so sick of Blizzard starting a story or creating a new character or location just to abandon them in favour of the next new shiny theme. What about Kul'Tiras? How're they doing? That's an entire human kingdom, one of exactly two supposedly still remaining and we've never even heard anything about the place. Speaking of which why when they did the whole Cataclysm revamp thing is Stromguarde still a hole in the ground? Why isn't Danath over there kicking up hell...

And for that matter, where the hell is Turalyon and Alleria? Turalyon was at one point the defacto leader of the entire bloody Alliance and he's just poofed. Is he in the Twisting Nether? That's awesome, why can't we go there too and find him? But even just returning to Azeroth what the blazes is going on with Azshara? She's supposed to be pretty much a living god easily comparable to Arthas or Deathwing, yet despite knocking on her front door we've seen and heard a grand total of zero from her... which just brings us back to the Old Gods, I played enough of Cataclysm to know they were setting up revealing the latest of those bastards so what ever happened to that? Or the Titans? Or even the damned Burning Legion and freakin Sargeras, the biggest baddie in the entire Warcraft setting. Hell I'd settle for even just seeing Kil'Jaeden again considering he's still out there as well.

I could go on and on and on, that's just pointless stuff floating around my brain box. So while Blizzard are happy to whip up new crap I'd much rather they'd have finished what they already started or at the very least made some basic attempt to resolve these things. Any one of those questions could easily have been retroffited into an expansion. Hell, mash a couple together; Where's Turalyon? He's stuck in the Twisting Nether trying to survive against Kil'Jaeden's Burning Legion with Sargeras lurking in the background. What's up with Kul'Tiras? Azshara, that's what.

But no, they went with panda. Freakin panda.

I got no problem with the guys showing up, whatever. But an entire expansion that just adds more nonsensical characters and arc to an already nonsensical story without resolving a single one of the lingering major threads?

No thank you. If I ever come back to WOW I'll save it for something interesting.

They just finished an expansion that went back and updated and elaborated past stories. Why would they go back and do that again?? They needed new content. And I didn't want to really post any spoilers, but yes Wrathion is most likely talking about the return of the real burning legion.

 

[Fappy]

Well OP, I am not going to dissuade you from playing something you obviously enjoy but the new expansion is definitely not for me. But then, WoW fell out of favor with me a long time ago.

 

[prigdishnak]

I played WoW some time around BC, mid way through I believe, and kept playing right up till a few months after Cata.

I was a sort of 'ghost player' in that I stayed clear of Guilds and the like for as long as I could. Wanted to see just how much of everything I could do totally solo. And it was awesome!

Then I got into one guild after another, something always createing some issue in which the guild would dissolve. I did always aim for small to medium sized ones since the larger ones seemed to usually be something like Fluffy Cookie Conundrum or other in my opinion overly silly thing, saw this even more when guild rewards and perks came in. Nothing wrong with it, I'm just an 'normal player' who happens to prefer rp drama over 'real' drama in PVP guilds.

Still fun for a good long while.

It was not untill I got my warrior, as tanks are easiest to solo level, to 85. Oh I spent awhile making this alt or that one, doing the DK part over and over again to get a small bed of gold on one server or another before getting bored and giving it away and deleteing all those alts.

Could not bring myself to delete my higher levels characters. Which really bothered me since I'm the sort that likes to play the first 20-30 levels over and over again. *laughs*
And when I truly tried hard to start over on another server I found, and I could be wrong here it is just how I felt, that the first 20 levels absolutely flew by compared to when I first started playing. I instantly had a sort of level-up jet lag and promptly uninstalled despite still having a month and a half left of time. *shrugs*

The only thing that could get me to buy Mists when it comes out is...
1. All races, cept for newest ones, get new faces and ALOT more options for character custimization.
2. This new talent system, which I have not tried yet, makes the initial few levels not whizz past me like a humming bird hit by lightning.
3. Killing Garrosh is something players like me could actually get into without having to have the absolutely best of the best gear that takes, I'm guessing, months to obtain and possibly a dozen friends who have already killed him and can carry you through it.

Cause I REALLY wanna kill Garrosh, even after all these months of being away from the game I would leap back in with a nice big smile if it means I get to take that brainless hunk of ego based meat down a few dozen pegs. They just really made him so gloriously wonderfull to utterly loath.

Here is hopeing. Nice post! ^^

 

[IamQ]

I don't play WoW anymore. I just see Pandaria as a joke expansion that's setting the game up for a free-to-play, microtransactions model. There was a time when Pandas were the butt of April Fools jokes and regardless of your positive take on events the only thing that would ever bring me back to WoW would be a complete and utter revert to Vanilla WoW, stripped of all stupid group finding mechanics and with 40 man raids back in.

Ah yes, those times were great. When druids only existed to give priests mana, when half of your raid could be asleep and turning encounters into a sluggish affair, when you spent more time grinding outside of raids than actually raiding,...

...good times. Now I agree that WoW lost direction, but vanilla really wasn't that awesome either (and it certainly was better than anything that happened after 3.1). The difference is that vanilla mishaps can be excused since it was a new thing back then. It's like Steam problems when that came out first. The current WoW mishaps are more like...Origin problems.

My opinion? The community makes or breaks an MMO. If it's too elitist and snobby, it's bad. If it's too focused on instant gratification, it's bad. Sure you can mainly ignore those who you don't really play with, but the shifts in the community are quite apparent whenever they happen...

That said, my WoW times are over, have been for a while. What do I miss from it? A couple individuals. Not the epics, not the kills, not my position in the rankings, but a few people who were really pleasant to be around.

I agree with you that Vanilla wasn't great for raiding, but I loved raiding in TBC. And contrary to what you said, druids did not only serve to give mana. Actually, in our guild, we had no resto druid. There was me, the feral druid, that tanked, and our balance druid for dps.

And about sleeping through raids, if you're sloppy during Gruul, you're gonna have a bad time.