Blizzard Entertainment and the World of Warcraft development team are ready to unleash the hounds of information for the recently announced Mists of Pandaria expansion. In our final article in today's suite, we present what we believe are five truly great things about Pandaria. Keep reading and then add your thoughts in the comments.

I was a skeptic. I really was. At BlizzCon, while excited about all the new stuff coming to Azeroth, I too wondered if Blizzard was jumping the shark with Mists of Pandaria.  But then this past week, I was privy to more info on their latest expansion than I ever expected.  I also got to play around with the Monk and some level 85s for a good long while.  In today’s List, I’ll recount the five best things I learned and discovered about Mists of Pandaria during my trip to Blizzard HQ.

Read more of Bill Murphy's The List: Five Great Things About Pandaria.

They might just pull me back in again...

They should have put the scenarios in the open world instead of just another type of instancing...  they could even have made some of these scenarios PvP... flagging you for PvP as soon as you accept the open world scenario.

Will this be enough to keep players paying their monthly subs, if GW2  is around by the time they release this expansion?

Personally I have to agree with Bill, these all seem like major additions that will be a big help to the game.  Not sure it is enough to get me to resub though.

The fact this game will have pandas will make it absoulte that I will never play again.   I always felt wow to be rather childish and cartoonish (I'd like to see the age demographics in this game).  I can put up with a little bit of childish things in this game but your Pokemon analogy does nothing for me other than want to facepalm.

If WoW is the flagship MMO in the modern era then the MMO is dead to me.

Originally posted by Rekindle

The fact this game will have pandas will make it absoulte that I will never play again.   I always felt wow to be rather childish and cartoonish (I'd like to see the age demographics in this game).  I can put up with a little bit of childish things in this game but your Pokemon analogy does nothing for me other than want to facepalm.

 

If WoW is the flagship MMO in the modern era then the MMO is dead to me.

I'm not knocking you at all Rekindle. I have just been wondering for months now why Pandas have been the childish cutoff for players. The average age for WoW players is 27...or atleast it was a couple years ago. Why when there are gnomes and goblins its fine, but Pandas are so childish? I don't care if it's a lump of crap, a daffodil, or a stick figure, if the gameplay is fun who cares.

Originally posted by Rekindle

The fact this game will have pandas will make it absoulte that I will never play again.   I always felt wow to be rather childish and cartoonish (I'd like to see the age demographics in this game).  I can put up with a little bit of childish things in this game but your Pokemon analogy does nothing for me other than want to facepalm.

 

If WoW is the flagship MMO in the modern era then the MMO is dead to me.

My feelings exactly.

Even though the game has had some silly things here and there, there's always been a more serious undertone to the overall game.

Adding pokemon battles and Kung-Fu Panda however... really shoves the ridiculous content in your face.

And yes, I know, Kung-fu panadas are part of lore from WC3... but it was a very minor role that could easily be overlooked. This expansion, not so much, considering it's the entire focus point of the expansion.

Originally posted by Rekindle

The fact this game will have pandas will make it absoulte that I will never play again.   I always felt wow to be rather childish and cartoonish (I'd like to see the age demographics in this game).  I can put up with a little bit of childish things in this game but your Pokemon analogy does nothing for me other than want to facepalm.

 

If WoW is the flagship MMO in the modern era then the MMO is dead to me.

 

 It`s not exactly a flagship anymore. I would say it is just a successful product that is currently hitting the transition between maturity and decline stage in its life cycle. (or maybe it`s there already).

Hopefully, Titan will become what you call a flagship of MMOs. I also believe ArcheAge may become successful. Agree that MMOs seem kind of dead lately. No innovation in past several years, declining WoW and nothing really new and revolutionary to be released in near future.

Originally posted by Amjoco

Originally posted by Rekindle

The fact this game will have pandas will make it absoulte that I will never play again.   I always felt wow to be rather childish and cartoonish (I'd like to see the age demographics in this game).  I can put up with a little bit of childish things in this game but your Pokemon analogy does nothing for me other than want to facepalm.

 

If WoW is the flagship MMO in the modern era then the MMO is dead to me.

I'm not knocking you at all Rekindle. I have just been wondering for months now why Pandas have been the childish cutoff for players. The average age for WoW players is 27...or atleast it was a couple years ago. Why when there are gnomes and goblins its fine, but Pandas are so childish? I don't care if it's a lump of crap, a daffodil, or a stick figure, if the gameplay is fun who cares.

For me there's two main reasons.

First is because of the Kung-fu panda movie. Every time I see or hear about Pandaren, I'm reminded of this movie. Not to say it was a bad movie... but it was a pretty immature movie in it's own right, considering it is meant for kids.

Second is because anthromorphized pandas are by far, not a standard fantasy race. Gnomes, goblins, etc, are. Even tauren are, (minotaur), as are Draenei (Demon variant).

Originally posted by Ceridith

Originally posted by Amjoco

Originally posted by Rekindle

The fact this game will have pandas will make it absoulte that I will never play again.   I always felt wow to be rather childish and cartoonish (I'd like to see the age demographics in this game).  I can put up with a little bit of childish things in this game but your Pokemon analogy does nothing for me other than want to facepalm.

 

If WoW is the flagship MMO in the modern era then the MMO is dead to me.

I'm not knocking you at all Rekindle. I have just been wondering for months now why Pandas have been the childish cutoff for players. The average age for WoW players is 27...or atleast it was a couple years ago. Why when there are gnomes and goblins its fine, but Pandas are so childish? I don't care if it's a lump of crap, a daffodil, or a stick figure, if the gameplay is fun who cares.

For me there's two main reasons.

First is because of the Kung-fu panda movie. Every time I see or hear about Pandaren, I'm reminded of this movie. Not to say it was a bad movie... but it was a pretty immature movie in it's own right, considering it is meant for kids.

Second is because anthromorphized pandas are by far, not a standard fantasy race. Gnomes, goblins, etc, are. Even tauren are, (minotaur), as are Draenei (Demon variant).

You to have stop looking at things from western point of view. Pandas have been a big part of asian culture and have been making appearnces in movie, comics and games in atnhromorphized form. This expansions is heavily inspired from asia and that makes Panda very standard fanstasy race.

And i think you forgot all the cries and screaming when Draenai was introduced? and now it is a fantasy standard. yeah right.

Originally posted by Ceridith

Originally posted by Amjoco

Originally posted by Rekindle

The fact this game will have pandas will make it absoulte that I will never play again.   I always felt wow to be rather childish and cartoonish (I'd like to see the age demographics in this game).  I can put up with a little bit of childish things in this game but your Pokemon analogy does nothing for me other than want to facepalm.

 

If WoW is the flagship MMO in the modern era then the MMO is dead to me.

I'm not knocking you at all Rekindle. I have just been wondering for months now why Pandas have been the childish cutoff for players. The average age for WoW players is 27...or atleast it was a couple years ago. Why when there are gnomes and goblins its fine, but Pandas are so childish? I don't care if it's a lump of crap, a daffodil, or a stick figure, if the gameplay is fun who cares.

For me there's two main reasons.

First is because of the Kung-fu panda movie. Every time I see or hear about Pandaren, I'm reminded of this movie. Not to say it was a bad movie... but it was a pretty immature movie in it's own right, considering it is meant for kids.

Second is because anthromorphized pandas are by far, not a standard fantasy race. Gnomes, goblins, etc, are. Even tauren are, (minotaur), as are Draenei (Demon variant).

Your reasons are sound and I respect them. My belief though is it is a "Fantasy GAME".  Since we are able to transform a tauren into a minotaur with our imaginations can't we change a bear into a panda? Its a silly game and we all act so professional and critical about it that we have forgotten that.

How do they do #1 without server merging? Whatever they introduce for pvp will have to be instanced. They have tried for 7 years to kill world pvp and the servers are utterly lop sided on balance.

Just not a big fan of this and it looks like more promises.

Pandaren have been in the lore since Warcraft III.  People have been asking for them to be included as a playable race in an expansion since Burning Crusade was first announced.  You're not going to fool anyone by pretending to be an internet tough guy and calling pandas "childish" when they're an established part of Warcraft lore and are no more ridiculous than blue space goats.

Get over yourselves.  Those of you who are satisfied with loot treadmills and are currently subscribed to World of Warcraft will continue to play it regardless of the Pandaren.

Ooh, liking the Farm idea.  It's a step in the right direction to those of us who have been asking for housing or something like it.

other then point 5 all of these "great" things are negatives in my book.

When did pointless fluff become great features being added to an MMO. o great i can play pokemon and farmville in WoW!!!

I am getting to old for the shit.

thank god for EVE.

Originally posted by Amjoco

Originally posted by Ceridith

Originally posted by Amjoco

Originally posted by Rekindle

The fact this game will have pandas will make it absoulte that I will never play again.   I always felt wow to be rather childish and cartoonish (I'd like to see the age demographics in this game).  I can put up with a little bit of childish things in this game but your Pokemon analogy does nothing for me other than want to facepalm.

 

If WoW is the flagship MMO in the modern era then the MMO is dead to me.

I'm not knocking you at all Rekindle. I have just been wondering for months now why Pandas have been the childish cutoff for players. The average age for WoW players is 27...or atleast it was a couple years ago. Why when there are gnomes and goblins its fine, but Pandas are so childish? I don't care if it's a lump of crap, a daffodil, or a stick figure, if the gameplay is fun who cares.

For me there's two main reasons.

First is because of the Kung-fu panda movie. Every time I see or hear about Pandaren, I'm reminded of this movie. Not to say it was a bad movie... but it was a pretty immature movie in it's own right, considering it is meant for kids.

Second is because anthromorphized pandas are by far, not a standard fantasy race. Gnomes, goblins, etc, are. Even tauren are, (minotaur), as are Draenei (Demon variant).

Your reasons are sound and I respect them. My belief though is it is a "Fantasy GAME".  Since we are able to transform a tauren into a minotaur with our imaginations can't we change a bear into a panda? Its a silly game and we all act so professional and critical about it that we have forgotten that.

 

For me, the problem is that the panda issue is irrelevant, yet this is the main focus for Blizzard.

The best part of WoW for me was Duskwood (I liked the spookiness). However, this was just a one-off.