In his latest column, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Bill Murphy wonders what's up with all the hate towards Mists of Pandaria, the recently announced fourth expansion to World of Warcraft.

I see the reactions in our forums to the recent Blizzard announcement of Mists of Pandaria, the 4^th expansion to World of Warcraft.  And after taking the lot of them in, ruminating on it all, and spending a lot of time sick from BlizzCon with fever-induced hallucinations of Jack Black and Sho-Nuff running around in panda outfit… I have to say, why all the hate?

Maybe I’m just getting old, but I see every single change coming to game with Pandaria as a potentially awesome thing of awesomeness.  The Pet System, striking a resemblance as it might have to a certain Nintendo property, is bound to give me hours on new stuff to do in the game because I like turn-based battle systems, I like pets, and I’ll love growing them, customizing them, and fighting them like an Orc version of Michael Vick.  The new Scenarios, though seemingly ripped from LotRO’s Skirmishes will likely again give me more of what I need from WoW these days: quick, accessible content that I don’t need to have too long set aside to complete.

Read more of Bill Murphy's Mists of Pandaria Reactions.

I was under the impression that they are now on the fast track to releasing Expansions, blue posts even said the time between the cata & MoP expansions will be alot lower compared to the time it took between wrath & cata . I'd say 1st half of 2012. Definately not as long as untill after blizzcon of next year.

They can say whatever they want. The fact of the matter is this: the Panda has been bringing in TONS of complains, e.g., sassy, kiddy-like, april-fools lore, etc.

It was a bad move, IMO. They could've done so much more - something unique.

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Originally posted by precious328
They can say whatever they want. The fact of the matter is this: the Panda has been bringing in TONS of complains, e.g., sassy, kiddy-like, april-fools lore, etc. It was a bad move, IMO. They could've done so much more - something unique.

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But if Metzen’s words are to be believed, this expansion marks a turning point for WoW back into the whole WARcraft part of World of Warcraft.  But just exactly how they plan on accomplishing this is up in the air.

theres been some hints

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2528-Mists-of-Pandaria-Forum-Mists-of-Pandaria-Dungeon-Preview-Blue-Posts

Theramore Destroyed in 5.0?
So, at BlizzCon we provided a few details about a new expansion and how it's going to have an ever-growing focus on the fight between the Horde and the Alliance in the wake of dispelling many very powerful threats to all of Azeroth. Then we find out a vague detail that some sort of unrelenting attack by the Horde on Theramore is to come. The Horde, to remind you, is currently a faction with an overzealous ruler and significant turmoil among their faction leaders; while the Alliance has almost never been quite so unified and far removed from the days of imprisoning orcs.

The first pawn on the chess board of what is to be the story for Mists of Pandaria is being moved, and you're angry at whose turn is first? I only offer that maybe there's a little more to the Horde and Alliance story lines in Mists than an Alliance town being leveled... like the entire expansion story you don't know about yet. ;)

If you wanna make an omelette... (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Originally posted by lizardbones

 

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Originally posted by precious328
They can say whatever they want. The fact of the matter is this: the Panda has been bringing in TONS of complains, e.g., sassy, kiddy-like, april-fools lore, etc. It was a bad move, IMO. They could've done so much more - something unique.

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Where are these complaints? They aren't on Blizzards forums. Maybe the complaints are on sites like this, where everyone hates WoW anyway...but from Blizzard's perspective, their paying customers have been asking for pandas for years. They brought it up as a joke and the people who give them money loved it and then begged Blizzard for it.

 

Your kidding right?  I was just on Blizz forums and the complaints are rampant...of course I did notice that some of the threads I had read yesterday are not there any longer.  Blizz has asked us to trust them on this x-pac...they need to show me more than what they have for me to do that (yes I still play WoW).

Originally posted by lizardbones

Where are these complaints? They aren't on Blizzards forums.

yes there are

goto Blizzards mists forums

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/2592425/

Originally posted by lizardbones

 

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Originally posted by precious328
They can say whatever they want. The fact of the matter is this: the Panda has been bringing in TONS of complains, e.g., sassy, kiddy-like, april-fools lore, etc. It was a bad move, IMO. They could've done so much more - something unique.

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Where are these complaints? They aren't on Blizzards forums. Maybe the complaints are on sites like this, where everyone hates WoW anyway...but from Blizzard's perspective, their paying customers have been asking for pandas for years. They brought it up as a joke and the people who give them money loved it and then begged Blizzard for it.

 

Just in case you haven't looked hard enough.  There were more when it was first announced, but yeah they are complaining on the Blizzard forums.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3424467686

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3424463257

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3430934243

Kung fu Panda is only the beginning, the next two races would be Ninja Turtle and Power Rangers.... stupid Blizzard.

Well considering how much I disliked the current dumbed down skill system, it seems obvious to me I will dislike the new one even more.  The original skill system gave you a lot of choices and you could really make a unique avatar with them, the current system really restricts that and drawing that forward with another reduction in skill choices, it seems to follow that the new one will be worse.

Pet system, too kid like.  Of course that is not part of the game that interests me, never really collected them except for my rogue so that dungeon groups could see where I was.

The kung fu panda though just seems very cheesey to me.  You can bet I will not be playing such an avatar.

Blizzard is making Wow so that it is too easy.  There is no challenge like the game used to be.  It is all about pleasing the "I want it now" crowd and I really do not want anything to do with people who enjoy no challenge.

Needless to say, it will take Blizzard far too long to get this expansion out, meanwhile SWTOR will take the reins of the top MMO.

Oh and stop misusing the word "hate", dislike is a far better word.  Bad enough posters misuse it, let alone a staffer.

Originally posted by Blasphim

Originally posted by lizardbones

 

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Originally posted by precious328
They can say whatever they want. The fact of the matter is this: the Panda has been bringing in TONS of complains, e.g., sassy, kiddy-like, april-fools lore, etc. It was a bad move, IMO. They could've done so much more - something unique.

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Where are these complaints? They aren't on Blizzards forums. Maybe the complaints are on sites like this, where everyone hates WoW anyway...but from Blizzard's perspective, their paying customers have been asking for pandas for years. They brought it up as a joke and the people who give them money loved it and then begged Blizzard for it.

 

Your kidding right?  I was just on Blizz forums and the complaints are rampant...of course I did notice that some of the threads I had read yesterday are not there any longer.  Blizz has asked us to trust them on this x-pac...they need to show me more than what they have for me to do that (yes I still play WoW).

I trust they realize they messed up big time with cata. I know some people liked the new difficulty in the dungeons. I haven't personally had a problem with performing in them. I play with some real life, and online made friends however that have. Some of these people are 60+ and just can't do the dungeons because of a skill gap. They don't need to just L2P, they need something a little closer to wrath. Lets look at some things here. I trust that Blizzard is rushing things along, cause they want those wrath sub numbers back again, its why the only major content patch released was something that was suppose to be in the original xpac, and another raid was completely scrapped despite a whole zone and storyline being made for it, (Vashir) We will probaly see the new xpac in about april-may, kids will be getting out of school for the summer, and they are hoping they will be bored with swtor. 

Originally posted by precious328

They can say whatever they want. The fact of the matter is this: the Panda has been bringing in TONS of complains, e.g., sassy, kiddy-like, april-fools lore, etc.

 

It was a bad move, IMO. They could've done so much more - something unique.

Well, considering that the Pandaren were created BEFORE Kung-Fu panda, and the brewmaster was available as a hero class in WC3 about a decade ago, I'd say they are doing ok.

Sites like this and MMOChampion, which are also filled with people who don't play the game, are where I've seen the complaints. This site in particular is full of WoW haters, to the point of ridiculousness. On the official forums where you have to have an active sub to post, I haven't seen much in the way of complaints, and trust me, the masses have no issues pissing and moaning on the official forums.

Pandarens have been a popular topic for many years, and have been asked for, more specifically the Brewmaster has been on the want list for many of the subscribers.

Don't even think for a minute that the complaints you see on these forums, and other sites like this even remotely represent a majority. There is a silent minority who are quietly enjoying the game.

I still thing blizz is joking....and soon they will provide the real info on a real exp.

I hope Jack Black voices a panda, it would be hilarious. Seriously though, a lot of the hate for the expansion is for the wrong reasons... its kind of sad.

Originally posted by Kaneth

Originally posted by precious328

They can say whatever they want. The fact of the matter is this: the Panda has been bringing in TONS of complains, e.g., sassy, kiddy-like, april-fools lore, etc.

 

It was a bad move, IMO. They could've done so much more - something unique.

Well, considering that the Pandaren were created BEFORE Kung-Fu panda, and the brewmaster was available as a hero class in WC3 about a decade ago, I'd say they are doing ok.

Sites like this and MMOChampion, which are also filled with people who don't play the game, are where I've seen the complaints. This site in particular is full of WoW haters, to the point of ridiculousness. On the official forums where you have to have an active sub to post, I haven't seen much in the way of complaints, and trust me, the masses have no issues pissing and moaning on the official forums.

Pandarens have been a popular topic for many years, and have been asked for, more specifically the Brewmaster has been on the want list for many of the subscribers.

Don't even think for a minute that the complaints you see on these forums, and other sites like this even remotely represent a majority. There is a silent minority who are quietly enjoying the game.

 MMOChampion filled with people who don't play the game? When did that happen? 

The Panda's are what they are. I am completely indifferent to them. I hated the talent changes in Cataclysm, to me, it took what little customization there was out of the game, and I can say that  I probably won't like the talent changes for Mists of Pandaria. Granted, I probably won't be around to see them, anyway.

This expansion is going to MoP up the floor with the competition!

Well, I don't understand all the hate, I guess some folks take their WOW playing as serious business and the idea of Panda warriors offends them for one reason or another.  (I wonder how many of those same haters have issues with guys playing female avatars as well, interesting question)

Me, if I was going to play WOW I'd have no issue playing as a panda avatar. (and yes, I play female avatars sometimes)

The skills set revamp seems to be signficant, but I'm pretty sure it will all work out to be a decent system in the end regardless.

But I just have to say... you know there's a sticky thread in the forums for these sorts of discussions already right? Watch out or the mods will shut you down and warn you for creating duplicate topics. 

Talent system is going to suck even more than it does now, they're trying to oversimplify to avoid people having non-workable builds, but the reality is some of those builds were fun to play... and people miss them... and they could solve the issue entirely by making more slots you can switch between and still giving people options... but they keep narrowing the options and gutting the system further and further and people are less and less happy with it. I've yet to hear a single person say they like the current system better than the old one... and I doubt I'll hear anyone say they like the upcoming system much more than this one. The more they remove peoples options and force people into a cookie cutter shape the less they appreciate it.

The new class and race? nifty. nothing revolutionary, but nifty. I like the new mechanic.

Pokemon? no thanks... they really stole far to much and aren't bothering to put in enough depth to make it worth a shit.

Shrug.

Edit: I had a heavy hybrid build in wow I used for soloing and it was a ball... now I can't even make something VAGUELY like it gameplay wise. In the new system *wince*. Bleh.

Edit2: No matter what system there is, if it offers options and customization there will be "non-workable" builds and such... and THATS OK. Wow seems to have forgotten that.