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Thread: Mists of Pandaria tries to breathe new life into an old World of Warcraft [Joystiq]

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    Lightbulb Mists of Pandaria tries to breathe new life into an old World of Warcraft [Joystiq]

    Video games these days have a shorter shelf life than ever before. Titles fall out of the top ten within days or weeks (if they ever get there at all), there are awesome new releases arriving every month or so, and even the biggest games are on a yearly (if that) sequel schedule at this point. And yet World of Warcraft has remained a constant. Blizzard's MMO has held millions of players in sway for over half a decade, and those players have killed countless boars, cleared out endless quests, dungeons, and raids, and have vanquished not one but three world-threatening expansion bosses, in the forms of Illidan Stormrage, Arthas the Lich King, and Deathwing and his Cataclysm.

    So Blizzard is perhaps taking on its hardest task ever with the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion. There's no question in the halls of the (recently quieter) Blizzard campus in Irvine, California that the game is at a crossroads of sorts. Blizzard's formula for WoW expansions (define a baddie, and lead a player to gear and level up to the final fight) has worked so far, but it's almost as if the company realizes that the old tricks are getting old.

    Blizzard needs, then, to take World of Warcraft, one of history's most-played, most-traversed, and most-conquered games, and make it feel new. "This is definitely different fare from any expansion we've tried so far," VP of Creative Development Chris Metzen said in a presentation to assembled press. He then talked about the game on a much longer scale than a few weeks, a few months, or even a Call of Duty-length year. "The big global threat that's coming, to define the next couple years of WoW's gameplay, is really war itself."Gallery: World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (3/18/12)

    Continue reading Mists of Pandaria tries to breathe new life into an old World of Warcraft
    Mists of Pandaria tries to breathe new life into an old World of Warcraft originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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    There was a crazy amount of bitching on the WoW forums last night when this info dropped. It all looks like fun to me, but maybe I'm being extra forgiving, being that I haven't played for years on end.

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    Okay....looking at the photos (as I've never played WoW)-what demographic is this expansion trying to attract? The "hey yeah, I liked Kung Fu Panda" or, after seeing the two photos with two buxom female Pandarians (one wearing the same amount of clothes many fantasy human/elf women wear on the covers of fantasy games-ie not much), the WoW playing furry crowd?

    I dunno....I just don't know.

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    It's easy to understand why the hard-cores are up in arms about this. They've been spoon-fed the same formula for 3 expansions now. An expansion is announced, a big-bad is headlined, and the content is built around that build up to the end encounter. With MoP they have no announced big-bad per se, they're using the "environment of war" or something along those lines to headline things and the response from the player base has largely been indifferent. I'm not as big on my lore as I could be but it almost seems like they're running out of lore to mine for content. They have a few avenues left like the Emerald Dream and I'm sure at some point the "end" of WoW is the players taking the fight directly to the Burning Legion. Other than that though, I'm trying to think of what they might have to work with.

    At the very least, the Pandaria thing was something built into the lore that they one day could have fleshed out and that's what we're seeing now. If anything it'll present a chance for them to create some new lore to play with. The unfortunate thing is they're on a slippery slope with the whole Panderan thing ever since the release of the Kung-Fu Panda movies. Even though martial arts and pandas have been staples of Chinese culture for centuries, the LCDs out there can't seem to get past the animated movies to appreciate the design work they've put into building the expansion. The pics the Servbot linked to are all nicely done. Each of the pics still has the WoW look to them but still feels fresh and new at the same time.

    To be fair, I'm a very casual player compared to most others. I've done some hardcore raiding a few times but I got burned out on that with EQ well before I ever started playing WoW and it seems the shitheads have only gotten worse in regards to running raids. I hardly ever bother unless it's content that's rather old and a small group can roflstomp through it.
    "Ai Oboete Imasu Ka?"

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    Quote Originally Posted by Flashback2012 View Post
    With MoP they have no announced big-bad per se, they're using the "environment of war" or something along those lines to headline things and the response from the player base has largely been indifferent.
    It's not stated in that article (unless you read the comments), but the big bad was named: Garrosh Hellscream, the current leader of the Horde. Basically, both factions get fed up with him and the final raid is to take him down.


    They have a few avenues left like the Emerald Dream and I'm sure at some point the "end" of WoW is the players taking the fight directly to the Burning Legion. Other than that though, I'm trying to think of what they might have to work with.
    You know, that never crossed my mind. For months people have been telling me that the "end" of WoW will mostly likely entail the Titans returning and Azeroth coming together to either talk them down or take them down. I haven't worked my way through all of the Burning Crusade content, but I was under the impression that the Legion was more or less dealt with by the end of it.

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