Mists of Pandaria Review

[Greg Tito]

So yeah, this is kind of a cynical point of view, but it's how I feel; it's the point of view of a player who played WoW frequently for several years, leaving and coming back, giving it multiple chances to both the game and to Blizzard. But no matter how much they improved (or if not improved, just shook up) the gameplay, they never did anything to address this issue I've just described; their client treatment.

In short, to hell with WoW and to hell with Blizzard. I've joined Guild Wars 2, I'm enjoying it immensely, and so far ArenaNet has treated me far better as a customer than Blizzard did. It's still pretty young and GW2 does have room for improvement, but so far they've done better right out of the gate than a lot of MMOs, WoW included, and I've got a lot of hope for 'em as time goes on.

I have always played Wow how I want to play it. I like the story and the quests, I don't have to do what you assume other players are doing, racing to the end game. Based on my experience and the comments here, players in MoP are taking their time to enjoy the new content despite what you absolutely know to be true.

You are free to do what you like, but that doesn't change my opinion that this new expansion is excellently designed.

 

[scw55]

Slow down

yet you're paying a subscription fee to pay. Understand that some players may want to burn through content.
I've experienced with no subscription fee I do slow down and relax.

Blizzard are very good at polishing what already exists. To some people, they want advancement as well as refinement.

 

[Mike Fang]

This is what I gathered:

"QQ Blizzard doesn't cater to me. Screw Blizzard Long Live New MMO #123214!"

Also Guild Wars 2 is a great game. It is just a shame that it has little to no endgame content (much like SWTOR).

Eh, sort of, I guess. Thing is it's not just me I feel the game's not catering to, but it's also not catering well to any new clients; I think that's a big damn group of people to be slighting.

As to GW2 and little to no endgame content, I wouldn't know since I haven't maxed out yet, seeing as how the game's not even 2 months old yet. But I'm sure there will eventually be additional content added, and eventually expansion packs will be coming; I'm just hoping they give players adequate time to enjoy and explore what's already there before adding even more.

 

[Mike Fang]

I have always played Wow how I want to play it. I like the story and the quests, I don't have to do what you assume other players are doing, racing to the end game. Based on my experience and the comments here, players in MoP are taking their time to enjoy the new content despite what you absolutely know to be true.

You are free to do what you like, but that doesn't change my opinion that this new expansion is excellently designed.

*shrugs*

S'your time n' money. Go nuts.

 

[Greg Tito]

I always thought WoW catered to new players very well and MoP is no different. I don't understand what your gripe is exactly, Mike.

Greg

 

[Greg Tito]

Slow down

yet you're paying a subscription fee to pay. Understand that some players may want to burn through content.
I've experienced with no subscription fee I do slow down and relax.

Blizzard are very good at polishing what already exists. To some people, they want advancement as well as refinement.

Oh you can totally race to the end if you want and there's a lot more content ready for you when you do than in other expansions. I'm just saying with MoP it's more pleasurable than ever to just take your time leveling through the new zones.

 

[Joriss]

This review pretty much reads my thoughts. I couldn't care less about the expansion in the start, because seeing Panda's getting added permanently to the world of warcraft, seemed like a bad joke. Until I try it out and got suckered in. Pandaria is an awesome place with great quests that indeed, want you to slow down and enjoy the ride. Not rush to lvl 90 to start raiding, 'cause that ain't new.

I couldn't care less though still for the pandara as a playable race. Tried one for 10 minutes and I thought, yeah not gonna happen! The monk class is pretty sweet though. Nothing says awesome like roundhouse kicking a bird in the mouth!

 

[scw55]

Slow down

yet you're paying a subscription fee to pay. Understand that some players may want to burn through content.
I've experienced with no subscription fee I do slow down and relax.

Blizzard are very good at polishing what already exists. To some people, they want advancement as well as refinement.

Oh you can totally race to the end if you want and there's a lot more content ready for you when you do than in other expansions. I'm just saying with MoP it's more pleasurable than ever to just take your time leveling through the new zones.

I'm glad.
I'm just concerned that players who may be alert of personal cash flow may be too distracted with 'getting value for money' than actually taking time to enjoy themselves.

 

[Catrixa]

Posting this as an outsider looking in, reading meticulously every change that they have made with the patches leading up to Panederia, but one of the things that I loved the most about World of Warcraft was its talent trees, and how they made every character class feel unique and special.

With Panderia, this feature seems all but removed. You just pick your role, and it assigns your talents for you; giving you access to abilities without much choice or speciality to speak of... with the exception of a few small choices like "increased run speed" every 15 levels.

Why would they do something like this? I mean, it's one of the biggest criticisms that World of Warcraft gets in the MMO Space: that being its extreme simplicity. Why would the developers say "Let's make it easier!" knowing this.

Or am I wrong?

Honest responses please. I could very well be mistaken, but this is how everything seems to read, and it's holding me back from getting Panderia.

Forgive me if this is a bit redundant; you've already gotten some good explanations here.

I feel like this is less about hand-holding and more about providing actual choices to the player. Extra Credits actually did a pretty good job of explaining it awhile back (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg8fVtKyYxY&feature=g-user-u). During the "leveling phase," most of your talent points went into things that looked useful at the time, and this was fine. But once you hit the "end game content" phase, it all boiled down to: "What will increase my ability to fulfill my role effectively?" This lead to a lot of people complaining about wanting to play a certain way, but that not being an option, because another class/tree was simply mathematically better.

The idea with talent trees now seems to be: how do you want to play? I think there are still some calculations in there (such as damage skills and survival skills on the same tier), but I feel like it's less mandatory to pick only the best talents for your role and more open to pick things you think could be useful (such as another CC or buff for your teammates).

I'm not an expert by any means, but it seems like they were going for choice over calculation.

 

[Azeal]

I don't play WoW, but came here to say the Blizzard had pandarens before Kung Fu Panda even had trailers. Idk if they show up before W3, but I loved using them as an extra hero I even based a monk character in DnD off of the Pandaren brewmaster from DotA, anthromorphic panda and all.

 

[Xanrae]

Posting this as an outsider looking in, reading meticulously every change that they have made with the patches leading up to Panederia, but one of the things that I loved the most about World of Warcraft was its talent trees, and how they made every character class feel unique and special.

With Panderia, this feature seems all but removed. You just pick your role, and it assigns your talents for you; giving you access to abilities without much choice or speciality to speak of... with the exception of a few small choices like "increased run speed" every 15 levels.

Why would they do something like this? I mean, it's one of the biggest criticisms that World of Warcraft gets in the MMO Space: that being its extreme simplicity. Why would the developers say "Let's make it easier!" knowing this.

Or am I wrong?

Honest responses please. I could very well be mistaken, but this is how everything seems to read, and it's holding me back from getting Panderia.

Being forced to waste your time researching the best talent distribution while having no say in the matter is not "choice".

It's like saying Diablo 2 offered so much build freedom - no it didn't, you just had to do your homework and make one of the few viable builds or else you couldn't farm at peak efficiency. Diablo 3 threw it out and of course people whined about the lack of permanency, by which they meant the game was less punishing to other people and therefore "less fun" to them.

 

[Rad Party God]

I think that the majority of people complaining for the monthly fee aren't capable of paying $15 a month and/or can't play the game enough to justify the cost.

Seriously, $15 a month isn't that much for an MMO and arguably it's one hell of a price for the amounts of entertainment you get for it.

That said, It's been a long while since the last time I played WoW... and I'm a bit curious now.

 

[maxben]

I know i'm just a killjoy but... mists of panderia, kind of racist?

Absolutely. At least, most of the voice acting is. Almost every main villain sounds like everyone's impression of an angry Japanese man (including the occasional "L"/"R" switch-up).

I don't think that there's any real harm intended, but you can't deny that it's stereotypes a-plenty.

Sure, but you have to blame Tolkein for that. The idea that races are distilled into very specific stereotype in fantasy is nothing new.
And anyhow, we've had the stereotypical tauren native american thing for a while now, and the troll Caribbean thing

 

[Rad Party God]

Snip.

Sure, whatever you feel comfortable with, I still think it isn't that much money and I'm not actively playing any sub based MMO currently (though I loved The Scret World), to me, it's not an excuse.