Shared Topic - Mists of Pandaria

This week's Shared Topic at Blog Azeroth is a topic which no doubt people are probably tired of reading about (as it seems to be on everyone's blog) and that is Mists of Pandaria, the next expansion for World of Warcraft, revealed in Blizzcon.  Akabeko at Red Cow Rise put it forward and having read her post I thought I should write something as well, since I have been talking about it in game a little bit.

I first heard about it when I was in game.  I can't remember who told me about it but my first response to people saying "Hey, did you hear they're making Pandarens a race in the next expansion?" was "What, that old joke again?  Haven't they got a new joke?  I'm sure it's a joke."  This was because it was an April Fool Joke one year.

Anyway, but as the day went on, more and more people were talking about it so I decided to go see for myself, and it was true.

The first time they talked about Pandaren, years and years ago, I thought oh, they're ripping of Kung Fu Panda.  But I remember when I saw Kung Fu Panda, that I thought it ripped off a famous Japanese Manga/Anime, Ranma 1/2. 

So who doesn't know Kung Fu Panda? Po is the food loving, fat panda who loves Kung Fu and dreams of being a Kung Fu master.  He eventually becomes the Dragon Warrior through a hilarious training journey of unconventional means.

In Ranma 1/2, the story revolves around Ranma and his father Genma and other Kung Fu associates who visited cursed springs, where if you fall into a spring, the curse says you will take the form of whoever died in that spring when you are splashed with cold water.  Ranma falls into a spring where a young girl died, and Genma falls into a spring where a panda died.

But I digress.  Back to my reactions to Mists of Pandaria!

So when I found that they are making a new Panda race in the expansion, I thought, well I guess they need a Chinese stereotype character, to fit in with all the other races.  After all:

• Humans seem to be American
• Dwarves are Scottish
• Trolls are Jamaican
• Draenei are Indian or Romanian (accents are Romanian/Russian but they dance like Indians)
• Tauren are Native American
• Undeads are British or Londoners with all those Goth and punk looks
• Worgen are British too but posh ones
• Goblins speak like New York people but I think the are actually Ferengi (Star Trek)
• Orcs are African American
• Night Elves MAYBE Japanese (with their Zen type peace and those Shinto shrines everywhere)
• Gnomes talk like midgits, like Mini-me

So I wonder if they will have Chinese accents?  More likely they will have speak in the Kung Fu master type accent that you see in the movies.  And I wonder if their lore will follow a lot of Chinese themes.  Anyway, I think that might appeal to a lot of people.  And being Kung Fu Panda based, look at their racials:

So there is no big bad villain in this expansion like in all the others so far (after all BC=Illidan, WotLK= Lich King/Arthas, Cataclysm=Deathwing).  I guess they ran out of Lore.  One of my guildies, Azadelta, said that they need to make a Warcraft 4 so they can have more Lore.  I am hoping that all the levelling for 85-90 is done in Pandaria so that we can learn some of the lore out there.

Monk is a new class too, unique to Pandarians.  Another hybrid class, with Kung Fu DPS and Drunken master tanking and spiritual healing.  Another leather class... great.

But what really excites me about the expansion is the Pet Battle System.  Now we can battle with our pets, Pokemon style!  I've always thought collecting pets was like Pokemon, and now Blizzard is catering to the collector types as not everyone is into end game raiding.  I think this is a great move (some would think it was pathetic but hey if you don't like it, don't battle with your pets!), and I know I will go out there hunting for new pets.  I am so going to be a POKEMON MASTER!!!  And get this, you can go out and catch rare pets now like in Pokemon - you battle them and then catch them.  I wonder if they supply you with a pokeball to put them in as well. 

A couple of new talents for druids have been put up - the one that I am most excited about is healing shrooms, which I think is a fantastic new talent which fits very nicely in with the boomkin boomshrooms talent.  The new talent trees look interesting - I look forward to relearning all my healing again.

I am not sure the expansion is what a lot of WoW players wanted.  It's made the game more cute and appeal more to the not so hard core people.  Maybe we will have an influx of younger players.  Maybe an influx of more casual players.  I am sure a few of my guildies may decide WoW is no longer the game that they fell in love with and choose to unsub.  However, that clever bit of marketing for Diablo3 may have altered that so people may be in the game for another year still.  Either way, I am looking forward to the 5.0 like every other expansion - but I will enjoy learning my druid again.  I just hope I still have that knack of rapid adaptability.

So what do you guys think of the next expansion?  Going to keep playing or give up and go play Diablo 3 or SW:TOR?