The reasons why people hate Pandaren and what could had Blizzard done to prevent them

[liam78]

Do you HONESTLY believe the name, would have changed your mind? Your arguments thus far have been against the pandaren themselves, not the title. Most peoples' arguments who don't like the expansion have been the Pandaren themselves. They could have called the "The Lost Mogu Empire" and people such as yourselves would have hated it once you played it. The fact is, a name is just a name. A name wouldn't change anyone's mind ONCE they saw the content. The same threads and arguments would be made but with a different title for the expansion.

Not change my mind, but it would have alleviated the "inflammation" a bit. And every bit counts.

Pandas, pandaria continent, Mists of Pandaria expansion, panda, panda, panda and nothing else.

The name reinforced the idea that this was a "panda expansion", and not just a new expansion where pandaren become playable.

[Kaleredar]

Do you HONESTLY believe the name, would have changed your mind? Your arguments thus far have been against the pandaren themselves, not the title. Most peoples' arguments who don't like the expansion have been the Pandaren themselves. They could have called the "The Lost Mogu Empire" and people such as yourselves would have hated it once you played it. The fact is, a name is just a name. A name wouldn't change anyone's mind ONCE they saw the content. The same threads and arguments would be made but with a different title for the expansion.

Several people said they hated Mists of Pandaria and said things like "lol kitty panda XP" right when it was announced.

People's hatred of Pandaren is so incredibly superficial that I wouldn't doubt that some people decided to hate it just because of the name.

[Blufossa]

LOL

Who's authority do you think you are speaking with? Don't take it upon yourself to assume you speak for everyone, especially when most evidence points to you being the minority in addition to desperate if you think something like "You tube likes/dislikes" is any sort of admissible evidence.

But by all means, keep flopping around like Magikarp and grasping at straws.

This. While I dislike the female's dance with a passion, there is nothing wrong with the Pandaren as a race overall.

[keylime]

I like this expansion.

[Life]

I think a lot of you in this thread are misunderstanding why Pandas were received negatively by so many players.

IMO the real reason is because they were the focal point for an entire expansion, something that -no- other race has been before (you could argue undead was the focus of WOTLK, but (1) undead aren't a "silly" race like pandas and (2) it was the scourge, a diverse army of various creatures that just happen to be undead).

I think the backlash would have been just as bad, if not worse, if an expansion sent us to "murloc world" or we found some island that was the ancient home of the tauren and the entire expansion was so focused on 1 race.

Being the focus of an expansion, coupled with being a silly race, is what made Pandaren feel a bit off.



And for those of you who will say "hey, MOP wasn't focused on pandaren at all, it was about the Sha and the Mogu and the Alliance v. the Horde" ... you're missing the point. The -theme- of the expansion (even the name, for goodness sake) is panda. Pandaren are on the box cover, its called Pandaria, they are by far the most common NPCs you encounter in all the zones.

If Pandaren were put into the game at a reasonable pace like other races, nobody would have been upset.

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Not change my mind, but it would have alleviated the "inflammation" a bit. And every bit counts.

Pandas, pandaria continent, Mists of Pandaria expansion, panda, panda, panda and nothing else.

The name reinforced the idea that this was a "panda expansion", and not just a new expansion where pandaren become playable.

This.

If it had a different name, Pandaria was called something else, and we only ran into the Pandaren in 1-2 zones, that would have been fine. Remember when we went to Outland? it didn't feel like the overwhelming home of the Draenei or blood elves or anything else. It felt more diverse.

[Kudos]

I find this thread amusing. People complaining about the inclusion of the Pandaren race, and the lack of pre-existing lore and build up to their introduction. These same people then claim ignorance to Warcraft 3's Brewmaster, their inclusion in the card games, the Barren's quest for Chen's empty keg, the April Fool's day events regarding the Pandaren, such as the 2002 one, where Blizzard indicated they would be the 5th playable race in Warcraft 3, or the 2005 Pandaren Xpress April fools.

If you really are ignorant to all of these things, you clearly don't care enough about the lore, the world, or the expanded Warcraft universe for me to take your complaint seriously.

[Life]

i never understand the whole pandarens are childish thing. we have gnomes how the hell are they not childish?

They are. And a gnome-focused expansion would be just as bad, if not worse, than a pandaren-focused expansion. Thing is, we haven't had a gnome-focused expansion. They're just always hanging around in the background, being annoying :P

[Callous1970]

IMO the real reason is because they were the focal point for an entire expansion, something that -no- other race has been before (you could argue undead was the focus of WOTLK, but (1) undead aren't a "silly" race like pandas and (2) it was the scourge, a diverse army of various creatures that just happen to be undead).

The Pandaren wasn't the focus of the expac, though. The War between the factions, and the Sha/Old God bits were the focus of the expansion. The Pandaren were just one of the races that I "worked for" in Mists.

[Lothaeryn]

The Pandaren wasn't the focus of the expac, though. The War between the factions, and the Sha/Old God bits were the focus of the expansion. The Pandaren were just one of the races that I "worked for" in Mists.

What is the difference? You were fighting on THEIR LAND, imagine if BC took place in only Quel'Thalas and Blood Elves were the only race released, would you not say that expansion wouldnt be focused on the Blood Elves? Since no other territory was involved, its quite hard to distinguish between that line even when it comes to lore.

Pandaren weren't very liked because imo, they had too much of a carefree attitude towards everything, when we were going into a full on war. It was an entire conflict in themes that seemed very forced and disjointed when the expansion was introduced, and it put alot of players off, including myself.

[Callous1970]

What is the difference? You were fighting on THEIR LAND, imagine if BC took place in only Quel'Thalas and Blood Elves were the only race released, would you not say that expansion wouldnt be focused on the Blood Elves? Since no other territory was involved, its quite hard to distinguish between that line even when it comes to lore.

Pandaren weren't very liked because imo, they had too much of a carefree attitude towards everything, when we were going into a full on war. It was an entire conflict in themes that seemed very forced and disjointed when the expansion was introduced, and it put alot of players off, including myself.

I was fighting on those fish dude's land, and the monkey dude's land, and the cow dude's land, and the bug dude's land, and the mogu-statue dude's land, and the troll's land, and the panda dude's land. Did you even play this expac?

[Lothaeryn]

I was fighting on those fish dude's land, and the monkey dude's land, and the cow dude's land, and the bug dude's land, and the mogu-statue dude's land, and the troll's land, and the panda dude's land. Did you even play this expac?

gee, what do you think? i mean, you can quote me so easily, i thought you would have actually read it to its completion.

And who largely is represented in Pandaria? THe Mantid? The Jinyu? or any other sentient species on the continent? Or the one race that has its damn namesake on the continent... barring all other empires/races present.

[Melsiren]

RPG is not cannon.

WoW had no real tangible pandaren npc presence.

You understand the RPG guide was cannon up until the Blizzcon Right before MoP was announced right? I think it's a safe assumption that the RPG guide as made not cannon so they could update/add things like the Pandaren with out having people scream. "RETCON RETCON!" At the top of their lungs.

The point I'm getting at is for a very long time the RPG guide was cannon. It was made not cannon one year before MoP was announced. Lupii's argument still stands, if you understand the context of it.

[Thimagryn]

Draenei received equally negative reaction but not as much because there were no affiliated movie.

You understand that Pandaren NPCs would only reinforce the whole Kung Fu Panda thing. The haters would say Blizzard put those characters in the game only because of the movie, since they would only be NPCs with no background or reason to be in Azeroth. With Mists, they gave Pandarens a full history and reason for introduction. It should have removed all doubt that they are just Kung Fu Panda ripoffs, but people will think that way because they are biased.

So no, adding NPCs into WoW would not have done anything to prevent that. If anything, it would be more fuel for haters to hate. You can't change people's opinions about associating it with Kung Fu Panda. If it were that easy, then Pandaren in Warcraft 3 should have been enough proof.

[Life]

The Pandaren wasn't the focus of the expac, though. The War between the factions, and the Sha/Old God bits were the focus of the expansion. The Pandaren were just one of the races that I "worked for" in Mists.

Can't tell if you're trolling... lol... but just in case:

1. Name of the expansion: Mists of PANDAria

2. Character on the cover of the box: Pandaren

3. Dominant figure in the expansion opening cinematic: Pandaren (the one who makes a fool of the human and orc fighting, and still bothers to make sure a statue gets put back in its proper position, super campy)

4. Primary focus of the original teaser shown at Blizzcon: Pandaren monks

5. Vast majority of quest givers in Jade Forest: Pandaren

6. Vast majority of quest givers in Valley: Pandaren

7. Majority of quest givers in Krasarang: Pandaren

8. Vast majority of quest givers in Kun Lai: Pandaren

9. Vast majority of quest givers in Townlong: Pandaren

10. Vast majority of quest givers in Vale: Pandaren

11. Vast majority of quest givers and faction NPCs for Anglers, August Celestials, Emperor Shaohao, Golden Lotus, Klaxxi, Lorewalkers, Order of the Cloud Serpent, Shado-Pan, Shado-Pan Assault, Tillers: Pandaren

12. Mogu and Mantid best known for being long time enemies of: Pandaren

13. Alliance Horde conflict most tragic side effect is the harm to the: Pandaren





Should I go on? Or do you really want to argue that this expansion is focused on the Sha, the old gods, and the alliance-horde conflict?

[Usagi Senshi]

Pandaren are awesome and only losers hate them! Sorry, truth!

/thread

Goblins and gnomes are more kiddy yet no one raises a fuss about them. Some people I swear......

[Xeones]

No one with even a slight ounce of sense used Kung fu panda as a reference. It was completely senseless.

Pandaren have been the most requested race since classic. People knew they were coming. All the pandaren hate was people hating to hate. People didn't like Cata and for whatever reason let that hate get pushed onto this expansion to, and since they had few legitimate complaints they hopped on to something completely senseless to "complain" about.

[aerosyne]

Should I go on? Or do you really want to argue that this expansion is focused on the Sha, the old gods, and the alliance-horde conflict?

Yes, because it was. Do you even remember the opening cutscenes before either of the races make landfall on the continent of Pandaria? It's Garrosh and Varian complaining about the Horde/Alliance making further progress in the war than the team they're on, and that if they don't secure some part of the new land, they'll be doomed. Granted, Varian's is also about his son being lost on the isle, but that's not the focal point of the cutscenes.

Claiming the expansion is about solely Pandaren and pandas is like the new idiots being just that about the whole WoD time-travel debacle, or like saying Wrath wasn't about the history of a prominent lore figure and his backstory and influence, it was about death knights. If you honestly believe this, you aren't even borderline retarded, you are and you need to stop trying so hard. Watching some of this shit is like listening to Alex Jones 'connect the dots' on anything he's involved in; it's depressing, pathetic and worrying that the human race can spend so much time being so incredibly stupid.

Pandaren weren't very liked because imo, they had too much of a carefree attitude towards everything, when we were going into a full on war.

The FUCK are you talking about? It was made very clear from the start of the expansion that the Pandaren not only didn't want us there, but had no choice but to be complacent drunks; you're lack of comprehension of the story is nothing short of amazing. It's spelled out that the Pandaren are so jovial and peaceful because, if they aren't and go back to fighting like they used to, the Sha (the old god) will feed on that negative energy and grow stronger.

If you think people didn't like the expansion because of the variant directions, the art style or just the general lore, fine. But don't waste your time and everyone else's by positing something that can be disproved in a five-second span.

it didn't feel like the overwhelming home of the Draenei or blood elves or anything else. It felt more diverse.

The reason it felt 'diverse' is because there were bright colors, it was a unified continent and because each zone was themed well. People constantly overlook the fact that BC was solely themed on the Burning Legion with absolutely no unified plot from the get-go; it's simply believed that the plot was always existent because they injected one into it in patch 2.4 . It also feels better because people aren't looking at this kind of shit objectively from every angle; they let their emotions and their experiences drive their entire reasoning, and I really shouldn't have to explain why that is awful.

In Wrath, Cata and Mists, the zones were designed to have unified stories running through them and focus less on visual theming to build excitement. The problem with this is that the average video gamer now doesn't give a shit about that, and would much rather have the visual theming because the average gamer doesn't want to be 'bothered' with story; the average game simply wants action and visuals. That's fine, but that's not what WoW has been about, ever.


Also, since I don't believe it was brought up, Pandaren were requested from the start of Classic and were anticipated to be put in BC along with Ogres and were to be originally thought of as the 'Alliance' race. It's been a heavily discussed topic from the game's inception, and there have been numerous outside references and a couple of in-game references. While I don't disagree that they could have been discussed at more regular intervals in and out of the game, complaining that they were 'never referenced' is a waste of breath. If anything, Mists was HEAVILY overdue, as more players wanted Pandaren than Arthas, who is a far more prominent lore figure (and far more important) than Chen.

[Zeras]

meh, i dont really hate the pandaren. But it's alot of fun to do so sometimes.

though i am really looking foward to this upcoming orcus expansion.

[Deleted]

Do you HONESTLY believe the name, would have changed your mind? Your arguments thus far have been against the pandaren themselves, not the title. Most peoples' arguments who don't like the expansion have been the Pandaren themselves. They could have called the "The Lost Mogu Empire" and people such as yourselves would have hated it once you played it. The fact is, a name is just a name. A name wouldn't change anyone's mind ONCE they saw the content. The same threads and arguments would be made but with a different title for the expansion.

Yeah. No, it would have changed my mind. Together with a pre event, a better introduction, something physical, like npcs in capitals, AND less silly racials and meme languages on them.
Thing is, there is no other way of saying it. Blizzard got it wrong in here.
You don't come up with a race that many players never seen before and:

1)Don't introduce it before releasing an expansion called mist of pandaria with pandaren as main focus of their marketing
2)slap silly racials and a meme language on a controversial race (they WERE an april's fool at the end of the day) to reinforce their joke status (but we have to take them seriously!! Or as they would say in pandaren: nomnomnomNom nomnomnom.... *facepalm*)

These two factors are simple PR mistakes I was not expecting a company such as blizzard to do. It's their fourth expansion, and you get the marketing wrong?!

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So what if they didn't have any tangible npc presence? Draenei that are playable, NOT in pre bc. The lore had to be retcon for them to be put in. Blizzard HAS to make up new races, lore etc or they will run out. You talk about canon, the Pandaren ARE canon, they were established as CANON in WC3. Chen was with you when Org was founded, he had dialog in the game. Rexxar acknowledges him. It is not like a one off easter egg like the Lich King's helm in SC2. On top of which there was Chen's keg which is ANOTHER acknowledgement of him being there in WC3.



So what I get from this, is that the Pandaren are only childish because of KFP?

Draenei weren't the focus of tbc.

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I find this thread amusing. People complaining about the inclusion of the Pandaren race, and the lack of pre-existing lore and build up to their introduction. These same people then claim ignorance to Warcraft 3's Brewmaster, their inclusion in the card games, the Barren's quest for Chen's empty keg, the April Fool's day events regarding the Pandaren, such as the 2002 one, where Blizzard indicated they would be the 5th playable race in Warcraft 3, or the 2005 Pandaren Xpress April fools.

If you really are ignorant to all of these things, you clearly don't care enough about the lore, the world, or the expanded Warcraft universe for me to take your complaint seriously.

Ah shut up there are 4 references of pandaren in game, an OPTIONAL hero and some mobs in w3.
In wow:
Keg
One human kid talks about pandaria
Store pet
Fantasy picture fished in dalaran

Then all on a sudden.... BANG
were in pandaria helping pandaren.
*scratches head*

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The Pandaren wasn't the focus of the expac, though. The War between the factions, and the Sha/Old God bits were the focus of the expansion. The Pandaren were just one of the races that I "worked for" in Mists.

No you could have said that for the Draenei in tbc.
In mists of pandaria, pandaren were a massive focus of the expansion. The sha, mogu, mantid, all related to the pandaren and their struggle. I know they tried to go somewhere else in 5.1 and on, but the focus of this expansion when it started was this new continent called pandaria and the pandaren.
Saying otherwise is just delusional.

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Yes, because it was. Do you even remember the opening cutscenes before either of the races make landfall on the continent of Pandaria? It's Garrosh and Varian complaining about the Horde/Alliance making further progress in the war than the team they're on, and that if they don't secure some part of the new land, they'll be doomed. Granted, Varian's is also about his son being lost on the isle, but that's not the focal point of the cutscenes.

Claiming the expansion is about solely Pandaren and pandas is like the new idiots being just that about the whole WoD time-travel debacle, or like saying Wrath wasn't about the history of a prominent lore figure and his backstory and influence, it was about death knights. If you honestly believe this, you aren't even borderline retarded, you are and you need to stop trying so hard. Watching some of this shit is like listening to Alex Jones 'connect the dots' on anything he's involved in; it's depressing, pathetic and worrying that the human race can spend so much time being so incredibly stupid.



The FUCK are you talking about? It was made very clear from the start of the expansion that the Pandaren not only didn't want us there, but had no choice but to be complacent drunks; you're lack of comprehension of the story is nothing short of amazing. It's spelled out that the Pandaren are so jovial and peaceful because, if they aren't and go back to fighting like they used to, the Sha (the old god) will feed on that negative energy and grow stronger.

If you think people didn't like the expansion because of the variant directions, the art style or just the general lore, fine. But don't waste your time and everyone else's by positing something that can be disproved in a five-second span.



The reason it felt 'diverse' is because there were bright colors, it was a unified continent and because each zone was themed well. People constantly overlook the fact that BC was solely themed on the Burning Legion with absolutely no unified plot from the get-go; it's simply believed that the plot was always existent because they injected one into it in patch 2.4 . It also feels better because people aren't looking at this kind of shit objectively from every angle; they let their emotions and their experiences drive their entire reasoning, and I really shouldn't have to explain why that is awful.

In Wrath, Cata and Mists, the zones were designed to have unified stories running through them and focus less on visual theming to build excitement. The problem with this is that the average video gamer now doesn't give a shit about that, and would much rather have the visual theming because the average gamer doesn't want to be 'bothered' with story; the average game simply wants action and visuals. That's fine, but that's not what WoW has been about, ever.


Also, since I don't believe it was brought up, Pandaren were requested from the start of Classic and were anticipated to be put in BC along with Ogres and were to be originally thought of as the 'Alliance' race. It's been a heavily discussed topic from the game's inception, and there have been numerous outside references and a couple of in-game references. While I don't disagree that they could have been discussed at more regular intervals in and out of the game, complaining that they were 'never referenced' is a waste of breath. If anything, Mists was HEAVILY overdue, as more players wanted Pandaren than Arthas, who is a far more prominent lore figure (and far more important) than Chen.

This is so delusional I would call it borderline psychosis.

[Lothaeryn]

The FUCK are you talking about? It was made very clear from the start of the expansion that the Pandaren not only didn't want us there, but had no choice but to be complacent drunks; you're lack of comprehension of the story is nothing short of amazing. It's spelled out that the Pandaren are so jovial and peaceful because, if they aren't and go back to fighting like they used to, the Sha (the old god) will feed on that negative energy and grow stronger.

If you think people didn't like the expansion because of the variant directions, the art style or just the general lore, fine. But don't waste your time and everyone else's by positing something that can be disproved in a five-second span.

Ad Hominem all you got? cause all I see are just excuses for your line of reasoning why Pandaren were written to be a jolly go getter of a people, where there could have been thousands of other themes that could have been used for an oriental based civilization.

Maybe you should stop focusing on me, and instead explain to me why the fuck the only thing Blizzard could come up with for persona concept for Pandaren was fucking Chen Stormstout as the only persona available. I liked him as a character, I didn't want to see him as a whole fucking society though.

And a five second span? I never read up on the majority of MoP, but every source I see lists nothing but the above that I have listed, so don't give me your fucking reading comprehension bullshit when I've played this game since the franchise's inception, I know more about its lore and its history than you can justify with your confirmation bias.