Does the theme of an expansion matter in terms of success?

[zephid]

It would probably have mattered for some people, but not for me. I really don't care about the theme as long as the raid instances are good, and the quality of the raids have nothing to do with the theme of the expansion.

MoP has been one of the best, if not the best expansion in terms of raid quality. TBC is the only expansion that can compete with MoP so far.

[Thaag]

It's really really out of the norm for a fantasy game, unless you're playing something along the lines of Dynasty warriors, or age of wushu. A lot of people feel it is too foreign, and honestly I kind of agree. I would've been fine with some asian, or even mostly asian, but nothing even whispers that it might be western, in pandaria.

I don't play asian games, because I don't like asian culture. I play western games, I am from the west. I want western themes, norse and greek are what made me like swords and axes in the first place.

I'm western too, but I've been enjoying the way Pandaria lore *and* the current events in the Horde have followed from plots and lore established in LK and vanilla. Examples:

1. Titan influence. The Mogu were Titan constructs, much like the dwarves, vrykul/humans, tol'vir, and gnomes. This is why they are obsessed with the concept of animating statues--much like the Neferset, they want to return to their stone selves.
2. Old God influence. The Mantid are obvs another branch of the Azj'aqir that were stuck on the landmass that became Pandaria after the Sundering along with Y'Shaarj, the Old God that led them. And the Mogu became organic creatures via the same Curse of Flesh that afflicted the aforementioned in point #1.
3. Garrosh was showing his true colors and motives all through LK and Cata (seriously, I can list almost every point at which he does in Northrend alone from Warsong Hold to the Orgrim's Hammer). And you say he's only now being set up as a bad guy? Saurfang Sr had him figured out in Warsong Hold and warned him accordingly.

This is all stuff I've picked up by simply reading quest text, in-game books found all over the place, flavor conversations, and observing the flow of the stories that raids themselves tell.

I'm not a huge fan of Eastern mythology and aesthetics, but I'm still enjoying the hell out of MoP. I refuse to roll a panda, but I'm enjoying playing an orc monk. I hate "kawaii" stuff but I only see disgustingly kawaii junk is the panda cubs. I've had as many chills and chicken skin as belly laughs. I'm finding MoP to be a welcome departure from pure gloom and doom that LK and Cata gave us (not that I don't like gloom and doom but it gets old when telling very long stories). There's a new learning curve and some streamlining but really, if a middle-aged fart like me can deal with it anyone can.

[Hitei]

I'm western too, but I've been enjoying the way Pandaria lore *and* the current events in the Horde have followed from plots and lore established in LK and vanilla. Examples:

1. Titan influence. The Mogu were Titan constructs, much like the dwarves, vrykul/humans, tol'vir, and gnomes. This is why they are obsessed with the concept of animating statues--much like the Neferset, they want to return to their stone selves.
2. Old God influence. The Mantid are obvs another branch of the Azj'aqir that were stuck on the landmass that became Pandaria after the Sundering along with Y'Shaarj, the Old God that led them. And the Mogu became organic creatures via the same Curse of Flesh that afflicted the aforementioned in point #1.
3. Garrosh was showing his true colors and motives all through LK and Cata (seriously, I can list almost every point at which he does in Northrend alone from Warsong Hold to the Orgrim's Hammer). And you say he's only now being set up as a bad guy? Saurfang Sr had him figured out in Warsong Hold and warned him accordingly.

This is all stuff I've picked up by simply reading quest text, in-game books found all over the place, flavor conversations, and observing the flow of the stories that raids themselves tell.

I'm not a huge fan of Eastern mythology and aesthetics, but I'm still enjoying the hell out of MoP. I refuse to roll a panda, but I'm enjoying playing an orc monk. I hate "kawaii" stuff but I only see disgustingly kawaii junk is the panda cubs. I've had as many chills and chicken skin as belly laughs. I'm finding MoP to be a welcome departure from pure gloom and doom that LK and Cata gave us. There's a new learning curve and some streamlining but really, if a middle-aged fart like me can deal with it anyone can.

I'm not sure you're using "kawaii" in the correct pejorative sense, uguu.
Li Li is SO KAWAII, panda cubs are just cute.

[Thaag]

I'm not sure you're using "kawaii" in the correct pejorative sense, uguu.
Li Li is SO KAWAII, panda cubs are just cute.

Point taken. You can see how versed I am in Japanese memes.

[Khaza-R]

How much does the theme of an expansion contribute to the success or failure of the expansion? Lets say that MoP would have been about a fan favorite area like Argus or the emerald dream. Every thing else was the same. Would it have turned out any differently?

I don't understand how Argus could be considered a "fan favorite" when we know absolutely nothing about it. We don't even know if it still exists.

Personally I think Argus would make for a horrid expansion.

[reef]

for me, its not so much the theme as the changes. i really didn't like the static mana change among many other changes that mop brought which deterred me from playing as much as i used to.

[LocNess]

To be honest, they didn't miss anything at all. At least raiding wise. Even Cata was better.
Overall it is a good expansion, but they could've not chosen something as ridiculous as Asian themes and pandas.

And on the other side of that coin, I think this as long as SoO goes well, this could potentially be the best raiding expansion we have ever had.

But I am kind of meh on the theme. I don't like Pandaren as a race, I just can't accept them no matter how hard I try. The whole asian appeal is good in small doses, but it is weary at this point for me.

[iamthedevil]

The name is the first thing people are going to see.

[Xargoth6634]

I'll probably play it no matter what the theme is or end boss, I enjoy the lore but I don't get super invested normally. (Although MoP has done a pretty good job of building up to making me hate Garrosh and looking forward to killing him, I think they did well with that.) I have to say that when I heard the end boss of this xpac was going to be Garrosh though, it was a let down and it made me feel kind of meh about it. I'll definitely spend more time playing if the theme is underwater or south seas than a legion outer space xpac, but that's just personal preference.

Blizzard can't please everyone.

[Asrialol]

Of course, that's the reason why WotLK was the best expansion if someone is saying that success depends of how many people subscription the game.

Oh?

WoW had 8 million subscribers in January 2007. This was when TBC was released. When Wotlk was released, the game had 11.5 million subscribers. Cataclysm was released December 2010, at which point the game had 12 million subscribers. When MoP was released, it had 10 million subscribers. Now, it has around 7.7 million subscribers.

Yes, the amount of subscribers was steady around the 11-12 million mark during Wotlk. However, during from the start of TBC to the start of Wotlk, the game grew by 3.5 million subscribers. Was that because of TBC, or because people wanted to play Wotlk? Sure, I can only speculate.

However, Wotlk was announced August 2007. By which time the game had grown from 8 million to 10 million. Meaning more subs were gained before Wotlk was even announced.

[Chickat]

That doesn't show the info from Blizzard's press releases and jumps a whole year from Q4 2008 to Q4 2009.

Correct me if im wrong, but wasn't hat the time Wow was banned in China? if so its quite unfair to say wow subs dropped when the players over there didn't have a choice in the matter.

[Durandro]

And until 5.1 and beyond, the game seriously felt like...not warcraft. It was as if someone took the WoW engine and made a completely unrelated story that happened to feature our characters from azeroth.

So you've completely forgotten everything that happened beforehand that is completely unkiddy, I see. The intro questchain alone is filled with large pitched battles, mass death and destruction and enslaving the local population!

And then you're forgetting the Sha, Yangoul, Zandalari, Mogu and Mantid quests and zones. Which are all 5.0.

Stop being silly.

[hrugner]

So you've completely forgotten everything that happened beforehand that is completely unkiddy, I see. The intro questchain alone is filled with large pitched battles, mass death and destruction and enslaving the local population!

And then you're forgetting the Sha, Yangoul, Zandalari, Mogu and Mantid quests and zones. Which are all 5.0.

Stop being silly.

In that quote he says nothing about the game being "kiddy", he said it didn't feel like Warcraft.

[Aquamonkey]

Correct me if im wrong, but wasn't hat the time Wow was banned in China? if so its quite unfair to say wow subs dropped when the players over there didn't have a choice in the matter.

Except subs also dropped in NA and EU. And that massive drop in WoWEast from the ban isn't counted in the total. And when WotLK was release in China, the subs barely went up.

[TwoNineMarine]

For me the theme is huge. For whatever reason I love the Legion and all that it entails. I loved BC so much. I'd love to see them back. I didn't even get MoP at launch because it didn't interest me. I'm not subbed at the moment for that same reason. I'll be subbing again for 5.4 and then to prep for the next expansion but otherwise MoP doesn't do it for me.

[melodramocracy]

It all matters. The theme, the quality and quantity of the leveling content, all things end game.. all of it.

[kenshinag]

To me, when considering the "overall success" of the game based on subs and subsequently the money Blizzard makes, then yes it does. A lot of people looked at MoP and said "WTF Pandas and Pokemon" and never gave it a shot. Blizz lost a chance at making a lot of money this way. This is the way the general population thinks. Hive mind and all that. The ones that judged it for themselves had a variety of opinions though. But yes, the hive mind followers of society, whom make a big portion of the market that can support your product have to have something that make them and all their friends happy. Free thinking is a rarity these days.

However, with that said, as a person who grew up watching Kung-Fu movies and likes those themes, I fricken love this expansion. I feel that they did well on their storytelling, as the Sha and Mantid are very bloody and brutal themes of this expansion (for those dark and gloomy types). I hated seeing Arthas all over WotLK. I loved Ulduar. I loved all of BC being in outer space. I think I'm just tired of stories being retold and want new and fresh content. I want to take my characters that I've been playing with for years, and explore the world and experience new themes and fight new bad guys. This is what I fell in love with in this expansion.

I really hope the next expansion is similar to MoP. Not in similar asian theme, but in direction as I want to fight new big baddies with rich history being told by the zones and culture throughout. HoF and the Dread Wastes is such a great example of this. We've never experienced it or the story before, but we know there's an immense amount of corruption that is driving these Mantid crazy to have them want to kill all the other races on Pandaria. Further research shows that it's the Sha of Fear manipulating them and that you need to stop this. You learn about the history of the Mantid and how their government is supposed to be kept in check, and if it is not, the history's strongest warriors will be awaked to bring back balance to their race. The idea that you were the strongest of your race at a certain time in history and people adored you and felt you to be the bravest of your kind. Instead of withering away and dying now your job is to be an immortal hero to be counted on until the end of time to be a trump card for your race's survival. That's an amazing story. I was hyped as hell to go into HoF and stop the Empress!

[rebecca191]

I can't say whether I would have stayed subscribed since I can't say for sure how I would have felt about the gameplay and raids, but after not enjoying Cataclysm, I needed something that would make me feel excited about WoW again. And the MoP theme did not give me that feeling. I didn't think it was too childish or cute, heck Gnomes are one of my favorite races, I just didn't think it was an interesting direction for the story. Argues, I would have tried. I might have hated it as much as Cata if the gameplay I didn't like in Cata remained the same, but I would have given it at least a few months.

[Vargur]

Someone clearly only raids in LFR.

Yes, clearly.

[Venziir]

To some yes, to other no.