'World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria' misses the mark with kung fu pandas

[yjmark]

WoW is still bleeding subs so it's clear to assume that Pandas did miss the mark.

Correlation =/= Causation

If Blizz released some other expansion instead of MoP, do you assume that subs would not have bled?

[melodramocracy]

Correlation =/= Causation

If Blizz released some other expansion instead of MoP, do you assume that subs would not have bled?

You honestly believe that the overall content of this expansion isn't responsible for a portion of the sub losses?

[Immitis]

an awful lot of people have voted in the last year via their subscription dollars.

Whether the news analysis of reasons is right or not, who knows, but the game has been shedding people since a few weeks after MoP hit the street after a weak uptick when it released.

over 40 million people have quit wow since it started.

just as many people quit because "wtf is this space goat retcon scifi bullshit" when bc came out as the people going "er mah gerd pandarz"

the only difference is that back then there was a south park episode entirely devoted to it, there were celebrity adverts all the time with people like mr t, the only competition it really had was everquest so wow was the only casual mmo on the market, and it had the original momentum of the warcraft 3 fanbase.

[Leare315]

I feel like this is going to go down as the most underappreciated expansion. The content was amazing but you had to get past the "lol, pandas" stigma to really see it. I agree though, the next expansion has to be bleeding warcraft or there'll be fanwide outcry. We need horde, alliance, ogres and nasties or this xpac is going to get the same(albeit much lessened) treatment.

[Deleted]

Pandaland was a failure, that much is obvious now a few years after the release.

Those who said it was a bad idea from the start were right.

tbh, I just pity the people still playing this sad, childish game. Grow up, kids.

Infracted.

[Deficineiron]

You honestly believe that the overall content of this expansion isn't responsible for a portion of the sub losses?

the general theme on this forum is that cat. release tuning WAS responsible for sub drops (because it was HARD), but any other speculation (10/25 lockouts, pandas, McContent instant consumption, etc) is just conjecture.

[Deleted]

Fair enough. If that is a reason to quit, you missed out on a lot of not Pandarian stuff. Your loss really - but if you are happy in another game, more power to you.

i followed most of the story on forums etc but I just think WoW-lore is getting out of hand and I don't like the direction it's going in. thus, pandarens where the last straw.

Each to their own opinion, if you like the expansion, i'm happy for you.

[Deficineiron]

Pandaland was a failure, that much is obvious now a few years after the release.

Indeed, being able to post from the year 2015 on this thread gives you an unfair advantage, sir.

[Deleted]

The overall impression of the expansion has been underwhelming, mainly because the radical shift to a more "light-hearted" theme matters more for a lot of people than the various features the expansion introduced.

If the cover has a panda on it, even though the lore has lots of WAR in it, it will fail in comparison to the game that has a dragon and/or something much more sinister-looking on its cover.

I hope they will go back to the true Warcraft, the one that most fans know the game for and the one that most fans during this expansion PROTESTED FOR.

Otherwise the game's future has been vitiated.

[therayeffect]

Consdiering it was true for most polls on most websites (including MMO-Champ polls), I would have to ask "why wouldn't you believe that?"

This guy has it fairly right. I was one of those people suggesting they give us Pandas back in the day because I liked them in Warcraft III. The problem was, they came off as so childish and goofy and extremely 'kung-fu panda-like' that they were really offputting. For me personally my biggest dislike about this expansion was the massive daily grind focus at the start. It REALLY killed my interest in this game, so much so that I've spent like half of the expansion no subscribed, despite the amazing endgame. I'm back again but the other big problem is that my ded ass server is so useless that I can't do anything. Everyone xferred off already. To me the daily grind and my server being super dead is what really killed the expansion. Lots of other things I'll gripe about but those two are the biggest.

[Immitis]

The overall impression of the expansion has been underwhelming, mainly because the radical shift to a more "light-hearted" theme matters more for a lot of people than the various features the expansion introduced.

If the cover has a panda on it, even though the lore has lots of WAR in it, it will fail in comparison to the game that has a dragon and/or something much more sinister-looking on its cover.

I hope they will go back to the true Warcraft, the one that most fans know the game for and the one that most fans during this expansion PROTESTED FOR.

Otherwise the game's future has been vitiated.

except deathwing was on a cover, and he was a fucking armored dragon with red eyes and magma coming out of his arse with and damn exploded world for the symbol.

[Gadfly]

Yes, people wanted Pandaren, but I think a vast majority of those did not want a Panda themed expac.
Should have let them show up to help with a conflict. Maybe convinced by Chen. And then the only area's that are themed that way are the starting zones and maybe a dungeon or 2.

The content of MoP was great. I was just a little put off by the theme, still am. I had a majority of my 10 man guild leave because of the theme and panda's.
And only a couple came back. Whether it was good or not doesn't matter, the theme and marketing of the expansion hurt the brand to much. And they spent most of the time trying to make that ground up.

Cata did not bomb because the theme was bad. It had a few issues. (Almost the opposite of MoP, good theme bad execution)
Most of the time/content was spent on the old zones. So it felt lacking for people starting in the new zones.
Heroics were too hard at first for casuals. They ran out if things to easily do and so they started leaving.
The raids were meh. Ragnaros and Nefarian again?! Stop re-hashing characters we killed as new bosses.
People wanted to explore the Neptulon angle and blizzard just left them high and dry.
Then Dragon Soul was out way to long. People played it out and had nothing to do.

Blizzard needs to make sure they pick a great/epic theme, and continue with the level of execution they set with MoP.

[Stormspellz]

This has been the best expansion in all aspects by far since TBC in my opinion. Speak for your fucking self. I'm so tired of people like this.

this, warcraft lore has always been well; everywhere, scifi themes, norse inspiration, religious inspiration, egyption inspiration, and eastern inspiration fits as well as any of them

as for content, aside from the usual "its coming" fixes to pvp, pve has been the best since tbc other then the slippery slope of how bad scaling has gotten out of control.

[Deleted]

The pandas have harmed the image of the game.

Right, because before the Panda's the games image was one of a serious and sophisticated MMO...

[Stormspellz]

Right, because before the Panda's the games image was one of a serious and sophisticated MMO...

ya mean talking cows, murlocs, spacegoats!! but no no panda warriors is were we draw the line!!!

I got a spaceship, or tanks, missiles, guns but i'm still going to swing my sword around for war!!!

[Deleted]

I feel like this is going to go down as the most underappreciated expansion. The content was amazing but you had to get past the "lol, pandas" stigma to really see it. I agree though, the next expansion has to be bleeding warcraft or there'll be fanwide outcry. We need horde, alliance, ogres and nasties or this xpac is going to get the same(albeit much lessened) treatment.

No it wasn't. The settings are just dull and uninspired. Maybe it's just me not being into the whole Asian thing though.

[rasako]

over 40 million people have quit wow since it started.

just as many people quit because "wtf is this space goat retcon scifi bullshit" when bc came out as the people going "er mah gerd pandarz"

the only difference is that back then there was a south park episode entirely devoted to it, there were celebrity adverts all the time with people like mr t, the only competition it really had was everquest so wow was the only casual mmo on the market, and it had the original momentum of the warcraft 3 fanbase.

gotta love how that number is constantly shifting anywhere from 20-50 million, just goes to show how little any of you actually know

[Deleted]

Right, because before the Panda's the games image was one of a serious and sophisticated MMO...

Kind of.

The box arts, and the names, was always more fitting for the Western market. Pandas and the word Panda appearing on box art isn't that interesting for Westerners.

[melodramocracy]

Right, because before the Panda's the games image was one of a serious and sophisticated MMO...

Certainly more serious than when MoP was initially presented. I'm not sure how this is even debatable.

[Nerraw]

I thought we had left this idiocy behind more than a year ago. Jesus Christ.