What if MoP?

[Memnok]

What if MoP had focused on a Chinese themed group of Trolls or Humans. Would there still be all the hate for it. Take the pandas out of the equation, you still had a good leveling experience, good raids and dungeons, interesting patches that told a story as they came out. I rather enjoyed the expansion quite a bit. Were the pandas so awful that it ruined an entire expansion for people?

[Acelius]

What ruined it for me was the sillyness. I mean, dungeons about killing rabbits and monkeys? The pandas only added to the sillyness.

[Skulltaker]

What if MoP had focused on a Chinese themed group of Trolls or Humans. Would there still be all the hate for it. Take the pandas out of the equation, you still had a good leveling experience, good raids and dungeons, interesting patches that told a story as they came out. I rather enjoyed the expansion quite a bit. Were the pandas so awful that it ruined an entire expansion for people?

People wanted war, and got an alternate take on life in Azeroth. I think the biggest problem for MoP was that it came after the god-awfull Cataclysm.

[Memnok]

People wanted war, and got an alternate take on life in Azeroth. I think the biggest problem for MoP was that it came after the god-awfull Cataclysm.

I agree with you about Cata dragging down MoP.

[Alzerri]

I liked raid ideas and design and general story in MoP, but the everyday life of a panda and pandas as a race... It was a bit silly after we took down Ragnaros and Deathwing, saved the world, etc. Cata was pretty bad, especially when it came to the world redesign, but at least the story was epic enough. May be if it wasn't for actual pandaren, it would have been better, but they were that new culture to explore, trolls or humans might not have been that good. Anyway, my problem was not with the pandas themselves, but with the aftertaste of Cata, I wanted epicness, but got my little farm and a crazed orc instead. Though HoF, ToES and ToT were really nice storywise.

[Wyrt]

Anduin is basically a panda and I hate him, so, yes, I'd still hate pandas if they weren't pandas but were otherwise the same.

[Lochton]

Anduin is basically a panda and I hate him, so, yes, I'd still hate pandas if they weren't pandas but were otherwise the same.

Didn't make much sense, really. So, you hate a prince who's currently both a Paladin and a Priest? (It truly is a tough life for the light).

To the actual topic, I would hate it even more. For the trolls and humans wouldn't fit in at all (and the fact that we wouldn't have a whole new continent, it would just be 'Reclaim' stranglethorn as there was no other trolls about Pandaria till Lei Shen's spirit communicated with them.

In the theory of the OP, would find the Pandaren a better choice then trolls and humans.

[Deleted]

What if MoP had focused on a Chinese themed group of Trolls or Humans. Would there still be all the hate for it. Take the pandas out of the equation

I think if someone had given me a bunch of chinese trolls / humans, I'd be asking "Why the hell aren't these pandaren?".
Pandaren have been modeled on those cliche's and stereotypes.

I didn't like Pandaren being added to the horde / alliance, but otherwise the expansion was alright. I think it's biggest issue was that the Mogu and DINOMANCER Trolls that showed up were 10x more interesting than the pandaren, but race-swapping the pandas for humans wouldn't fix that.

[Wyrt]

Didn't make much sense, really. So, you hate a prince who's currently both a Paladin and a Priest? (It truly is a tough life for the light).

He's a lot like the pandas in philosophy which is the main reason I dislike the pandas. I don't like all their obnoxious finger wagging or all the useless garbage "wisdom" they spew out all the time. Anduin's basically the same thing except human.

And he's not a paladin.

[Boxilot]

I honestly couldn't care less about the pandaren. I mean I'd rather learn more about the ethereals, the dwarves, the gnomes, the arakkoa or really any other race that had been introduced but never really expanded too much upon.

Pandaria was pretty enough, I didn't mind that. It was nice to have an expansion continent again after the weirdness that was Cata. The chinese theme was a bit confused as it wasn't as much chinese as just generic south-east asian themes. I was also disappointed in their take on the Monk. I always thought world of warcrafts monks were like the scarlet crusade monks, you know crazy pugilistic paladins, but then they chose to make them into buddhist monks instead. So you know, the civil war, the escalation between horde and alliance, Anduin growing to take over as king, vol'jin becoming warchief, blood elves plotting to switch sides, Deathwings son striving for more power, monks as a class etc were a lot of, in theory, incredible happenings lorewise but to me they were all sort of overshadowed by pandas jumping out talking about peace and balance. The themes just didn't add up imo.

[Arrashi]

I think that the problem with MoP wasn't asian theme but how it was implemented/executed. If blizzard took it seriously it could be really amazing.

Instead we got pandaren who are arguably one of the most retarded races ever created in fantasy. They are basically brew stoners, who only jammer about noodles and lolbrew.

[Lochton]

He's a lot like the pandas in philosophy which is the main reason I dislike the pandas. I don't like all their obnoxious finger wagging or all the useless garbage "wisdom" they spew out all the time. Anduin's basically the same thing except human.

And he's not a paladin.

Ah, now I know what you mean. Well, that is sorta the excistance of Wrathion's fault, Blizzard wanted one to counter the other.

And about the paladin bit, I've said that since I saw it in MoP. A section of questlines where Anduin suddenly uses the spell, 'Avenging Wrath'

[Backjauer]

Much, but not all, of the hate seems to be against the "kung-fu pandas".

Frankly I think MoP had an engaging storyline where the conflict between the Horde and Alliance was more pivotal than ever, and featured the best storytelling we've yet seen in WoW.

The theme was a mix up of generic south east Asian stuff, but nobody batted an eyelid when they used a generic Nordic theme in Northrend. Not saying I preferred the Pandaren to the ...frost giant people whose name I've forgotten, but I'm amazed that anyone thought the Pandaren culture was going to be represented any other way, WoW is pretty much built on the appropriation of generic world cultures and fantasy tropes.

[Kolvarg]

What ruined it for me was the sillyness. I mean, dungeons about killing rabbits and monkeys? The pandas only added to the sillyness.

Yea, cause killing pig-men, hyena-men, horse-men, plants, raptors, fish-men, frog-men, worms and bugs back in vanilla was so much more serious.


MoP was a great expansion, with or without pandas. It had decent lore, it had a fresh take/prespective on things and overall like OP said a very solid gameplay experience from leveling to dungeons and especially raids.

[Wyrt]

MoP was a great expansion, with or without pandas. It had decent lore, it had a fresh take/prespective on things and overall like OP said a very solid gameplay experience from leveling to dungeons and especially raids.

I'll agree that the gameplay was really good. Raids were a lot of fun. But I disliked the panda story and the faction war story wasn't much better(I dislike the whole High King Varian crap).

[Itisamuh]

What ruined it for me was the sillyness. I mean, dungeons about killing rabbits and monkeys? The pandas only added to the sillyness.

This exactly, the silliness and the ridiculous peace preaching. My characters are warriors and mass murderers, as evil as the game allows me to be. There is no reason whatsoever that I should be sitting down with a monk, discussing peace and drinking tea. There is no reason I should be babysitting a bratty kid for an annoying drunk, or learning to be a farmer. Given the choice, I would have probably slaughtered that entire race. Every expansion has had its arbitrary filler quests, but that was taking it to extremes. Not to mention being forced to side with the traitorous rebellion, whether I wanted to or not. The entire expansion was just crappy for story, and the pandas were at the forefront of it.

[Kolvarg]

Instead we got pandaren who are arguably one of the most retarded races ever created in fantasy. They are basically brew stoners, who only jammer about noodles and lolbrew.

Have you taken a look at real life? Just because you don't like them or identify with them it doesn't mean they're a bad race/characters.

[Lochton]

Yea, cause killing pig-men, hyena-men, horse-men, plants, raptors, fish-men, frog-men, worms and bugs back in vanilla was so much more serious.


MoP was a great expansion, with or without pandas. It had decent lore, it had a fresh take/prespective on things and overall like OP said a very solid gameplay experience from leveling to dungeons and especially raids.

You forgot star-men, bug-men and.. well, list could keep on.

I liked the Pandaren, really. Another race that fit me (Brought the list to Tauren, Worgen, Dwarf, Pandaren)

[Arrashi]

Have you taken a look at real life? Just because you don't like them or identify with them it doesn't mean they're a bad race/characters.

As far as i know, drunkard and stoner aren't the most respected proffesions in real life.

[Boxilot]

Have you taken a look at real life? Just because you don't like them or identify with them it doesn't mean they're a bad race/characters.

But they aren't real life. They are fictional characters someone made up. And a trait of fiction is that you can critique the way it is made or presented. Many people felt the pandaren were made in a way that directly diminished the other themes of the game which was genocide, civil war and faction war. Granted there always needs to be comic relief when one deal with such heavy themes, but a lot of how this third-party (and to many wholly random) race butting in on faction drama waving a judgy finger wasn't at all well excecuted, at least in my opinion.

If you liked it that is fine and explaining why, just as people who didn't like it is doing, is how one get a good discourse.