Mists of Pandaria Asian Chinese style expansion

[Khaza-R]

I agree and I am surprised moppers are so adamant in claiming otherwise.

The thing is, no one is claiming that the Pandaren aren't clearly an allusion to Chinese culture. What we have been saying, if you were paying any attention, is that these same blatant allusions haven already been in the game and you either haven't noticed them or don't recognized the culture they're coming from. Tauren are just as blatant a reference as Pandaren in everyway. They copy the language, the speech, the architecture, the music, even down to the peace-pipes.

The only difference is that Panderan have an entire continent inspired by their culture. Which isn't surprising considering the breadth of Chinese culture. And the fact its one of the world's oldest, and most continuous.

[Mawnix]

The thing is, no one is claiming that the Pandaren aren't clearly an allusion to Chinese culture. What we have been saying, if you were paying any attention, is that these same blatant allusions haven already been in the game and you either haven't noticed them or don't recognized the culture they're coming from. Tauren are just as blatant a reference as Pandaren in everyway. They copy the language, the speech, the architecture, the music, even down to the peace-pipes.

The only difference is that Panderan have an entire continent inspired by their culture. Which isn't surprising considering the breadth of Chinese culture. And the fact its one of the world's oldest, and most continuous.

Apparently the language barrier on this forum is that people have different opinions.

You guys can argue this for 5 years and neither side would shift its footing nor stance.

[AbalDarkwind]

Sholazar theme was Ungoro 2.0 with Nessingwary and animals. A lush jungle is not Norse, now is it? One Freya statue makes it Norse for you, then I disagree with that.

Sholazar Basin, much like Un'Goro Crater before it, was meant as a laboratory to be used by the Titans. The very same Titans that are clearly based upon the Norse Pantheon. Also, Freya wasn't a statue; she was the dominant personality of the zone. Devaluing the history and Freya in Sholazar Basin makes your entire argument seem weak.

Grizzly Hills had trolls, humans, dwarves and Vrykul. It was a more balanced mixture of various races, old and new. Pandas, Grummies, Pandas, Yaungol, Pandas, Mogu, Pandas, Pandas, Pandas doesn't work for me.

Repeating Pandas doesn't make a stronger argument; it makes it look like you are reaching. I could just as easily say that Northrend was Humans, Trolls, Vykrul, Dwarves, Vykrul, Undead, Undead Vykrul, Vykrul, Vykrul, Vykrul, and it would be just as ludicrous as your argument.

A more consice argument would look like this: Northrend had all of the races of the Alliance and Horde, the Scourge, the Vykrul, the Tuskarr, the Drakkari Trolls, Earthen, Meachanognomes, Dragons, and Furbolgs. Pandaria has all the races of the Alliance and the Horde, the Pandaren, the Mogu, the Zandalari Trolls, the Hozen, the Jinyu, the Grummles, the Saurok, and Cloud Serpents. Pandaria is just as diverse as Northrend. You just can't see it because you can't look past the Pandaren and Mogu dominating the architecture, but can look past the Scourge and Vykrul dominating the architecture in Northrend.

Crystalsong was not Norse. Trees and dragons have been around in WoW for a long time, they were not some Norse addition to WoW. Besides, there is nothing obviously Norse about trees of life and dragons. You are confused about the difference between subtle inspiration and copying.

Crystalsong Forest was barely a zone, so it shouldn't even figure into the equation here. It was a placeholder zone for Dalaran; that's all.

[Venziir]

Sholazar theme was Ungoro 2.0 with Nessingwary and animals. A lush jungle is not Norse, now is it? One Freya statue makes it Norse for you, then I disagree with that.

Grizzly Hills had trolls, humans, dwarves and Vrykul. It was a more balanced mixture of various races, old and new. Pandas, Grummies, Pandas, Yaungol, Pandas, Mogu, Pandas, Pandas, Pandas doesn't work for me.

Crystalsong was not Norse. Trees and dragons have been around in WoW for a long time, they were not some Norse addition to WoW. Besides, there is nothing obviously Norse about trees of life and dragons. You are confused about the difference between subtle inspiration and copying.

No dear one, you are confused. I never said that it was a copy or anything, all I said is that every zone involves something inspired by Norse mythology. Please do try again.

[Byniri]

Is that a Katana? Is he eating Sushi? Wasn't that around the time Samwise got heat for randomly mashing together unrelated cultures and stopped drawing pandas for a while?

Personally find the whole MoP approach aesthetically is pretty difficult to stomach. There's no Chinese anything, but there's an overbearing and very forced feeling of McChinese, and that rankles a lot. Place feels like a theme park, everything is plastic and would sound hollow if you knocked on it.

Also notice his chopstick is clipping the bowl.

[Deleted]

omg with the stupid fuckers claiming mop is part of wow lore just because Didier created one picture of pandareen.

[BatteredRose]

Wow.. what a stupid deduction. What someone doesnt like in video game doesnt necessarily resonate to what they think of Asian culture IRL. For example for me I just dont like it in wow setting. Simple as that.

So you pick one single thing to nitpick, despite the fact that it's still valid, even though I probably could have worded it better; meanwhile ignoring the rest of it.

Considering the several other cultures WoW grabs and throws into the game (hint: every culture in WoW steals at least somewhat from a real culture), only hating on the Asian theme seems quite silly. It's like hating the Pandaren race and calling them childish/etc despite the fact that there are several other comparable races in the Warcraft universe.

Edit:

omg with the stupid fuckers claiming mop is part of wow lore just because Didier created one picture of pandareen.

Considering the fact that they wrote the lore in for all things related to MoP at one point (Pandaren being around at least since the WC3 expansion), just like they had to for other races and events including Orcs, Humans, Ogres, Trolls, the first, second, and third war etc, your argument is invalid. A subject becomes part of the lore/WC universe as soon as it's written/created. That's how storytelling works. I'm not sure how this is so hard for you to comprehend. It's depressing almost.

[AbalDarkwind]

omg with the stupid fuckers claiming mop is part of wow lore just because Didier created one picture of pandareen.

Did you miss the part where Chen Stormstout was a part of the Founding of Durotar?

Or, you know, the entire current expansion? Don't blindly claim that something isn't a part of or doesn't fit with Warcraft lore just because you have an irrational dislike of the Asian aesthetic. I've been playing Warcraft since 1995 and think it fits in fine. What makes your opinion more relevant than mine or others here where you have the audacity to insult us?

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

omg with the stupid fuckers claiming mop is part of wow lore just because Didier created one picture of pandareen.

Actually, MoP is part of WoW lore because it's an expansion of WoW. Nothing can change this.

[Flaks]

Considering the several other cultures WoW grabs and throws into the game (hint: every culture in WoW steals at least somewhat from a real culture), only hating on the Asian theme seems quite silly. It's like hating the Pandaren race and calling them childish/etc despite the fact that there are several other comparable races in the Warcraft universe.

There was never an expansion that was practically built around a single race. There was never a continent in which 99% of its inhabitants were a single race. There was never an expansion with not only a zone, but an entire continent named after a single race. There was never an expansion that was so blatantly themed after what WE stereotype as a single culture (aka "Asian").

[Venziir]

omg with the stupid fuckers claiming mop is part of wow lore just because Didier created one picture of pandareen.

Put down the acid and notice the current expansion please. Thank you.

[Byniri]

omg with the stupid fuckers claiming mop is part of wow lore just because Didier created one picture of pandareen.

...are you serious?

[Venziir]

There was never an expansion that was practically built around a single race. There was never a continent in which 99% of its inhabitants were a single race. There was never an expansion with not only a zone, but an entire continent named after a single race. There was never an expansion that was so blatantly themed after what WE stereotype as a single culture (aka "Asian").

Asian isn't a single culture mate. There's one hell of a difference between Chinese and say Indian culture, both are Asian cultures. And sure, Pandaria is named after the Pandaren, but that isn't any worse than the northern continent being named NORTHrend. Just as cheesy - or how about the fact that there's an entire continent WITHOUT a name, it's just "Eastern Kingdoms".

[AbalDarkwind]

There was never an expansion that was practically built around a single race. There was never a continent in which 99% of its inhabitants were a single race. There was never an expansion with not only a zone, but an entire continent named after a single race. There was never an expansion that was so blatantly themed after what WE stereotype as a single culture (aka "Asian").

I assume you aren't familiar with the fact that Outland was called Draenor before it's destruction? Named after and by the Draenei?

[BatteredRose]

There was never an expansion that was practically built around a single race. There was never a continent in which 99% of its inhabitants were a single race. There was never an expansion with not only a zone, but an entire continent named after a single race. There was never an expansion that was so blatantly themed after what WE stereotype as a single culture (aka "Asian").

99% of Pandaria's inhabitants are not Pandaren. Please get your fake statistics out of here, thanks. The rest of your post is irrelevant to what I said.

Edit:

Also, what AbalDarkwind and Venziir said.

[Venziir]

I assume you aren't familiar with the fact that Outland was called Draenor before it's destruction? Named after and by the Draenei?

That's.... Actually a pretty swell point.

[haaku]

How does it not fit WoW? WoW is about every single culture, just not your Western culture.
Also I'd like to point out that this expansion is more to the 'roots' of WoW than any other expansion.

Elaborate.

[shadowmouse]

omg with the stupid fuckers claiming mop is part of wow lore just because Didier created one picture of pandareen.

Nope, they were part of WoW lore because of things like: http://www.wowhead.com/quest=819/chens-empty-keg. Of course, you may have started playing recently enough that you didn't notice those empty kegs in the Barrens back in the day.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Elaborate.

Classic WoW never had a single big bad guy. It was about exploration and dealing with the opposite faction. This is pretty much what MoP, all exploration.

[haaku]

I also think it's foolish to create a whole expansion around lore that's basically "created", yes panda existed, but they took it out of context to make subs in asia, oh well that's just what i think.

---------- Post added 2013-02-23 at 06:55 PM ----------

Classic WoW never had a single big bad guy. It was about exploration and dealing with the opposite faction. This is pretty much what MoP, all exploration.

I don't get your point, classic wow had plenty lore heavy bosses.