Mists of Pandaria Asian Chinese style expansion

[Bryntrollian]

Pandaria is the most beautiful zone in wow so far, and has the best music.

I agree wholeheartedly, they really did an amazing job with the music and scenery.

[Yig]

Haha, prove my point and then I get this.

Have a nice night, MMO.

What exactly do you think the island of the Pandaren should be if not Asian? It would have been Japanese if we got the oldschool Pandaren, but instead we got an island representing all the regions of Asia, from the North to the far south.

Pandaria is hardly just Chinese. Jade Forest is the stereotypical mountains of south China. Valley of the 4 Winds is like Hobbiton meets Vietnam or far south China in rice paddy country.

Kun Lai is Tibet. Townlong is sort of Mongolia with it's own thing going on. Krasarang is like a Vietnamese or Cambodian south east Asian forest. Dreadwastes is it's own thing, but would fit in any WOW expansion before it.

And meanwhile, we have plenty of content like the Sheildwall storyline taking us to the Barrens, Teldrassil, Dalaran, with only more to come.

You just want more of the same and you know it. Medieval knights from Europe.

[Bryntrollian]

Some people are just culturally intolerant.

[stuartj1992]

humans seem more like medieval england, worgen like victorian-era england.

More like medieval central Europe as a whole to be honest, at least in their styling, architecture and general culture...only with American accents.

[MagicBanana]

Well that's maybe because u are an asian?

Im not asian and I enjoy the theme. Its refreshing to have something new thats not undead or demonic for once, like yeah that stuff is badass but it gets old.

Off-topic; I would love to see blizzard expand on more of the elemental plane zones like Deepholm or more zones like Nagrand. Very creative & asthetically pleasing landscapes.

[Immitis]

Except it totally is.

yeah because your the first person to ever only take pictures of one type of thing to make it seem like your right.

not like i could just do the same thing and make you look completely wrong

[Yig]

More like medieval central Europe as a whole to be honest, at least in their styling, architecture and general culture...only with American accents.

More like Americans speaking in theatrical pseudo medieval English accents. Sometimes more contemporary than other times.

[Justignoreme]

You just want more of the same and you know it. Medieval knights from Europe.

Which is dull and cliché. And with the exception of Theramore, was entirely confined to the Eastern Kingdoms in classic, so the idea of WoW being based entirely on that from the start isn't even true.

[dokilar]

its not something that piques my interest nor gives me the impulse to actually buy it and play it. dont get me wrong some of the videos ive seen and screenshots all look pretty and colorful, much the same way vash'jir looked. it was bright and lively, but it also got old really fast. so personally while i think it would look awesome the first time through, it would become really bland after a month

[Yig]

Im not asian and I enjoy the theme. Its refreshing to have something new thats not undead or demonic for once, like yeah that stuff is badass but it gets old.

Off-topic; I would love to see blizzard expand on more of the elemental plane zones like Deepholm or more zones like Nagrand. Very creative & asthetically pleasing landscapes.

I don't understand how a person can be so simple minded to think you have to be Asian to enjoy ancient Asian architecture, or that MOP was given an Asian flare just to attract Asian players. That is absurd.

As if making Kul Tiras look like Revolutionary War era New England would totally attract American players, or a cowboy themed expansion with bald eagles as a new race. If you're not 8 years old and you think this is the reason people appreciate MOP's style, you need to develop a bit in your basic understanding of human behavior.

[Justignoreme]

I agree wholeheartedly, they really did an amazing job with the music and scenery.

The music is amazing. Especially in Kun-lai and Krasarang, you got the Himalayan and southeast Asian feel out of them quite well and distinctly.

[iru]

I think Pandaria is very well made and it's very nice overall but I did like the Vanilla, BC and Northrend themes more, it just feels more like what WoW is actually about or what it was atleast (for me).

Now there are areas that are dark and scary in Pandaria but when you look at Pandaria as whole it has a lot of beauty in it and that's the big picture I get from it. In Northrend/BC/Vanilla I get a very dark and evil vibes from it all and I really enjoyed that (with a couple of exceptions of course). Pandaria is still fun to play but I hope the next one will focus more on darkness, death and demons, as it probably will.

[killidan]

It's not that I don't like Asian style in WoW, but I don't like having "so much" Asian style/culture. We never had an entire continent and expansion based on a particular culture before. MOP is definitely abnormal and unique for having one culture influence the entire continent.

[TJ]

right
Night elves=Asian inspired
Tauren= Naitive American Inspired
Worgens=British inspired
Human=american(they are..)
the list goes on.
Wrath of the Lich king=scandinavian based.

you don't like it, go play SWTOR...and really IT's a fantasy, you see that FANTASY MMO RPG!

Chill, way to be overly defensive. He's just expressing his opinion and asking people's thoughts, calm down.

OT: No, I dislike it. Wouldn't stop me playing as it does for some other extreme people, whilst some of the zones are cool I prefer Outland.

[Yig]

Which is dull and cliché. And with the exception of Theramore, was entirely confined to the Eastern Kingdoms in classic, so the idea of WoW being based entirely on that from the start isn't even true.

Indeed (though I like Medieval Europe and I like to see it in WOW) WOW has always been a hodgepodge of human culture and mythology. Orcs have always had a Mongolian barbarian vibe in their armor designs, with Japanese thrown in for flavor with Blademasters, Night Elves have a strange mixture of Warhammer's Wood Elves with Korean/Japanese architecture and with Celtic and almost Native American like vibes in their druidism, Trolls are African and Caribbean with tinges of southeast Asia as well in their ruins and jungles, Dwarves have always been the classic steam punk Scandinavian/Scottish interpretation of Warhammer dwarves who are actually supposed to be more evocative of Northern England than Scotland.

While I empathize with people who have as much of a distaste for Asian mythology and ancient architecture as I used to have for Renaissance Italy or ancient Rome (which I later came to love as I got older), I think it's wrong to carry over that distaste into an overall criticism towards Blizzard regarding MOP.

[Khaza-R]

It's not that I don't like Asian style in WoW, but I don't like having "so much" Asian style/culture. We never had an entire continent and expansion based on a particular culture before. MOP is definitely abnormal and unique for having one culture influence the entire continent.

People used to feel the same way about the Burning Crusade actually. I can't tell you how many Draenei/Naaru hate threads there were over the game being too "sci-fi"

[Bryntrollian]

It's not that I don't like Asian style in WoW, but I don't like having "so much" Asian style/culture. We never had an entire continent and expansion based on a particular culture before. MOP is definitely abnormal and unique for having one culture influence the entire continent.

Sounds like you just want more of the old...

[Immitis]

Indeed (though I like Medieval Europe and I like to see it in WOW) WOW has always been a hodgepodge of human culture and mythology. Orcs have always had a Mongolian barbarian vibe in their armor designs, with Japanese thrown in for flavor with Blademasters, Night Elves have a strange mixture of Warhammer's Wood Elves with Korean/Japanese architecture and with Celtic and almost Native American like vibes in their druidism, Trolls are African and Caribbean with tinges of southeast Asia as well in their ruins and jungles, Dwarves have always been the classic steam punk Scandinavian/Scottish interpretation of Warhammer dwarves who are actually supposed to be more evocative of Northern England than Scotland.

While I empathize with people who have as much of a distaste for Asian mythology and ancient architecture as I used to have for Renaissance Italy or ancient Rome (which I later came to love as I got older), I think it's wrong to carry over that distaste into an overall criticism towards Blizzard regarding MOP.

i always felt the trolls felt more like mayans/aztecs other then the accents and voodoo stuff

---------- Post added 2013-02-22 at 09:16 PM ----------

People used to feel the same way about the Burning Crusade actually. I can't tell you how many Draenei/Naaru hate threads there were over the game being too "sci-fi"

tbh people also hated the draenei simply because they were wrong storywise the whole "ME NO WANT SCI FI IN MEH FANTASAY" just kinda added onto it

[Yig]

I think Pandaria is very well made and it's very nice overall but I did like the Vanilla, BC and Northrend themes more, it just feels more like what WoW is actually about or what it was atleast (for me).

That's true, but this is supposed to be a bit of a vacation for everyone. It's not so radical that it damages the established feel of the game, it just feels like a distant exotic culture in the world we already knew, and I think they pulled it off beautifully. You can totally see it in the design of the game that Blizzard's creative team was getting burned out on making nothing but lava, spikes, and chains with skulls and blades all over the place. They needed a Nagrand or a Grizzly Hills type project to really take a fresh breath of air and knock the dust off their creative muscles, and I think it totally shows they were more inspired by MOP than any of the content they made in CATA.

And ultimately that is a good thing for people who don't care for MOP's aesthetic, as they (Blizzard) are ready and recharged to go make something awesome and "totally metal" again with the next expansion now that they haven't' been swimming in it for a minute. These radical diversions are necessary.

This happens with every expansion in the community. With TBC, everybody complained and complained and complained about the weird Moorcock high fantasy/scifi vibe to everything, the Doctor Strange vibe, the weird neon colors, the "clown suits", the alien landscapes.

Then with WOTLK everybody was really happy at first to get back into the classic European Tokien/Scandinavian vibe, until after a while and even today you see people complaining about how bland and brown everything was, which was a direct response to the "clownsuit" complaints of TBC.

Cata was weird, it was kind of a reimagining of Vanilla with it's own thing thrown in, but mostly I think it was uninspired and a lot of rehash syndrome.

[Justignoreme]

Indeed (though I like Medieval Europe and I like to see it in WOW) WOW has always been a hodgepodge of human culture and mythology. Orcs have always had a Mongolian barbarian vibe in their armor designs, with Japanese thrown in for flavor with Blademasters, Night Elves have a strange mixture of Warhammer's Wood Elves with Korean/Japanese architecture and with Celtic and almost Native American like vibes in their druidism, Trolls are African and Caribbean with tinges of southeast Asia as well in their ruins and jungles, Dwarves have always been the classic steam punk Scandinavian/Scottish interpretation of Warhammer dwarves who are actually supposed to be more evocative of Northern England than Scotland.

While I empathize with people who have as much of a distaste for Asian mythology and ancient architecture as I used to have for Renaissance Italy or ancient Rome (which I later came to love as I got older), I think it's wrong to carry over that distaste into an overall criticism towards Blizzard regarding MOP.

Each race draws from a variety of RL cultures to generate it's own identity in game which is great, some have a lot more facets than others but you can see them all if you're worldly enough

i always felt the trolls felt more like mayans/aztecs other then the accents and voodoo stuff

ya, stepped pyramids, sacrifices for Gods, Hakkar is more or less Quetzalcoatl. But then a lot of African, Caribbean and Pacific Island cues too. You can't pinpoint just one or isolate something like architecture or accents alone. Same for the Pandaren. They mix many eastern cultures, even if their architecture is mostly Chinese.