I absolutely love the Asian theme.
As has been said earlier, a lot of different asian things are actually covered here, its not just ancient China.
The scenery is gorgeous, the music is fantastic.
Definitely the best expansion so far for me, both in implementation and in theme.
For some odd reason, all the current bosses (bar Whitemane and the Flame-guy) in SM are now Russian. No idea why.
---------- Post added 2013-02-23 at 10:16 PM ----------
Yes, because I have facts. If I didn't, I'd have to resort to using arguments.
Amazing sig, done by mighty Lokann
People already point out how stupid your comment is, but I don't think they express why. Let me show you.
It is like saying.
I'm not racist, I just don't like black people (or immigrant) living in my town. My town has always been a culturally white town for a long time.
Yeah...
I really have no idea what you're getting at.
I'm just saying that people who complain that "Pandaria came out of nowhere" are full of shit.
Warcraft II introduced elves, dwarves, trolls, ogres, which had never been mentioned before.
Warcraft III introduced Kalimdor, Northrend, night elves, tauren, Scourge, tuskarr, naga, murlocs, satyrs, pandaren, and most other races of Azeroth. It also completely retconned the established mythology by changing Heaven into the Holy Light, changing the daemons and Hell into the Twisting Nether and the Burning Legion, and introducing the Titans and Ancients and other deities.
World of Warcraft spent three expansions playing around in the world set up by Warcraft III and dealing with loose plot threads from Warcraft II and III.
Now World of Warcraft is elaborating on a race and continent introduced in Warcraft III and mentioned several times in World of Warcraft, and yet there are people who act like it "came out of nowhere" or somehow doesn't belong because it's got "new lore," rather than retreading the same old WCII+III stories over and over.
And it's funny that you say the expansion is "all about the pandaren," when it's mostly about the Horde and Alliance war. It's more about the Horde and Alliance than even Cataclysm was.
It's basically a story of the Horde and Alliance fighting on a previously undiscovered continent which has its own native inhabitants. Several of the zones are also far more focused on the sha and mantid (Old God-related) and the mogu (Titan-related) than the pandaren themselves.
Last edited by Kathranis; 2013-02-23 at 09:24 PM.
Bloody hell, Pandaria is not taking over anything. You really say this rubbish without thinking at all? I don't see Pandaren buildings popping up in Ashenvale. I don't see Pandaren scrolls plastering the walls of Stormwind, must more bigger and more obvious than anything else. Pandaren aren't turning Durotar into little Jade Forest and growing bamboo stands in the watershed... Pandaren are all over their home continent, one separated from the rest of the world for 10000 years. Each race has a unique style to them despite that, if you are expecting diversity in an isolated region with no exposure to the outside world until recent you are expecting ridiculous tripe. Get over it.
Hey, I didn't bring up maturity, someone who loves MOP did.
Nobody actually knows what went on inside the company when they were deciding what theme and lore to pursue in the expansion that became MOP. I would speculate that Activision corporation would be interested in increasing WoW's share in Chinese MMO market. I do not know WoW's reach in Chinese market, but probably not as high as in the West. They never released China sub numbers, only "East" sub numbers, which included Japan, Taiwan, Korea and perhaps other countries.
Aye, as with everything, it's a matter of opinion. And honestly, arguing back and forth isn't really going to solve anything. I won't change X's opinion and X won't change my opinion. I suppose the only thing that could really change anything (and I even doubt it would have any grand effect) would be if Blizzard themselves said "We did this because of X, Y and Z!" and that would just result in new shitstorms honestly.
Amazing sig, done by mighty Lokann
This is BS.
Sorry, but it really is.
Specially the last statement. Prior to MoP, China has always been the largest market of WoW, over 50%. That doesn't count as "fresh market". In MoP, the % actually dropped.
Also the Night elf, Tauren, Old gods, titans, etc. all come out of nothingness in WC2/3 just like Panadren. How is it any different.
"Someone who loves MOP" did.... Sigh. Grow up.
They might not have released the China sub numbers, but I'm fairly sure that we saw that subs dwindeled specifically in China during Cataclysm and a month ago or so.
---------- Post added 2013-02-23 at 10:24 PM ----------
Not to mention, that South Korea is a country that plays Blizzard games as national sports, yet why isn't there a South Korean expansion? Surely, they'd want to grab the last few percentages of the S. Korean people, or pay homage to their biggest fans. And yet, there isn't....
Amazing sig, done by mighty Lokann
Ok, so let's see. Current night elf food and some building style seems somehow japanese or south korean.
Now, that that's done, please show me the asian druids (they need to be as closest to the celtic druids just as an example, so you don't think I'm asking for actual druids), show me where do asians build marble structures resembling greek temples or where are they lead by priests. Tell me how are night elves as looks similar to any type of even asian stereotype (because we all know that asian people are tall and have muscular women, right?).
I could go on and on... but this is not the idea, what I wanted to show is that the night elves aren't japanese clones. They are a mesh of different cultures.
Now let's look at the pandaren and Pandaria:
-the pandaren themselves are a bad stereotype. The media talks about how the chinese work to protect their pandas and there's death penalty and stuff, seriously, the panda is like the best known animal from China because of stuff like this. But hold on, we're not done, for the pandaren are using this balance of emotions thing (which reminds a lot of some ancient and medieval religions around there) so they can balance the evil of said negative emotions.
- the pandaren are mostly farmers and like to drink... yea, as I said, a bad stereotype, basically how many see China.
- asian music, buildings
- asian dragons, myths
- the theme of being invaded by foreigns (colonization of China) that want the resources and stuff but they wreck the balance of the land unleashing terrible evils (if you don't know, for example, one of the complaints of the chinese when the UK got there was when they started building railroads, since they said the metal that held the rails down was beat into the earth and angered the great dragon resting under... a superstition, but seems familiar, does it not?)
- the great wall stopping foreign invaders
- the great mountains
- all the jokes!
Pandaria and the pandaren are not a mesh of different cultures. They're a mesh of real eastern asian myths and asian stereotypes. And I dislike that.
But to say night elves are the same that they're relying on asian (japanese) influences so much as pandaren is just being ignorant. Sure, you could argue tauren are native americans in many ways, I could agree with that, their culture has very little meshing with other parts of the world but to argue night elves are full asian...
Um...yeah, we did. It was called Cataclysm. Just because the Old Gods weren't physically there doesn't mean that the entire expansion wasn't about them. In fact, it was only specifically about one of them: N'Zoth. Deathwing was just his puppet, as seen in the Madness of Deathwing encounter.
I mean, this is basically like complaining that The Burning Crusade had too many demons or that Wrath of the Lich King had too much of the undead.
Professor of History at Dalaran University
There was.... hints in thrall's Novel (dream about a land shroud by mist. Wonder where is that, huh?). In Warcraft 3 the mission founding of Durotar, Rexxar, thrall and other meet Chen Stormstout who mention Pandaria. In a quest chain in WoW http://www.wowhead.com/quest=819/chens-empty-keg... <- Chen Stormstout's keg quest added in patch 1.11.1, that is classic by the way.
Chen Stormstout is a Pandren brewmaster if that is not clear.
I guess that is why this time the hint is directly embedded in the Legendary quest line.
Edit:http://youtu.be/gTpKsEw9fvM?t=6m53s <- Rexxar meeting Chen
They did recon a part which is Chen Stormstout is from Pandaria. In WoW, he is from the wondering isle.
Last edited by Exorte; 2013-02-23 at 09:49 PM.