Pandas... (WoW)

[thistlechaser]

The Mists of Pandaria Cinematic Trailer was released this morning and it's just... not good.

There I was, sitting watching it:
"Okay, a third of the way through the video and all we have so far is a misshapen human and an orc fighting."
"...Halfway through the video and it's still just the two of them fighting."
"Oh look, a panda... now all three are fighting."
"Wow, it's almost over and still nothing but fighting. I guess PvP is all this expansion is going to offer."

Compare that to the Wrath of the Lich King Cinematic Trailer where there's storyline! Introduction of the bad guy! And, to use current net slang, all the "feels" anyone could want out of a trailer.

Not to mention, watching it again, the voice acting and the music is so much better than the MoP one. Even after all this time and so many views, the WotLK one makes me grin and gives me chills, it excites me, it makes me want to play the game. The MoP one? Makes me want to go back to Northrend.

Sigh.

This is on top of more MoP bad news: Alchemists will no longer be printing money, unlike every expansion before this one. And I have 10 maxed alchemists. What in the world will I do with them all now?

Hopefully MoP will be better than Cata, though even with that low of a bar, I'm not holding out much hope. The trailer just comes off as so silly and pointless to me.

On a related note, since I have a second account, I was able to roll a second DK. The DK starter quests and zones are still so amazing. One of the best experiences in the game. So cool.

Comments

[fealubryne.livejournal.com]

Aww. I really liked it, reminded me of the first cinematic where it went through and showed the two factions, then introduced the new race nicely. And I kinda got the idea that they were showing off the whole monk think, since that's a major factor in the expansion too. There was some nice little bits of subtle humor in there too (LOVED the bit where the human offers the orc his pointy stick, so want to go screencap that and use it for something) and the overall feeling of hope and peace after so many death and doom expansions is rather refreshing.

Not sure if I'll actually be able to get my ass in gear to explore the new expansion or not.. I've got so many other things on my plate right now, like working on my own game projects and mandatory ones for school. And there's even another MMO that I'd like to delve further into. But this expansion sure looks beautiful, and I'd like to at least get the chance to see it, listen to the pretty oriental music, get over the feeling of missing out.

Sigh. Even though it half bores me since I can't hardcore raid anymore, and I don't really have time for it, I'm afraid WoW will always hold a place in my heart. For so long it was the game I called home, sad as that might sound to anybody who doesn't get it. First P:PE, then WoW. Wonder if I'll ever have that again...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

There was some nice little bits of subtle humor in there too (LOVED the bit where the human offers the orc his pointy stick, so want to go screencap that and use it for something)

I think we're looking for different things from the expansion. I hated the humor in it (the pointy stick part was the part I disliked the most!). I want dark and serious and doom. And I don't mean silly Deathwing "doom", where he sets the world on fire and five minutes later everything's exactly how it had been.

and the overall feeling of hope and peace after so many death and doom expansions is rather refreshing.

That had been Blizz's purpose, so it looks like they succeeded! :)

I totally get the "home" feeling. I haven't played FFXI in six or more years now, but it still feels like home to me.

And woot making your own games! That's still the coolest thing ever. :D

Which other MMO had you had your eye on?

[fealubryne.livejournal.com]

WoW just doesn't have the capacity, in my opinion, for serious dark doom anymore. I partially wonder if it ever did. Yes, there was definitely Bad Stuff, I remember when we saw the Arthas trailer and were like, "Oh shit..." And then the Cata trailer and it felt way more hopeless than Wrath ever did. But as far as story goes, we (everybody else, I guess, since I only played the beginning seriously...) made it through and all is well. And now... I guess we're getting back to basics.

As far as the other MMO, that is dark and doom and just some very serious bad shit going down and I love it. It's scary. I actually played it a bit prior to and on release but had to stop because of other obligations. Someone a bit further down the comments actually mentions it - The Secret World. I'd had my eye on it for awhile and while it has very mixed reviews at this point (most of which are just cranky people bitching, it seems to me, but that's my opinion) I see it as being pretty strong from a design perspective. It's definitely not everybody's cup of tea (there's a lot of thinking involved and it doesn't hold your hand) and I honestly had nightmares for about a week. Not sure if it's quite your thing, but I loved it - WoW is all good fun, but Secret World has a depth to it that I don't think WoW could ever have and now I don't really expect (or... want, I guess?) that from it anymore.

But yeah... games. Meant to write an LJ post about it, but this weekend I'm taking part in a 24-hour competition to create a game from scratch, based on a mystery theme. And a classmate and I have teamed up to form our own little indie studio (might have mentioned that, can't remember) and we're working on "hiring" one or two others for a project we've been working on. So much to do, so little time for games... sigh.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That is a problem with a MMO: The risk isn't really a risk. Are they going to perma-kill off players? No way. And death in game is pretty darned meaningless (OH NOS some gold to repair my gear). FFXI had a much harder result of death, but WoW players would never put up with it.

I've heard nothing but good about The Secret World. It tempts me so much, but I don't have the time for two games. If I were to quit WoW I would try there, but I just paid $80 for a copy of MoP on each of my accounts, so... c.c

Ooh, good luck on your project! It sounds like it will be great fun. :D

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

Why would you pay for the physical CE twice? Even if you wanted the mount and pet on both (and they're actually supposed to be b.net account wide, not per license), you'd only need the digital CE at most on the second account. You don't need two copies of all the physical stuff...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

No no, I paid $40 each for the basic digital copy, $80 total. I decided I don't want the CE at all (I don't like the mount or the pet).

[bastets-place.livejournal.com]

If they did real dark "doomy" stuff, I wouldn't play WOW. If I wanted to play dark, bad and evil wins all the time and life sucks, I would play a different game. Problem is, I see in the real world dark bad and evil wins a lot and life sucks mostly; I want something different from the game.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

WotLK was like that (dark and doomy), and that was the first expansion I played WoW full time in, so it's what WoW is (or should be) to me. Cata was a big let-down, now suddenly we have the light/silly MoP coming. To me, that's very different than the WoW I fell in love with.

I understand what you mean about wanting something different than RL though!

[fealubryne.livejournal.com]

...now suddenly we have the light/silly MoP coming.

Alex and I were just talking about this about ten seconds ago and his theory is that this period of peace is sort of to let everyone regroup and take a breather because something much worse is coming. Which, I think I could see happening. Too much *bam* badthing *bam* BadThing *bam* BADTHING* sort of... desensitizes the playerbase.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

If that's correct, I could handle MoP. But if it stays silly/light after MoP, I'll... well, I'll be sad. :P

A moment of light makes the next dark event feel even "worse" (better, in this case), so I could see it working like that.

...or the majority of the playerbase could hate this and so the devs make the next one dark to try to make them happy.

[fealubryne.livejournal.com]

I'm so horribly torn. The player part of me is like, "WAH, BLIZZARD YOU MUST DO THIS AND THIS AND OH WHY DID YOU DO THAT I HATE YOU AUGH!"

The designer part of me actually has a very deep respect and admiration for them. I may not always agree with their decisions and direction, but I would absolutely kill for the chance to be a fly on the wall at their meetings. I've seen what it's like to work on tiny, bitty projects and how much work/pressure it is. I couldn't imagine something on this level. Seriously unsure if I even want to work on something this big... but it's still so fascinating.

(Also, I'm sorry for being so spammy all over your journal tonight! I'm putting off things I should be doing and trying not to flip out about the weekend... this is a good distraction! XD)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Nooo worries about leaving comments! I like reading them! :)

What's happening this weekend that's flip out-worthy?

And agreed, as much as I don't like some of their decisions (or most of them...) I understand how hard their job must be.

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

Blizzard has flat out told us that's what it is.

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

WoW has always been silly. Wrath had tons of silly stuff, just as much as any other part of the game. I'm not sure how you think Wrath was so dark and Cata wasn't. They've been pretty similar tone-wise.

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

I've actually been scratching my head about the point of it. It didn't seem to be showing off the game the way the Vanilla/BC trailers did, and it didn't have the story that the Wrath/Cata trailers did. The expressions on their faces as the human handed the orc the spear was great, though, that was my favorite part in the whole thing.

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

The thing is from what I know about MoP there doesn't appear to be a big bad enemy like Arthas in this one. I mean, there was something about a force living in Panda-Land that amplifies hatred or something which was supposed to lead to a more of an Alliance vs Horde type of story line. Although it seems to be shaping up to more like Horde + Alliance vs Garrosh's Horde from what's been speculated on various little bits of info dredged up.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the force is Sha or She or something like that.

I'm still set in my old FFXI ways: I'd so much rather have Horde and Alliance working together against some common goal. "Horde + Alliance vs Garrosh's Horde" would work for me... if it wouldn't go back to Horde vs Alliance in the next expansion.

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Plus I think you're just being a grump because we killed Arthas.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

*snickers* Yes. I will have my revenge for that, one day.

...on myself, as well, as I killed him too. D: /so bad!

[halogin.livejournal.com]

I guess we're looking for different things, because I loved the cinematic; I loved the hopeful feel, and I liked not having a Super Big Bad Guy. I'm tired of Super Big Bads because nine times out of ten you STILL have really stupid faction conflict in the face of that (Gunship Battle in ICC for example, and that dumbass Horde ship captain in the Icecrown quest that gloats about ambushing the Alliance while they were fighting Scourge and as a result both Alliance AND Horde were killed when otherwise the Scourge in that area would have lost).

I'm admittedly tired of dark and serious and doom, and I like the way the MoP cinematic has serious but has levity also. I think I just want to see SOME progress in the faction war, really. But we'll see how it goes.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think how people feel about MoP is based on what they want from the game: People who have had enough of dark and doom love it, people who want dark and doom don't.

because nine times out of ten you STILL have really stupid faction conflict in the face of that (Gunship Battle in ICC for example, and that dumbass Horde ship captain in the Icecrown quest that gloats about ambushing the Alliance while they were fighting Scourge and as a result both Alliance AND Horde were killed when otherwise the Scourge in that area would have lost).

Doesn't that seem realistic though? I liked that because it makes sense to me. In a perfect world, Horde and Alliance would have ignored their conflict to fight the Scourge, but it's not a perfect world.

and I like the way the MoP cinematic has serious but has levity also

For me, the humor was unwelcome. It just seemed... silly. Out of place. These two people had their ships sunk during a battle, they're now on land and fighting to the death, and one just suddenly hands the other a weapon? Where's the logic in that? It doesn't fit the previous few minutes of the video.

I'm glad other people can enjoy it though! Same feeling I had with Cata: I may not like it, but I'm glad others can.

[halogin.livejournal.com]

Doesn't that seem realistic though? I liked that because it makes sense to me. In a perfect world, Horde and Alliance would have ignored their conflict to fight the Scourge, but it's not a perfect world.

No, realistic to me for the latter would be biding their time and watching the battle. If the Alliance won, they would still be weakened and thus potentially more readily defeated by Horde forces. If the Scourge won, same goes. Either way, Horde would have a better chance of winning.

For the gunship battle...that was just kind of head-scratching anyway, to me. I mean I can see it at least a little more than the Icecrown Horde thing, because neither side likely trusts the other to not fall to the Lich King or even to not fall under the LK's influence, as both have a history of corruption in their ways. Between the orcs' former demonic corruption and the Forsaken's Wrathgate actions, and then the Lich King himself being the former golden boy of Lordaeron there...yeah.

These two people had their ships sunk during a battle, they're now on land and fighting to the death, and one just suddenly hands the other a weapon? Where's the logic in that?

I suppose it's slightly ironic that they're actually doing what they should've done in WotLK as I said-- uniting against a perceived common enemy. They both realize they can't take this threatening stranger-- the stranger that's keeping them from fighting each other-- alone. Sort of a "leave us alone so we can deal with this OUR WAY" thing.
The 'stranger', however, clearly achieved his goal-- he got them to unite, if just for a moment.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

No, realistic to me for the latter would be biding their time and watching the battle. If the Alliance won, they would still be weakened and thus potentially more readily defeated by Horde forces. If the Scourge won, same goes. Either way, Horde would have a better chance of winning.

Ah, that makes sense! Clearly I'm not cut out for leading battles. :P

The 'stranger', however, clearly achieved his goal-- he got them to unite, if just for a moment.

I know it won't happen, but wouldn't it be something if this expansion set up the end of the Horde/Alliance war? At least for the space of a couple expansions? PvP could be turned into a training exercise instead of a for-real battle. (My MMO background is 'all PCs vs NPCs', so my desire always goes back to that. I'd rather have all PCs be my allies and we all work together on some common goal instead of half the playerbase being my enemy.)

[halogin.livejournal.com]

I would LOVE for this to set up the end of the H/A war. I'm a carebear, I don't pvp. XD

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

*joins the Carebear Club* Unfortunately I think the WoW culture won't allow for it. I really, really hope Blizz is heading that way, but I'd be highly surprised if they were.

Think of the plottiness though! How hard it would be for the two sides to make peace and work together long-term.

And what it would do to the game! Freely being able to enter the other faction's cities? And dare I dream, common languages?

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

They're not, unfortunately. Too many people think the game should be about the faction war. "It's World of WARcraft after all!" they say. Yes, because having a war against Azshara, Sargeras, the Old Gods, etc isn't a war. It's only a war if it's Alliance vs. Horde. *eyerolls* I don't like the faction war stuff either, though it's more understandable now with Garrosh than it was with Thrall.

Heck, if anything, it should be everyone else vs. Sylvanas. Eric refers to her as the Lich Queen since that's what she's shaping up to be.

[doxxxicle.livejournal.com]

If you like dark and serious and doom, you should try The Secret World.

[fealubryne.livejournal.com]

Illuminati FTW!

[doxxxicle.livejournal.com]

Dragon all the way. :)

[fealubryne.livejournal.com]

That works! My boyfriend plays Templar and we're always (jokingly) at each other's throats about it. ;)

[doxxxicle.livejournal.com]

Both me and lokyst liked the chaos theory background for Dragon. The Templars have a snazzy outfit though. ;)

[fealubryne.livejournal.com]

I love the very... "American" feel to the Illuminati (drugs and RPing to get you into the vision-thingy? HELLS YES) and the fact that they're all about power. And getting it, no matter the cost. Which makes them... so very borderline "bad guy" it's right down my alley.

It's really neat seeing everything from more than one perspective, too. Because we're in different factions but play together, we share the respective responses with each other. One of these days I'd like to dabble with a Dragon, just to see their views on the Templars and the Illuminati.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've heard nothing but good things about TSW! I'd love to try it, but... time. If it's still around when I quit WoW (whenever that is), I'll try it out for sure.

[prettyredeyes.livejournal.com]

This, as you said, did not have the emotional effect of the Wrath trailer. I agree with you 100% on that. I did laugh when the panda fixed his little stone piece and the human offered the stick to the orc because subtle humour has always been a part of WoW for me (considering there was still some humour in Wrath despite the overall darkness of the plot). I definitely enjoy dark, doom, and gloom and this definitely seems to offer a lot less of this based on the cinematic. But it DID at least walk us through what this expansion is about in my mind. First, the faction conflict and secondly the introduction of the new race, class, and world. I definitely liked it more than the Cata trailer because after I got over the nerdgasm of GIANTFLAMINGDRAGON I realized it didn't excite me at all and I felt a bit nostalgic about the original trailer as well as the BC trailer with the introduction of the new races. Of course the treatment was different, but the races are also quite different. There is still a lot of room for darker undertones in the heating up of the faction war, so that gives me hope (as well as an opening to explore that in RP). Cata was literally nothing I cared about as a player (elementals and such do not interest me) and I do enjoy digging in and getting really faction patriotic.

I am holding out for some serious action on the part of the Forsaken. They are reliably dark and questionable. XD I'm not as worried about this as I was, but definitely not as excited as I was for Wrath. But also not as blegh as I was about Cata. Cata was so underwhelming I could write books. So I will sit comfortably on my fence and wait.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Agreed that Cata held nothing for me as a player. I have hopes that MoP will be somewhat better -- I already know small things will be. FARM FARM FARM GROWING THINGS!

Agreed on the rest, too. I don't think this will be in any way, shape, or form as good as WotLK was, but I have hope that it won't be as bad as Cata.

Fingers crossed!

[wayblade.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to think that I'm the only one not trying to compare everything to WotLK. It was a great expansion, yes, but it was over something that had been there for some time. It wasn't a really new threat, there had been a Lich King for a long time.

Here, the Horde and Alliance are on an unknown land. Unknown people, geography, and even the real threat has been slipped in under the radar. To me, that equals a good expansion enough.

As for the Mists trailer by itself, I enjoyed it immensely. Even with people faffing around going "KUNG FU PANDA THREE? WTF MAN."

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to think that I'm the only one not trying to compare everything to WotLK.

It's hard not to compare things to the thing you love. WotLK, Northrend, DKs, all those things are where my heart is. Cata was such a vast disappointment, it's impossible not to wonder how MoP will compare.

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

The hilarious thing? Remember how back in Wrath everyone bitched and moaned about it being the WORST EXPANSION EVAR and how could Blizz do such horrible stuff to them and so on.

I'm actually expecting that when we're gearing up for the release of The Emerald Dream or whatever we get next that everyone is going to be bitching about MoP and how Cata was soooo good.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I never bitched about WotLK! I even *gasp* did instances and dungeons in it. I was casual enough in BC to have had no opinion of the upcoming expansion before it released, but once it did hit, I loved it from the get-go.

[teaandfailure.livejournal.com]

I love it, because the point to me isn't that the panda is fighting the human and the orc, it's that he's trying to get them to stop, and to see the world around them.

I read an article that says this is the the point of this expansion:

http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/07/15/know-your-lore-the-final-boss-of-mists-of-pandaria/

Which I LOVE, and there are hints that we might be getting back to whatever is happening with the Burning Legion since the dreadlord in charge of the Scarlet Crusade was all, "Got big plants on the homeworld, lates."

I am looking forward to both these things. :D And no Arthas.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link! That was interesting to read. Such flashbacks to English classes, plotting plots on a chart and such!

And wow, the rest of that was really interesting, too. I wish I could believe it possible, but it almost sounds like it's being set up to end the Horde/Alliance war. (I worry it wouldn't last more than the expansion though, that come next expansion, we'll be back to war again.)

What a wonderful thing that would do to WoW, in my opinion. End the war. Let each faction enter the other faction's cities. Open up common languages between them (which should be in place already!). I don't dare hope for this though. I think it would be amazing, but... I think it's bigger than WoW and its playerbase would support.

And no Arthas.

Whiiiinnneee! *grabby hands at*

[teaandfailure.livejournal.com]

I KNOW, I don't really expect the Horde/Alliance war to end unless they're planning on shutting WoW down after this and unveiling World of Warcraft II: Electric Boogaloo, where instead of Horde/Alliance it's Azeroth vs. Burning Legion and you can play demons as the other faction.

WHICH WOULD BE AWESOME but I'm not holding my breath.

But I do think it's interesting to explore those issues, especially for draenei and blood elves, because what's happening in Pandaria is basically something they've already seen from opposite sides: a pissed off race is entering another race's territory and beating the crap out of them until they're forced to take sides. How are the draenei justifying this? They were on the receiving end of it. How are the blood elves justifying repeating what everyone has admitted was a REALLY BAD IDEA, what with the whole genocidin' on the draenei? "Hey, remember when we invaded a peaceful race and fucked up their planet and forced them to go to war and it WORKED OUT INCREDIBLY HORRIBLY, maybe we should, I don't know, NOT DO THAT AGAIN?"

So I think the playerbase would support it, if the tradeoff was, "and if you really want to play tough guy war machines, here you go, play as the Burning Legion."

I do not expect this to actually HAPPEN. But at least we're going to THINK about maybe not killing the shit out of everything we see for an expansion.

I know you miss Arthas. <3 I RESPECT THAT, but god am I glad I don't have to see Jaina throwing her panties at him at every opportunity anymore. GOD JAINA, THE WORLD IS FULL OF MEN, GET ANOTHER ONE. HE WAS YOUR HIGH SCHOOL BOYFRIEND AND THIS WAS NOT WRITTEN BY LYNN JOHNSTON.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

You should so be a WoW dev person! I'D TOTALLY ROLL A DEMON!

but god am I glad I don't have to see Jaina throwing her panties at him at every opportunity anymore. GOD JAINA, THE WORLD IS FULL OF MEN, GET ANOTHER ONE. HE WAS YOUR HIGH SCHOOL BOYFRIEND AND THIS WAS NOT WRITTEN BY LYNN JOHNSTON.

*dies so much* I was 100% Horde at that point, so I missed the majority of her panty antics. I heard tales of them though!

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

I don't think we're going to see an end to the faction war (stupid World of WARcraft losers), but I think there's likely going to be brief alliances and such just as there has in the past. I think there's also potential for aid from unexpected places. If Bolvar doesn't get corrupted (which seems likely since everyone seems to get corrupted, but it'd be nice if they'd buck the trend for once), wouldn't it be something if he helped us out against Sargeras using the undead that the Burning Legion created in the first place?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I'd love to see it happen, but the playerbase would never accept it. It's a sad thing, but doesn't surprise me. :/