Next Expansion " Mists of Pandoria"

[Zub]

Strawberry short cake?

No, that's the next villain.
Lich King -> Deathwing -> Strawberry Short cake

[Mosg2]

@Pinot:

Agree. I love Kung Fu Panda. I have three children. They love it. As a family, we love it. That being said, it doesn't belong in World of Warcraft.

I think this is just a marketing ploy. They've seen the dropping subscriptions after the initial Cata launch and see the writing on the wall; There's serious competition out there and on the way so they're zeroing in on a demographic: 10 year old kids.

Evidence? I point you to A) Pandas, B) simplifying the game, C) Pokemon in game and D) Pandas.

[thefunk]

cake or death?

I like the expansion, something different, as long as its fun to play who cares?

In any case there are probably quite a few players that don't read quest text. So lore isn't important to them.

[moog]

The thought of playing pandas in this next expansion has me thinking my wow addiction may finally come to an end. What's next? Strawberry short cake?

Snap - this pre-teen expansion of Kung Fu Panda and Pokemon pets is a shark-jump too far for me

[Tonuss]

Well, if they make the game play/progress more or less like it did in WotLK, I might just resub. I have no interest in more Cata dynamics.

My guess is that this is the way a lot of people felt. Blizzard has been moving away from the classic MMORPG crowd and more towards casual players since (IMO) mid-BC. They've gone back and forth on it, but I think they finally decided that they'll ride WOW down to the end of its life by catering to the less hardcore crowd. Next expansion, they will allow you to earn JP and VP via solo content, and they said they want people to be able to progress (gear-wise) regardless of what they are doing.

I think they realize that they have gotten more out of WOW than they ever thought possible, and now they can pretty much ride the wave the rest of the way. Even if the subscriber numbers continue to dip, I am thinking that 2012 will be a huge year for them, mostly driven by D3 but also by MoP. Lots of dedicated players and old-schoolers will hate what WOW is becoming, but they're no longer the target audience, is my belief.

[Mosg2]

I agree with Tonuss completely.

[Kruschpakx4]

You did not mention a world PvP zone for MoP, maybe that could be the World PvP area for MoP?

The war between the Horde and Alliance will really heat up in Pandaria every patch, so we are looking forward to integrating that.

I hope that means more than another tol barad

[Vecter]

I must have been watching something else with all the people QQing about this next expansion. Toning it down? Making things easier? I'm sorry where exactly did they say this? Revamping the talent system that actually GIVES us choice instead of the cookie cutter builds we basically were forced to use to be competitive? No flying from 85-90 in the new zone, requiring us to actually go through mobs and players instead of just lolflyingmountdropkillflyingmount?

Adding a new race like the Pandarens creates a great deal of wonderful art and change of scenery from all the dark and drab content we've had to do for the last 2 expansions? Adding a new class that will add greater play styles and new fresh options?

And hardcore raiders will still be hardcore raiders. I don't see where this is changing.

Everything else they are adding is completely optional. You don't have to do battle pets or scenarios, but it gives something else for people to do that need a break from raiding, or questing, or crafting. I don't see a problem with that.

[wakasm]

I kind of agree. More is better. As long as they don't take away from anything, I'm excited for the next expac.

The next MMO that steals me away will most likely do so with either really really innovative gameplay or super duper environmental graphics.

I'm mostly hoping Guild Wars 2 will do this for me one day, but I think I'll always come back to Blizz IP stuff eitehr way.

[Noids]

what are you gonna do for the other 50 seconds?

Survive? We're talking 5 x bears here with enough burst to pop someone every minute. Just seems to be a fairly powerful move for a class that otherwise has very good survivability and self healing.

The other class combo that looks interesting is 5 x shadowpriests again. The redesign of vamp embrace x 5 (15% of damage done smart healing 3 targets) looks to be nice healing for a high damage group.