Well, no, not that. Everything else, yes, but Pokemon is kind of a weird addition. There was a lot of laughter during the WoW Preview panel that the speakers had to ignore. (If you watched at home, when they looked uncomfortable, it was because the audience found the Pokemon stuff unintentionally hilarious.) Obviously, there's an audience for it -- someone's buying all those Pokemon games -- but I don't know that it's something most players were crying out for.

This, to me, smacks of enough important people not really getting the appeal of pet collecting and wanting to make it more compelling for them. (And they may have the stats to back it up -- we have no idea how many people seriously collect pets, as far as I know.)

I choose YOU! Murkablo!

I'm already plotting out the most absurd battles I can think of for my menagerie:

Moonkin Hatchling vs Singing Sunflower (Or, as I'm calling it, the cute-pocalypse)

Magic Lamp vs Elementium geode (the battle of the inanimate objects; winner goes on to fight the creepy crate)

Disgusting Oozeling vs Toxic Wasteling (also known as"The Battle of ick, I stepped in it.")

Argent Squire vs Guild Page (or, as I like to call it "Could someone please call Child Protective Services.")

Not to mention it's going to take me months to figure out whether I should name my floating skull pet Morte or Murray. (Bonus points to anyone who gets both references.)

No. Not a good addition. Juvenile, insipid, uninspired, cop out, rip off, all things that come to mind here. I hope to hell Nintendo sues the crap out of them and kills it dead. For the coding overhead required for this MANY things could be fixed and new actual content provided.

I like WoW-Pokemon. I'll do it.

The hardcores, many adults, and all of the snobs will say "Pokemon is for kids" and whinge about it. The kids and the young at heart will say "Pokemon! Awesome!" and have hours of fun with it. The people who don't see the point of collecting non-combat pets (or only collect them because there's an achievement attached to it) will say "finally, something to do with all these previously useless pieces of pixel art I've dumped my time into".

Frankly, it's a win-win for me. Most people will have fun with it, and the snobs and jerks get their noses tweaked a bit more. And let's face it, there are plenty of reasons why Pokemon is one of the most popular video game franchises of all time, second only to Nintendo's Mario.

I'm 38yrs old, married with a teen and young'in. I've never played pokemon. Neither of my kids played pokemon. I've seen it and know about it.

Also, I'm a pet collector in WoW. Hunter pets and vanity pets.

I have over 150 vanity pets. I am looking forward to this very much. I know several people who are. We've already talked about a pet battle night in guild where there are tourny's with guild rewards of gold or items etc. So much can be done with this. This is going to be so much fun.

Well. I never played Pokemon. Never watched the cartoons or movies. I have lots of pets in WoW. I even have a toon dedicated to collecting pets. You're damn right I am going to check out the pet battles. If nothing else, this is a chance to bring a little socialization back to a game that is sorely lacking it right now. If you are too grumpy pants or too "mature" to play it, sorry. I'm not.

Levelling my pets just so they can do more fighting..

No thanks, I do enough of that with my characters. Not seeing the appeal of going down another level of grinding.

@ Daedalus

Invoking such powerful demonic forces such as Murray can be dangerous! I mean... who knows? Perhaps you will suddenly find that none of your socks match any more!!

Monkey Island!!!

I found it hilarious too and laughed despite myself...and then I thought about how much fun it will be and started getting excited.

I love the idea of all my pets--and yes I collect them--being used for something other than a cute companion or lucky raid charm. I'm really looking forward to this part of the game.

The best thing is, if this mini-game does not appeal to you, you can ignore it. I see it as a fun side thing like the Plants vs. Zombies game that awards the sunflower pet--which I also love.

While I'll admit that this feature will likely not appeal to everyone a lot of pet collectors I've talked to are looking forward to this. I myself immediately recognized the similarities to Pokemon, but didn't care. Honestly, if you were to give pet collectors something to do with their pets what else would you give them? I'm looking forward to the feature. POKECRAFT!

I grew up with Pokemon. As a kid, I would wake up really early to catch it playing on a local TV channel before school. I would play the games, buy the cards, and soak up every bit of Pokemon my young mind could.

And now, my more adult addiction, WoW, has decided to bring one of my greatest childhood memories and influences, and put the Blizzard touch on it.....Damn you Blizzard. I've already promised you my soul, I can't give you anything more in return for this freaking fantastic extra addition!

I am very much looking forward to this feature - my extensive pet collection can now act as more!

It appeals to me mostly because it is a way to stage 1 on 1 battles with other people at a different pace than arenas (which I am not a huge fan of). I am more of a strategic, methodical person and the turn based system is more my speed - Blizzard is (very astutely) expanding the player base they can cater to.

I am an achievement junkie, and no doubt there are more achievements I can seek through this new system, not to mention expanding my collection of pets.

I am personally tired of hearing some people whine about "WoW Pokemon". For all you whiners, remember it is an optional feature so you have no obligation to participate. Blizzard will continue to develop the other content it always has, such as raids, arenas, BGs, dungeons, etc. I love the direction WoW is going with this new xpac, kudos to them.

I am looking forward to it as well.

Something I mentioned in guild the other night: Albino Snake, Willy, and Cockatiel as a team... dirty fun!

I have absolutely no interest in the pet battles. I'm far too old to have played Pokemon (my nephews and step-kids were the ones playing Pokemon, not me) so I have zero interest in this aspect of MoP. I'd rather not see it implemented, but as long as it doesn't affect me, than having it in WoW won't bother me.

I am so excited about this.

I think it's silly how people keep comparing the pet battles to Pokemon like that's a bad thing. OF COURSE it's Pokemon. And those games are popular for a reason.

I think the Pokemon world and storyline are pretty stupid, but the games themselves are a heck of a lot of fun, so I think throwing a Pokemon-style game into the far richer and more interesting environment of WoW is a great idea. I've been collecting pets in WoW for years, and I'm thrilled to be able to do something more with them. Besides, it's always nice to have something to do at max level besides raiding. I burned out on that years ago.

To all you naysayers out there, remember, not everyone has fun the same way you do. It's good for the game to cater to a more diverse player base. It'll keep the game alive longer and let you play the way you want to longer too.

Now shoo before I sic Murkimus the Gladiator on you with his little spear.

Seriously, no thank you. I love COLLECTING pets, to show, especially when they were hard earned through quests or achievements. OR if they are from Blizzcon (then I can talk to other people with the same pets about Blizzcon if I wanted to). But to me, they are for display, a way to customize my toon, not to play with. While I would love to name my Warlock's minion, I have no desire to rename my companion pets as their current names will tell you who they are and where they came from. (If I named my Phoenix Hatching "Bunky" or something, how do people look up where it came from?) If I wanted to collect and fight with pets, I'd roll a hunter. Wait . . . I've got one that I never play, though I DO love naming those pets, they are not unique (well, there are unusual or elite hunter pets but you don't carry around so many of them as companion pets).

I just hope other people won't keep bugging me about fighting my companion pets the way strangers bug me about duels (as in not taking my first "no" for an answer). ***sigh*** another thing for little kids (and yes, I consider teenagers in the game to be little kids) to bug me about. :P And get off my damn lawn. :D

Pet collector's for a very long time have been asking for something like this, and Blizz has hinted at it coming for a long time now. I don't know if I will do it or not,(not really a pet collector myself)but I will definitely check it out, if it was more like pokemon I would love it, but it isn't going to be like that. Unless my mini pet's start evolving or something, it won't be pokemon!! :)