I was at Blizzcon and saw the beautiful environment of the Pandaren starting area, and didn't think Pandas were are weird or awkward as I thought when I first heard about them. The monk was fun to play, and a great addition for people who love the melee playstyle.

But selling the idea to now-jaded players? Not as easy. That's the difference though . . . . in Vanilla, EVERYTHING was fresh and new and people embraced every new addition with enthusiasm. This is the third expansion and impressing people gets more and more difficult. Seeing as I did, reaction from players that I know (both non-raiding casual to progression raiders) I think Blizzard needs to market this carefully. I've heard "NO WAY I'm going to play a PANDA!" to "I think they're Kiddie-fying the game." to "OH brother . . .Pokemon? Seriously?"

While light-hearted and bright is nice, people expect World of WARCRAFT. Perhaps they can emphasize the more serious nature of the game, and not so much the Pokemon aspects. (While I think supervised kids playing with parents is AWESOME and mature kids being who are able to play independently and socialize in appropriate manner with much older people is also great, too many of us have had issues with kids begging, bullying and generally acting in a way that most of us think we should be well compensated by their parents for baby-sitting . . . .) Many people are afraid that a lot of little kids will be attracted to what people perceive to be cartoonish or child-like look and gameplay of the next Xpac.

Also . . . only SIX talents??? And they just give you the rest? And they took away many of our useful core spells and made us choose betw. spells that we've been using for years? Skeptical. It's not that I don't like the idea (and I totally understand and agree with where they are coming from regarding Cookie-Cutter specs and the reality of lack of choice) but it seems that there aren't a LOT of choices. I hope they keep the feel of the spec as they are since they got FIRE MAGE just right, and it's been so much fun to play. I hope they keep the DoT/AoE/ and even some of the RNG aspect of the spec. But they seem to be taking some of the survivability away from a class that largely lacks survivability (by making us choose from what few survivability skills we have now). I just hope that when they reveal our SPECS, we can be not only RELIEVED but also excited. I want to be excited about the next expansion, not afraid that they will somehow make my favorite class less fun to play. (Right now, I find that my Warlock is not so much fun to play as it was in Wrath. She now spends much of her time gathering flowers).

I'm just telling you of the vibe I've been getting. I'm sure people will get the Xpac, but except for my roommate and me (both of us had a chance to play a bit of the Xpac hands on) NO ONE that I play with in game is really all that excited. I keep describing the monk and trying to tell them how cool it could be for people like melee, even THAT doesn't get anyone excited yet. Even the guy in my guild whose favorite movie is Kung Fu Panda scoffed at the whole idea of Pandaren.

Maybe they need to emphasize the War aspect more, tell us a bit more about the various conflicts betw. the Horde and Alliance (rather than that the fighting was only there to introduce the Pandaren continent). And emphasize the Pet Combat a bit less. It's all about marketing at this point, and so far, the reception I've heard around my server's been a bit lukewarm (and remember - a lot of these people I talk to are CASUAL PLAYERS). They really need to make the Pandaren look . . . grown-up., and the threats to their lands dangerous and real. They need to let people know that this is still a game that adults can enjoy.

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