WoW Insider's Mists of Pandaria coverage
by Anne Stickney 
Mar 19th 2012 at 11:59PM
- Mists of Pandaria: Chris Metzen interview
- Mists of Pandaria: Achievements preview
- Mists of Pandaria: March 2012 FAQ
- Mists of Pandaria: Zones and Questing
- Mists of Pandaria: Dungeons and Challenge Mode
- Mists of Pandaria: Battlegrounds Preview
- Mists of Pandaria: UI Updates
- Mists of Pandaria: Siege of Orgrimmar
- Mists of Pandaria: Yes, you get another character slot
- Mists of Pandaria: Female pandaren
- Mists of Pandaria: Cool class stuff we found
- Mists of Pandaria: Pet Battles
- Hunters to get Stampede in Mists of Pandaria
- Mists of Pandaria: New Raid Finder loot rules clarified
- Mists of Pandaria: Dave "Fargo" Kosak interview
- Mists of Pandaria: Ray Cobo interview
It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!Filed under: Mists of Pandaria
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Silversol Mar 19th 2012 3:06AM
Hooray! Silence is broken!
Edymnion Mar 19th 2012 10:21AM
It took a week's worth of NDA enforced silence for this?
I mean, really, the *ONLY* news I found actually interesting and not just a minor expansion on what we were already told is that we finally get to kick Garrosh out.
Minstrel Mar 19th 2012 11:25AM
Yeah, I was a little underwhelmed too. There didn't seem like a lot of consequential *new* information, except the pandaren female model. I was hoping for a bit more flash. ;) I still think the expansion looks like fun, but I wanted more revelations today!
undeadgoat Mar 19th 2012 6:23PM
What planet do Endymion & Minstrel live on where things like "We're going to make boring professions fun!" and "We all get to kill Garrosh!" are not news? What exactly did they want? Would they have made these exact same comments no matter what the content? Or is the only thing they care about the beta start date?
Jamie Mar 19th 2012 3:08AM
I wish we could get Chris Metzen at breakfast everyday!
Great job guys on this compendium of new info. A heroic undertaking!
threesixteen Mar 19th 2012 11:46AM
i can't really agree with this. it comes off more as 'press release reporting' than substantive exploration of the game.
and, as has been mentioned, the lack of a release date is conspicuous by its absence.
the real question is, how long will the current -- ever diminishing i might add -- player base continue to actually subscribe considering there is absolutely nothing new coming until the MoP launch.
It's getting pretty bad (well, has been for weeks now) in game; you can tell from the # of pugs etc that people are pretty much done with cata.
Why not just release some crazy world bosses or something? just plop a couple down in each continent, give them a simple lore excuse for their existence (spaceship emissaries come to harvest the gnome race for alien amuse-bouche?) and make it open-ended 40 man (or whatever) raids that also double as moving PVP opportunities.
anything to keep the game from rotting out.
adrenalize_the_people2 Mar 19th 2012 6:08PM
@threesixteen
A release date being "Conspicuous it's absence"?
Really, have you just started playing Blizzard Games or what?
Matticus Mar 19th 2012 3:10AM
FARMVILLE IN WOW. FARMVILLE IN WOW!!!
Pam Mar 19th 2012 8:58AM
This...this...this...oh yes...this....I never have to go to Facebook again!!!!...this...ohhhhhh
RuzGofDI Mar 19th 2012 11:53AM
First Plants vs Zombies
Then Pokemon
Now Farmville
Warcraft all the games!
Puntable Mar 20th 2012 11:01AM
Did they say it was a mini game? It sounded to me like a daily quest hub. This is one of the few things announced that is "new info", but I can't find much about it. I'm still trying to read all the articles.
ninjivitis Mar 19th 2012 3:20AM
Nothing about new player models. *cry*
Yams Mar 19th 2012 3:50AM
Curse did an interview with Tom Chilton ( http://youtu.be/0KJDi622X1U ) where he says they are working on it and really want it to work out but none of them will be ready in time. At the very most they could have maybe finished one race (dwarves) but it looks like it just won't happen.
So yeah... sad day. No new character models yet :(
Philster043 Mar 19th 2012 4:20AM
Oh well. Not a deal-breaker for me. Hopefully one day they'll get around to it, but it's okay that they save it for another expansion if that's the case. I certainly don't want these revamps to be too rushed.
Memzer Mar 19th 2012 4:20AM
They definitely did comment on new player models, I believe to the effect:
- If anything the most likely race to receive new models at launch would be dwarf. The rest would come at a later date.
- He also said that the Draenei and Blood Elves were at the bottom of the list for new models because they were created more recently.
On topic:
Interesting information but I didn't notice much if anything said about professions? Will it be more of the same, will we get sw:tor like gathering / crafting quality of life changes? etc.
Pyromelter Mar 19th 2012 5:32AM
I've put this in a couple of other places, but just in case people miss it, here you go:
Gamebreaker tv is reporting that new models are not likely to make it into the launch of Mists
http://www.gamebreaker.tv/mmorpg/world-of-warcraft-mmorpg/world-of-warcraft-news/poly-gone/
Mike B and Scott Hawkes talk for about 16 minutes about the model thing, and while they sympathize with blizz, they rightfully criticize them and talk about the ramifications of a lack of model updates in Mists.
/ultimatesadface :*(
followthategg Mar 19th 2012 5:53AM
Dwarves revamp has been taken out of context. Yes dwarves maybe finished in designing at launch, it DOES NOT mean dwarves revamp will be in the finished production.
Esau Mar 19th 2012 7:15AM
No new character models is a huge, huge disappointment. Sorry Blizz but overall the information released here is a 5/10 at best. This is not going to be good enough Blizz, not by a longshot. better get crackin or those sub numbers are going to take a massive dip that will make 2011's losses look pale by comparison.
Also, I think the NDA week is backfiring. In particular since all the screen shots and videos made it out over the weekend anyway.
zinckiwi Mar 19th 2012 7:42AM
I hate to be That Guy... but I'm going to be That Guy.
Now as a long-time web developer I'm usually one to step up and defend Blizzard when it comes to server stability and uptime because I know just how complex things are. "You can't keep a few machines running?" people incredulously cry, but I just shake my head knowingly at the scale of the task Blizzard has in front of them. "You have no idea how difficult that is underneath it all," I say.
Having said that, really? *Really*? Blizzard, arguably the best funded and most talented game development outfit there is, can't make twenty models? Maybe some animator is out there reading this post, shaking his head knowingly and thinking "this guy has no idea how difficult that is underneath it all."
But until that animator explains it to me, this just seems like the equivalent of my developing an entire banking website but throwing up my hands in defeat when it comes to the "Contact Us" form.
Brian! Mar 19th 2012 9:40AM
I honestly find this absurd.
I suppose if you told me that they had to remodel every item of equipment in the game to make the new models work, then I might sort of understand. But even then...
The thing is, I used to work in the film effect business as a 3D guy and I get how long it can take to make a great model - but we are talking weeks of full time work by a talented artist, not months or years. There is going to be a number of weeks to get all the IK (the skeletal animations) just right. But again, we are not talking years of work here.
Also, there is no shortage of brilliant 3D modelers and animators out there. With Blizzard's massive gross income they could have hired a dedicated 3D artist for each race to model them. Something that should have been done last year too.
But hey - let's just get to the truth of the matter. Blizzard is a public corporation and their #1 goal (like all corps) is profit for their shareholders. Blizzard will only do what is necessary to sell copies and win back subscribers. If enough people bail WoW complaining about the graphics of their race, you bet it will be fixed. But it has to be a big enough problem for WoW to address it.
Just look at some of the features in Mists like AoE looting. They could have done that ages ago, but finally a game has managed to keep a million+ of their own subs which isn't great for WoW from a shareholder standpoint. I bet we will see any and every good idea of Bioware come over to WoW as long as SWTOR manages to keep over 1m subs going.