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 2 of 5)
Luotian Mar 19th 2012 12:30PM
You guys make it sound so simple. Like it wouldn't upset a whole bunch of people if they logged in one day and all of the sudden their troll was standing up straight, or their dwarf female wasn't as curvy (or the belf/worgen WAS). If, suddenly, their character didn't look and feel and move like the same thing they've been playing for 7 years.
People who look up sites like these probably wouldn't mind it (I think I'd learn to adjust, at any rate). But, keep in mind, we are not the majority of players. Of the five people that play in my house, only 2 of us look at websites. Of my 20 friends that play, maybe six. In my guild of 200+ characters? 20, at most, look at these sites-- fewer still will do the research for raiding >.>. I could tell you the vast majority of them had no idea this event was even going on.
If their characters were suddenly vastly different from what they logged out as? That would be hugely upsetting to them. It isn't that its hard to do. Its that it is hard to do right.
Bril Mar 19th 2012 3:22AM
Any info on launch dates or beta dates? Besides Soon™?
Memzer Mar 19th 2012 4:25AM
Nope, in fact they specifically said they hope to get players into the Beta... Soon™ :P
Helston Mar 19th 2012 4:32AM
Actually, you can remove the ™.
From a Tankspot interview with J. Allen Brack:
Q: So everything looks to be at least mostly along in development. One thing mentioned during the presentation was that 4 or 5 of the zones are already fully quested out. Does that mean we could be looking at a beta sometime soon?
It does, yeah. We’re still trying to figure out when the beta is actually going to happen, what the rules for that’s going to be, how we’re going to invite all the people that are going to be invited into the beta, but it is something that we’re interested in getting into players’ hands as soon as possible. We’ve got zones that are fully quested out and we feel like we’ve got a couple in the pipe at this point. We’re starting to think about “when can beta be, what can be the timeframe for that? What do we need to do in order to get ready?”
Memzer Mar 19th 2012 5:15AM
True, the quote I was looking for from MMO-Champion was:
"We are excited to get players into the beta very soon, because that is going to be the true test of whether or not it is awesome." -Tom Chilton.
Brian! Mar 19th 2012 9:49AM
Beta is going to be a mess. They will let people into it in "waves" which will result in a few very happy people and a lot of anxious unhappy people. Oh, of course the guys who get in the last wave who become haters of Blizzard.
Because, in reality, everyone who bought into the year subscription probably feels that they deserve to get it at the same time their friends do.
Edymnion Mar 19th 2012 4:08PM
There are over a million people signed up on annual pass that will have to be given beta invites. Its insane to let them all in at once, and worse yet, its counter-productive to testing.
The vast majority of them are just going to look at it to say they got an early sneak peak, play for a week at most and go "this is buggy, I don't get to keep any of this, why am I wasting my time on it?" and go do something else.
Thats why semi-public testing like this is done in waves, because they know they'll get a big upswing for the first week, and then it'll die down to almost nothing but the actual hardcore testers, and then they'll have to bring more people in.
If you've never beta tested a game, I'm sure this will be a new, horrible experience for you. For the couple of days it takes you to go "Dude, this sucks, thats the third time this week they reset my character!". Vast majority of people just have no concept of what beta TESTING is. They think its a sneak peak at the game, not, you know, WORK.
Pyromelter Mar 19th 2012 3:22AM
Holy crap it's like y'all were just ready to burst all this info, and you puked it onto your servers so fast! There are new MoP things that aren't even on the first page!
GG wowinsider, +1, now to go read all this stuff and make like a good internet person and tell everyone how I feel about everything.
Noyou Mar 19th 2012 3:27AM
Awesome job Wowinsider crew. I did check out MMO Champ as they got their stuff out a few seconds before you. You guys blow them away on quality. You faq is much much clearer and concise than there little 5 min deal. Not that you need the ^5 but seriously. Way to go. #Quality.
red2me Mar 19th 2012 3:27AM
Chris Metzen for breakfast... sounds yummy! /swoon
elfennau Mar 19th 2012 3:29AM
WTB more beta info plzkthx.
Edymnion Mar 19th 2012 4:10PM
WTB any info that isn't fringe expansions on stuff they revealed to us last year. You know, new information that isn't just "Hey, here's the name for this zone!"
Rhüarc Mar 19th 2012 3:29AM
Ugh, I've read it all. Now I need more information to digest! TELL ME WHEN THE BETA IS!!!! please?
meshuggahmath Mar 19th 2012 3:38AM
I'm going to remain a sad little orc until I hear about new character models and a possible Beta date.
dmberreth Mar 19th 2012 3:40AM
Well, reading over some of the other news sections, we see that they have all ready applied the Monk animations to the old character skeletons. So the likelihood of new character models has just plummeted considerably, at least for this expansion, must less release time.
Noyou Mar 19th 2012 4:14AM
Not totally-
"Additionally, in the bottom right-hand side of the screen, there is a small gameplay video for your chosen class so you can see a little bit of how the game plays in action before you settle on it."
Taken from the UI write up. If they added this for people to see how their toons move before they select one, it could mean people will be getting the option to keep what they have or select a new look. #hoping.
Chris Gonzalez Mar 20th 2012 7:54AM
Noyou, that was directly in relation to character CREATION, not existing characters. Context is everything, friend.
rockychristine Mar 19th 2012 3:42AM
A new Warchief! And heroic Scholomance and Scarlet Monastery. Two of my favorite classic dungeons.
tuppers360 Mar 19th 2012 5:36AM
so whats happening to the achievements?????
drumwiz86 Mar 19th 2012 3:44AM
I can't decide if its the Siege of Org, or the Scenarios and Challenge mode stuff.