Breakfast Topic: Mists of Pandaria beta's lack of NDA
by Mathew McCurley 
Mar 21st 2012 at 8:00AM
No NDA means we here at WoW Insider get a nice breadth of content to show you, discuss, and help refine through the beta process. What content are you most excited to see and hear about once the Mists of Pandaria beta begins? Will you want live streams of dungeons? Cool quest videos? Monk guides? If you're in the beta, what's the first thing you'll do?
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: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Jamie Mar 21st 2012 8:03AM
I'll be avoiding playing beta, I want to keep the game somewhat fresh for when it comes to me. That doesn't mean I'll not be looking at info on the web though. It's never the same as actually playing so I have that at least.
I have plenty of things to be doing in game to keep me entertained!
incoming00 Mar 21st 2012 12:53PM
i feel the same way. back before i started playing wow, i was in a few free mmo's. 2 of them i managed to get into the beta, level pretty high only to see my characters get wiped. what sucked more is they released an "open beta" which allowed you to keep your characters once its released. of course i was mad, but what can i do, i get what i pay for from a free mmo lol.....
on topic, as an annual pass subscriber, i may jump in to scope things out on the toons i will be leveling up, but i wont be progressing as much, if at all. i most likely wont even start the pandaren leveling zone because i want to see it first hand when its launch time.
DavidRokon Mar 21st 2012 1:22PM
I'll jump in to play the panda starting area, then test out a monk til level 80 or so, so I can get a feel for the playstyle, test out for bugs and things like that. I don't plan on doing too much 'new' content so I don't spoil myself too much. Also pandokamon, I wanna be the best, like no one ever was, ect.
Twill Mar 21st 2012 1:25PM
I'll play it to see how each new ability works, report a few bugs, and spend my time reading the quest text in new zones.
That way during live I can level really fast without feeling like I'm missing out on the story!)
As for why there is no NDA: You can't keep over 1 million people quiet. Derp.
Evelinda Mar 23rd 2012 6:59PM
Aside from a bit if monk action, to get a little bit of a feel for the class, i really had no intention of doing much beta play. I got the pass because i wanted free D3, not for the beta access. I wasn't going to try levelling in the new zones, certainly, because i have a bazillion max level chars now, and i didn't want to add another play through to the list, especially one that wouldn't count for anything.
But twill makes a good point. The idea of going in, taking my time, reading the text (which I really do enjoy) while in beta, then blasting through to get my main up to max in live, is actually quite appealing...
Shorty Mar 21st 2012 9:38AM
The first thing I would do is try out the new talents! If you could do general reports or videos on the new talents for each class that would be awesome!
Well, that, and maybe some farming? :)
Reservoir Mar 21st 2012 8:04AM
Bring it on!
I will have to wait a while because I started WoW in Cata and registered pretty late for the annual pass but at least I will get in. Just hope it's before 15th May.
Noyou Mar 21st 2012 8:05AM
Profession news. All day, everyday. ;) Also, quality of life things like ports. Oh, and what the new dragon mount for the Pandaren will look like.
loop_not_defined Mar 21st 2012 10:07AM
There wasn't really a lot of profession coverage for Cataclysm's beta. I ended up doing a lot of my own datamining and posting the info in MMO-Champion threads. If it ends up being the same with Mists, I'll probably start datamining again (although posting on Wowhead).
terraburn Mar 21st 2012 8:05AM
Monks. I just want gobs and gobs of information on Monks. Mostly through videos.
Quorniya Mar 21st 2012 12:29PM
This! Monk info please, and lots of it, on all three specs!
Wilk Mar 21st 2012 8:06AM
I don't find the lack of an NDA surprising at all.
Did you really expect Blizzard to believe that every person who signed up for the annual pass is the type of person who would go by the rules of an NDA?
Sterb Mar 21st 2012 9:47AM
The voice of reason. How could te lack of an NDA be surprising when it's completely administratively unenforceable? Sometimes I wonder how much thought goes into what gets written here.
loop_not_defined Mar 21st 2012 10:11AM
The NDA for Cataclysm was enforced quite well. MMO-Champion, Wowhead, WoW Insider, and many other news outlets went to great lengths to keep NDA material out of comments and forums. No enforcement = no publicity favors from Blizzard (like invitations to Press Tours).
There were "leak sites" for Cataclysm, but you had to be fairly pro-active to find them, and even then the big ones got shut down by the hosts.
Cephas Mar 21st 2012 10:39AM
The NDA for Cataclysm was only for the Friends & Family Alpha - there has never been a public Beta under NDA.
Sterb Mar 21st 2012 10:58AM
What Cephas said.
The moment annual pass subscribers are allowed in, the NDA is completely unenforceable because a thousand blogs with all the information will spring up. If you can't find those, you're not trying.
Arrowsmith Mar 21st 2012 8:06AM
Copy over my Hunter (it's my main, after all), then my Priest (to see what the new Mana system is like), then my Shaman (cause she's awesome), and then have a freaking blast while keeping my best friend up to date on whatever he wants to know!
As much as I do want to try rolling a Pandaren, I already know everyone and their grandmother will be doing the same, and dealing with that much lag? Ehhhhhh, I dunno, honestly. I think I'll roll a Gnome Monk instead.
Luotian Mar 21st 2012 8:19AM
Hunter and one of my shaman will come over, for sure. Probably my belf hunter and dwarf shaman, just so I'm even and can play at totally different ilevels.
I'll probably play around with a monk of every race just to test them all, though. Even though I have no desire to play a monk whatsoever ^^; .
Lugh Mar 21st 2012 8:09AM
I'm most interested to hear about the many changes to warlocks. They are getting a pretty major redesign. I'm a little concerned about how they will balance with their new resource systems, and I'm curious just how much destruction warlocks will have to grease the palms of their healers to stay alive. And what was the reasoning behind demon form's armor buff? Will it be useful in PvE, or is it to help us counter rogues in PvP? Lots of questions.
Luotian Mar 21st 2012 8:20AM
I'm super curious about Warlocks as well. I don't play one, but my sister does. I might have to have her help me check out Destruction because that resource system sounds soooooo cool.