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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria news3 reasons for casual players to be excited about Mists of Pandaria
by Michael Gray 
Mar 22nd 2012 at 2:00PM
With that in mind, Mists of Pandaria brings a lot to recommend it to our crowd. While it's tempting to give in to scuttlebutt and think this expansion is mostly for the hardcore crowd, I promise that Blizzard hasn't forgotten about its loyal, beloved casual playerbase -- because boy, oh boy, is there a lot for us to love!
This topic comes up this week from reader Angela, who wrote:
I've been reading in forums about how MoP is mostly for the raider and hardcore crowd, that Blizzard isn't catering to 'casubads' anymore. Is there any reason for a full-time worker and mom to care about MoP?
I promise, Angela, there are reasons to care. Let's talk about them.
Pandas and monks, oh my!
The big ticket item for MoP is the addition of pandaren themselves and their iconic character class, the monk. The pandaren themselves look to be a unique, brand new addition to the world with all new lore, interesting stories, and incredible animations. Pandaren have actually been in Azeroth's history for several years, but all of these quests and stories are new additions to WoW. Monks are leather-wearing, butt-kicking, stout-drinking fighters.
The addition of a new class and a new race gives everyone a chance to level up all over again without feeling like you're just grinding through the slog one more time. The achievement counter is reset, the pet counter is reset, and we can spend a month working through our new character. Since it's a brand new race and a brand new class, hopefully the combination will help keep things fresh.
A whole new world
The new world is amazing. Look at the pictures of Mists of Pandaria. Other games are on the market right now with fancy new graphics, but they're just not anywhere near as pretty. The combination of gorgeous, rich colors and imaginative landscapes makes MoP a wonder to behold. Sure, the game engine is a little old, but the artists have created a breathtaking universe with that engine.
I can't wait to get into MoP and start exploring the new world. The temples look inspiring to me. I'd love to plop some of that architecture down in my back yard. Look at it! This world looks lived in and absolutely incredible. More that anything else, I think this new look and feel to the world will make it feel almost like a brand new game.
Zones and questing
When it comes to the depth of content and questing, MoP looks like it will bring abundant new experiences. Your intrepid WoW Insider staff recently attended a press event and had an unparallelled opportunity to talk to the developers. One quote in particular has really stuck with me.
Dave "Fargo" Kosak, WoW's lead quest designer, said, "We didn't just split up zones. We added a ton of terrain. We were developing these little subzones and thought that they really deserved to be their own experience, so we added a lot of terrain to support a robust quest experience, new stories, new characters -- the whole deal."
What that quote means to me is there's a whole new depth of content for us to enjoy and explore, even if we never form up into a raid.
Check it out yourself
Don't just take my word for it, though. Check out this roundup of our Mists of Pandaria coverage. With the new beta beginning, we'll have a lot more for you to explore. MoP is going to be awesome, both for hardcore players and those of us with limited schedules. Stay tuned -- it's going to be amazing.
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: WoW Rookie, Mists of Pandaria
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Daedalus Mar 22nd 2012 2:22PM
Yeah, sounds like someone was trolling (especially the casubad part...) IIRC at Blizzcon they were highlighting things they were adding specifically for people who just wanted to come on and play for 20 minutes; daily quests to get valor/justice points, scenarios, and a few other things described as "things to do with your max level character besides raid."
Revynn Mar 22nd 2012 2:35PM
Its the same thing every expansion.
Hardcore raider: Blizz only caters to casuals now!
Casual player: Blizz doesn't care about casuals, they only cater to the hardcore raiding crowd!
As a hard mode raider that cares about what I can do outside of raids, I'm really excited about this expansion.
Jebediah54 Mar 22nd 2012 5:00PM
I wouldn't say Mists is about Casual OR Hardcore but rather Casual AND Hardcore. Cataclysm was about fixing the leveling experience and, IMO, set the groundwork for Mists to be focused on the end-game content. There's a TON of stuff to do no matter how much time you have for the game.
Eternauta Mar 22nd 2012 6:57PM
I think that this Casual vs. Hardcore dicotomy is B.S. and has no real place in WoW.
WoW is the most mainstream and widespread MMO there is. You don't get 10 million subscribers by catering to only one niche (be it Hardcores, Casuals, Roleplayers, w/e).
Blizz wants everybody to have something to do: Raiders, 5-man runners, BG fans, Arena Junkies, even roleplayers..
The problem is this false thinking that some people have that "Pet battles take time that could be used for Raid developement or fixing PvP imbalance". No, it's not. Those things are handled by different departments/offices/whatever.
Saeadame Mar 22nd 2012 2:10PM
Huh, I would have thought the pet battle thing would be a big draw for most players, including/especially? casual ones. I don't imagine the pet battles being very long, so it'd be an easy way to do something fun and quick in the game. The other new minigames like farming and such seem similar =).
(NGL I'm still hoping for the ability to repeat that Peaceblooms vs. Ghouls thing, would play that 4EVA)
monotype Mar 22nd 2012 2:25PM
You can already replay it, can't you? I'm not 100% on this, but some guildies mentioned a while back that it becomes a daily that you can repeat, just for funsies.
Caylynn Mar 22nd 2012 2:28PM
I have no interest in the pet battles. I'm much too old to have played Pokemon - that was something my nieces and nephews did. So the pet battles hold ZERO draw for me.
But I am excited about trying a monk. :)
Saeadame Mar 22nd 2012 2:36PM
@monotype - I know they said they might make it repeatable, but I'll have to go back there and check if they ever did. I don't remember seeing it on any patch notes...
@Caylynn - fair enough, although the playerbase for Pokemon has grown up, so I expect it'll be fairly popular. I'm in my early 20's now and I remember playing Pokemon Yellow in elementary school, and Silver and Gold and Crystal and on and on haha.
rayden54 Mar 22nd 2012 9:08PM
Depends. I'm a casual, but I have no desire for pet battles or dailies/quests and only limited desire for Monks (will depend on the playstyle).
I want to raid, but I'm not willing to make the time commitment to a raiding guild.
Saeadame Mar 23rd 2012 1:21AM
@rayden54 - you should move to a high pop server, honestly. I'm not in a raiding guild, but I can PUG 1/8 HM Dragon Soul most weeks if I want to. The only important thing is to get as much as possible done in the first couple weeks, since good groups typically have very stringent achievement and ilvl requirements.
xrarndx Mar 22nd 2012 2:10PM
If I was a "casual" and this article was meant to swing me into buying MoP, it would have failed.
All you've stated is that it's an expansion, you get a new class and race and there are new zones to level in. Thats the same with EVERY expansion, regardless on who it's catering for, so you have lost it on that point.
What you SHOULD have mentioned:
More "LFG / LFR" content
Pokemon style mini-pet battles (the ultimate casual minigame)
More fun glyphs for role players and people who care more about having fun than having big numbers
New and exciting armour models / textures for transmog lovers
More that I'm sure other commenters can fill in.
This article really needs to be expanded if it is going to keep casuals in because in my opinion, that was pretty poor.
nutman Mar 22nd 2012 2:14PM
Agreed. The article essentially just says that this expansion has all the stuff you did in other expansions i.e. leveling and seeing new zones while failing to mention the actually interesting new "casual" content like pet battles, scenarios, the fun minor glyphs etc...
Saitenyo Mar 22nd 2012 2:30PM
Agreed! This is the most casual-friendly expansion yet and I'm surprised the article didn't even cover most of what will be available.
In addition to the above there will be: farming, new craftables (that hopefully won't require raid mats?), scenarios, and various factions to gain rep with that give fun rewards like a dragon mount.
As a casual player/full time worker with little time to raid and lots of interest in things like pets and professions, I'm pretty excited for MoP.
Tauren Fan Mar 22nd 2012 2:52PM
I completely agree. I always appreciate articles aimed at more casual players but this one might have missed the mark just a little. It seemed like it was just getting rolling and then stopped. Maybe a Part II is planned?
I have to agree that this expansion seems to have plenty to do for casual players. I actually assumed that hardcore raiders were complaining because so much of what I'd seen seemed to cater toward casual players. It would have been great for this article to focus more on the new features that may appeal to casual players (pet battles, farming, and scenarios, in particular).
I'm also expecting that the initially brutal difficulty of Cata heroic 5-mans will be scaled back to something closer to the Hour of Twilight 5-mans. I remember reading somewhere that they envisioned people being able to log in and do a heroic over lunch or something, not long, grinding wipe-fests like the trollroics could turn into.
Heck, even the streamlining of the talent system helps casual players, since you don't need to waste time figuring out where you talent points go or looking it up on a website. You just pick the talent that you like the best every 15 levels and you can trust that you won't break your character or be called a noob. I initially recoiled at this change (I like having points to assign!), but have come to see what a benefit this approach will bring. Removing the need to keep flying back to your class trainer is also a huge boon for casual players as it means you can spend that much more of your limited playing time out questing or otherwise doing things in the world.
Man, I am getting excited for this expansion!
Draelan Mar 22nd 2012 3:09PM
I was surprised by the reasons listed here, as well. Clicking through, I expected it to list things like Pet Battles, Scenarios, and Challenge Modes, only to see the least surprising (and downright ASSUMED) features of the expansion.
I suppose there's at least the comments section here to point out these exciting new features!
Bynde Mar 22nd 2012 3:33PM
If you don't raid or PUG, the lfr thing isn't going to thrill a 'casual'.
If you never played pokeman and/or the pet battles mean 0 in useful rewards, this means nothing.
The glyphs are a nice cosmetic change, fun and interesting. For the first few days. Same with new models. Nice at first, weeks go by and they become part of the everyday environment.
I appreciate the attempt, and a expansion is better than no expansion, but the lure any of this has to the 'casual' is a bit overstated.
And before any trolls climb up from under the bridge...i still love WoW and have no desire to unsub. Even after Kung Fu Pandas start multiplying all over the place.
Cragdog Mar 22nd 2012 4:35PM
Well, I have to agree with you. Then again, I am so "casual" that I don't and won't bother reading anything about MoP until it actually comes out. (Supporting two kids in college, etc. is my "main game". :) ) Reading any or all the "previews" would just ruin it for me. Still, to each his or her own. Enjoy. (And, woot!, they, aforementioned "kids" will be Seniors this Fall. Amazing.)
Philster043 Mar 22nd 2012 2:10PM
I actually never thought Mists was going to be for the "hardcore crowd," that was Cataclysm...
I can't wait for Mists either way. A new place to explore is never a bad thing in my book! And more reasons to explore - ie. secrets, optional quests - is the reason I've played WoW for so long, and I'm personally glad to see that coming back with a vengeance.
Pyromelter Mar 22nd 2012 2:11PM
Only one reason needed:
Pandaren Fire Mage
http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/02/kung-fu-panda-pyroblast.jpg
...Also, with all the warlock changes, maybe more people will be rolling warlocks. Which means even more dead warlocks to roast with your new pyroblasting panda-mage. >D
In regards to this though:
"I've been reading in forums about how MoP is mostly for the raider and hardcore crowd, that Blizzard isn't catering to 'casubads' anymore. Is there any reason for a full-time worker and mom to care about MoP?"
This is what Blizzard had initially designed for Cataclysm. The first few months of Cata were really rough on the more casual crowd, until blizzard realized that catering to the "hardcore" internet complainers about how "lolezmode" wrath was, didn't really work out too well. I believe Blizzard has rectified that mistake (as can be seen in the 378 5-mans as well as Raid Finder DS), and I would expect going forward that players will have difficulty levels that are similar to what we have seen in the Dragon Soul tier of raiding and dungeons.
Also, with some of the new minigames like pet battles and farmville, plenty of stuff for solo casual type people to explore and have fun with.
Derrek Mar 22nd 2012 3:17PM
"...Also, with all the warlock changes, maybe more people will be rolling warlocks."
Not likely. People don't roll new toons based solely on how much that class has changed. If they don't have one yet, chances are they just don't care about what it's going to be like after 5.0. Does it look more appealing to them than it did before? Maybe, maybe not.
To cite personal experience, Elemental shamans look really fun to me right now ( in 4.3 ), but I can't for the life of me get one off the ground. Looks aren't everything. The actual class mechanics, gameplay, and overall feel contribute a lot to whether a class "clicks" with a player.
Warlocks still remain incredibly complex and I doubt that will ever change.
Personally, I like that there aren't very many of us. Those of us who do put in the effort and dedication to re-learn our complex mechanics after the sweeping changes ahead will have a blast KO-ing those who don't.*
"Which means even more dead warlocks to roast with your new pyroblasting panda-mage. >D"
You're just jealous that your toon doesn't physically catch on fire when you cast things.
*Contrary to popular belief, it isn't "mages versus warlocks". It's also warlocks versus warlocks. In an underground society where power is everything, one tends to not care about the other guy who happens to know some of the same spells. Let him die so I can steal his HK. I really don't care.