What the F* Happened to Warcraft?

October 23, 2011 LHStaff General 23

This Friday during Blizzcon we finally learned that the leaked trademarked name “Mist of Pandaria”, which many thought was going to be for an April fools joke, was actually a real expansion. While it seems to be getting mixed reactions, those on the negative side of the spectrum are not seeing this as a slightly negative thing, but as the downfall of World of Warcraft, myself included.

While I’m not a WoW player, I have played all three RTS games, their expansions and love the lore. So for me, I not only think of this as the downfall of WoW, but I think Mist of Pandaria has destroyed the entire Warcraft brand. Are we going to see Panda’s in Warcraft 4? No thanks.

This also isn’t the first WTF moment in Warcraft lore, more like the final straw. What began as a classic Humans, Orcs and Elves fantasy story has become a mish-mosh of everything from werewolves to pandas to undead, demons and giant bulls. So let’s take a look at the rundown where all these races came from.

Warcraft I

  • Two playable races: Humans, Orcs
  • Dead units can be raised back up as undead (Orcs only spell)
  • Fire and Water Elemental creatures

Warcraft II

  • Still only 2 playable races: Humans, Orcs
  • Elf, dwarf, goblin, Deathnight playable units added
  • Elemental units removed

Warcraft III

  • 4 playable races: Humans, Orcs, Undead, Night Elf
  • Undead(Burning Legion) and Night Elf races added
  • Pandaren Brewmaster unit makes an appearance
  • Tauren and Blood Elf races introduced
  • Fire and water elemental units return as castable spells

Before moving on to WoW, we can see that with Warcraft III Blizzard started to expand the universe, but for the most part stuck within reason. Aside from the new Tauren race, which to be honest I’ve never been a fan of, War3 didn’t really break anything.  While I might have not liked the new race, it still sort of fit in with the lore. The Pandaren Brewmaster was of course a joke unit and I didn’t think twice about it as a serious race.

Throughout all three Warcraft RTS games, there have always been random units that didn’t really fit into any of the races, but you never expect them to go any further. Then we have WoW.

World of Warcraft

  • Draenei, Worgen, Pandaren, Blood Elf, Tauren playable races added
  • Elementals become a full blown races, air, water fire, earth
    • They come from the Elemental Plane within the Twisting Nether dimension
  • More worlds and dimensions added
    • Great Dark Beyond
    • Argus, K’aresh, Xoroth, and Outland (formerly Draenor)
    • Pandaria hidden continent added

Everything is so complicated now with so many different races, where they came from, who’s side they’re on and why; it just a mess. As I’ve said I’ve never played WoW, so I’m sure there’s much more you can add to the list to complicate things, but all that stuff is already over my head.

My questions now is, how does Blizzard possibly make another Warcraft game out of this giant mess? Is War4 just going to ignore half of the new races they created since War3? Personally I have no interest in a game where werewolves, pandas and aliens/demons from another world or dimensions decide to get involved in a war between Orcs, Humans and Elves. This sort of reminds me of my reactions to the movie Cowboys vs Aliens; are you fu*king kidding me?

Mist of Panderia might have ruined WoW for some, but it’s ruined the entire Warcraft brand for me.

23 Comments

  1. They announced this as an April fools joke several years ago, and they swore they would never release it after several people believed it to be true, as it did not belong in wow lore… looks ike low sales, crap performance, and out dated “kicking a dead horse” method leaves the development department to publish an april fools joke as expanded content, Sadly, you WILL PAY for this to play. FaiBLOG.

  4. Panda Monks are the reason i will be returning to the game after not having played for almost a year.

    Definitely /sign

    I play in the W-universe since WC III and quit playing WoW before WotLK and now I really think about to return §:). Maybe because I love the asia look & feel and more addicted to such games than the ugly looking human characters of WoW.

  5. wow has been a joke for a long time. I think it began as early as TBC for me. Horde paladins in a Star Trek setting just didn’t sit well with me. After that it’s been one thing after the other. I think the reason they’re doing it, is the same reason they’ve been giving more and more “epics for casuals” if that image makes sense. It’s about keeping the main stream bulk of players paying for their account. If that requires adding Kung Fu Panda and erasing every trace that there once was a difference between Horde and Alliance, so be it. You gotta do what you gotta do. For me I think this is the last straw, I can’t bring my self to pay for something I feel I’m “putting up with” rather than having fun in.

  6. Why is my comment before still pending? I mention that WoW created Panda class as an April fools joke and swore to never release it as atrue content. That was about 2-3 years ago. Guess the fan base shifted for the worse, people forgot about that, now they are desperate for money and baby players.
    ALSO, I just found out, BLIZZARD is releasing a DOTA official game. The art and graphics? WOW!!!!
    They swore the next big release was not going to be wow, and completely different and that the graphics/art would be different. I think there is an internal war inteh company. Mid way through release of Star Craft two. IT was sci fi future ads, SUDDENLY it was wow art ads for SC2, It was confusing, to see marines and Zerg dressed up in wow art… the game was so different. If you ask me, the directional departments are out of control and law suits are flying and greed has bit every one to the bone. F ALL the players who support this dung heap.

  7. I lost my love for it even before its first expansion. They brought in the idea of mixing e-sport into the game and then making it a grind, making griefing easy and so forth. I used to say they really are smoking something interesting up there. Also on WoW forums the dev groupies have been praising the Pandarans and doing “squeeee! I want one!” type post for years. Its been a slow crawling landslide of foolish changes until the original game was a smoldering lump beneath a huge pile of crap. Every good idea had to be hit with the ugly or stupid stick before it went live, especially graphic form for new races. In other words the Pandarins fit right in.

  8. I’ve thought a lot about where the WoW universe has gone and I feel like this new one definitely feels like a joke. Nothing seems to fit right and the idea of adding pandas to the universe just seems crazy. But on the other hand I have to say TBC was a little crazy as well (Just think about it, horde and alliance ~IN SPACE~… wtf??). However TBC was an amazing expansion and the lore was there to support it so i guess it worked despite it being weird. Also Lich King, IMO, had some of the best lore out of all the expansions but was utterly terrible because they seemed to abandon so many things that were good about WoW. Then Cataclysm came out with some great lore(ish) but failed because it just didnt do any of the things it wanted to do well enough. Also the fact that everything so fragmented across the continents it didnt feel like a whole expansion or really any addition that had a really prevalent theme (I get the cataclysm/end of the world stuff but it was never overly obvious in the places you went. like you never really got the feel that the world was ending). With all the seemed like a good idea at the time expansions theyve had I dont really think pandas could ~ruin~ it. You can certainly tell their creativity has diminished. I mean ffs theyre adding pokemon into the universe. BUT i do think theyre adding back some of the things that made vanilla incredible like interacting with the world around you and doing world pvp often and overall connecting with the universe. I honestly dont know tho.. i think there is still hope but I think we’ve seen enough evidence that the quality of the lore doesnt mean the execution will be poor and the fact is that its all in the execution.

  9. I just started playing WoW when Cata came out (newb, i know xD)… but DEAR GOD i hope this whole panda thing is a joke. Come on, Blizz. What’s “fantasy” about a panda.

  10. “As I’ve said I’ve never played WoW”
    Then shut up. This statement alone means that you are not qualified to comment on the expansion or the game. For those of us who have actually played the game, this expansion is a relief. Every expansion has involved world shattering events, with villains that have shook the foundation of the world. It is a relief to finally have an expansion that allows us to “breathe”, to get a breath of fresh air. As far as the argument goes about this expansion being silly, get over yourself. Blizzard has always had a very light hearted take on things. You claim you have played the original Warcraft, did you ever just click on the units to see what happens? Do not ignore the silly and light hearted elements because you are a cruel and heartless person. Remember, the Blizzard Company started with three silly Vikings.

  11. If you have never played wow I dont know why you are even opening your mouth. I agree the panda expansion looks terrible.. what exactly is there to get excited about? Wrath had an incredible production despite the Free Epix for nubs – I frankly didnt care as heroic ICC provided the upper tier for a player like me. But the lore, art direction, epic feel and sense of purpose to raiding made it a game to care about progressing through. The ICC lower spire music booming through my headphones, as Old Bonestormy taunted you, standing at the base of the most significant ice scuplture in the warcraft universe was really something and I really miss that level of immersion. Pandas are G@y.

  12. “Then shut up. This statement alone means that you are not qualified to comment on the expansion or the game.”

    We have a fanboi in the audience folks! Unfortunately Deneb, there’s this fun little thing called free will, which allows for everyone to have an opinion on anything they want. Couple that with free speech, and – you guessed it – they’re allowed to talk about any of those opinions. The fact that it gets your delicates all knotted up doesn’t really change that fact.

    Personally as a player since vanilla, I think this is the worst decision Blizz has made to date for the franchise. The whole Let’s Make A Whole Zone About Pretending To Be A Nazi in Cata was bad enough, but Kung Fu Panda is… well, it’s certainly it for me. Bring on SWTOR!

  13. “For those of us who have actually played the game, this expansion is a relief.”

    A relief from what? Thinking? I saw the trailer and it was a joke come to life. First… we had this. THEN this… THEN the lich king reared his head. THEN THEN we had deathwing attack. ……….then we played with pandas. Because, it’s the time when all noobs must frolic and kiss dev butt. I’ve played the game too denoob and this expansion is like Palin running for VP. An insult to all thinking people. A statement that makes you say in response “You really think I am this stupid?”

  14. I haven’t played WOW since WOTLK, but I thought that was a cool arch. I really enjoyed watching the invasion of the Lich King’s castle, and seeing big groups working over the months to close in on the final boss. The whole atmosphere was very epic and well done. I loved it!

    However, long-term WOW at high levels is not for me, and I never made it past level 65 or so. Be that as it may, I have no idea why the author of this article is writing to criticize an expansion for a game he’s never played. Seems sorta stupid.

    I agree that the Pandas strike me as odd mainly because this has been a joke race for so long. However, I can see a lot of potential for it as well — there’s no reason that Panderia can’t become a rich and interesting part of Warcraft lore. WOW is a sprawling universe these days, and honestly, I’m ok with that. Bring it on!

  15. “…allows for everyone to have an opinion on anything they want. Couple that with free speech, and – you guessed it – they’re allowed to talk about any of those opinions.”

    Your comment misses the point. Opinions are fine, everybody has one. The issue is the quality of the opinion expressed. If you have never done something, think it is stupid, and then write a public article about your opinion, how can the opinion be valid? It is true that people have free speech, people have the right to say stupid things, and those of us who actually think about what we say have the right to call them on it when they say something stupid.

  16. I have played WoW since 2007 (on a private server, in fact all of my experience of WoW is on private servers). Back then the server still stupported Vanilla 1.12.1. It was my first MMO and it was mind-blowing. I remember how much I liked it. Then they patched the server to TBC. The first thing I didn’t like was those Sentinel blue items you could buy from Ashenvale now costed honor. And the server had less than 100 people population. How, the hell was someone supposed to gather up enough honor to buy even one of those?

    Back then I wasn’t really familiar with the story, but somehow, they game started feeling more ridiculous. Leveling was easier, getting good gear and everything was easier, now WoW is nothing like what it used to be. If I am going to play again, it will be on a Vanilla (1.12.1) server.

    WoW is now a cruel joke for those fans who are paying to play. It’s a Kung-Fu Panda MMO that is played mostly by idiots, who “return with every new expansion”. If you are going to quit, quit for real. Don’t fill Blizzard’s pockets anymore, dumbass. At least I haven’t spent a penny for WoW and never will. In fact I’ve never spent money on games and never will. So this leaves me less screwed up than those of you who were paying for WoW.

    Have fun playing Kung-Fu Panda Online!

  18. But seriously I would hate to see this new expansion in action. true the things that they are doing for CLASSES are cool. especially warlocks.. which i have my old cata lock in figurine form ::polishes Minimoon’s staff:: she is a girl no weird remarks lol. but seriously i am going to GW2 because for me its a fresh start and my time with this game is over. In my eyes Cata was a huge disappointment especially when everyone was thinking that being able to fight a huge dragon would be cool.. face to face.. not fighting his back acne if you know what i mean. i agree with Saex_Conroy when he basically said that leveling was easier.. hell in wotlk it was a complete joke! i leveled a paladin from 1-75 in like 3 days of game time.. That was of course without BoA which made it worst! i lvled another pally on a different server with BoA gear and it only took 3 days to get to 75.. MoP will unfortunately be another one of those when people get the game its a mad dash to 90 do the end game content then.. rinse and repeat.. how is that remotely fun anymore after 8 years?!!!

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