Wow! Sale!

Naise!!!

World of Warcraft offers Free Diablo III with Annual Pass

What????

I haven’t touched WoW for about 3 months and was considering cancelling my account, or at least putting it on hold for a while. I think Blizz got a hold of my plans, because Pandaren from Mists of Pandaria, then this is annouced one after another.

WOW_annualpass

I CANNOT miss this!! Free Diablo III! Free! And applicable to Singapore too! I haven’t forgotten about the beta test, that wasn’t open to Singapore.

I’ve been looking forward to DIII for the longest time, so the question is do I or do I not take the US$155 plunge?

Blizzard Announcement Causes Panda-monium!

Everybody hold on to your bamboo shoots, because Blizzard has announced the fourth expansion for World of Warcraft, the Mists of Pandaria!

Mists of Pandaria (can I please call it MoP??) offers players an all-new continent with an increased level cap of 90. What’s even better now is that the Pandaren (roll eyes btw), the latest race addition is a neutral race, meaning players can choose to go either Horde or Alliance and they can also master the ways of Pandaria’s ancient martial arts as the all-new monk class.

Mists of Panda - wot?

The Blizz press release states that the MOP expansion:

lifts the fog of mystery surrounding a long-lost continent that has been newly rediscovered following the events of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm™. The new expansion reintroduces the elusive pandaren, originally seen in Blizzard’s real-time strategy game Warcraft^® III, as a playable race and adds a brand-new player class: the martial-arts-focused Monk. While exploring the mysteries of an exotic new land and advancing to the new level cap of 90, players will experience a range of new content and game features, including new quests and dungeons, group scenarios and “challenge” modes, pet battles, and more.

What’s more:

“Players have been asking to see the pandaren in World of Warcraft since the game’s launch, and we’re excited to finally be able to give them a proper re-introduction to Azeroth,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “In addition to the new playable race and class, Mists of Pandaria contains a huge amount of new content, and we’re looking forward to sharing more information about all of it at BlizzCon and beyond.”

Really? People were asking for Pandaren??? I never even knew such a race existed, but then again, I was never a Warcraft player.

Someone in Blizz is probably Chinese or has some really warped sense of humour about Chinese, because seriously, PANDAREN??? Sorry, I just have an issue with this.  Pandaren, or in chinese, 熊貓人, I can’t even talk about it. If you have a Chinese friend, ask him about 熊貓人 or at least Jay Chou. If your friend is Chinese, he knows who Jay Chou is.

Check out some more information I got off There Will Be Blood (my comments are only for those who understand Chinese or can at least pronounce it):

Creatures of Pandaria

Goldfish…

-Jinyu: fishlike creatures, walk upright, considered the wise men on Pandaria, can hear what the land in saying with the staff, see them across multiple zones

Monkey…

-Hozu: monkeylike race, stand on their hind legs, mischievous, plays pranks, see them everywhere

-Verming: the new kobold, straggly-looking cross between rat and rabbit, carries a makeshift weapon that combines a few kitchen utensils
-Mantid: Insectlike race that are polished, intelligent. Can be found in dungeons, and there will be whole raids revolving on these guys

Please tell me this is NOT mushroom…

-Mogu: the original ancient race on Pandaria who want the place back for themselves. Large, beefy, magical creatures
-Sha: The Sha are the manifestation of negative energy on Pandaria. When the Horde and Alliance arrive, Sha energy released into the land creates a shadowlike creature

Other than that, the rest of the expansion seems pretty in line with what most (normal, like me) players would expect.

check out the trailer first

Content of Pandaria

-5 new zones across a single unified continent
-Influenced by Asian landscape
-Auction house, bank and central questing hub will be available in Pandaria
-No flying until max level

Lore of Pandaria

-The continent has been around for a long time, shrouded since the Sundering
-Alliance and Horde wash up on the shores after a naval battle
-Lush land full of resources, outsiders want to take advantage and destroy the land

The Wander Isle

-A start zone that is on the back of a giant sea turtle
-Turtle left Pandaria 10,000 years ago and has been growing since
-Pandarens with wanderlust have left on the back of the turtle
-First neutral characters, don’t pick faction until level 10

The list goes on. Read the rest at There Will Be Blood.

Checking out the screenshots on the MoP website, I’m sorry that my first reaction was bwahahahaha. But are these screenshots for real? Because if they are, I think I better upgrade my graphics card, and my system, and my monitor, or something. I never knew WoW to look that … wow.

 

 

I’m still not sorry about my tweet. I still feel like the Pandaren should be voiced by Jack Black.

Don’t get me wrong, I love historical Chinese/China-themed games, as long as they’re done tastefully. The last China-themed game I really enjoyed was Emperor: ROTMK. So I’m looking forward to more good things from MoP!

Jack Black! Historical China themes! Now I’m motivated to get off my butt and start upgrading. Apologies to you who’s read through the whole thing, the author of this post is still only on the BC expansion 😛 But I think I should be a level-90 Pandaren by this time 2015.