Mists of Pandaria: first impressions
I can discuss endlessly the finer details of
MoP, the new talentsystem, the petbattles, the overhaul of Ragfire Chasm (and I
will), but the big burning question on everybody’s lips is of course: are we
looking at a future Azeroth in which we´ll all run around like the Care Bears in
Wonderland. The answer is a whole-hearted: yes! Surprisingly enough, that
doesn´t matter. Even hardcore players –you know the type “in the old days
everything was better, we had no mounts so we had to run everywhere, a single
battle for Alterac Valley could take up to 3 days, blizz is killing the game
making it too easy”- had to admit grumpily that after a few hours they were
already hopelessly in love with their beta-panda.
This is not in the least because of the very
well designed facial expressions and body movements. Even the biggest
complainers have to cave in after seeing the /rude emote. On the other hand, the pandaren design makes
painfully clear how overdue upgrades for the other races are.
So let´s have it out for once and for all: Yes,
the pandaren (pandari?) are cuddly and cute. But not annoying-cute like gnomes,
or creepy-cute like goblins. Especially the male pandaren (pandaro?) really need
to pay some attention to their BMI if they want to make it to level 90, but still
manage to maintain a sense of dignity, helped by the wide choice of moustaches
and beards.
The females might be a bit too sweet (the dreamy idle-motion got on my nerves in the
beginning) but I appreciate the fact that the trend of super slim anorexic
female chars has been broken with. In a time and age where even the top of the
fashion industry becomes aware that it is not the best thing to portray a
dangerously low bodyweight as the ideal for women, I applaud that we will have
some more realistic female body shapes in WoW (and yes, I realize how weird
that sounds when talking about panda bears). Granted, we already have dwarfs,
but they are the least popular race among women because “if I want to look at a
fat ass all day, I can use a mirror”, even not to mention the Tauren. Chubby
though they might be, the female pandaren (pandara?) remain sassy and agile,
totally capable of dishing out a high-kick on an orc´s chin. So you better
think twice before mentioning cellulite.
To hammer the point really home, the pandaren´s
racials are all but one related to their bourgeois lifestyle: Bouncy (falling
damaged reduced by 50%), Epicurean (double well fed bonus), Gourmand (+15
cooking skill), Inner Peace (rested xp bonus lasts twice as long). Yes Blizzard, we get it. Fortunately the fifth racial -a 3 second stun- shows the tougher side of the pandaren (pandario?). Boy, those training punching bags never saw that one coming...
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