Raze

Why does the female have to be playing a female character to get the buff if the intent is to bring in actual women? Discouraging cross playing on either gender's side is, on top of being a huge double standard for women, a big step backward in MMO design from my standpoint.

I haven't commented on this site before in several years.

The Pandaren, their aesthetic and culture, and the continent they live on have rekindled my interest in the game.

Yeah. I like what I've seen, so far.

Much as it's the in thing to dump on WoW - I know I have in the past - I'm actually looking forward to jumping back into the game for a short while with this.

A lot of what they're saying is probably smoke and mirrors, but I like the idea of getting away from all their dramatic, -awful- storytelling and focus on making the games fun again. The farming aspect sounds and awful lot like a slippery slope that could lead to player housing, too....

@mcnerven

We live in a MANLY society where anything perceived as remotely silly is a sign of immaturity, the POLAR OPPOSITE of MANLY.

This despite World of Warcraft already being one of the most ridiculous games I've ever played.

@smartstep

As if anyone on G4 has anything resembling integrity, credibility, or wit.

That picture's adorable.

There's one thing I'll give this series and its supplemental material : it has an aesthetic that I rarely see in other MMO's, western or otherwise.

Just to clarify to those unfamiliar with the game, you can easily toggle off the experience bonuses, or flat out toggle off experience gains altogether outside of quests. And, going further, you can even adjust your level down to however low you'd like to experience the game's content as it was originally intended. I'm pretty fond of EQ2's method of doing things.

@Audacious Well there's a typo. I meant to say that the Last Guardian was the only one that CAN stand on its own two feet as an entertaining read. It's the rest of the books that can't.

@Ocho

I thought the Last Guardian was the only one that can't stand on its own two feet as an entertaining read apart from its source material. The rest are continuity porn that non-WoW fans wouldn't be interested one, which is my first problem with these books.

My second problem is knowledge of events therein are considered a given by the developers in at least World of Warcraft. If you haven't read some of the books, key characters and events appear and be discussed in the games that oblivious players have no context for. At least one raid in Wrath's entire context was provided by a manga I'm sure less than ten percent of the playerbase bothered to read.

But I'd be fine with all that if there was better quality control with their novels. As is, they range from subpar to terrible reads that only serve to turn me off an increasingly convoluted storyline.

It's December tomorrow, so I don't think it's preemptive to hand this game the generic trailer of the year award.