Although I did not start playing the game at launch I was
there early enough to remember the “Good Ole Days” of Vanilla WOW. I can still
remember the seemingly endless time it took for The Burning Crusade to launch
and I was there on day one for Wrath of the Lich King and was there a week
after Cataclysm launched. I was a Beta tester for two expansions and have
dumped hundreds of dollars into the coffers of Blizzard. I have read almost
every WoW related novel ever released and count an original Azeroth Atlas among
my book collection. So with the fourth expansion of World of Warcraft freshly
released, one would expect me to already be playing it, if not making plans to
purchase it, but the reality is I have no plans to purchase or play Pandaria at
all.
Admittedly
this has left me feeling a little strange, kinda out of sorts or misplaced
even, as I should be eagerly ready to dive into the new content and leveling up
my beloved Paladin that was the origin of my online name. Instead I am
completely without intrigue and have almost completely forgotten the expansion
even exists. While I did stop playing WoW early on in the life time of
Cataclysm, (I did have two characters at max level) I had previously had taken
breaks from the game in the past, but always had found my way back, especially
by the next expansion. Mists of Pandaria will be different for me and as an
avid gamer and fan of all things Azeroth, I must say I am surprised the urge to
play isn't stronger.
I can not
give an honest opinion on MoP as I have not played a single moment of game time
in the expansion, so I will not even attempt to rate it or give commentary on
it, but the desire to play the game is just not there nor do I believe it ever
will be. For that matter, nothing about MoP has excited me in the least bit as
previous expansions have. The first ever announcements of the first three
expansions got me excited. Waiting for the release and then watching those
great cinematic trailers always got me ready to go. MoP's release announcement,
features list and trailer left me feeling a little meh to be honest. Nothing in
the content information grabbed me and although well done as usual, the trailer
did not evoke any urgency in me to get into the game.
I guess Kung
Fu Pandas, Pet battles, the Monk class and the like were not the ground
breaking content updates I loved in the past. The one part of the game that I
feel would be worth logging into for was the renewed war between the Horde and
the Alliance, but from what I have seen this has been down played for other
features. I desire and look for that feeling of impending doom that the Burning
Legion, the Lich King and Death Wing gave me. Hellscream and Pandas just are
not cutting for me. This post is not intended to be a knock on MoP or World of
Warcraft for that matter as I am sure the game is still an excellent product
and at times fun to play. The reality is, at least for this gamer its best days
for WoW are gone and are never going to return and that makes me a sad Panda
indeed.
