Some Thoughts On Pandas & Things

I can has panda... Err, I mean be a Hua Mein Panda. Finally I maxed out my Hua Mein faction in EQ2. It didn't take as long as I thought it would and I was kind of slack with doing the daily quest everyday. The thing I looked forward to mostly was the item with the panda illusion, plus it is a pretty cool looking appearance item- Katana of the Hua Mein.

Speaking of Pandas, I'm sure most people have heard about the information floating about on what the next WoW expansion will be; Mists of Pandaria. MMO Champion has a good track record with predictions plus if you look at the document shown there you'll notice this isn't the rights for a book, it's listed as computer game software and discs. So, we'll probably be seeing Pandas in the world of Azeroth.

Why Pandaria now? Look at EQ2, for years people have been wanting Beastloards and finally they get what they want, about seven years later. But the point is sometimes if the playerbase wants something for long enough they get it eventually. As a game ages adding things like this adds more incentive for players to keep sticking around. Maybe we'll see housing in a few years, maybe even appearance slots. I suppose we'll really hear the truth when Blizzcon hits until then this is all just speculation, even if they are not a playable race they will probably be a faction. I for one love running around as a panda, it would be cool in WoW too.

I've been trying to stay off the hype train, especially when it comes to TOR. I mean it looks great and all but I really can't get excited about a game that still doesn't have a release date. An estimation based off this or that from the company doesn't cut it with me. Plus, the whole 'Limited digital preorder thing' seemed pretty lame to me. Seriously, limited digital goods? I can see where they are coming from but it just seems like adding more to the hype. I'm not going to get into what everyone else has covered before on what has been shown so far, it all looks really good.While I'm not frothing at the mouth in anticipation- I do look forward to playing it!

And last but not least the big 'Items for money' fiasco with Diablo 3. I think people are really going overboard on this whole thing. It's not the first game company to do this. SOE already has this on certain game servers (EQ2, FR for example) with Live Gamer. I'm not sure where I stand on this right now but I imagine not everyone will wanting to be selling everything they get their hands on and I doubt people will be paying rent with it on a regular basis. It all depends on how hard certain content is, access and how much new stuff is added in on a regular basis. Yet another we'll have to wait and see thing. Kind of a neat idea but sort of immersion breaking at the same time.

That about wraps it up. Feel free to share your thoughts on these topics! Oh and a pic of Gizmo the coolest pug ever... After years and years of wanting him to, he's finally come to live with us (our last puppy went away, long sad story). He's fat and getting older and he smells kinda funny but we love him so very much. If you've followed this blog over the past couple of years you'll remember quite a few posts with him mentioned ;)

<3 Mo sitting under my desk as I write.

-kaozz