because that is what upset the Chinese players/government: Chinese pandas in Japanese clothing. Samwise realized his mistake and started drawing Panderan in proper Chinese clothing.
I also think they had some issues with pandas being protected in china and and depictions of violence against pandas are very tabbo? If that's true I wonder how they'll get around that...
Maybe they'll turn them into Furbolgs or some other bear like race from the Wow-lore. After all, it wouldn't be the first time chinese wow gets this kind of treatment because of their government deem it unfit for their citizens.
I also think they had some issues with pandas being protected in china and and depictions of violence against pandas are very tabbo? If that's true I wonder how they'll get around that...
complete rumor.
So why did China have a problem with Pandaren?
The root of the Pandaren problem wasn't in a law or regulation. Many have speculated that Chinese aversion to the original Pandaren drawings by Samwise had to do with the Pandaren being characterized as samurai in traditional samurai clothing. The panda is inherently Chinese, but the samurai armor and styles that Samwise had drawn them in had the trappings of Japanese culture. The Chinese and Japanese have a long, storied, and problematic history that makes this type of cross-culture expression somewhat looked down upon.
After a while, the Pandaren characters lost their samurai warrior clothing and instead donned the traditional black and white Chinese linen garb and conical straw hat. This, presumably, made the Pandaren more palatable for the Chinese and paved the way for the Pandaren we see today. If you've ever wanted a more clear-cut, teachable moment in video game translation and localization, this is it.
So no, the Chinese authorities and ministry of culture do not have a law on the books banning panda people from getting popped with some magic spells or beaten down in PVP. WoW's troubles in China with releasing expansions, content, or other related products are merely political in nature, having to do with their relationship to the companies that they have contracted with for distribution and development. The ministry of culture does have laws that forbid foreign companies from engaging in joint partnerships, and the NetEase/the9 debacle surrounding the release of Wrath of the Lich King was definitely attributable to "laws on the books." Pandaren? Nope.
Maybe they'll turn them into Furbolgs or some other bear like race from the Wow-lore. After all, it wouldn't be the first time chinese wow gets this kind of treatment because of their government deem it unfit for their citizens.
Maybe they'll turn them into Furbolgs or some other bear like race from the Wow-lore. After all, it wouldn't be the first time chinese wow gets this kind of treatment because of their government deem it unfit for their citizens.
For those who are not familiar with this censorship: Skeletons are considered sacred in China so no games are allowed to show them. The undead in WoW are heavily censored so they don't appear dead . Blood has a different color in the game too.
Are the pandaren gonna be a neutral race btw? I mean will they be available for both factions?
OMG 2 people had the same idea? Must be a rip off... really guys? We are better than that, and obviously Blizzard wouldn't be that stupid.
Yeah, and although this has probably been addressed in the thread (TLDR) this kind of accusation isn't anything new to blizzard.
Rc Proam (or a host of other racing games) -> Rock n'roll racing
Dune 2 ->Warcraft RTS, starcraft
d&d-> Rogue ->Diablo(actually one of their more original titles)
gobliiins -> lost vikings
Prince of persia/Contra->Flashback-> Blackthorne
d&d ->Rogue-> Neverwinter nights mmo->ultima online-> Everquest -> world of warcraft
Arguing over who had ideas first, or originality and stuff is basically pointless. I don't think there has been anyone successfully sued for stealing an idea from a video game and putting it into their own.
Stealing art is different, there was a post on here recently about an ios game that had retextured wow models, now that may actually be grounds to sue. Lifting art styles, and making art that looks exactly the same can also be grounds for legal action, there was an mmo that looked about 90% exactly the same as wind waker not to long ago and it got shut down.
Wow, You completely missed out on War Hammer table top games by Game Workshop haven't you. It was practically War Hammer table top strategy game by Game Workshop that "brought" the idea of Warcraft RTS to Blizzard. Turning that first War Hammer tabletop game in to a video game for PC was something Blizzard really wanted to do, but after the refusal from Game Workshop, Blizzard went on and created the game anyways and called it Warcraft.
Same goes for War Hammer 40k = Starcraft.
Everyone who plays Blizzard games knows these two major rip offs that Blizzard walked off with.
This reminds me of when Apple sued Microsoft saying that they ripped off their GUI. Only to get sued by Xerox who claimed Apple ripped THEM off.
The fantasy genre in its entirety basically all gets traced back to Tolkein, you can't claim people are stealing your ideas when you stole them from someone else to begin with.
The fantasy genre in its entirety basically all gets traced back to Tolkein, you can't claim people are stealing your ideas when you stole them from someone else to begin with.
It goes much much further than just Tolkien
I do agree with your point though. No ideas are original really, they're basically a mix of other ideas which are also mixes of other ideas and so on.
The fantasy genre in its entirety basically all gets traced back to Tolkein, you can't claim people are stealing your ideas when you stole them from someone else to begin with.
the fantasy genre can all basically be tracked back to shakespeare as a matter of fact at least, shakespeare's midsummer night's dream is the earliest example we have of a story that fits the description of what is nowadays called the fantasy genre, featuring creatures like trolls, orcs, elves and all of the above.
but fantasy in itself is as old as humanity; stories of imaginary beings have been told as far back as cavemen, usually inspired by a natural phenomenon that is impressive, or one they can't explain, like lightning.
my point here is that Tolkien's writings were definitely a turnpoint in modern fantasy, and his books without doubt shaped most of the the genre that fantasy is today. (i'm a big tolkien fan)
but saying modern fantasy can all be tracked back to tolkien is a bit bold
They removed the skull model, but there are dozens of skulls in the texture.
You can show skulls in china as long as the aren't actual skulls. Paintings of skulls (like on that chest), silver skulls, gold skulls, etc. Worked on the china release of Warhammer Online, and I had to do a pass of everything I could find that had a skull and remove it. Which is Warhammer meant everything.
It's pretty close to irony that we outsourced art to china, removed the skulls in the states, then released the game back to them without the skulls they made. Good times.
I meant modern fantasy but yes, it's a broad generalization, but it's still pretty accurate in most cases and definitely accurate in the case of Warhammer.
You can show skulls in china as long as the aren't actual skulls. Paintings of skulls (like on that chest), silver skulls, gold skulls, etc. Worked on the china release of Warhammer Online, and I had to do a pass of everything I could find that had a skull and remove it. Which is Warhammer meant everything.
It's pretty close to irony that we outsourced art to china, removed the skulls in the states, then released the game back to them without the skulls they made. Good times.
Ok, so they can't show a representation (model) of a skull, but they can show a representation of a representation (model of a painting) of a skull, and they can't have them in media released in China, but they can model them there for other countries. That seems really bizarre.
It's pretty close to irony that we outsourced art to china, removed the skulls in the states, then released the game back to them without the skulls they made. Good times.
almost as good as developing facebook games in China
You can show skulls in china as long as the aren't actual skulls. Paintings of skulls (like on that chest), silver skulls, gold skulls, etc. Worked on the china release of Warhammer Online, and I had to do a pass of everything I could find that had a skull and remove it. Which is Warhammer meant everything.
It's pretty close to irony that we outsourced art to china, removed the skulls in the states, then released the game back to them without the skulls they made. Good times.
I'll stay with the topic a bit more concretely and pausit that maybe a more...aesthetically normal yet still fantasy connected race will be good for the game. Granted, I think they should put some Eucalyptus chomping cousins somewhere... then they could come down from the trees and say "Silly earthling, you think we just eat leaves all day? We train when the cameras are gone." In comes sky invading force--battle ensues--and pandas decimate! Then they saunter back to the trees and your character says something like "Wait, where are you going? That was amazing!". Then one of the pandas says "Part time." The end
So uh, necrobump I guess. Beta is pretty much availible to everyone who got an annual pass.
I'm not so much concerned or interested in skills and stats etc as I am in the art they are putting into this expansion.
Really got to hand it to the WoW team for squeezing so much out of such an old engine, especially in regards to the animation on the new races, the level of expression is pretty damn awesome for what otherwise can have very static characters.
The environments look really good too, the sheer size of the new continent is pretty crazy too, I was playing some level 85+ content and after 3 hours I'd barely scratched the lower regions of the starting area for my faction, pretty neat stuff.
Most recently released beta-mined stuff is this armour set for Death Knights:
Evangelion :P
I really love the entire theme of this expansion as it does allow for some different designs in regards to armour,weapons, architecture and so forth.
Im scared theyre going to change my class so much I wont want to play it anymore :S
What is your class? None of the changes have been so grotuesqe as to change how you play so far, just relocation of certain skills. Glyphs will actually matter now and be customized depending on your style of play, rather than be "you need these, or you're dumb." And the minor glyphs are just for eyecandy :P
I'm Fury warrior and have been this entire tier despite arms being slightly better. I found Mists to offer some logical relocation of some skills as well as the typical boost and nerf of skills that pretty much do the same but are used at different times. My rotation won't be that much different but will change depending on the situation, so personally I'm content at the moment :P
The fact that I can use Bladestorm while dual wielding 2-H weapons makes me happy
@Skamberin, look at what they've done to Paladins every expansion. I was a Holy Paladin since early BC up to a few weeks after Cataclysm. It was pretty much a new class every expansion.
Well lucky you then frell :P Arms is OP at the current tier and not much has changed for MoP it seems, just relocation of some skills and turning other skills into 1.
For instance they decided that rather than having glyphs that directly increase the strength of a skill, they just added that boost to the skill directly. Glyphs are now secondary talents that you might or might not need, for instance rude interruption is now a glyph and it lasts 30 seconds and increase damage by 10% instead of 5%.
So it's not a brand new class to play with brand new skills to use and brand new rotations to learn, it's just adjustments and streamlining, the good kind, imo.
As for Paladins: Paladins have been kind of broken since forever, as have Death Knights, and I don't think that is going to change. However, I have yet to see huge complaints for Paladins on forums or on tankspot for that matter, so I think that, for once, they're not being mean to your class :P
i've never even had a trial account for WoW... i don't have a battlenet account (is that what it's called?) or anything like that. in fact my interraction with blizzard has basically been "oh... they're releasing another game?" pretty much since warcraft.
but i got a beta invite in my mailbox... but i'm pretty sure it's a rotten egg as i've also got emails telling me i'm in biiiig trouble for trying to sell my WoW account (which i've never had) lol.
Still such a huge fan of their handpainted stuff, there is some awesome previews for an instance or two on mmo-champion.com, the caves etc. Love it all.
Been spending more time in the beta, the new talents are growing on me, though I will miss some mechanics as a warrior, I'm currently doing heroic raids in Cata and it's really noticeable how different things are going to be in MOP.
The fact that I had to sit and think which skills and glyphs to pick makes me happy though, hopefully it's the end of the "cookie-cutter" builds for different classes, giving some personality and flavour to players.
Visually I am still blown away by how much they're able to squeeze out of a single diffuse map, especially the terrain, I absolutely love the look of the new areas as well as props and characters, huge props to Blizz art team, you guys are awesome!
I prefer a game that rewards skill instead of months of gear grinding. I also prefer a dynamic quest experience rather than running back and forth to town 100 times to turn in quests. Also, month-to-month paying is a thing of the past bra.
It's almost funny, really. The game is so old you just gotta let it lie down and go to sleep.
I may be buying GW2 as well. Not much to lose considering it's free monthly. That aside, I still really enjoy WoW and I have some coworkers that I play it with. While I may play some GW2, I'll also be playing WoW
I quit WoW years ago, not too interested in this one. The art does look great though, probably worth checking out just for that. But yeah, I'm more excited about Guild Wars 2.
I do wonder if the date being so soon has anything to do with GW2. Probably not...
If anything they should be pushing their date back because of GW2. I think when people start playing GW2 and realize how good it is they'll think twice about ever going back to WoW's repetitive design, mechanics, and linear gear grind.
Funny. Guild wars was much more boring than WoW to me. Its basically single player with multiplayer cities and coop.
Felt the same way. Big fan of WoW though, a great game that shows, especially in PvP that skill is king and that gear only comes into play when its players on equal skill level.
Always a huge fan of the art and lore of WoW. Its what brought me back for the last 2 expansions to see the new content for at least a month and then quit before getting addicted! ha Plus all the fun new game play additions.
Will end up getting the CE for that delicious art book
...especially in PvP that skill is king and that gear only comes into play when its players on equal skill level...
Irony :P! People rarely have equal gear. I don't like that some 10 year old kid with 50 epics and no skill can destroy someone with all greens with tons of skill.
I played a lot of WoW, and from playing it it's shown me that I am not a fan of its gear system, particularly in competitive play.
Replies
The Chinese publishers wouldn't have it.
complete rumor.
http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/28/the-lawbringer-dispelling-the-panda-myths/
Don't Forget Man-o-gar!
For those who are not familiar with this censorship: Skeletons are considered sacred in China so no games are allowed to show them. The undead in WoW are heavily censored so they don't appear dead
Are the pandaren gonna be a neutral race btw? I mean will they be available for both factions?
Yeah, and although this has probably been addressed in the thread (TLDR) this kind of accusation isn't anything new to blizzard.
Rc Proam (or a host of other racing games) -> Rock n'roll racing
Dune 2 ->Warcraft RTS, starcraft
d&d-> Rogue ->Diablo(actually one of their more original titles)
gobliiins -> lost vikings
Prince of persia/Contra->Flashback-> Blackthorne
d&d ->Rogue-> Neverwinter nights mmo->ultima online-> Everquest -> world of warcraft
Arguing over who had ideas first, or originality and stuff is basically pointless. I don't think there has been anyone successfully sued for stealing an idea from a video game and putting it into their own.
Stealing art is different, there was a post on here recently about an ios game that had retextured wow models, now that may actually be grounds to sue. Lifting art styles, and making art that looks exactly the same can also be grounds for legal action, there was an mmo that looked about 90% exactly the same as wind waker not to long ago and it got shut down.
Wow, You completely missed out on War Hammer table top games by Game Workshop haven't you. It was practically War Hammer table top strategy game by Game Workshop that "brought" the idea of Warcraft RTS to Blizzard. Turning that first War Hammer tabletop game in to a video game for PC was something Blizzard really wanted to do, but after the refusal from Game Workshop, Blizzard went on and created the game anyways and called it Warcraft.
Same goes for War Hammer 40k = Starcraft.
Everyone who plays Blizzard games knows these two major rip offs that Blizzard walked off with.
The fantasy genre in its entirety basically all gets traced back to Tolkein, you can't claim people are stealing your ideas when you stole them from someone else to begin with.
I do agree with your point though. No ideas are original really, they're basically a mix of other ideas which are also mixes of other ideas and so on.
They removed the skull model, but there are dozens of skulls in the texture.
the fantasy genre can all basically be tracked back to shakespeare as a matter of fact
but fantasy in itself is as old as humanity; stories of imaginary beings have been told as far back as cavemen, usually inspired by a natural phenomenon that is impressive, or one they can't explain, like lightning.
my point here is that Tolkien's writings were definitely a turnpoint in modern fantasy, and his books without doubt shaped most of the the genre that fantasy is today. (i'm a big tolkien fan)
but saying modern fantasy can all be tracked back to tolkien is a bit bold
You can show skulls in china as long as the aren't actual skulls. Paintings of skulls (like on that chest), silver skulls, gold skulls, etc. Worked on the china release of Warhammer Online, and I had to do a pass of everything I could find that had a skull and remove it. Which is Warhammer meant everything.
It's pretty close to irony that we outsourced art to china, removed the skulls in the states, then released the game back to them without the skulls they made. Good times.
WoW was never a dark in story or style. It was always silly, humorous, and playful.
Why is everyone uptight about silly humorous and playfulness?
Ok, so they can't show a representation (model) of a skull, but they can show a representation of a representation (model of a painting) of a skull, and they can't have them in media released in China, but they can model them there for other countries. That seems really bizarre.
almost as good as developing facebook games in China
And it never launched in mainland China!
I'm not so much concerned or interested in skills and stats etc as I am in the art they are putting into this expansion.
Really got to hand it to the WoW team for squeezing so much out of such an old engine, especially in regards to the animation on the new races, the level of expression is pretty damn awesome for what otherwise can have very static characters.
The environments look really good too, the sheer size of the new continent is pretty crazy too, I was playing some level 85+ content and after 3 hours I'd barely scratched the lower regions of the starting area for my faction, pretty neat stuff.
Most recently released beta-mined stuff is this armour set for Death Knights:
Evangelion :P
I really love the entire theme of this expansion as it does allow for some different designs in regards to armour,weapons, architecture and so forth.
POkemon
Also pet battles
Also animations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0Vo8DN5Cnk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd0bQQzLrUQ
What is your class? None of the changes have been so grotuesqe as to change how you play so far, just relocation of certain skills. Glyphs will actually matter now and be customized depending on your style of play, rather than be "you need these, or you're dumb." And the minor glyphs are just for eyecandy :P
I'm Fury warrior and have been this entire tier despite arms being slightly better. I found Mists to offer some logical relocation of some skills as well as the typical boost and nerf of skills that pretty much do the same but are used at different times. My rotation won't be that much different but will change depending on the situation, so personally I'm content at the moment :P
The fact that I can use Bladestorm while dual wielding 2-H weapons makes me happy
What is your class by the way?
They change almost every class that is doing pretty well. For example, now arcane mages can not run for pvp.
But this might change in MOP.
For instance they decided that rather than having glyphs that directly increase the strength of a skill, they just added that boost to the skill directly. Glyphs are now secondary talents that you might or might not need, for instance rude interruption is now a glyph and it lasts 30 seconds and increase damage by 10% instead of 5%.
So it's not a brand new class to play with brand new skills to use and brand new rotations to learn, it's just adjustments and streamlining, the good kind, imo.
As for Paladins: Paladins have been kind of broken since forever, as have Death Knights, and I don't think that is going to change. However, I have yet to see huge complaints for Paladins on forums or on tankspot for that matter, so I think that, for once, they're not being mean to your class :P
Nice! Mages and locks are still great in the end game PVE and BGs. I am not sure about PVPs (You really have to grind your rep to buy PVP gear.)
If you want to role a tank class I would suggest you should role as a Feral Druid or Blood DK.
I was going to role a Monk pally but like Shamberin said; they are broken. =\
Maybe everyone has?
Check your accounts.
i've never even had a trial account for WoW... i don't have a battlenet account (is that what it's called?) or anything like that. in fact my interraction with blizzard has basically been "oh... they're releasing another game?" pretty much since warcraft.
but i got a beta invite in my mailbox... but i'm pretty sure it's a rotten egg as i've also got emails telling me i'm in biiiig trouble for trying to sell my WoW account (which i've never had) lol.
The fact that I had to sit and think which skills and glyphs to pick makes me happy though, hopefully it's the end of the "cookie-cutter" builds for different classes, giving some personality and flavour to players.
Visually I am still blown away by how much they're able to squeeze out of a single diffuse map, especially the terrain, I absolutely love the look of the new areas as well as props and characters, huge props to Blizz art team, you guys are awesome!
Game launches on Sept 25th. Also, the collectors edition is detailed here.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/services/collectors-edition/
I prefer a game that rewards skill instead of months of gear grinding. I also prefer a dynamic quest experience rather than running back and forth to town 100 times to turn in quests. Also, month-to-month paying is a thing of the past bra.
It's almost funny, really. The game is so old you just gotta let it lie down and go to sleep.
Allow me to link you to the thread you should be in:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65093
I already paid for GW 2 since last year, I'll probably look for a digital copy of WOW:MOP since I dont have anymore space in my room
I am paid off till December so I have no choice but to play.
I do wonder if the date being so soon has anything to do with GW2. Probably not...
Felt the same way. Big fan of WoW though, a great game that shows, especially in PvP that skill is king and that gear only comes into play when its players on equal skill level.
Always a huge fan of the art and lore of WoW. Its what brought me back for the last 2 expansions to see the new content for at least a month and then quit before getting addicted! ha Plus all the fun new game play additions.
Will end up getting the CE for that delicious art book
Irony :P! People rarely have equal gear. I don't like that some 10 year old kid with 50 epics and no skill can destroy someone with all greens with tons of skill.
I played a lot of WoW, and from playing it it's shown me that I am not a fan of its gear system, particularly in competitive play.