World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Collector’s Edition Announcement
The new World of Warcraft expansion pack, “Mists of Pandaria”, set to launch on September 25th of this year, is probably one of the more controversial expansions Blizzard has released for this franchise. Blizzard is planning the release of the expansion for September 25th, which is just a few days shy of a month after the Guild Wars 2 launch. Dick move?
Not necessarily.
Blizzard is always competing with other MMO-RPG games out there, which only adds to the pressure put on new releases. Players are quick to criticize, claiming games are either too similar to the World of Warcraft (WoW) or are not similar enough, blithely ignoring the more successful elements of the game. Being that WoW is such an old game, it is expected players will venture off for a few months to experience a new MMO-RPG and return when they burn out. With the launch date of Mists of Pandaria (MoP) being so close with Guild Wars 2 there was speculation that Guild Wars 2 may be the WoW-killer, or may be killed by Blizzard’s aggressive launch strategy.
Both scenarios are doubtful.
In tandem with the launch date announcement was the long awaited and much anticipated Collector’s Edition (CE) details. The prices have been confirmed and are quite surprising to be honest. The expansion will run at $59.99 for the digital CE and $79.99 for the physical version, with both the digital and physical regular edition costing $39.99.
The physical CE has been confirmed to include the following:
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- Mists of Pandaria expansion pack
- Diablo III banner sigil and accent
- StarCraft II Battle.net portraits
- Behind the scenes DVD and Blu-Ray
- Mists of Pandaria Soundtrack
- The Art of Mists of Pandaria 208 page art book
- Imperial Quilen Flying Mount
- Imperial Quilen pet
- Mists of Pandaria mouse pad
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The digital CE is set to contain the same bonus content in addition to the expansion, except for the mouse pad, the art book, the behind the scenes DVD and the soundtrack. For the extra $20 the physical version is definitely the better buy, especially since this expansion is the cheapest one yet.
Now if you aren’t familiar with the MoP expansion and what it includes, or you have no clue why I say this is a controversial expansion, don’t worry. I’ll fill you in.
MoP is set to include a new playable race (Pandaren) and class (Monk) for both factions, a level cap of 90, as well as a few changes to the game structure. The loot table for the game will be altered to hopefully minimize ninja looters, talent trees are getting a makeover, and there will be a pet battle system implemented for players that dangerously resembles Pokemon. This is also the first expansion released for WoW that does not have a central “bad guy” or evil force; Blizzard aims to make the focus of this expansion player vs player combat. Fans of the game are now divided, some love the idea and support it full force while others are still scratching their heads and asking “Pandas…seriously?”.
If you’re asking yourself if the expansion is even worth it, I’d say it is. The price point is the lowest so far for a WoW expansion, with the added bonus of the in-game mount. Besides, you can just do what I do; hold out hope that Blizzard can magically patch away all the suck.
