World of Warcraft: Why Pandas?

Blizzard doesn't make decisions without really good reasons. That's why Mists of Pandaria, the next expansion for World of Warcraft featuring a race resembling pandas, and introducing the martial-arts using Monk class, seemed like such a strange choice.

Here's the situation: World of Warcraft's subscriptions are on the decline, and with a number of very serious contenders for WoW's crown either currently out or on the way, making an expansion that is so easy to poke fun at seems, on its surface, to be the start of World of Warcraft's own self-destruct sequence. Kung Fu Panda jokes ran rampant almost immediately after the announcement, and despite several interesting sounding features (such as what basically sounds like a whole Pokemon mini-game), the question on everyone's minds was, "Why pandas?"

The answer is that Mists of Pandaria is not a World of Warcraft fan's expansion. That was Cataclysm, and it, as far as stabilizing subscriber numbers is concerned, has underperformed.

Instead, Mists doesn't seem designed to bring back old subscribers. It seems aimed at two distinct (but sort-of overlapping) markets. The first is China.Gaming in China is huge, but it's also very insular. Most of the top grossing games in China (such as Fantasy Westward Journey) are games made in China, and with a focus on Chinese traditions and culture.

Despite China's bias against Western gaming tropes, World of Warcraft has still had major success there, attracting millions of players, and there's certainly a large potential for growth. China has fairly stringent censorship rules, and in the past Blizzard has been more than willing to tweak certain aspects of World of Warcraft to suit the market. Traditional subscriptions, for example, simply don't exist there. Instead, Chinese players buy time cards. There are also striking visual differences between the Chinese and Western versions of World of Warcraft, with enemies that normally display exposed bones (like the Forsaken) mysteriously coated in extra flesh, and player corpses being swapped out for tombstones.



Considering how open Blizzard has been to these changes -- going so far as to license World of Warcraft out to a third-party -- and given how potentially valuable China still is to a game like World of Warcraft, it seems reasonable to believe that – in light of dropping subscriber numbers– Blizzard would shift their focus to a market that is more receptive to their product. To go so far as to create an entire expansion based around Chinese culture (references to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Monkey King mythologies in Mists of Pandaria would be a safe bet) is plausible, and may be a safer bet than hoping that "more of the same" for the West magically brings back players who have left over the last few years.

But Blizzard might get those players back anyway. World of Warcraft is seven years old, and many of the original World of Warcraft players would have been around college-age when they began playing. Seven years is enough time to start a family, and cute, colorful and fuzzy pandas and martial arts are exactly what young children love. The second market Mists of Pandaria is designed to hit are the children, and by proxy their parent (many of whom may have been players themselves at some point).

Even if we put aside the potential popularity of the Pandaren amongst young'uns, think about the effects that Pokemon had on children everywhere, and remember that Pandaria is adding in a pet battle system eerily reminiscent of a certain Nintendo franchise. I'm not a parent, but I can think of many worse games that my fictitious child could play, considering the availability of parental controls and ability to totally monitor, assuming I logged in, what my kid is doing from within the game. It strikes me as a fun way to interact with my made-up kids on an equal plane and in a relatively safe environment. I had guild-mates who raided nightly with their children. Critics of World of Warcraft's visual style have always said it that it looks like a game for babies, so why not embrace it.



Whether a shift in focus will pay off or not is very tough to say. According to the last Activision investor call, Chinese subscription numbers (which are defined as anyone who has logged in with an active time card in the last 30 days) are dropping too. And there's a chance that the Chinese audience won't take to Blizzard's attempts to appropriate Eastern culture. On the other hand, they may flock to an already-popular game whose production values and ability to immerse the player are well known. If that's the case, the motivation for future additions to World of Warcraft may change drastically. World of Warcraft might begin to cater far more to the Chinese market, with the concerns of Europe and the 'States secondary.

As an ex-subscriber, I have mixed feeling about Mists. Based on what I know will be featured in the expansion, I care more about the ancillary stuff (like pet battles) than exploring yet another continent. I've already set foot in perilous, unknown lands three times, but revisiting my old stomping grounds, hunting down pets, and making them do battle against my friends in Orgrimmar sounds extremely entertaining.

Although Cataclysm was excellent, World of Warcraft's gameplay mechanics have been wearing thin on me, and many others, for quite a while. And with Guild Wars 2, Tera, and a swathe of interesting free-to-play titles on the horizon, at this point, I think Blizzard wants to cement a demographic in the West for World of Warcraft that will distance it from whatever Blizzard's mysterious Project Titan ends up being. At the same time, Blizzard wants to make a more direct approach at capturing the East.

Realistically, World of Warcraft is many years (if not decades) away from shutting down, and shifting player demographics are less likely to come from any attempt to change the game's aesthetics and more from evolving mechanics in the genre. Blizzard is still working within a decade-old framework – quests, experience, classes, target-and-attack combat, gear etc…-- and while Cataclysm did a lot with a fairly rigid structure, much feels stale in the face of the many advancements on the horizon, and that will have to be addressed. From what I've seen so far I don't think Mists of Pandaria will be how Blizzard addresses it.

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