World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta now live
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Blizzard inviting gamers to prerelease testing period for upcoming expansion to MMORPG; WOW Annual Pass holders given priority.
The beta testing period of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is now live. Blizzard today announced that it has begun inviting members of the community to try out the latest expansion to the massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
According to Blizzard, the beta's first wave will focus on the level 1-10 starting areas for the new Pandaren race. The company said upper-level content will go live with future beta updates, but players can bring over their high-level characters from the start to try out the new talent system.
As Blizzard noted in a recently published Mists of Pandaria FAQ, all WOW Annual Pass members are guaranteed access to the beta. These players will be admitted into the beta based on a number of factors, including how long their subscription has been active and when they signed up for the Pass.
Announced in October 2011, the WOW Annual Pass rewards gamers who make a 12-month commitment to WOW with a free copy of Diablo III, among other items.
All gamers can opt in to the Mists of Pandaria beta through their Battle.net accounts. Players chosen for the testing period will be alerted through email, and Blizzard warned gamers to be wary of phishing attempts.
Mists of Pandaria is WOW's fourth expansion. It follows The Burning Crusade (2007), Wrath of the Lich King (2008), and Cataclysm (2010). The add-on is set on the new continent of Pandaria and focuses on the Pandaren as well as the monk player class. The expansion pack, which does not have a release date, will also increase the player level cap to 90.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
51 comments
@crazychords this is how MMOs work...Always have, always will. Everquest has like 15 expansions...thing is you can often buy the game plus the expansions all in one package...Not sure about WoW though to be honest...Knowing activision they prolly charge money for every single expansion separately I didnt know 300 million americans played WoW :P Last time I checked the US alone had only 250 million living in the states :P
Why more expansions? why cant they just leave it be, or at the very least, make a sequel ? No, lets make more useless expansions, people will buy anyways , right??
ppl said it would die after WoTLK, then after Cataclysm. The game is still going strong and will continue too. I was skeptical about both those expansions but they turned out great and I think this one will do just fine. I mean, did you serisouly come on here to complain?
Wow, this is seriously a good April fool's joke. I mean they actually have me believing they would release something so incredibly laughable. Haha, ok Blizzard you really got me. I mean you totally shaded me, you can come clean now.
@SDSkarface I still play WoW and I'm willing to bet my rig is better than yours :P. Not defending WoW, just saying that is a pretty broad generalization. Am I bored with it? At the moment, yes. But I still get on for raids because I have made a lot of friends through WoW that still get on regularly. Seems like the only people vocal enough to get on the forums about MoP's release are those who don't play WoW anymore but feel compelled to bash it. I went through a "I hate Blizzard" phase, but I got over it and found that I missed WoW and my guildies so I came back :)
Blizzard should setup some new servers that only have original pre BC world of warcraft on it so people can choose to play the original game back when it was good. I would play again if they would roll the crazyness back to when the game was fun.
Anyone who cant see blizzards game is blind. America has 311,591,917 people as of 2011 China has 1,338,299,512 people as of 2011. Where do you think the money is? PANDAS + CHINA. My wife is Chinese, and every time I log into QQ I'm flooded by ads for WoW. Blizz are following the dollar signs.
blizzard is sucking out every last drop of blood out of the franchise's lore to keep wow alive, without realizing that if it keeps on doing this warcraft will not have any future past wow.
I want to try the beta, that is all I have to say, the game is rough spots but its still a good game.
@Bozanimal Couldn't have said it better myself, as a former WoW player as well I can say that I've sunk in far more money than you (played from December 2004-November 2011, and bought all expansions on release at full price, so I've put in closer to $1200 into it). And while I think I probably would've quit much sooner in retrospect and saved my money, Vanilla WoW is hands down one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had, and I gained quite a bit from it in the real world as well (with the exception of cash sadly).
WoW is old hat for anyone who has been an MMO player since EQ or prior. The people who are into these games now are teenagers who didn't experience EQ. Same with the Call of Duty crowd who didn't experience Tribes and Doom. Formulas get old. Developers run out of ideas. There hasn't been a truly ground breaking game in a long time. The only thing I find to be a masterpiece today which probably fits my personality is Dead Space. Dark Souls is another. These are games that have progressed in UI, Gameplay or both. I've said it in other places but I'll say it again. If Inferno D3 is essentially WoW heroics, count me out. That I am not interested. If I need a tank to do an inferno game, really? No thanks. I'm only speculating here so don't jump to conclusions. SC2:HoS will be interesting and if D3 turns out to be a true successor then I'll be quite occupied. At least until Dead Space 3 arrives.
blizzard can thank god for the little kids that still play this because they dont know nothing more than wow lol kill the franchise or instead of this crappys expansions why not long awaited warcraft 4?i would be ashamed of buyng this in a store lol
This is very odd (especially from Blizzard) that an expansion being announced and a beta begins 5 months after. And yet no sign of a Heart of the Swarm beta after almost a year prior to announcement...
Not currently playing WoW, and likely am done permanently but I can say this for sure... WoW>SWTOR easily.
After 5 years of World of Warcraft, I'm done. I would rather it step down gracefully from it's throne than be forced off. I'm perfectly satisfied with TOR at the moment.
I dont feel like opt in even for beta. I was beta tester in vanilla . Hardcore gamer the first 3 years. I played all expansions with 4 quits in between. Even if game is undeniably the best MMORPG up to date for too many reasons to mention.... This SUPER casualization they promoting with MoP with addition that wow it got old already ( graphic wise, physics , bosses models , spells FX etc etc ) ... I cant find my way back to play another expansion of it. Im done for too many reasons to mention. Diablo 3 / GW2 combo will be more than enough , at least i hope so , and yes...they will be free ( aka no subs for dummies) Im so sick to pay 13euros ( more than 17$$? ) per month to see the same mobs/bosses models as i did in vanilla, spending more time in orgrimmar doin walks than actually in raids ( reset anyone ) and so many other things i can mention really... Anyways GL to all wow fans and have fun. MoP looks ok.
@Zackarias-313 - I'll go first! I spent a little under $300 (three years at $15/month, plus the cost of the retail titles) and played World of Warcraft for about three years (stopped Jan 2012). Considering I would have been buying other games during that time, the cost is probably about the same as if I were spending that time with my console and/or PC. My WoW character is now collecting dust in cyberspace, and there's been a huge exodus from the game for many good reasons (not least of which is SW:TOR), but I wouldn't say I have nothing to show for all that time: -I met people from all over the world -I made real-world friendships across the country -I enjoyed playing the game itself -I grew closer to my in-laws, for whom I started playing -My wife and I have some fond memories in Azeroth, as well -I caught up with old friends from college I found out were playing -I played with Gamespot users -I even helped raise money for Cancer research My question to you: Have you played it, and by playing I mean sat down and gone through a few zones, run some dungeons, entered a battleground, etc? I have a feeling that if you were to play - and it sounds like you have not - you'd probably have just as much fun as I did, and maybe make some good memories along the way.
number has gone down from 10.2 experts say, probably in the 9 million range now. and don't forget, in North America it's only like 3 million, people use the "LOL DUR HURP 10 MILLION SUBZ WOW > ALL" argument, but in north america this is not the case. Almost all of my friends quit this game, I hope MoP does well so they can get some surge again, but since late WOTLK.. it's been a steady downfall of subs.
wows for people playing on Emachines with integrated graphics.. nobody with a good rig is playing this trash
Hands down one of the most over-hyped games in existence, the most expensive to play, and with THE touchiest and most oversensitive fans to boot. Forums are for opinions, and this is mine :) I've got friends who've spent over $1,600 playing this game with their $25 pixel mounts and pets, $100's of dollars worth of expansions and and recurring monthly fees that add up substantially after 5+ years of gameplay. All that money will have nothing to show for it one day when the servers go down and all your characters and items can no longer be accessed. This will probably trigger a mass suicide of WoW fans lol I'll stick to games I can actually own, rather than rent. (Now the WoW fans can rip me apart with their comments and rude replies, I'm ready :)
I'm personally not jumping up and down for Pandaria. Cataclysm was a bit of a letdown, and the things that drove me away have not been addressed. I'll probably buy the expansion like a sucker anyway, just to try out a Dwarf Monk and see Pandaland, but I haven't felt like I did during Ulduar and ICC since WotLK. @jazilla - If you've never played - indeed, anyone who hasn't played - you should give it a try, particularly since it's free to play until level 20, now. There is good reason for its popularity: It is a very diverse, accessible game with broad appeal. I let me subscription lapse recently, but immensely enjoyed playing WoW for years. You'll meet people from all walks of life, and join them in slaughtering your foes. That's been fun since pen & paper RPGs. :D Even if you just load it up to explore Azeroth for a bit before uninstalling it, it's worth playing just to say you've done it.
People still play Wow after the bomb that was Cataclysm? Come on... get with the times, noobs.
Nobody cares about complains Don't like MOP don't post it, 10.2 million ppl still play wow and 9 million minimum will buy Mop, Like PPL buy cod every year and every crappy dlc. and Beside There is No better MMO for 10.2 million ppl include me.
I have never played WoW, but this would be a funny expansion in which to start, don't you think?
What if pandaren where released in vanilla WOW instead of tauren? I wonder if people would be make cow jokes if tauren were released instead of pandaren?
Glad to see Jack Black can get an acting career now. All seriousness, I really am hoping the feed back is going to positive. This was made more for the fans, however we had a game that made for fans, and they have so much fan heat that ending is getting changed completely. Not saying that'll happen, but it is just something to think about.
@Raeldor No matter how badass you make a cow, elf, wolf, human, midget... look its still just a cow, elf, wolf, human, midget.. See how that works? I think the best part about people whining is they are most likely going to be first in line to gobble the expansion up lol.
Albaficas of course you tried it for 10 mins hehe what was your toons name? does not matter if it was deleted or not i can find it lets see who is talking smack shall we haha.
I don't get it. You complain that the game is getting Panda people, and find it stupid, when it already has cow people, wolf people, tiny little high pitched people and even tiny little green high pitched people! The diversity of the fictional world's races is one of the things that makes it more fun! Would you honestly prefer alternative human #1, alternative human #2 and alternative human #3? There's plenty of MMO's that've done that already...
@Poodger the whole point of this expansion pack is to be silly. The devs said they wanted to mix things up after 3 serious expansions and wanted to make one that was just fun and didn't matter to the story.
worst epxansion ever.... whats next ??? chicken race with kickboxing class ?? tested this crap for 10 min....uninstall Back to Ktera while the na version goes live....it rape wow with eaze just the combat makes wow looks incredible pathetic. Also i wont mention GW2....all the blizz fangirls are afraid of it TERA-GW2 here i come
Alot of hate in these comments. Yeah, I thought it was a joke at first too, and the Panda part is a bit silly, but everything else about the expansion still looks decent. Players will still get to explore a new continent, fight through new dungeons and raids and do all the other things they love doing so much.
tachsniper we dont care blizzarad fangirl i choose ANYDAY disney-pixar over blizzard doesnt change the fact that MoP is the most ridiculous expansion ever created
Pandarian have been around since WCIII. if anything Pixar ripped off Blizzard so stop the hate.
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World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
- Publisher(s): Blizzard Entertainment
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Release:
- PEGI: 12+
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