Prez wrote on Sep 27, 2012, 20:53:
It's only Actiblizz and their monetize everything mantra that keeps this churning out like a factory now.
Normally I find you a tad over-cynical in many respects but I think in this case you absolutely nailed it. Who would have envisioned Blizzard becoming a soul-less passion-less cash factory ten years ago?
It's actually not that far off base when you consider how they structured releases 10 years ago. With StarCraft, Diablo 2, and WarCraft 3 especially... the core games were, to put it bluntly, not that great. All three series didn't really mature until their respective expansions were released, most of which had the features that were announced by eventually cut from the vanilla games. So, essentially, even a decade ago, Blizzard was "monetizing" by nearly forcing people to buy expansions to get a "complete" game. Don't get me wrong, they were (and still are) amazing games that deserve their spots in gaming hall of fame, but withholding (and I really hesitate to call it that) content is a part of their pre-ActiBlizz history.
n3farious wrote on Sep 27, 2012, 21:03:
Fuggin trolls. I'm sick of the kung fu panda references. The 'Pandas' have been part of the lore long before either movie came out.
I imagine most people either don't know or wouldn't remember this but the whole panda thing happened because Samwise Didier posted a drawing he had done of a samurai panda on the WarCraft 3 beta forums. The forum loved it and asked for more. Then it became an April Fool's joke. Then the brewmaster was added WC3:TFT. To say they were always part of the lore is a stretch, they started as a joke, which should tell you something about this xpac.