I just wrote my review of MoP. It quite frankly took my by surprise. I find it to be the best expansion so far surpassing the others in almost every way. I would love to hear what fellow GB'ers think and what you have heard about MoP if you haven't actually tried it for yourself.

I agree, it's definitely the best expansion yet. Absolutely loving it.

The best expansion will always be TBC, but enough of my agenda! MoP is much better than I expected it to be.

I'm SURE I would love Mists. I listen to the Instance, so I know everything about it, and it sounds like a great expansion, but... I just can't do it. Every time I play WoW I end up doing nothing else and miss out on a bunch of games I'd wish I'd played, but instead I'm outside flying around picking herbs and shit.

@TooWalrus said:

I'm SURE I would love Mists. I listen to the Instance, so I know everything about it, and it sounds like a great expansion, but... I just can't do it. Every time I play WoW I end up doing nothing else and miss out on a bunch of games I'd wish I'd played, but instead I'm outside flying around picking herbs and shit.

You don't have to play WoW like that, it is possible to play it much more casually. And they've done a lot to make it accessible for different play styles.

@TehJedicake said:

The best expansion will always be TBC, but enough of my agenda! MoP is much better than I expected it to be.

I would agree with this, but going back to Outland these days kills any fond memories I had of it. That zone just does not hold up well at all.

@DexterKid: If I can't do end-game raiding I'm not interested. I couldn't care less about fuckin' farming simulators or pet battles if it doesn't benefit my stats. I was part of a pretty tight-knit guild and honestly, if I'm just playing casually, I'd MUCH rather be playing other games.

@TooWalrus said:

@DexterKid: If I can't do end-game raiding I'm not interested. I couldn't care less about fuckin' farming simulators or pet battles if it doesn't benefit my stats. I was part of a pretty tight-knit guild and honestly, if I'm just playing casually, I'd MUCH rather be playing other games.

Calm down friend. Firstly you're very wrong in your assertion that playing the game casually = pet battles. You can play most content, including endgame, casually; that's what I was referring to in my post.

But something tells me I'm barking up the wrong tree here, so let's just forget about this.

@TehJedicake: TBC is indisputably the most successful expansion in the history of MMOs and pretty much the only expansion that actually grew the playerbase over its course. Karazhan is such a good dungeon that it kept people playing even though they either hit a brick wall or had trivial content past that wall and months and months until the superb Sunwell was released.

WoW doesn't really qualify as a sleeper hit. I was really skeptical of some of the changes made for this expansion. Especially the second skill tree revamp in 2 expansions. I'm no longer playing WoW but it's good to hear Pandatown is quality content.

The amazing thing about MoP is that the thing I didn't care about are actually quite expansive and more interesting than I would have thought.

And I wonder why people say Burning Crusade was the best expansion. It had horrible zone progression, a raid chain that looks worse than a subway map, and featured some of the most dubious raid events created which I'm very glad Blizzard learned lessons from.

cataclysm killed me , that game was purely a month or less of raiding with my guild per content patch , nothing more , granted was in a pretty damn good guild and clearing content wouldn't have been a problem for us anyway if it was as hard as it should have been heh. didn't even bother coming back for the deathwing content because the lameness of firelands literally burned me out.

long story short , good to see that mop seems to have invigorated the game a bit more since i felt it was severely lacking , but i probably wont come back either , we'll see after the holiday rush is over hehe.

@Fredchuckdave: heh tbc was indeed the best but i really thought the initial progression via attumenent etc through ssc,tk and hyjal to finally hit black temple was the most fun and gave the best sense of achievement , mmm , sunewell was awesome but as i mentioned our guild plowed thru that shit pretty fast (well brutalis took a while and then muru stopped us for ages) but black temple had a nice depth of content at its prime , illidan farming got boring tho ehhe.

they really ruined the feeling of achievement and sheer effort just by updating and nerfing content so fast , i meant it was great for the majority but it just happened too fast and made us into that kind of server first rush for world first kind of guild etc..

ahh wow hehe

best expansion for me is still Wrath of the Lich King. I also wrote a review where I liked it...wouldn't call it sleeper hit though

Are there pandas in it?

The gonzo sales numbers for Cataclysm were totally due to how much fun Wrath was. Too bad Cataclysm was an awful and unfun to play because they listened to hardcore players who bemoaned Wrath was too easy and got their wish. It took them to the 4.2-Firelands to help fix up the issues but by then the damage was done.

Just started playing it last night. Having a blast. The amount of linear in-your-face narrative is a nice change of pace from GW2's more ambient and exploratory style.

I'd love to check it out but I can't go back.

@EXTomar said:

The amazing thing about MoP is that the thing I didn't care about are actually quite expansive and more interesting than I would have thought.

And I wonder why people say Burning Crusade was the best expansion. It had horrible zone progression, a raid chain that looks worse than a subway map, and featured some of the most dubious raid events created which I'm very glad Blizzard learned lessons from.

TBC is the best WoW expansion...

...because of timing.

MoP certainly sounds like good fun, but I don't care and won't play it...

...because of timing.

P.S. Calling a WoW-expansion a sleeper hit is preposterous!

Sleeper...hit?

This is an expansion for the largest paid-subscriber MMO in the world. NOTHING about this is a "sleeper" hit.

If anything, it's a massive expansion that didn't suck shit like the last two.

yeah MoP got me hooked again... way better than Cataclysm..

Seeing a WoW expansion being called a "sleeper hit" is cracking me up big time.

I agree, MoP has completely sucked me back in.

Also, why do people think TBC was the best? The gear looked absolutely atrocious, Hellfire Peninsula was one of the ABSOLUTE worst starting zones--nothing feels like a bigger let down to get into a new expansion that has nothing in it but a but of brown everywhere. Shattrath was a mess, with the stupid faction choices, Shadowmoon Valley and Netherstorm both felt like palette swaps of Hellfire Peninsula.

I'll give credit to some of the raids being cool, but nothing brought me such a "sense of place" as Wrath did. The music, gear, atmosphere, level progression, and ICC stuff were amazing. Plus a clear and defined bad guy from the get-go.

Pandaria is a step below Wrath, but still awesome. I find the Sha to be a little corny.

@Bobby_The_Great said:

Also, why do people think TBC was the best?

Because raiding was better when your raid nights hinged on your seventh shaman showing up.

@jakob187: I say "sleeper hit" because this expansion hasn't gotten the coverage others have and my observation is that not many people are playing it and because many people wrote it off for various reasons. It is not what most expect out of a WoW expansion. It's more than they have ever done and I feel that many people would be surprised if they played it. People who haven't played it have a lot of negative things to say. People who have played it seem very positive.

@Colourful_Hippie: I don't see how. It means that it is unexpected, not that it's an Indie game.

@Vincenzo: Indie game huh. Yeah you don't know what a "sleeper hit" is then. Sleeping Dogs is more of a sleeper hit (no pun), a game that was most likely doomed and never to come out actually comes out and turns out to be a solid open world game. I don't think people were going to question the new WoW expansion and it looks like it's selling just fine. This reminds me of when people were calling Halo 3: ODST a sleeper hit just because Modern Warfare 2 was getting more attention than anything else at the time.

@Colourful_Hippie: Maybe just the wrong words to express my exact idea. A better phrase is: The Best Game You Arent Playing This Year. I thought this expansion was doomed by way of pandas. I consider a sleeper hit any game that people aren't playing, but it is very high quality. Sleeping Dogs is definitely one.

@Vincenzo: But people are playing it, it sold about 3 mil in a week and now WoW is back above 10 million subs again. Surprisingly good is more fitting.

Your review really has me wanting to jump back in, but with MWO/Hawken/Guild Wars 2/Planetside; I don't know when I'd play it. When I use to play WoW, it was the game I played. Not sure I want to return to that. Not to mention I lost touch without a lot of friends, so the experience wouldn't be as great.

Yeah I was just starting to get burnt out on Wow, but decided to stay a little longer for MoP. Glad I did, MoP has been really awesome, and totally renewed my love for WoW. Most of my guild also returned after leaving in Cata, and so far none of them have any intention to leave, which helps keep interest in the expansion.

@Colourful_Hippie: Sure. There will always be people who will play anything with the Warcraft name on it, regardless of quality or anything else. But this expansion I believe, we will see a big spike due to word of mouth gamer to gamer due to how good it is. That's all a sleeper hit is... a surprise. If this doesn't happen, then, I will be wrong. In 2-3 months, if there isn't an article that boasts actual raving reviews or millions more buying and playing the expansion, then I will be wrong as well. I suppose there is some question to interpretation. I believe a sleeper hit can be anything regardless of whether it's triple A, indie, under-budget, over budget, cancelled five times, etc.

The definition of sleeper hit is poor initial sales with good long term sales. MoP is not a sleeper hit. It sold just fine.

@ck1nd said:

Your review really has me wanting to jump back in, but with MWO/Hawken/Guild Wars 2/Planetside; I don't know when I'd play it. When I use to play WoW, it was the game I played. Not sure I want to return to that. Not to mention I lost touch without a lot of friends, so the experience wouldn't be as great.

Thanks for the feedback. I have not been able to play ANYTHING else since this came out except like an hour of Mark of the Ninja and I had to abandon Borderlands 2. That's also a testament to how good it really is.

For me, it's been worth it but I know I am missing so many games.

@mosespippy: How about in the context that, had I not known how good this game was, it would have slept on the shelf. And, since I actually did buy it and play it, I have discovered it is a "hit" with me. And by "hit" I mean, I thoroughly enjoy it, not that it sold millions of units.

Regardless, my review is about the content of the game, not about the definition of sleeper hit, which is up for interpretation.

I think some people say TBC was the best WoW expansion because there was such a huge jump in quality from vanilla to it. Looking back now, sure, the content doesn't hold up, but I think Blizzard was still really trying to figure out what WoW was/would be at that point. I think Wrath (which was my favorite expansion) kind of marks WoW reaching maturity. While things were refined in the next two expansions, the way WoW played in Wrath is very similar to Cata and MoP. You can't really say that about vanilla or TBC.

I'm part of the crowd who figured they were done with WoW after Cata proved to be really disappointing MoP suckered me back in though, and I'm finding I'm really enjoying WoW again. Blizzard seems really committed to making quality of life improvements to the game, and more importantly, they've really stepped up their game with designing how the various classes play. I play a Blood DK, and I remember that diseases used to be an annoying chore to maintain while tanking, but thanks to a couple new mechanics, I can keep them up on every pack I pull with minimum effort which is really appreciated. I've been having a blast with Monks too, with Mistweaver being the funnest healer I've ever played (Plus, I absolutely adore the idea of smart heals).

Something else that's nice, although minor, is that Blizz seems to have its sense of humor back with MoP. The writing in Cata was downright horrible, with stuff like the long Thrall kidnapping questline and the Dragon Soul 5-mans being some of the worst. MoP on the other hand has been surprisingly good, and a number of the quests are genuinely funny. The expansion has a pretty compelling overarching story too, what with what looks like a looming civil war for the Horde and all the implications that'll bring.

Overall, I'm really impressed with MoP, and definitely feel Blizz is working hard for my $15/mo.