Blizzard Entertainment today announced that the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta test has begun.

Initially limited to Annual Pass holders, press, fansites, opt-in beta testers and friends and family of Blizzard employees, changes to the game will be made as the beta evolves.

"We've got the largest beta test that we've ever had for any WoW expansion prior to this one, so as soon as we start inviting people in, and start to allow the people to talk about the game and post screenshots, I think the reaction is going to be very, very positive", stated lead producer J. Allen Brack in an interview with Gameplanet last week.

 

Chris Metzen looks tired.

The normally indefatigable senior vice president of story and franchise development, no doubt taxed by myriad projects, falls over his words and momentarily pauses during the Mists of Pandaria press event at Blizzard's sprawling Los Angeles headquarters.

Then, with traditional Metzen panache, a few jokes are cracked and it's back to business.

 

J. Allen Brack, lead producer, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria.

Gameplanet: The concept behind Mists of Pandaria hasn't perhaps been received as enthusiastically by the player base compared to previous expansions. While sentiment seems to be warming slowly, are you happy that what you've produced will be embraced by the community at launch?

J. Allen Brack: I'm happy that the World of Warcraft community will be excited as soon as we start beta! We've got the largest beta test that we've ever had for any WoW expansion prior to this one, so as soon as we start inviting people in, and start to allow the people to talk about the game and post screenshots, I think the reaction is going to be very, very positive. I know all about that reaction, but I'm not worried about it once people see how awesome it's going to be.

Gameplanet: So when do you think the beta is likely to begin?

 

Greg Street, Lead Systems Designer for World of Warcraft.

Blizzard’s Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street has defended the World of Warcraft talent overhaul that will launch with the next expansion, Mists of Pandaria, from accusations that it’s a simplification, or change for the sake of change.

In a lengthy blog post on Blizzard’s Battle.Net, Street began, “We’ve gotten a lot of feedback on our crazy, exciting, and scary talent overhaul, for which we are enormously appreciative,” before adding, “We have seen a few consistent responses from players concerned or dismissive about the model, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to explain the philosophy behind some of our decisions, to provide a better framework upon which you can continue giving us feedback.”

“Look, we tried the talent tree model for seven years," Street explained. “We think it's fundamentally flawed and unfixable. We know some of you have faith in us that someday we'll eventually replace all of the boring +5% crit talents with interesting talents and give you 80 talent points that you can spend wherever, and that the game will still remain relatively balanced and fun. We greatly appreciate your faith, but we fear it is misplaced.

 

“I think World of Warcraft has changed,” begins Greg Street. We’re in a poky cubicle on the second floor of the Anaheim Convention Center in California. Below us, more than 26,000 attendees are taking in BlizzCon, Blizzard Entertainment’s annual community celebration of its Diablo, StarCraft and Warcraft franchises. Only 10 minutes earlier, Street was on stage presenting the game’s new expansion, Mists of Pandaria, to thousands of fans from around the world.

Set on a pan-Asian-themed island that has been hidden from the world since the Sundering, Pandaria is a land inhabited by a society of Panda-like creatures. It’s Five Deadly Venoms and Pokémon; it’s Kung-Fu Panda and Confucius.

Street, known to players by his handle “Ghostcrawler”, is the lead systems designer on World of Warcraft, and as such is intimately involved in nearly all facets of the game’s development. If for long-standing subscribers Ghostcrawler’s opening remark is a statement of the obvious, it’s one worth repeating all the same. Before anything else, Mists of Pandaria is a response to change – one that plots a new course for Blizzard’s billion-dollar leviathan.

 

Greg Street, Lead Systems Designer for World of Warcraft.

Gameplanet: How do the Pandaren go from a Samwise Didier April Fool’s joke to full-blown expansion?

Greg Street: Every BlizzCon we get asked the question: When are you going to do Pandaren? It’s funny, it’s one of those things where we're asked a lot, and we’re like, ‘what are you talking about? That was an April Fool’s joke!’

We did a poll asking what would you most like to see in World of Warcraft and the number one feature was Pandaren – not even the number one race, but the number one feature. So we thought, gosh players are really passionate about this; we should take it seriously.

 

Blizzard today announced World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. Blizzard’s objective is to create new gameplay experiences. Whereas previous World of Warcraft expansions have always focused on an apocalyptic enemy, Mists of Pandaria wants to get back to Warcraft II – focusing on the conflict between the Alliance and the Horde.

The expansion introduces a new continent, Pandaria. It has a pan-Asian theme and is home to the Pandaren race. It is a single, unified continent much as Outland and Northrend were before it.

Following Deathwing’s fall, the Horde and Alliance resume their hostilities. After a devastating naval battle, both factions wash up on the shores of a new continent, Pandaria. The land had been shrouded in mist ever since the Sundering. The objective in the expansion is to save Pandaria from being consumed by the Horde and Alliance war machines.