Because Pandaria was made to be a setting and not just a gameboard.
In other words, Blizzard made Pandaria full of small details that make it seem like a living breathing place, instead of just quest zones filled with chests and rares for you to find but give you nothing special. Every place in Pandaria has meaning, and that meaning is conveyed through lore objects you can interact with (books, tales or just treasure). There’s also plenty of places with no real game purpose, but they tell you a story. Like the eastern fishing village in Jade Forest where there are sunk Alliance and Horde ships whose survivors are being helped by the locals. Not a single quest there, but the amount of details is outstanding.
Pandaria wasn’t filled with treasure chests, but instead of meaningless grey items and “War Resources” or “Artifact Power”, the ones that there were there told you stories and were worth a lot of gold. Like the hammer that tells the tale of the mad panda that built it the endless stairs. Or a lost tiger figurine in a lake far bellow the Temple of the White Tiger.
Each reputation there also told a story. The reps weren’t just grinds, you got more chapters of their stories as you advanced, and reaching exalted gave a conclusion to their storiline as well as plenty of rewards.
Think how the Sha of Anger or Gailleon are way more impactful than the myriad of meaningless world bosses we got in Legion and BfA. Nallak and Oondasta also had stories behind them. And let’s not forget the Four Celestials.
This is also reflected in the questlines. The stories in Pandaria were full of details and great in general.
Pandaria was a place that really felt real. And whenever you visit it again, your feelings toward your past adventures there makes you feel like it’s your second home.
It’s bright, it’s obnoxious, and it gets everywhere. I’ve always enjoyed overcast days or hard thunderstorms more than a bright sunny day. I’m a night owl. The sun drains the life out of me.
I went to Hawaii and relaxed on the beach in their daily rain showers for hours while everyone else bailed. It was great.
I like Cho a lot more than Cain. Cho seemed to have more motivation than Cain did.
For me, it was the overarching storyline. From the promotional cinematic all.the way through to SoO, it was a subtle story which drove home the point that despite all the world ending threats we face and defeat, it is WE who are the greatest enemy.
I didn’t pay attention to any of the lore or settings, I just flew through things asap while watching Netflix, but Pandaria is still more fun than 90% of the rest of the game.
What isn’t fun is how Pandas are always getting caught and put in cages. I mean seriously how many pandas do I have to rescue and how do they get put in cages to start with.
I would argue that Blizzard had the freedom to make pandas lighthearted. Pandas were about balance, spirit dragons, and looking inward. A lot of panderia is not about saving the world but helping farmers out and fixing your own screw ups. That has good replay value for me.
Another thing to remember is that after the fact, you experience panderia as leveling zones and not as end game. Two expansions from now, you will be largely ignoring island expeditions, the war quests, artifact power, azerite traits. The zone stories of BFA are well done (although alliance zones are pretty disjoint) and as a leveling story for both alliance and horde is well done.
Interesting all the positive reception now as I believe it was received poorly on release. And to add fuel to the fire I believe I read somewhere that the negative views were largely based on the Eastern influence of the zone.
I wonder if one day we will look back on WoD/BfA and think what awesome zones they are.
It is one of my best features. I did really like living in Culver City though because it really never did get colder than the 60s or hotter than low 80s. I’m in the Valley right now, so it’s hell on earth. haha
This is pretty typical. People are opposed to change, and MoP brought in a lot of it. Nostalgia also plays a major role, looking back at what we had then compared to what we have now makes older expansions seem not as bad. Then there’s also failing memories and only thinking of the good parts to spite the bad we have now. Did you know some people actually think WoD is better than BFA despite having no endgame outside of raiding and only ever adding one bit of content over the entire course of its lifetime, that being Tanaan Jungle? Ludicrous.
I always loved MoP, aside from that year long content drought at the end of the expansion, it’s always been one of, if not my favorite expansion, but some people are only just coming around to how good MoP was now because of the above reasons.
Oh, and Golden Lotus. Seriously, screw those guys. Seriously, the MoP rep grinds would be so much better if you didn’t need to do like 20 dailies for em for the same amount of rep as 4 got you in other factions.people hated daily quests because of Golden Lotus and it’s for that reason why WoD had almost no daily questd, and instead had their rep grinds done by grinding mobs ad nauseam. Overcorrecting from one extreme to the other. That’s the Blizzard way.
Do you not praise the sun?