Introducing a new tag for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

Question

Since the start of the Mists of Pandaria contest, we've had to clarify that not only does a question have to be tagged world-of-warcraft, but also has to be related to Mists of Pandaria. As a user who's primary gaming interest is World of Warcraft, I will probably end up littering this list of questions with some non-MoP questions here and there.

I propose that we add a wow-mists-of-pandaria tag for Mists of Pandaria questions. This will both aid the contest when determining what questions and answers are eligible, and it will also help help draw the distinction between MoP questions and non-MoP questions. Generally, it can be assumed that all World of Warcraft questions are regarding the same expansion. However, at this point in time, our questions will be primarily split between two expansions.

This is where it gets hairy.

In a previous meta post, I realized that the reason that we only have one main tag for WoW instead of recognizing separate expansions is that:

• Expansions generally just date the question, which is accomplished easily with the actual date of the question
• While there is reason to follow tags for upcoming expansions, there is very little reason to follow the tags for outdated expansions
• The distinction between major versions and expansions (eg. 4.x and Cataclysm) can be fairly nitpicky

The last point is the one that most makes me second-guess this proposal. Technically speaking, the expansion pack is the content and the major version release, while timed with the expansion, is just part of the base game. This distinction is made in-game by what features are available to players who have not bought an expansion as opposed to those who have. So, for example, talent trees are part of the base game, but the Firelands raid is part of the Cataclysm expansion.

The problem lies in knowing what will and will not be a part of the base game when Mists of Pandaria is released. As of now, we can assume that most new content (questing zones, Pandaren race, dungeon and raid content, etc.) is going to be expansion-only content. However, Blizzard has stated that pet battles are a part of the base game, not Mists of Pandaria. The only problem with this is that it classifies pet battles as a part of WoW 5.0, not a part of WoW: MoP.

However, that's only if we use Blizzard's distinction of what is a part of world-of-warcraft and what is a part of wow-mists-of-pandaria rather than our own. If we were open to defining ourselves what counts and what doesn't, then the last part would be a non-issue and would allow the tag to be used for the contest.

Answer 1

Maybe we should wait for the contest organizers to ask for help before adding a tag that will just get torn down in October.

If I want to ask a Monk question in October, how should that question be tagged? Is there any benefit to tagging it wow-mists-of-pandaria?

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Let's look at past examples, instead of "speculating" about the future. In my view:

• It is not helpful to "expansion tag" questions about Death Knights as world-of-warcraft-wotlk even though that expansion is required for that class.
• It is not helpful to "expansion tag" questions about the Archeology skill, even though Cataclysm is required for it to be trained.
• It is unclear how to "expansion tag" a question about Arcane Blast, and probably best to not expansion tag it at all (it once required burning crusade, but it is now available without expansion purchase).
• It is unclear how to "expansion tag" a question about Nourish, probably best not to (it once required wotlk, now available without expansion purchase).
• It could be confusing to "expansion tag" Naxxramas questions, which was available in the base game but now requires purchase of wotlk.

Answer 2

I'm for re-intrroducing wow-mists-of-pandaria (and the other expansion tags), but I think we should stick to Blizzard's distinction between major patch-related changes and expansion-only content, because it is a well-defined, easily verifiable metric that's most importantly not defined by us and not left up to us to determine what counts and what doesn't. Anyone who is an active WoW player following a Blue tracker or the official site will be able to determine what is, and isn't, tag-worthy.

This means pet battles would be tag-less, as would the talent overhaul, class rebalancing, and whatever else Blizzard plans to give away as part of 5.0.

Because of the value of having a clear, objectively-defined test for what should and shouldn't be part of the expansion, I made a suggestion for the contest to clarify that it's for any MoP-specific or 5.0.x-specific content.

To address some of the objections I've read regarding the use of expansion tags:

Objection 1

We don't know what will count and what doesn't, nor will new users.

The possibility of mistagging or undertagging is undermined by the community's ability to edit. It doesn't matter if one person gets it wrong as long as it's easily fixable. Having a clear, straightfoward test of "do you need to buy the expansion?" is something that can easily be applied by new users and veterans alike.

But Blizzard has been relatively straightforward about what will require the expansion and what won't; I'd bet a dozen trappbucks that given any feature someone wants to talk about regarding MoP-related content, we can find an official source explaining whether you need the expansion for it (much more so for released expansions).

Finally, we can help mitigate mistagging by adding a useful tag wiki excerpt. Something like,

wow-mists-of-pandaria
For questions about World of Warcraft features that require the purchase of the Mists of Pandaria expansion.

Objection 2

When an expansion comes out, it supersedes the old game: you can't play WoW without it.

Expansions don't supersede the old game, and you can definitely play the game without an expansion. Expansions, with the exception of possibly The Burning Crusade (because they stopped selling WoW without it), are completely optional.

What isn't optional are the x.0 patches that add a ton of new features and rebalance game mechanics a few weeks before expansions hit. Rightfully, the contents of these patches should not get the expansion tag: they are just part of the base game.

Objection 3

Nobody is going to care about an expansion-less WoW after an expansion is released.

The purpose of a tag isn't to encapsulate how we think people should play a game; their purpose is to group a meaningful set of questions into something someone would follow in its own right. If we have questions that are clearly about an expansion and people are interested in finding expansion-specific content, we should have a tag for it. Mists of Pandaria (and all the expansions) meet that criterion, and we have demonstrable proof of that in the MoP contest.

Objection 4

Users will see the expansion tag and see it as an opportunity or license to ask duplicate questions scoped to the expansion (e.g., "What is the MoP rotation for affliction warlocks?").

Like I mentioned above, mistagged questions and duplicate questions can be handled by community editing and moderation. The existence of expansion specific tags, like our other game tags that have expansion tags, does not relax or modify the rules regarding duplicates or updating out-of-date answers. If someone wants an up-to-date answer for a question that hasn't been touched in an expansion, they should offer a bounty or improve the existing question.

Answer 3

The problem here is how to identify questions for the contest and not a need to differentiate by expansion. I suggest perhaps mists-of-pandaria-contest or some other MoP tag where the wiki explicitly makes it clear, this will be merged into WoW tag in future.

This should also include any other changes that are arriving together with MoP; unless these are to be excluded from contest for some reason. Pets may be in the base game, if they are being tested in the MoP beta I'd argue they are fair game for contest questions.