Blizzard Hints at Pandaren Expansion

[Sean951]

I think the best way to get subscribers back is to stop making you have to pay for new expansions since it gets kind of ridiculous how much it costs to get all of them, also the next one should have what I think would attract a lot of old players for pure interest - a third faction. It may sound funny but I think having the scourge as a playable faction including Naga, ogre, skeleton, lich and dreadlord or some characters like that would be amazing, also the 3 way fighting battlegrounds would be awesome, just saying

Except that most of the enemies you listed have their leaders as raid bosses. I suppose the undead could be justified since Arthas is dead in Lore, but then you have Fordring in charge, and he is supposed to be keeping them back. The Naga serve Azshara, and the Dreadlords are part of the Burning Legion.

Yeah it's called building story onto it, like how the orcs are part of the horde yet the original orcs are in outlands. Just say the naga joined some guys with their leader and stuff and i'm probably not making any sense but you get my jist of a third faction ideal.
It would be awesome.

I could deal with the Naga, and even the Scourge to some extent, but the Dreadlords are 100% Burning Legion. You also have the problem that most of the "evil" races didn't have a class, so unless you wanted all Scourge Mages to be Lich, then you would have to find something that wouldn't look like the Horde Undead and make room in the Lore for a certain Scourge type to versatile.

EDIT: To the person above me; it may not bring back the subscribers they lost, but they still have roughly 11 times the number of active accounts compared to the next guy ^_~

 

[Hungry Donner]

I'm going to be calling bullshit if either become playable, since both the Pandaren and the Ethereals are neutral and have no reason to help either side.

Didn't the goblins use to be all about being neutral? Didn't the worgen refuse to interact with the world outside Gilneas? Things change

Yep, and before the Goblins were neutral they were allied with the Horde (back in WC2). While I've never played WoW, and pandarens don't interest me at all, a world isn't interesting if it's static.

 

[Jake the Snake]

That's fucking hilarious. And also fucking awesome. If they make Panda Knight a playable hero class, I might pick up WoW for a little while, just for the sake of the concept.

 

[Danpascooch]

Eh, I think I finally quit WoW for good anyway. Cataclysm was the nail in the coffin

 

[Bobbity]

Someone mentioned this idea a couple of years ago, concerning Pandaren as a potential race. How about they go through their intro thing, and then decide on which faction to support? I know that it's difficult and impractical and stupid, but both sides would love to play as Pandaren, and this means that they keep their fabled neutrality - in a sense.

 

[The_Emperor]

Wow just needs to die now, bring out word of starcraft, I'd play it.

 

[Lonely Swordsman]

This might just get me to start playing again.
I hope they introduce a monk class for the pandas, or something similar that specializes in exotic weapons and hand-to-hand combat. I loved the Jackie Chan panda merc hero in Warcraft 3.

 

[WaysideMaze]

Since the NPCs get more powerful with each expansion, I would love to see a little panda powerful enough to take down the lich king solo.

 

[Aeshi]

I'm going to be calling bullshit if either become playable, since both the Pandaren and the Ethereals are neutral and have no reason to help either side.

Yeah seriously, even the Goblins... oh... wait...

The Goblins were a Horde race back in Warcraft II (you know those other Warcraft games nobody seems to remember), and even in WoW had strong ties to the Horde by only letting them use the Zeppelins, that a faction would rejoin isn't really the same thing.

 

[Archemetis]

Firstly, Pandarens, yes.

Secondly, those Ethereal NPCs, I'm with most on the void storage guy, sounds like an account-bank, much like the stash chests in Torchlight, whatever gets put in there gets shared between characters.

Transmogrifyer (I bet I spelt that wrong) sonds interesting, especially the OP's take on it. I wouldn't mind a service where I could alter the cosmetics of my items (especially if those items were OUTLAND items).
Altough, knowing Blizz they'd make it a service only allowed at certain (Read: High) levels an costs probable hundreds of gold.

Arcance Reforger just sounds like a fancier version of the typical reforgers we already have...


But back to the 'playable races' thing, Pandaren obviously a definite yes for me, I was pissed of when I didn't get to play them in any of the expansions.

But you know who my vote would go for over the Ethereals for the other playable race?

The Tuskarr It makes sense, they already functioning models, they've given them all the relevant animations, just skin the armour on and you've got a playabl characters.

I can see, Tuskarr for the Horde and Pandaren for the Alliance (If only to give me one reason to go back to the Alliance) And this way both factions get their own adorable, thought-to-be neutral, animal people.

Someone mentioned this idea a couple of years ago, concerning Pandaren as a potential race. How about they go through their intro thing, and then decide on which faction to support? I know that it's difficult and impractical and stupid, but both sides would love to play as Pandaren, and this means that they keep their fabled neutrality - in a sense.

Not really that impractical, I mean when they released TBC they introduced neutral zones and player-choice factions (eg. Aldor and Scryers) where players had to physically decide which one they wanted to pursue. Plus since then Blizzard have gotten alot better with their 'phases' So I'm sure something could be used in that respect.

 

[Shifty Tortoise]

The name seems to fit with being a patch, not an expansion. Y'know, Call of the Crusade, Fall of the Lich king, Rage of the Firelands, Siege of Ulduar and Mists of Pandaria. Every patch, as far as i'm aware, fits that pattern

 

[excalipoor]

This is just Blizzard trolling the playerbase before Blizzcon.

Also, people use the word 'retcon' too liberally. Alexstrasza doing absolutely nothing against the Scourge, when in WarCraft II she joined the HORDE to protect her stolen eggs, that's a retcon. She turned from the fierce but beaten lioness into the ultimate pacifist.

Now, the tauren becoming paladins and priests, that's not a retcon. Just like night elf priests, tauren priests and paladins don't use the Light, per se. They found a way to harness the power of the sun, the same way druids use moon. Gameplay-wise there's no difference betweet a Sunwalker and a Knight of the Silver Hand, but that has nothing to do with lore.

Lore is a living thing, people. Get with the times.

The name seems to fit with being a patch, not an expansion. Y'know, Call of the Crusade, Fall of the Lich king, Rage of the Firelands, Siege of Ulduar and Mists of Pandaria. Every patch, as far as i'm aware, fits that pattern

This is the only way I could see Mists of Pandaria happening. Every expansion so far deals with villains already existing in the lore (old gods, the Burning Legion, Twilight's Hammer, the Scourge) but there's absolutely no existing pandaren lore (besides monks and brewmasters). If they did manage to build an entire expansion around the pandaren, it would certainly be something different from the old formula.

 

[VanityGirl]

I just want them to release Deathwing. I don't even want to think about a new expansion until I complete THIS expansin. *bitches about how she wants to fight Deathwing*

 

[Joseph Alexander]

I like how the OP takes news of a trademark and completely unrelated patch based NPCs and is already making bullshit speculation.

like how Boub(the person who runs the WoW fansite MMOchampion) made a prediction a couple years ago that worgen and goblin would be the next playable races, OFF OF HALLOWEEN MASKS.

also were likely going to be fighting Queen azhara , the zandalari empire, or both in the next expac.
they've spent way too much time building both of them up lately to do nothing with them.

also a point of note, BLIZZARD HAS NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER MADE LEGAL NOTICE OF NAMED PATCHES.
they have only done this with expansions.

 

[Uber Waddles]

Alright guys, lets just get our RP on for a second. It'll put things into perspective for you...

First, after delving into the world and making a name for ourselves, we were able to slay the mighty threats to Azeroth and kill an Old God, buying Azeroth some much needed time. After that, we crossed the threshold of the newly opened Dark Portal, to save a dying planet from the corruption that had ensared it, and to stop a demonic invasion at the hands of Kil'Jaden.

While we were gone, The Lich King gathered his forces, and became our next target. After setting out to Northrend, we helped the Native People. On our way, we killed another Old God, and found out a terrible secret - there must always be a Lich King, and the small part of the once heroic Arthas was the only thing holding back a full-scale destruction. After killing Arthas, and crowning Bulvar Fordragon the new Lich King, who immedietly froze himself into the Frozen Throne, things were looking good. But they weren't.

Deep beneath the Earth, the Elementals stirred with rage. Deathwings rage was tearing him apart, as the whispers of an Old God made him even more insane. Deathwing emerged into Azeroth, sundering the world and killing many. This ingited a fullscale war, and pitted the Alliance and Horde against eachother even further. As we speak, heroes are storming the Elemental Planes, and destroying those who wish to destroy our world - and will make Deathwing pay for the sundering, and reclaim the world as ours.

And then what? What faces us after Deathwing? Will the master of evil Sargaros emerge? Will the War between the Alliance and Horde escalate to the point where full out war and destrution spread, threatening our newly forged world? No. We will help our Pandaran friends, who face problems - they can't sell their alcohol because the Ethereal traders are being mean.

... Seriously. They're conisidering following up the destruction and reshaping of their world with PANDAS. Pandas that, for all of history BREW BEER. What. the. fuck. Blizzard.

 

[walrusaurus]

I'm going to be calling bullshit if either become playable, since both the Pandaren and the Ethereals are neutral and have no reason to help either side.

Same could've been said for Burning Crusade.

OT: Too little too late, Blizz! You will not draw me from ToR!

Blizzard doesn't need to. ToR will do that on its own. The more I see of that game the less and less hopeful i am about it.

 

[walrusaurus]

like how Boub(the person who runs the WoW fansite MMOchampion) made a prediction a couple years ago that worgen and goblin would be the next playable races, OFF OF HALLOWEEN MASKS.

To be fair, he has inside sources at Blizzard. The halloween masks were most likely a justification for him releasing info that was leaked to him. Mmo-champ fuels rampant speculation=hype. The leaks are very beneficial for blizzard.

 

[Frostbite3789]

I'm going to be calling bullshit if either become playable, since both the Pandaren and the Ethereals are neutral and have no reason to help either side.

Didn't the goblins use to be all about being neutral? Didn't the worgen refuse to interact with the world outside Gilneas? Things change

Things change. ActiBlizzard needs more money. One of those things.

 

[Baldr]

Now that part of the cat is out of the bag, Pandaren Masters are the new hero class for both factions, again being unlocked at level 55 and will have their own starting area, blah blah blah. They are also working on Emerald Dream stuff.

I'll save the Project Titan gossip for later.