Pandaren Join World Of Warcraft In Next Expansion

[brainslurper]

I honestly don't understand Blizzards thinking behind this. As someone who was a huge fan of the Warcraft franchise and who tried to keep up with the story in WOW while I played I know there are easily dozens of better established and, bluntly put, more interesting places the developers could have chosen to explore. Places with ties to ongoing thread throughout the over-arching story and which could advance the story as a whole.

But they went with the panda? Really? The in-game joke from Warcraft 3 which other than being a pile of walking amusing cliche serves no real purpose? Was there really some tiny demographic of people out there saying to themselves "WOW just isn't silly or cartoony enough for my tastes yet, it's needs more Kung-Fu Pandas!"?

Would have though Blizzard would be trying to go after lapsed players like myself by tugging my lingering interest in the setting by introducing something, you know, important. Make an expansion where we travel to the Twisting Nether and discover the fate of Turalyon and Alleria from Warcraft 2 for example, that would have been amazing.

This, erm, not so much. Guess I was wrong. Bit of a missed opportunity in my mind, pity.

Are you saying, honestly, that adding kung fu pandas to something could negatively affect it?

 

[brainslurper]

Wow seems to be aiming at a younger and younger demographic. Next will be playable anthro-Penguins. Of course you'd need a new class to go with it, so best create the Bard class to get the fully Happy Feet experience.

That.
Is.
A.
Fucking.
Amazing.
Idea.

Who would oppose dancing penguins? WHO WOULDN'T WANT THAT!!! THAT IS AWESOME!!!

 

[Genixma]

Fun all around. However I'm not quite sure about Monks. A melee class with Low to Mid-Armored class wielding swords, pole arms, or fist weapons. Huh. I don't think this is going to end well in Battlegrounds. Oh well we need another melee class who has low to mid armor.

 

[sniddy_v1legacy]

...and this prompted me to check my account HAD been canceled

another 5 bump will slow things down and be fairly meh content....a 85 -> 95 MAY have tempted me and saving the final pack to a 95 - 100 long hard epic slog

This is MOAR money

 

[Zulnam]

You know, I remember back when I was a kid and was playing Warcraft 2 on my PC. Man, those were the days. The Alliance, threatened by the menacing Horde, had to muster up all humans, elves and gnomes in order to shed blood, sweat and tears and push the "orkish Horde" back to the Dark Portal. I remember the death of Lothar and Danath's imprisonment in Outlands after he sacrificed himself and his soldiers in order to keep Azeroth safe. It was a somewhat-dark, but simple tale of good versus evil. Of lust for power, of sacrifice and of perseverance.

Fast forward fifteen years later: Panda bears.

Why, Blizzard? I honestly wish a gaming journalism site would have the balls to get an interview from some big-shot and ask them "WHY?". Not those moronic questions like "Will the game be fun?". "No, I think my product's gonna suck. Please don't buy it. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK?!"

 

[Barry93]

There was quite a few possibilties for the fourth expansion, and Blizzard picked the worst one. Playing as Pandaren will not be as fun as everyone expects it to be. Then again, I only play to raid, and PvE is not looking to good for MoP. I hope they throw in the N'Zoth/Vashj'ir raid, which won't make any sense for MoP, but would save this expansion as Ulduar did WotLK.

 

[Sansha]

A possibility that I heard getting a lot of attention was the idea of one of Ner'zhul's portals being discovered in the wake of the final battle against Deathwing, which lead directly to the Twisting Nether, opening the way for the Nathrezim to invade Azeroth. The initial invasion is halted by adventurers, assisted by Lich King Bolvar, and we discover we can cripple Sargeras' Burning Legion by going into the Nether and destroying the Nathrezim - as they can only be forever destroyed there.

Along the way, we meet long-lost heroes like Alleria and Turalyon, and discover the path of the Demon Hunter class. This is the build-up to finally facing that greatest of all evils, Sargeras the Dark Titan in the expansion after this next one.

But fuck that, we need Pandaren for fanservice to fuel an awful joke made worse by obsessive idiots.

 

[Ashendarei]

Was there really some tiny demographic of people out there saying to themselves "WOW just isn't silly or cartoony enough for my tastes yet, it's needs more Kung-Fu Pandas!"?

Apparently so. Though I suspect that demographic is smaller than Blizzard thinks. They've yet to learn that no matter how outspoken some forumites are, they only represent a slim minority of players.

In other news, I have absolutely zero worry about being tempted to re-sub.

This, pretty much exactly. I was honestly intrigued and excited when I saw the first minute or so of that video, and thought "Damn, this sounds interesting, they're definately appealing to me as a former customer and long-time player .." but then .... REALLY? Kung-Fu panda? BLEARGH.

I was interested for a bit, but no. Sorry Blizzard .. you'll have to take everyone elses' money instead

 

[Bucht]

I haven't played WoW in a while but I must say I've been looking forward to play as a Panderan since my first encounter with them in 2003
I just don't understand why people keep complaining that they'r ripping of Kung-Fu panda (which came 5 years later than TFT) I mean we already have Space-Goats, metrosexual elves, Bull-people, Wolf-People and freakin' Gnomes...
But a panda would be to silly? Sigh.

 

[Kroxile]

Haha, WoW is dying and its about goddamn time. Even though I've played it for a couple months here and there I always found that I cannot stand the high level of retardation and general stupidity of the game so seeing blizzard grasping a straws to keep this pos alive is fairly enjoyable to me

 

[Asehujiko]

So when do you think Jack Black will be announced as a voice actor for this?

When they added them to warcraft 3, some 5 years before that movie.

 

[Rpground]

I honestly don't understand Blizzards thinking behind this. As someone who was a huge fan of the Warcraft franchise and who tried to keep up with the story in WOW while I played I know there are easily dozens of better established and, bluntly put, more interesting places the developers could have chosen to explore. Places with ties to ongoing thread throughout the over-arching story and which could advance the story as a whole.

But they went with the panda? Really? The in-game joke from Warcraft 3 which other than being a pile of walking amusing cliche serves no real purpose? Was there really some tiny demographic of people out there saying to themselves "WOW just isn't silly or cartoony enough for my tastes yet, it's needs more Kung-Fu Pandas!"?

Would have though Blizzard would be trying to go after lapsed players like myself by tugging my lingering interest in the setting by introducing something, you know, important. Make an expansion where we travel to the Twisting Nether and discover the fate of Turalyon and Alleria from Warcraft 2 for example, that would have been amazing.

This, erm, not so much. Guess I was wrong. Bit of a missed opportunity in my mind, pity.

i know what you mean...just...ive always hated these panda things i felt like they didnt really belong in the beginning and they REALLY dont fit now...im happy i quit a while ago,expantions like this dont rekindle that spark for me at all...hell cata only held my enthusiasm for 2 months really before i thought "im i REALLY just going threw the same notions or grinding for rep then doing heroics like i did before in wrath and to a lesser extent BC?" then it donned on me "holy crap...i really AM!" its all just to improve your ARMOR and WEAPONS,nothing else. its not even really skillful anymore,its just the matter or not being an idiot and hand eye coordination..." thats why i hope that ToR is gonna be good and not just the same WoW-clone MMO you see on the market so often :/

 

[Polarity27]

I'm all grumbly about this. I was hoping for something more like Outland again, maybe a trip through the Twisting Nether to wherever the demons come from. (Wildly different landscapes and DEMONS, how could that go wrong?) Instead, giant drunk kung-fu pandas and the nine zillionth nearly identical iteration of a forest, as if this game were filmed in Vancouver.

I has a sad.

 

[Polarity27]

A possibility that I heard getting a lot of attention was the idea of one of Ner'zhul's portals being discovered in the wake of the final battle against Deathwing, which lead directly to the Twisting Nether, opening the way for the Nathrezim to invade Azeroth. The initial invasion is halted by adventurers, assisted by Lich King Bolvar, and we discover we can cripple Sargeras' Burning Legion by going into the Nether and destroying the Nathrezim - as they can only be forever destroyed there.

Along the way, we meet long-lost heroes like Alleria and Turalyon, and discover the path of the Demon Hunter class. This is the build-up to finally facing that greatest of all evils, Sargeras the Dark Titan in the expansion after this next one.

But fuck that, we need Pandaren for fanservice to fuel an awful joke made worse by obsessive idiots.

Can I just tell you how much I really, really wanted that?

I would have bought the freaking CE for that. That sounds amazing! Instead... /sigh

Although I suspect we'll be facing Azshara in this, so that's something?

/sigh

 

[Nauticus]

This looks great. But I've endured to much wow, will never go back to it.

 

[Craazhy]

I have a sense of humor, I really do. Vagina-faces and such. But, I can't take it as such a significant portion of the premise. The genuine creativity and/or strength of quality always validated WoW's stupid sense of humor in the past. That was what made it work. Now that it's got nothing to land on, it just echoes in the dark until the crickets start chirping.

I will say that I like the idea of a bi-factional race. It's interesting.

But, this will be the first expansion I don't preorder. That's not to say I think it will suck, that is to say I'm not convinced where the same company has consistently had me convinced in the past. Cataclysm might have had something to do with that.

I'm more eagerly looking forward to Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic

 

[Johnny Impact]

I think panda-people is a silly choice for a new race. I never understood the appeal of Pokemon. All this just reaffirms my decision to quit WoW.

Clean for 2 years and counting....

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Its Kung Fu Panda. lol This looks retarded. How can anyone play this game now and take it seriously now they have added giant comical pandas to the game? It would be like adding giant pandas to the Lord of the Rings movies, totally retarded.

Or is this just pandering (sorry) to gain more players in china?

 

[Woem]

They remind me a whole lot of the Pandawa [http://www.dofus.com/en/mmorpg-game/characters/pandawa] race from Dofus (an MMORPG that's also been around since 2004). I'm not sure if that's a coincidence.