Pandaren Join World Of Warcraft In Next Expansion

[Abedeus]

And here I thought they'd be too scared of losing the Asian market to release the Pandarens.

 

[walrusaurus]

In fact, the way races are arbitrarily forced into either horde or alliance is highly unrealistic, almost to the point of breaking immersion.

You say that but up until Cataclysm it made sense.

The Alliance is the Alliance, the clue is in the name, of the humans, night elves and dwarves. Gnomes tagging along because they're useless comic relief teaming up with dwarves.

The Horde is basically everyone else. Orcs arrive from Draenor, cause a ruckus, become not-evil but still villified. Team up with trolls, team up with tauren, accept the undead because the humans can't make nice.

Come Burning Crusade, spacegoats crash their magic spaceship and join the Alliance because paladins, basically.
Blood elves join the Horde because the Alliance won't accept a bunch of fel-magic addicts, also they have draenei now and belfs and draenei have been having a bit of a ruckus apparently.

Then we get Cataclysm, and the Alliance accept a bunch of cursed infectious werewolves.
The Horde accept Goblins because... their leader kidnapped Thrall? Never been too clear on that myself.

Pandaren were originally going to be the Alliance race for the Burning Crusade. To the point where most of the player base was under the impression that they would likely be getting furbolgs ( humanoid brown/black bears). However blizzard changed their mind at the last minute and shoehorned Draenei in. Which is why the Draenei have never been integrated into the greater warcraft story the way the other new playable races have been: they weren't planned out in advance.

 

[Twilight_guy]

How exactly is this going to get by in China? Blizzard didn't release these panda men before because of the Chinese frowning on dead Pandas. Has that changed?

thats an urban legend. There's no issue with Panda's in games in china. Bones however they do have issues with. In order to release Wrath of the Lich king in china Blizzard had to remove every single exposed bone in the game. And for an expansion about zombie hordes, littered with skull and death motifs it was a process that took about 2 years.

Actually, I really doubt if that's an urban legend. I happen to know a guy who works in QA at Blizzard, (No, I'm not going to prove it because there isn't a convenient way for me doing that besides having you send him an e-mail and I'm not going to bother him with that for any forum post), who said as much. He works on StarCraft though so he could be wrong about WoW related things. He seemed to be fairly sure of it though and I trust him to know what's he's talking about.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Come Burning Crusade, spacegoats crash their magic spaceship and join the Alliance because paladins, basically.

Pandaren were originally going to be the Alliance race for the Burning Crusade. To the point where most of the player base was under the impression that they would likely be getting furbolgs ( humanoid brown/black bears). However blizzard changed their mind at the last minute and shoehorned Draenei in. Which is why the Draenei have never been integrated into the greater warcraft story the way the other new playable races have been: they weren't planned out in advance.

Indeed.
And personally I never had much problem with the Draenei. It's Blizzard's lore, they can retcon it however they please.

 

[walrusaurus]

How exactly is this going to get by in China? Blizzard didn't release these panda men before because of the Chinese frowning on dead Pandas. Has that changed?

thats an urban legend. There's no issue with Panda's in games in china. Bones however they do have issues with. In order to release Wrath of the Lich king in china Blizzard had to remove every single exposed bone in the game. And for an expansion about zombie hordes, littered with skull and death motifs it was a process that took about 2 years.

Actually, I really doubt if that's an urban legend. I happen to know a guy who works in QA at Blizzard, (No, I'm not going to prove it because there isn't a convenient way for me doing that besides having you send him an e-mail and I'm not going to bother him with that for any forum post), who said as much. He works on StarCraft though so he could be wrong about WoW related things. He seemed to be fairly sure of it though and I trust him to know what's he's talking about.

Eligium. A chinese made MMO with a PvP and a playable Panda race.

www.eligium.com

there are a couple of others but that's the one i have bookmarked cause it has an awesome screenshot of a panda with vicious fist weapons.


EDIT: in the interest of fairness there were issues with Pandarens in Warcraft 3 being imported to China. Which may be where the rumor started. The governments objection was not in regards to the pandas themselves but what they were wearing. Specifically: Samurai Armor. That, the chinese gov. did take exception to.

 

[Twilight_guy]

How exactly is this going to get by in China? Blizzard didn't release these panda men before because of the Chinese frowning on dead Pandas. Has that changed?

thats an urban legend. There's no issue with Panda's in games in china. Bones however they do have issues with. In order to release Wrath of the Lich king in china Blizzard had to remove every single exposed bone in the game. And for an expansion about zombie hordes, littered with skull and death motifs it was a process that took about 2 years.

Actually, I really doubt if that's an urban legend. I happen to know a guy who works in QA at Blizzard, (No, I'm not going to prove it because there isn't a convenient way for me doing that besides having you send him an e-mail and I'm not going to bother him with that for any forum post), who said as much. He works on StarCraft though so he could be wrong about WoW related things. He seemed to be fairly sure of it though and I trust him to know what's he's talking about.

Eligium. A chinese made MMO with a PvP and a playable Panda race.

www.eligium.com

there are a couple of others but that's the one i have bookmarked cause it has an awesome screenshot of a panda with vicious fist weapons.

Yeah, like I said he could have been wrong for all I know but that's the way I heard it and thus I'm still going with what he said. (Man, I trust my professors too much).

 

[walrusaurus]

How exactly is this going to get by in China? Blizzard didn't release these panda men before because of the Chinese frowning on dead Pandas. Has that changed?

thats an urban legend.

Actually, I really doubt if that's an urban legend...

Eligium. A chinese made MMO with a PvP and a playable Panda race.

www.eligium.com

there are a couple of others but that's the one i have bookmarked cause it has an awesome screenshot of a panda with vicious fist weapons.

Yeah, like I said he could have been wrong for all I know but that's the way I heard it and thus I'm still going with what he said. (Man, I trust my professors too much).

I figured as much:

Perfect World 2
http://pw.mk-style.com/ss_popupwindow.php?dir=/about/communication/img/ss&page=1&no=3?TB_iframe=true&width=591&height=530

Magic World online 2:
http://www.onrpg.com/MMO/Magic-World-Online-2/news/Magic-World-2-Race--Class-Introduction

 

[ZeoAssassin]

Ok, i am excited about this expansion despite only planning to play a little at a time nowadays (5-6 year Vet that is just burned out but still enjoys WoW in small doses). However I have heard A LOT of whining by WoW-players that the Pandarens are childish which is stupid.

So in response i Have made this image from about an hour in MS paint to make fun of them.

Spoiler

Basically I hate the fact that anything that looks happy, uses more primary colors, and looks like that dreamworks movie has to be childish. They can still be awesome and mature people.

and family friendly =/= childish, Pixar taught us that

I look forward to this expansion and am in love with the new talent system they are making. hurray for actual choice.

 

[SnakeoilSage]

I wonder how many will be named "Po."

Me, I'm holding out for Ogres. Ogre ogre ogre!

 

[jp201]

can we at least see this in beta before we decide its either horrible or amazing? all I see here is OMG THIS SUCKS THANK GOD IM NOT SUBZ AGAIN or OMG MUST SUB TO PLAY THIS.

I guess with people and WoW its either the greatest thing ever or worst thing possible wow will die (its been dead since BC obviously)

Overall, I like the ideas there implementing if done properly except the pet battle system which I think is just a waste of their resources.

 

[Hamish Durie]

pandas in wow
*starts frothing at the mough*

 

[AndyFromMonday]

Blizzard is definitely running out of ideas.

 

[adamtm]

World of Kung Fu Panda

Only if they get jack black to voice all the pandas will it be worth it.

 

[GeekFury]

*Claps and raises hands.* I'm out.

I may stay just to see what the expansion is like but there is no way I can stay in whats looking to become Kung-Fu Panda the MMO, not to mention the bloody stupid changes they are adding.

Sorry Blizzard, but there is changing whats wrong and then there is paradime shifting bulls**t.

 

[Ranorak]

I am going to love it, and I'm going to give everyone the secret to how.

Stop taking this game seriously.
I don't mean the game mechanics, or screwing up raids on purpose, I mean the lore, the setting.

I take WoW like I watched the old Adem West Batman series, or the Xena: Warrior Princess.
I love those shows (Especially Xena, rawr) but they are campy as hell.

I see WoW the same way. It's light-hearted with a dash of silly, that sometimes tries to make a serious plot arc (and at times succeeds)

So, like a GM once said:
"Stop taking a game that sends to dragons with the mail so seriously!"

 

[Sectan]

From what I heard from the in-game chat, the panda expansion is actually regretted. Blizzard got too far into production to back out and try something else so they basically said "Fuck it we'll make it work."

 

[Isnack]

i call kung fu panda