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During last weekend's BlizzCon, the titular PC gaming giant unveiled the latest addition to its world of strife, backstabbing, and apocalypse dragons: Pandas. Now bears, of course, are generally horrifying creatures. We are thankful for our right to bear arms primarily because we fear bear arms. Pandas, though? They're generally associated with cuddles, rainbows, and Jack Black. Surely, Warcraft's finally jumped the shark, right? No more junk, no more soul – just heaping dollops of d'aaaaaw? Not so, says Blizzard. Apparently, pandas can be badasses too.
“I think people will come around once they start playing it in the game,” lead encounter designer Scott Mercer told Game Informer. “You’ve seen in the demo that they’re so charismatic. Playing a monk is amazing. Pandaria is gorgeous. I think it’s just a matter of time for some people.”
“This is no joke. This is not a throw-away silly-silly ha ha funny expansion set; it is absolutely the next vital chapter and as things ratchet up, they’re gonna get really gnarly,” VP of creative development Chris Metzen explained during a BlizzCon panel.
On top of that, Metzen cleared up some of the confusion surrounding the Pandaren's origins. This isn't just some April Fools joke gone horribly, horribly wrong. Apparently, this has been the Pandaren master plan since day one.
“There’s no way we’re gonna build an expansion set based on an April Fools Joke,” he said.“What you guys may not know is, our senior art director, Sam Didier, started drawing these guys years ago. Was it in Warcraft III, we included Chen Stormstout in Frozen Throne, maybe, in the Orc campaign? Was it after that? I can’t remember anymore. But these guys are not a joke. This is an idea that we’ve been thinking about for years. It’s one of our favorite flavors of Warcraft.”
So then, is it an odd direction for a WoW expansion? Sort of, yes. But is it the right one? Time – and probably an inevitable PETA-created “parody” – will tell.
Comments are closed on this article
bigsarge72
October 25, 2011 at 10:01am
Something else I'm wondering and haven't seen anything about is, what is horde getting? I mean, they get to play as a monk, but I am assuming the cuddly Panda will be an alliance race...what race will the horde get? Or are we going to have horde and alliance pandas? Maybe one will be black and white, and the other will be white and black....
Coldrage
October 25, 2011 at 11:32am
If you actually paid attention, one of the MAJOR news announcements for MoP was that Pandaren will be playable by both alliance and horde.
bigsarge72
October 25, 2011 at 12:28pm
I haven't been combing the web for every little tidbit of information about MoP, because as I stated earlier, I'm not impressed with the announcement. And I am neither a kid (probably the oldest person commenting on this) or a WoW basher (again, as I previously stated, I still play)... I just think Blizz could have done better. It is merely my opinion, and others are entitled to their's.
bling581
October 25, 2011 at 9:50am
I've lost count how many months it's been since I quit WoW, but I'm still a Warcraft and Blizzard fan so this makes me a sad panda. They have free reign to do whatever they want with the story line but it seems pretty absurd to introduce something like this. What happened to the Emerald Dream for an expansion? That would've been much more realistic for the Warcraft world. I'm sorry but giant pandas just don't fit in with Warcraft.
Coldrage
October 25, 2011 at 11:35am
Well... Blizzard seem to think they fit pretty well, you know? The CREATORS of the game?
Also the biggest request by players was for pandaren to be playable.So guess you and the rest of the kids that don't have a clue about the game are alone on this, if that means we have less retards playing then I'm all for it.
By the way, giant bovine humanoids don't fit in with warcraft either, right???
bling581
October 26, 2011 at 10:16am
Of course they can do what they want (like I already stated). I was simply voicing my opinion, but if you feel the need to rage then keep going. As far as the other characters are concerned, they were already part of Warcraft in the original W3 game, so yes they fit. They're starting to run out of previously created lore so they have to start making up new stuff, but when you look at Warcraft as a whole pandas seem like a very giant odd ball.
And yes I have a clue, I've been playing since the original Warcraft came out. I own all the games and I've read all the books and then some.
zepontiff
October 25, 2011 at 9:48am
I'm more concerned about the "Hey sign up for a year and we'll give you Diablo3" but they are snickering because this xpansion isn't due out until mid 2013.
Archangel1976
October 25, 2011 at 9:26am
Man, this bugs me. I've never been one to just "hop on the Blizzard bandwagon" but some of the comments I've read on here and other forums, I really don't get what the "hate" is about. I see a lot of whining, but NOTHING suggesting what SHOULD have been done to make it better.
Reserve some judgement. Wait and see. Play SWToR or GW2. I know I'm going to give GW2 a try. I just don't get the whole "doom and gloom" vibe.
bigsarge72
October 25, 2011 at 8:35am
Please stop with the "wow-haters" crap, just because some of us keep hoping for more from Blizz, and instead keep getting less. I am still playing WoW (I don't "hate it"), but it has mainly become a time killer until SW:ToR comes out.
I am not a super hardcore player, but I am seriously disappointed in Blizz. They are just giving us all the talents we need, with only six decision points where we pick one talent (out of three) each time? How is that making things better, or any less "cookie-cutter"? Why give us a choice at all....just have our talents autopopulate every couple of levels...
And how about, "We know even the casual players have several 85s by now, so we thought it would be a good idea to have you level from 1-90 now....". Why not make it a hero class and let people start at 55....that would still be 35 levels to max! New players would still start at 1.
I agree with a poster on another forum: Blizz doesn't really care about WoW, they are focused on their new MMO, and the B-Team devs just aren't cutting it. This expansion has "Fail" written all over it. But hey, if all it takes is a fat cuddly bear to please you, it will hopefully keep you from SW:ToR, so I guess Blizz is doing us a favor.
Archangel1976
October 25, 2011 at 9:16am
So.... you'd rather have 3 trees with 70 points to spend in each with a bunch of little buffs and odd procs? People were whining that there were too many meaningless talents. So, they try to create a system where you get 3 choices, and each choice is actually something worthwhile, but that's bad? You're whining about having a smaller number, but not looking at the value of each decision. Oh, and each one of those is going to actually be useful.
As for the "hero class".... I'm probably betting you were one of the people who whined about the whole hero class thing to begin with. A LOT of people griped about that. Blizzard is trying to strike a balance by giving the Pandaren a racial benefit that extends the rested xp gain, to help them overcome the long haul. And please..... they've dropped the xp requirements from lvl 60-80.
Honestly, if anything, I wish Blizzard would STOP trying to appeal to players like you. I honestly doubt there's ANYTHING they could do to WoW that WOULD make you happy. Please.... enlighten us. What change would have made all the difference to you?
You sound like you have made up your mind anyway.
bigsarge72
October 25, 2011 at 9:42am
I am not what a lot of folks would consider hard-core (I have a job and girlfriend and workout, so I am not on all the time), and I have actually approved of many of Blizz's changes over the years (cutting XP required to lvl, getting mounts at lower lvl, etc). Because normally I only get an hour to two at most to play, I liked being able to progress without huge demands on my time (so I could raid with my friends).
I did not complain about DKs, I actually thought it was a great idea. And I am not whining about having fewer choices, I am making a valid complaint about having my choices taken away. I don't want to go through 90 levels, and only get to make six choices about what they can or cannot do. I like having options in my talent trees...sure, if I am worried about min/maxing my character there is generally a fairly cookie-cutter spec (sometimes with a few points to play with), but the point was I had options if I wanted them.
So, they were trying to get away from cookie-cutter builds? How is having all hunters (for example) get the same talents, except you decided to pick six things that may or may not differenciate you from the hunter next to you?
I do not think we need to go back to Vanilla WoW, but I do think we are catering too much to the people who just want everything handed to them. Like I said, I have supported a lot of the changes Blizz has made over the years, so when it gets to the point where I think it's getting too dumbed down....it probably is. There is something to be said for earning some of the stuff you get...
acrisp013
November 01, 2011 at 11:04am
"and I have actually approved of many of Blizz's changes over the years (cutting XP required to lvl, getting mounts at lower lvl, etc). "
yet you say
"but I do think we are catering too much to the people who just want everything handed to them."
bigsarge72
November 04, 2011 at 11:40am
Right; there were some things I agreed with, because I thought it made it accessible to people who couldn't afford to put hours and hours of playtime in just to level. However, even I think there is a point where you are just making it TOO easy. I thought some things brought a good middle ground, but they are starting to push the balance from middle to easy. Just my opinion.
Andacious
October 25, 2011 at 6:07am
Well here's the truth: if you're still playing WoW, you will pay anything just for more content (no matter how ridiculous). Blizzard knows that now, and they are just laughing in the faces of their users with the Pandaria expansion. Not to mention they turned Non-combat pets into Pokemon...
Coldrage
October 25, 2011 at 7:36am
Oh joy, the retarded WoW haters infect just about every corner of the internet.
Go back to MMO champion and unleash your frothing contempt for blizzard there.
Archangel1976
October 25, 2011 at 8:56am
Yeah. Have to say I'm a bit shocked at all the "hate" on here. If you don't play, what do you care? Why do you take the time to go and spout crap like the above?
I was actually AT Blizzcon and tried the short beta. The pandaren.... actually fun. I know there are skeptics but the model was cleaner and more refined than their current ones. They also did state that they're going to be giving the same treatment to all the other races as an update. The proposed talent changes and mechanics changes actually make a good bit of sense. Will they pull it off as intended? I hope so. And I was NOT a big fan of the MoP thing when the first rumors swirled. What Blizzard actually showed, which goes beyond the paragraph of subtle whining by the MaxPC author, convinced me that they really do care about their fanbase and want to give us MORE of .... well, everything.
Oh, and by the way, I was an Aion subscriber and gave Rift a whirl too. Aion was pretty polished but seemed to lack something. Part of it was that the fighting, to me, seemed like Street Fighter MMO. Rift.... was a "dark" WoW. The only guy I know who fell in love with it (and has since stopped playing it) was my emo WoW-Hater buddy. Warhammer had some great ideas, but missed the mark a bit. I honestly think that was the most promising challenger.
Guild Wars 2 shows some promise, looking forward to that. Really though, for something to beat WoW? You need to offer something pretty compelling. If they made an Elder Scrolls MMO, THAT would probably usurp the "king", but it'd have to be done right. Have several games worth of lore to build on and a compelling storyline, with a strong following.
Gezzer
October 25, 2011 at 2:10am
In real life Pandas are like any large bear very unpredictable , and if they decide to become aggressive they are extremely dangerous.
But that still doesn't make the whole idea a WTF?!? one.
From the "monk" comment I think it's a new class that is going to be introduced same as the monk class in Diablo. So of course it's a martial artist type combat, which means Asian, which means having to use an iconic image for the new race. So I guess a panda does fit the bill.
I'm also pretty sure any one playing one will feel like all the Paladins did during the first year or so. I quote the often sent chat message "LFG, need DPS, heals, and plz no pallys". lol
blip2004
October 24, 2011 at 11:08pm
Except I remember one of the Blizzard podcasts having Samwise saying he drew the first pandaren because of his daughter. Not because there was any ties to warcraft.
Archangel1976
October 25, 2011 at 9:05am
Ok, so he drew it for his daughter. And someone liked the image and put it into Warcraft 3. And.... then it gained a fan following. What's wrong with that?
So, a company actually .... listens to its fans.... and incorporates something that some of their fans actually liked into the game? Holy cutsomer service Batman! Can this happen?
