Mists of Pandaria

[Worba]

One thing that does stick in my head, though, was a certain someone who told me in person, very emphatically, that we'll never see Pandaren in the game. Of course Blizzard policy may have changed since then

Mists of Pandaria - Journey to the Pandaren-less Isles of the Pandaren.

Coming to a store near you in Fall 2012.

[Royi]

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[Kurenio]

everyone must watch this it is lols

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IcUMGaq ... ture=feedu

It is about pandas :O the horde obviously doesn't want them give them to the alliance

[Macha]

everyone must watch this it is lols

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IcUMGaq ... ture=feedu

It is about pandas :O the horde obviously doesn't want them give them to the alliance

Ahaha, I laughed so hard I woke my dog up. That's pretty much how everyone's reacting on MMO-Champ.

[Morven]

Note that there are already precedents for armor adapting to different physical forms; hooved races (Taurens and Draenei), as well as trolls, do not actually wear boots; they become ankle-guards for those races.

[Worba]

Note that there are already precedents for armor adapting to different physical forms; hooved races (Taurens and Draenei), as well as trolls, do not actually wear boots; they become ankle-guards for those races.

Yep, that's exactly what I had in mind.

[Bulletdance]

Seeing how awesome a lot of the cata zones looked artistically I'd be totally drooling over an Asian themed wow area. The possibilities are quite amazing I hope they do make a panda land. Coy fish mounts, Crane flight forms, Chinese palace dungeons, Giant Salamander hunter pets... Bullet want panda land lol

[Rikaku]

Pandaren, while it is true their lore suggests they are neutral, are also generally associated with the Horde at the gut level on the simple basis of Chen's allegiance in WC3. Does this mean they "have to" make them Horde? Of course not, any more than they would "have to" make them Alliance on other grounds like Pandaren / dwarven alcoholism or etc.

Ultimately there are enough Easter eggs on both sides for anyone to make a convincing argument, so we'll just have to see what they decide. I do not however believe we are going to see a third faction or that Blizzard would be too paralyzed with fear to assign Pandaren to just one - making them non-playable NPCs would piss off far, far more players than adding them to an existing faction.

Actually they were more allied to Night Elves than Dwarves persay, so both factions (as been stated) do have minute ties to the Pandaren. =)

And you're correct, it is enough to make convincing arguments for either side. But you bring up an interesting fact about the last part. From what I've read, there's more people upset with the POTENTIAL for Pandaren then there is not having them playable. To a lot of players, Pandaren, while a favorite, are still a huge "joke" AKA An Easter egg/joke that's gone wildly out of hand. With little to no lore even mentioning these guys (in comparison to say Draenei who at least had their roots in the Eredar), I can see their complaints.

I hope that if Pandaren ARE added, that there are the "two warring factions" of Pandaren (obviously Pandaren A for the Alliance and Pandaren B for the Horde [for example]) who are visually different from not only both factions, but even the NPC race of Pandaren.

Cause... IDK what other race they would actually give the other faction if only one got Pandaren. XD


edit: LOL @ that video

[Macha]

@Rikaku

I'm thinking of a quest line where you go through the "coming of age" stuff for your Panda character and at level 15 or 20 you make a permanent choice as to which side you stand with. Sounds like an easy way to fix the "Who gets 'em?" question looming over the heads of Blizz, not to mention fun.

[COMYYY]

Blizzard just trademarked a very interesting "Mists of Pandaria". For the record, the international codes 009 and 041 only seems to appear on Blizzard's online games trademarks. This isn't a book or anything like that. It appears incredibly likely based on previous trademarks obtained by Blizzard that this is the next expansion.

Screenshot from http://my.mmosite.com/c594607f5bcd7c76c ... fd288.html



Moderation note: Merged in from similar thread.

[Kaswryn]

Sounds like Pandaria will be a fun place to go, can't wait to hear more

Also, since the little debate over what Blizz said about NOT adding new classes a couple pages back has been nagging at me, I took the liberty of looking up the quotes...

"It's not really an "instead" situation, but yeah there won't be a new hero class for Cataclysm and we will be adding two new races, as well as new race and class combinations. We're not ready at this time to add another class to the mix. "
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/1696 ... -cataclysm


"Is another Hero class being added to the game?

We are not planning to add a new Hero class in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. For this expansion, it was more appropriate to focus on the two new races, the goblins and worgen. We never intended to include a Hero class in every expansion. As you saw with death knights, adding a new class changes the dynamics of the game dramatically, which is not something we want to do in every expansion. We still have plans to introduce new Hero classes in the future."
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/faq/

[Miyon]

What is guys.... and hear me out on this one... what would you do is blizz throws us for a loop and we get 4 new races? like 2 different version of the pandaren(one for each faction), and 2 new ones :O

If they did that they would have to give us five more characters lots per realm. >.<

[Worba]

Cause... IDK what other race they would actually give the other faction if only one got Pandaren. XD

Ohh... there's all kinds of possibilities. My suggestion for centaurs being one

A lot of people would enjoy being able to play a pandaren simply on basis of the fact that they are cool / neat / fun etc (in other words, detractors notwithstanding, Chen's presence in the game certainly did nothing to harm the popularity of the wow precursor / Rexxar bonus game...), and the majority of wow players are in it for the visceral effect - lore aficionados and dedicated RP'ers are a minority to begin with (a well spoken one, but a minority all the same), and of those plenty do like the idea of pandaren, so even there we have no anti-pandaren consensus.

Would there be some who don't wish to roll a pandaren? Of course, just as every race has some players who have no wish to play it.

That's why race B would most likely be something other than a second pandaren group.

In the end, if they go ahead and add pandaren as a playable race aligned with one existing faction*, it's not going to cause any major / longterm problem - most of those who are mad about pandaren not going to their faction will get over it and roll a new toon soon enough on the other side (obv my personal preference is horde but if they go to alliance it's no biggie), and the others will be encouraged to try out the race their faction DID get.

*Although it's likely that the bulk of the pandaren would remain neutral (like the steamwheedle cartel) with a smaller, more fiery subset electing to join one of the player factions (like the goblin isle refugees - if they went to the horde this most likely would be Chen's followers); this way pandaren could still act as a general quest hub, as well as providing a way for everyone to access the new brewmaster class.

[Royi]

I would hope Pandarians would be able to be druids. that would be amazing.

They could be Horde Druids, and then to balance it out on the Alliance side....

[Worba]

Hee

[Rikaku]

@Rikaku

I'm thinking of a quest line where you go through the "coming of age" stuff for your Panda character and at level 15 or 20 you make a permanent choice as to which side you stand with. Sounds like an easy way to fix the "Who gets 'em?" question looming over the heads of Blizz, not to mention fun.

I don't see that one only because it really collides with the "must be visually distinct from the opposing faction" rule, which Blizzard really doesn't plan to let go of.

Thats why I figure if anything, Pandaren should be like... different colors (for argument purposes); The black/white pandas could be Alliance, then Red-Panda-themed Pandarens could be Horde (I picked the colors randomly, don't look too deep into that XD). Something like that.

Cause... IDK what other race they would actually give the other faction if only one got Pandaren. XD

Ohh... there's all kinds of possibilities. My suggestion for centaurs being one

I suppose Centaur could someday be a playable race, but I wouldn't want them to be the "other factional choice" against Pandaren.
That'd seem grossly unfair to the faction who got Centuar to give the brand new-never-before seen race to only one faction.

IDK what else is in Panderia though, so maybe there's some Dryady stuff? IDK about Centuars, I still don't like them courtesy of Desolace, but I'd love playable dryads.


Of course, this is assuming we even get Pandaren. I'm still not convinced they'll be playable considering we just got 2 new races. We'll probably get new classes MAYBE a new hero class. Maybe.

As much as I hate Hero Classes, they sound more likely to me.

[GormanGhaste]

Coy fish mounts, Crane flight forms, Chinese palace dungeons, Giant Salamander hunter pets.

Aaahh, I would Love to swim around on a Koi!

They could be Horde Druids, and then to balance it out on the Alliance side....

Adorable I think we should get gnome hunters first, though!

[Miyon]

Different colours could be an idea, indeed. There is no way to see what faction a moonkin is, except for the colours, for example.

[Rikaku]

Different colours could be an idea, indeed. There is no way to see what faction a moonkin is, except for the colours, for example.

Exactly what I was thinking about when I wrote that XD

[CrystalKitten]

I agree with the fact that we probably won't get a new race the next expansion. So far, we've gotten one every other expansion, so while it isn't exactly a set rule, it seems to be a reasonable trend that's beginning. And while I'm pretty sure I remember blizzard saying no new classes (and this was more recent than when I'm guessing the above quotes were mentioned for Cata faqs, I could have sworn it was one of the dev watercooler things.. i'll try to find it... but so far no luck...), I think even that is more likely than a new race right now.

To be honest though... I'm not sure how much I'd want new races or classes... There's going to be a point where it gets to be all "really...?" and they're just doing seemingly random things just because they feel they have to. a few more hero classes might be neat.. if done well... But... I'm not sure really.

I'd rather they put the dev time spent on voices, texturing, starting zones, animations, models, starting quests, etc that would be needed if new races were added, into more new zones, and areas for higher levels, or even redoing some of the severely outdated stuff (like outland... I love the idea for the area.. but at this point.. outland almost feels like going and playing a different game for 10 levels in the middle of your gaming experience.. it's weird...)