World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria announced
Dire Bare
Legend
Relique du Madde
Adventurer
No... I think they jumped it when they made the Draenor into space paladins. I think this time they are doing it blind folded and without a life vest and on a jet ski.
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Dire Bare
Legend
I'm pretty sure that Blizzard's Pandaren race preceded the Kung Fu Panda movie. Also, if you're going to have an anthropomorphic panda character, giving it an Asian cultural background makes sense . . . and in the fantasy genre, kung fu comes along with that.
Having said that, after perusing the preview material on Blizzard's site, I'm already seeing the joking references to the movie . . . but that's not a bad thing, IMO.
Dire Bare
Legend
The comments on the supposed decline of World of Warcraft, Blizzard's most popular franchise, make me chuckle. That's a train that isn't anywhere near stopping yet. You might think that an expansion built around Kung Fu Pandas sounds silly, but Warcraft fans have been wanting the playable Pandaren race for quite some time now. And, well, it IS silly, but Warcraft has always balanced adventure with humor, sometimes very silly humor.
Blizzard is experimenting with their business model for WoW, (IMO) in response to a slight natural decline in player growth (not a decline in the player base, but in its growth) and the increased competition from the F2P model (Free-To-Play). They have a very small microtransaction store selling vanity pets and mounts, they are currently running a 12-month commitment deal that comes with a bunch of freebies (including a free copy of Diablo III), and the new expansion will make some serious changes to major gameplay elements as well as adding new ones (pet fights!).
So, Blizzard and WoW are changing in response to the changing MMO market . . . but they are far from in decline.
Krug
Newshound
Yeah it definitely did. The Pandaren race was featured in WCIII which came out in 2003, while Kung Fu Panda only came out in 2008.
And it was kind of obvious that an oriental animal would have oriental skills...
MarkB
Legend
True enough, but making them - and a martial-arts oriented class - the focus of a new expansion certainly doesn't.
cignus_pfaccari
First Post
One of the things that came out of Blizzcon is confirmation that Pandaren were *almost* introduced in TBC as the Alliance race, instead of Draenei. There had been rumors to that effect, mostly from a gaming magazine's reports of seeing a lot of Pandaren concept art in the Blizzard offices during a visit prior to TBC announcements, but they changed their mind and went with Draenei instead.
And they needed a break from world-ending threats. It gets a bit silly to have one Azeroth-destroying threat after another show up in rapid succession. The focus of MoP is instead going to be the Horde/Alliance war, and that "war is the enemy."
Monks have also been very heavily requested, somewhat ahead of bards. Personally, I look forward to playing a monk (probably Draenei, their staff animations are awesome).
I don't have anything against Pandaren. We already have two furry races in the game (Tauren and Worgen), and it adds in a whole new set of cultures. I probably won't play one for a while, though.
I also probably won't do the Pokebattles, because I just have utterly no interest in that. On the other hand, I had guildies squeee in delight on hearing that.
Brad
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