@DougQuaid said:

So this expansion will be banned in China or will they be replacing all the pandas with walkietalkies or something?

@Vegsen said:

I don't play WoW anymore but I'm kinda interested in how the new class(Monk) will work. We already have Priest so...what will it do?

Druids, Paladins, Shaman and Priests all can heal.

And now monks can too. They can also melee and tank.

Man... I would have started playing again if they had added the Tuskarr as a playable race. Those walrus-men are my favorite part of Azeroth.

@TenshiOni01 said:

World of Warcraft: Now With Bears!

Close the thread. We have a fucking winner.

There absolutely has to be a baby panda companion that sneezes, and startles all nearby Pandareans.

Wow this just seems silly, I can honestly say I will not play WOW again

Looks like public quests/rifts/dynamic events etc are being incorporated, not entirely surprising as it seems to be the future of MMO questing, or at least the flavor of the month, so to speak.

guys i don't think i can bear this

@ShakeItBaby said:

My real question is, what is the conflict of the expansion? Metzen said a greater focus on factional fighting, but what about pve? Who is the bad guy?!

Jack Black.

Oh fuck.

Time to get back into WoW.

"Pandaria"? Really?

they said that pandaren was originally gonna be the new ally race race in burning crusade

the pet battle system is a copy of every single game mechanic from pokemon.

Blizzard's bearly creative with this.

I don't know how I feel about this. Kind of just seems like creative filler until the next "big" WoW expansion.

This is great. I just wish it also included Ethereals from outland as playable. This may get me back to wow, assuming I'm done with TOR at the time.

Also there's a new class: Monk.

WoW is a joke now and its pretty obvious they are using this as an attempt to generate interest back in the game. Even if it became free to play, I wouldn't go back.

Those mother fuckers done lost there minds.

This is so dumb, and just feels desperate or something. Definitely the worst expansion announcement yet, kinda sad to see what this game has become.

The guys behind Guild Wars 2 must be grinning at how shitty this looks.

@ShinjiEx said:

@sins_of_mosin: It is at least till Lv20 which is the cap but for the most part you can play all you want with no time restriction

Its not really playing if you can't communicate for real, or trade, or do anything besides mash starter area mobs by yourself because you can't effectively party if you can't /tell or /whisper or /broadcast or whatever the commands are in WOW

Cut to Blizzcon 2013, "Introducing the Bard class with new and unique rhythm based mechanics"

MONEY

I dont get why people think panda people are dumb when wow has had cow people since the start.

I've been saying for a while that if they gave me pandas i would come back to WoW. well they delivered their end......

@maxB said:

I dont get why people think panda people are dumb when wow has had cow people since the start.

Yeah I don't quite understand this either.

Like, this is the thing that makes WoW seem too silly?

@Sooty said:

The guys behind Guild Wars 2 must be grinning at how shitty this looks.

We haven't even seen anything about it yet other than a little trailer..I would rather wait to pass judgement, not watch 3 minutes of footage, half of which just shows the other expansions. I don't even like WoW anymore, and I'm not going to take the stance of THIS IS SHIT! before we even see anything.

Until it's dead and gone every MMO will look at WoW and sweat bullets for a while.

it may not be worth the trouble to re-activate my wow account, it been inactive for so long. but PANDAS......

The sifl and olly references scattered throughout Giant Bomb is why I love being a premium member

As someone who has never, and will never play WoW, I could not be more happy that this is a thing.

World of Warcraft: Now with Bears

To people thinking this is an act of desperation:

Dude, it's still WoW. They've been losing people but are still by a ridiculous margin the most popular MMO out there. ToR is a threat but it's not going to beat WoW. Straight up, just is not going to happen. Best case scenario is it actually brings some legitimate competition for a change.

Also, it's Blizzard guys. Blizzard isn't desperate about anything. A desperate company does not take it goddamn sweet time to release everything like they do. This is a corporation that develops insanely popular and successful PC (mac too, I guess) ONLY games, and they aren't even on Steam! Practically unheard of these days.

This is a carefully decided move by Blizz. Like it or hate it, there is nothing desperate about this.

We go from "the dragon of death rains fire upon the world creating vast destruction in his wake" to goofy ass pandas. Blizz has lost their mind.

That Pandaren originated from that April fools is not correct. Pandaren were already in Warcraft 3.

@ShiftyMagician:

I hate, and respect, you so much right now.. I can't bear it.

So goddamn stupid. Hey Blizzard, why don´t you make fun of your own gameworld some more and add a playable anime-cat-race? Wasn´t the whole story of Warcraft supposed to be taken seriously at one point?

Guess catering to your (12 year old) fans beats every other intention you might have.

@Superfriend said:

So goddamn stupid. Hey Blizzard, why don´t you make fun of your own gameworld some more and add a playable anime-cat-race? Wasn´t the whole story of Warcraft supposed to be taken seriously at one point?

Guess catering to your (12 year old) fans beats every other intention you might have.

World of Warcraft at launch had walking cows as a playable race, your point?

People bitch about pandas when it's had cows and tiny squeaky people with giant pink mousatches?

At least the Pandas look cool.

@Prodstep said:

@Superfriend said:

So goddamn stupid. Hey Blizzard, why don´t you make fun of your own gameworld some more and add a playable anime-cat-race? Wasn´t the whole story of Warcraft supposed to be taken seriously at one point?

Guess catering to your (12 year old) fans beats every other intention you might have.

World of Warcraft at launch had walking cows as a playable race, your point?

Pandaren also have been in the Warcraft universe since War3, with some pretty deep connections to the history of the world.

It seems as though Blizzard has ran out of creative ideas for their WoW expansions....

@Shirogane said:

@Prodstep said:

@Superfriend said:

So goddamn stupid. Hey Blizzard, why don´t you make fun of your own gameworld some more and add a playable anime-cat-race? Wasn´t the whole story of Warcraft supposed to be taken seriously at one point?

Guess catering to your (12 year old) fans beats every other intention you might have.

World of Warcraft at launch had walking cows as a playable race, your point?

Pandaren also have been in the Warcraft universe since War3, with some pretty deep connections to the history of the world.

Okay so I take that back. Warcraft has been fucked since Warcr.. oh excuse me, Kung Fu Pandacraft 3.

I like how people I know still keep talking about the fiction like it´s "high fantasy" or something. Hilarious! Especially since some of the same people "can´t take Star Wars seriously anymore" since Episode 1 (or since the Ewoks).

I don't like the path World of Warcraft is taking... It's slowly turning itself into a bad joke...

This is badass, I don't care about everyone else.

I don't think World of Warcraft has ever intended to take itself seriously. People who get all butthurt about lore will have trouble finding any large IP fun and interesting because they're too busy picking apart small things.

Personally, I don't play WoW because of any of that, I play it because my friends do.

Haters gonna hate, play what you like is a good way to think about games.

@CL60 said:

@Sooty said:

I'm not going to take the stance of THIS IS SHIT! before we even see anything.

Well as someone that played throughout vanilla, TBC, WoTLK and Cataclysm I am. Cataclysm was terrible, but it actually seemed promising when it was announced. This just looks all kinds of lame, even the talent system seems to be getting dumbed down.

It's really quite funny to see what the game has become, it has definitely gotten progressively more goofy over the years but this move really kicks that into overdrive, I will say that the new areas look nice, though.

and I didn't watch the footage, I just looked at the screenshots and read the feature lists. This game has been getting worse every expansion (although, TBC was fantastic raiding wise), and this looks like the dullest one yet.

Usually every expansion has made me renew and play solid for a few months (or more). It won't be happening this time I can say for 100% certain. They've even announced Scholomance and Scarlet Monastery as level 90 heroics, because WoW needed even more recycling of content, right? Cataclysm was bad enough for that. Jeez.

Warcraft has ALWAYS mixed humor with serious fantasy, they are not mutually exclusive concepts. Yes, there are panda people in the new expansion, but that doesn't mean they can't have any serious narrative alongside it. Are panda-people more ridiculous than say...cow-people? The landscape and areas look really well done, which is always a big deal for me in MMOs.

I've always come back for every expansion, and I think every one (yes, even cataclysm) has made the game better. I've played a LOT of MMOs, and none of them really hold a candle up to WoW in terms of overall package still. I'll probably pick this up as well (still considering pulling the trigger on the Annual Sub).

I'm particularly excited for the revised talents, if they actually provide choice. Never before has the talent system ACTUALLY provided choice unless you were only interested in soloing. There was always one way to put your points, which...why even bother with the system then.

Oh, crap. I swore to my self I would get back in to WoW if they added Pandaren. It's been years now, and I woul expect my self to not care, but I totally do.

I'm getting back in to WoW to play as Pandaren. For the Horde!

@CL60 said:

@Sooty said:

I'm not going to take the stance of THIS IS SHIT! before we even see anything.

even the talent system seems to be getting dumbed down

Good one Blizzard, but you're not getting me back!

Must...not...resub.

But dang, what if a Pandaren gets a bear as a mount?