World of Warcraft Gets Playable Panda Race in Next Expansion

Actually I thought the 12 month pass giving you Diablo3 for free was FAR more interesting!

The whole Pandarian thing has been a running joke for so long it's just sorta 'meh' at this point.

Though it does seem to confirm some things that WoW is losing subscribers and is apparently getting kinda desperate to get new ones and keep existing ones.

I haven't played wow in many years... it just went downhill after burning crusade expansion and the bikes.
although, a future wow might be interesting... but that would be too much like warhammer and starcraft.

Well, I hope they change the game enough to be interesting to play again. But I guess WoW will fade soon. The Star Wars MMO is about to come out, Guild Wars 2... WoW will have a lot of trouble on keeping his players. I don't think this new Panda Race will be enough to keep the players. :P But the Pet Battle System would be interesting to see.

Pet battle system ? PokeWoW

Though I know it is "lore" in that it was in WC3, Pandarians were always somewhat of an inside joke. It just doesn't fit well into the whole WC universe. Also, I'm not super excited that they modeled the entire race after Kung Fu Panda.

when I saw they are from Pandera, first thing I thought of was thundercats.... 2nd would be panera....

Oh, hey, I remember this from the ads for Perfect World, another MMO. I'd rather see Pindarians, lulz. But honestly, I've never been a fan. WoW can go away imo.

Wait this is serious? I see they outdid themselves with originality on the naming...

People still play WoW?

Huh.

Kung Cow alt confirmed.

Is this a jumping the shark moment? Because from a person who doesn't play WoW it kinda looks like it is.

Pandareans?
Totally not Pandawas( dofuswiki.wikia.com/wiki/Pandawa )
....or any of the other 30 Fighting Panda monk Races in a buncha other games or shows, no no, not at all.

The whole Panda thing came from Warcraft 3 (Pandaren Brewmaster), but even then I thought a whole expansion devoted to Pandarens was a bit too much. I think they're better as an easter egg.

World of Warcraft always had spectacular environments, but the gameplay was horrible.

well, the new expansion made up my mind, after a long no-more-wow period I'm gonna play it again, at least, for two months.
Yes, the game is great and no, I do not care about your 12-y-old-all-rounder-game-critic opinion.

The fact that they keep making endless expansions is really starting to show that they know their game is fading away. They can't keep as many people playing for as long of periods of time as before, but they know that they always draw in new/returning customers with the expansions. So they release a new expansion and get a huge boom in customers for a few months before it starts to fade again. They then use the numbers from the boom and advertise those to make WoW seem more relevant than it is.

I'll admit, the popularity of MMOs was definitely boosted by WoW, but there comes a time when a game needs to gracefully step down before it simply becomes a mockery of itself. Unfortunately, WoW has already passed this point. The biggest sign of this down slope is all of their advertising for "PLAY WOW FOR FREE...up to level 20."

That being said, I loved the Pandaren Brewmaster in WC3, but never thought there was really enough there to make a whole playable race off of them. You'd be better off making the Furbolgs, Kobolds, Centaurs, or any of the other miscellaneous races playable.

I did the annual pass just to get Diablo 3 for free.
Am I excited for the Expac? Naw not really, I probably wont roll a panda as its not my thing, I might race change my hunter from Gayelf to Panda, but only because I never use him anymore other than farming.

I am however kind of stoked to roll and Undead Monk.