Blizzcon 2011 (October 21-22nd)

What's wrong with Pandaren? We've got goats, cows, wolves and garden gnomes.. Pandas are hardly out there on the ridiculous scale. They've been in the Lore since WC3 anyway, like Night Elves.

They've been in an extremely small part of the lore.

Cyrdain wrote:What's wrong with Pandaren? We've got goats, cows, wolves and garden gnomes.. Pandas are hardly out there on the ridiculous scale. They've been in the Lore since WC3 anyway, like Night Elves.

The Brewmaster was added because of a really popular april's fool joke in 2004 yes.

Also, it's not so much the panda part, but more the part where they pretty much just took Kung Fu Panda and made it a WoW Xpac.

I'll compare it to avatar: It's a stunning movie and it's executed beautifully, but James Cameron is still ridiculed his Pocahontas In Space adventure plot.

I might be biased though, cause I'm an SWTOR fanboy and all, and I don't plan on playing MoP anyways if I decide to spare the world of my panda-priest-troll-pokemon-trainer project.


Also quoting Chris Metzen in the Twitter Q&A just after opening ceremony.

Q: "So Pandaren are canon afterall?"
A: "Well, as of today, they are!"


So no, three days ago, Pandaren were not officially a part of the Warcraft canon lore. They were an aprils fool with an easter egg in WC3 and then another easter egg in WoW (the brewmaster keg quest in the Barrens, dunno if it still exists)

Ixirar wrote:

Cyrdain wrote:What's wrong with Pandaren? We've got goats, cows, wolves and garden gnomes.. Pandas are hardly out there on the ridiculous scale. They've been in the Lore since WC3 anyway, like Night Elves.

So no, three days ago, Pandaren were not officially a part of the Warcraft canon lore. They were an aprils fool with an easter egg in WC3 and then another easter egg in WoW (the brewmaster keg quest in the Barrens, dunno if it still exists)

Yes, they were canon. They were explicitly detailed in one of the WoW RPG sourcebooks, which were, prior to the recent AskCDev2, acknowledged as proper WoW canon.

They were possibly pushed out of canon when they decided those books were no longer canon, but they were canon at one point.

iirc, there's only been two canon references to anything pandaria-related in the warcraft franchise up to this point; Chen Stormstout in the Frozen Throne bonus orc campaign, and the Chen's Empty Keg quest in the barrens, both incredibly minor and with no impact on the larger plot.

So more like an optional add-on to the lore :p

edit: 3 references with the rpg sourcebooks, but yeah, Blizzard retroactively declared those as non-canon at their discretion.

Drustai wrote:

Ixirar wrote:

Cyrdain wrote:What's wrong with Pandaren? We've got goats, cows, wolves and garden gnomes.. Pandas are hardly out there on the ridiculous scale. They've been in the Lore since WC3 anyway, like Night Elves.

So no, three days ago, Pandaren were not officially a part of the Warcraft canon lore. They were an aprils fool with an easter egg in WC3 and then another easter egg in WoW (the brewmaster keg quest in the Barrens, dunno if it still exists)

Yes, they were canon. They were explicitly detailed in one of the WoW RPG sourcebooks, which were, prior to the recent AskCDev2, acknowledge as proper WoW canon.

They were possibly pushed out of canon when they decided those books were no longer canon, but they were canon at one point.

I know I'm nitpicking here but I'm tired and bored so bare with me, but my quote says that 3 days ago Pandaren were officially non-canon. Which is true.

But anyways, the only lore for them was, afaik, that they were pandas and had a seclusive society on a hidden continent.

Who cares. They basicly created Worgen and Draenei specificly for World of Warcraft out of pretty much nothing, didn't they? Does it really matter whether they were part of WoW lore prior to their introduction?

Just worry about whether they are going to fit in right now with the game as it is right now. Who cares what their canonical status was before their introduction in WoW.

Thelos wrote:Who cares. They basicly created Worgen and Draenei specificly for World of Warcraft out of pretty much nothing, didn't they? Does it really matter whether they were part of WoW lore prior to their introduction?

Just worry about whether they are going to fit in right now with the game as it is right now. Who cares what their canonical status was before their introduction in WoW.

I didn't personally care if they were canon prior, that was not me who brought it up.

I dislike the fact that they tailored it to seem like this xpac is sponsored by Disney and the similarities in concept and everything with Kung FU Panda are so striking that I find the concept itself very ridicolous.

I did say though, that the xpac itself might still be really good. Just like Avatar was Pocahontas in Space (Ridicolous) but was pulled off very masterfully and turned into a masterpiece and a milestone in film history.

I hate everything and will quit the game because i hate everything

Mindless fanboyism ala "ONE SINGLE DISLIKE MEANS HE HATES EVERYTHING!!", please don't do it

I said the xpac might still turn out great and they definitely put up some things that even got me (who has managed to successfully stay off for 3 months now) excited for it.

I have ONE dislike in the expansion, and it happens to be how it resembles a particular movie made by a particular animation studio. No reason to go batshit anti-hater on me.

You are now my enemy. No i was joking, i'm expecting the new expansion, eventhough some things i dont like, i don't at all hate it. I cant wait for it.

Ixirar wrote:
I have ONE dislike in the expansion, and it happens to be how it resembles a particular movie made by a particular animation studio.

There aren't all that many ways you can pull off Asian themed humanoid pandas without running into some similarities with other products who have tried the same.

And Blizzard did it before Dreamworks so you might as well call the movie Pandaren: The Movie on similar grounds.

Lini wrote:

Ixirar wrote:
I have ONE dislike in the expansion, and it happens to be how it resembles a particular movie made by a particular animation studio.

There aren't all that many ways you can pull off Asian themed humanoid pandas without running into some similarities with other products who have tried the same.

And Blizzard did it before Dreamworks so you might as well call the movie Pandaren: The Movie on similar grounds.

The asian panda theme I can live with, still. It's not that. The whole intro video felt exactly like the movie did. I'd have liked to see more unique pandaren cultural themed things, instead of just the cookie cutter asian martial arts yin&yan montage that feels exactly like the disney movie did it.

I'm insisting on the stance that no I'm not hating on the expansion but it was presented in a way that made me feel like I was watching a disney commercial which ruined a lot of it for me.

Dreamworks movie*

Drustai wrote:

Lini wrote:

Lyniath wrote:But wands are so bad, but just ok enough to use as a substitute for spells when mana runs out. There's a ranged slot for a reason!
I think blizzard are deliberately screwing up the game now.

One would assume that wands get their stats rebalanced for something more suitable for a main hand weapon.

This.

Wands are more useful for casters character-wise as weaponry, better for confined spaces and/or concealing of the weaponry. My major annoyance with the removal of weaponry is the fact that people who have pain-stakingly obtained items for cosmetic value, be it old epic or unheard of blues and unique greens from quests/raids; will be unable to use them.

On the plus side, might give an insentive to have hunters find new ways to use their weapons; you have stuff like arcane shot for a reason! Use it, or shoot a poison crossbow bolt instead of swinging an axe three times your height!

50/50 about this change...

Edit: Kung-Fu panda doesn't seem to have inspired this too heavily, when I look at the trailer of Pandaria I see things from the old seldom seen concept art of Pandaren. What does remind me of Dreamworks' production is the idea of the prisoner being released inside an ancient monk temple, after being captured... Though it's not strictly an original concept, prisoners escaping weird places.

About the weaponry: I wouldn't put my money on them taking away your ability to wear ranged weaps as non-hunter, or the other way around.

As far as I gathered, you can still wear them, you just won't use them for anything at all in combat.

About the movie, I could've sworn it was disney... Well, that's my attention failing there I guess. I still got that vibe from the trailer, which came out negative in my opinion. Still, I agree with the fanboys hype and yes this looks like a really great expansion..

Ranged Weapons
Hunter minimum range is gone!
Hunter melee weapon is gone!
Ranged slot for all other characters are gone.
Relics are gone.
Rogues and warriors can now throw their melee weapon
Wands become main hand weapons

Taken from the MMO-Champion website as report from Blizzcon. They are gone.

Is it normal to get a boner at the costume contest?

A hot female in the costume contest played a gryphon. Be my guest with the jokes. I know i thought of a thousand ones in my head.

if you dont mind i'd like to have the first joke... I'd like to ride that Gryphon.... AWWWW YEAAA!


EDIT: I'm such a bad person.

Guldu/Ragaresh wrote:Is it normal to get a boner at the costume contest?

A hot female in the costume contest played a gryphon. Be my guest with the jokes. I know i thought of a thousand ones in my head.

if you dont mind i'd like to have the first joke... I'd like to ride that Gryphon.... AWWWW YEAAA!


EDIT: I'm such a bad person.

I would love to mount her up?
I want to make her flap her wings?
I would love to make her lay some eggs?
I would get wild on her hammer (wildhammers have gryphons okay!)
I want to see her shake her tailfeather (they have tails and feathers...)
I want her to cower me in tar and she can be the feathers.
I would like to get with that Chick.... (they can't all be good! and yknow.. chick=chicken=bird=Gryphon is half a bird)
I would invite her to my nest, or i would like to nest her.
Thanks to Quin for like half of these >.>

I would love to mount her up?
I want to make her flap her wings?
I would love to make her lay some eggs?
I would get wild on her hammer (wildhammers have gryphons okay!)
I want to see her shake her tailfeather (they have tails and feathers...)
I want her to cower me in tar and she can be the feathers.
I would like to get with that Chick.... (they can't all be good! and yknow.. chick=chicken=bird=Gryphon is half a bird)
I would invite her to my nest, or i would like to nest her.
Thanks to Quin for like half of these >.>

Thank you for making me feel like a moderately normal person.

So horde and alliance both get pandas, does that mean we can use them to speak to the other faction? or when you pick you loose the power to speak to your kin who go for the other faction?

So, casters finally get to use wands for a living. Well, its about time we start this.....lo and behold, the Shadowfang School of Withcraft and Wizardy! *invites anybody BUT Drustai to take defense against the dark arts*

Hunters can still carry their melee weapons then? All is well, Dari can still look fabulous with a rapier. <3

I wonder what is the in-game 'justification' for nor flying in pandaria? the moment you mount up and take off, you are charged by a wing of pandas in bamboo planes shouting "You have violated Pandaria's airspace!" untill you obtain the official permission at lvl 90?

Melnerag wrote:So, casters finally get to use wands for a living. Well, its about time we start this.....lo and behold, the Shadowfang School of Withcraft and Wizardy! *invites anybody BUT Drustai to take defense against the dark arts*

I'm Flumdemort!