Whether Pandarans predate Kung Fu Panda or not, I couldn't care less. This is Kong Fu Panda all the way. Why? Mostly because of the freaking HUMOR that drenched the trailer.

I hoped they'd make the Pandarans serious, maybe a bit melancholic, deadly and not to be fucked with. It would have been the perfect contrast, them being... well, pandas...

Jonny wrote on Aug 17, 2012, 11:11:
How are Pandas the lowest common denominator and cockney werewolves aren't? Are Jersey shore goblins respected figures from ancient mythology?

Who said anything about respected? At least it fit into the established universe for the game without needing a trailer aimed at ages 6-10 to sell itself.

nin wrote on Aug 17, 2012, 11:26:

How are Pandas the lowest common denominator and cockney werewolves aren't? Are Jersey shore goblins respected figures from ancient mythology? Pink haired gnomes and bouncing purple elves are high art now? It's all shit. Pandaren are no more lowest common denominator than any other WoW race, Pandaria is no more of a stereotyped western view of a culture than any other featured in WoW and it has never been a gritty, mature MMO for lolpandas to turn into a kid's game.

Don't forget the Space Goats!

Are space goats anything like spider goats?

How are Pandas the lowest common denominator and cockney werewolves aren't? Are Jersey shore goblins respected figures from ancient mythology? Pink haired gnomes and bouncing purple elves are high art now? It's all shit. Pandaren are no more lowest common denominator than any other WoW race, Pandaria is no more of a stereotyped western view of a culture than any other featured in WoW and it has never been a gritty, mature MMO for lolpandas to turn into a kid's game.

Don't forget the Space Goats!

Ehm okay have fun then....

Will do. Then when I stop having fun I'll stop playing the game and forget about it until I feel like playing it again, most likely without whining about x feature I don't like or y change I disagreed with. Strange concept, I know.

Dades wrote on Aug 17, 2012, 10:03:
Maybe if they made an expansion pack that wasn't all about Pandas people wouldn't laugh at them for making an expansion pack all about pandas. Wow guys stop laughing at them for blatantly pandering to the lowest common denominator!! Hmm that requires more thought, lets analyze the predicament here.

How are Pandas the lowest common denominator and cockney werewolves aren't? Are Jersey shore goblins respected figures from ancient mythology? Pink haired gnomes and bouncing purple elves are high art now? It's all shit. Pandaren are no more lowest common denominator than any other WoW race, Pandaria is no more of a stereotyped western view of a culture than any other featured in WoW and it has never been a gritty, mature MMO for lolpandas to turn into a kid's game.

AnointedSword wrote on Aug 17, 2012, 01:34:
Woos people back to the game? Watch and I bet you that their subs will go back up when this is released. Where is the mass exodus you guys are talking about? Just because you and a few buddies of yours left the game doesn't mean half the world did...

Of course it will go back up, that's what happens when expansions go on sale. It's how long people stick around that matters, use your brain. The mass exodus was them losing 10% of their subscriber base (over 1.5M subs) in a single quarter or did you miss their financials last week?

There's no point bothering. It's been "lol Kungfu Pandas!!!" for the last year regardless of how monumentally boring that's got. Inevitably someone will escalate to "Pandas? lol WoW kids stuff now!1!! I r too manly and just too fuckin' cool for Pandas!!"

Maybe if they made an expansion pack that wasn't all about Pandas people wouldn't laugh at them for making an expansion pack all about pandas. Wow guys stop laughing at them for blatantly pandering to the lowest common denominator!! Hmm that requires more thought, lets analyze the predicament here.

Jonny wrote on Aug 16, 2012, 13:43:

Agent.X7 wrote on Aug 16, 2012, 12:52:
You guys all realize that Pandarens were around long before Kung Fu Panda, right?

There's no point bothering. It's been "lol Kungfu Pandas!!!" for the last year regardless of how monumentally boring that's got. Inevitably someone will escalate to "Pandas? lol WoW kids stuff now!1!! I r too manly and just too fuckin' cool for Pandas!!"

I've played the beta and I like it a lot, the new zones are bright and well done, I enjoy the aesthetics and I like the increased focus on having lots of different things to do other than run sodding dungeons forever.

Ehm okay have fun then....

My friend sent me a scroll of resurrection. I played a bit PvP so far and were like WTF when I saw that there is still the same season running as when I quit the last time in December '11. That is really pathetic. Not to mention PvP balance is fucked up still. Hunters and frost mages still owning everything, CCs are still out of hand (at least blood DKs are finally killable with a lot of effort and luck and all cooldowns used) and the PvP lag has become worse too.

Oh and as for the trailer: I feel shame watching this. I miss my TBC and WotLK WoW.

This comment was edited on Aug 17, 2012, 06:09.

Woos people back to the game? Watch and I bet you that their subs will go back up when this is released. Where is the mass exodus you guys are talking about? Just because you and a few buddies of yours left the game doesn't mean half the world did...

Some of the best work in the business. With that said, they are trying something different. I like it...

Besides, their new MMO is going to be dark with less cartoony graphics (I am only guessing or am I?).

While well done and entertaining, it's a bit silly for an expansion intro. I guess that's their new target audience though.

Thinking back on how I felt after watching the first BC or Wrath trailer and comparing it to this....thing. How the mighty have fallen.

haha kung fu panda MMO...

they should make the Kool-Aid guy the next character class, he comes from Kool-Aidia

Chinese-accented English narration? Really, Blizzard? As if the temples, rice paddies, bamboo hats, kung fu, architecture, vertical "stone forest" mountains, and PANDAS weren't hint enough?

Sorry, I wasn't aiming specifically at you or anyone else at Blues. I'd just come back from reading the Youtube comments on this and they were all just a big cycle of "lol kung fu panda">"Pandaren predate Kung Fu Panda">"Lol pandas WoW is for kids now." The exact same shit that's been regurgitated over and over for the last year.

I don't care that people are poking at Blizzard, they can do that as much as they like, just that as someone who plays WoW and reads WoW related sites these comments have reached an unprecedented level of utter tedium and predictability.

On the content of the cinematic itself, I don't like Pandaren very much and agree with you that a good showing of the Alliance and Horde at each other's throats would have been a lot better. However I can see where they're coming from with it, they're showing the new race, the new class, the new land and the renewed conflict.

It's unfortunate, but I doubt you could show a class based on martial arts, a humanoid panda race and a land based on Asian aesthetics without drawing parallels with another recent humanoid panda martial artist from Asia.

Jonny wrote on Aug 16, 2012, 13:43:
There's no point bothering. It's been "lol Kungfu Pandas!!!" for the last year regardless of how monumentally boring that's got. Inevitably someone will escalate to "Pandas? lol WoW kids stuff now!1!! I r too manly and just too fuckin' cool for Pandas!!"

Well, since you seem to be more or less replying to me with that, take a step back and look at what they have here. People have indeed been "lol Kungfu Pandas!!!" for the last year.

And then, with no attempt at dissuading that, Blizzard approaches that by releasing this Kung Fu Panda trailer.

They had a chance to do something that woos people back to the game and reminds everyone that this is World of Warcraft, with epic battles and For the Horde! and the perseverance of the Alliance in the face of these evils, and instead... you get reinforcement of the Kung Fu Panda meme.

Maybe it's just me, but I left after Cataclysm and this does absolutely nothing that suggests to me that they care if I come back. That's disappointing.

I'll give them their due, Blizz does CG intros better than almost anyone else (I still love the fall of Arthas one from WC3 was it?).

That being said, I've got little interest in going back to WoW for another crack at the same old same old.

Welll, not YOU, because YOU quit before that was put into the game, because we made the trip from 80 to 85 so short you beat all the story quests in 2 months when it took you a year to do Wrath.

Pretty much sums up my exact experience with cataclysm.

Having said that, I recently reinstalled, and I'm enjoying it (w/o raiding). I think one of WOWs biggest problems is the folks that are burnt out and don't realize it. After being gone for a year and a half, the next expansion looks quite a bit more enjoyable.

As far as I know everything they've promised for this one is in the beta and will make it to the final product. Whether or not they can keep their promise of updating the world and story of the war patch by patch remains to be seen.

Blizzard has trouble moving on from that point too apparently, judging by the trailer's focus. Just sayin.

Martial arts fighting anthropomorphic Pandas are a cliche that predates Warcraft and Kung Fu Panda. It's not a thing I'm particularly fond of, but I'm content to tolerate it because I'm enjoying everything else so far. That doesn't make the inevitable and endless torrent of people apparently thinking they're the first to make the connection any less tedious though.

Jonny wrote on Aug 16, 2012, 13:43:
There's no point bothering. It's been "lol Kungfu Pandas!!!" for the last year regardless of how monumentally boring that's got.

Blizzard has trouble moving on from that point too apparently, judging by the trailer's focus. Just sayin.

On a side note, are the expansion features actually all implemented in game this time? I remember people getting understandably upset after they advertised some features on the game boxes but weren't actually in game (Aerial PvP and something else I forget).

This comment was edited on Aug 16, 2012, 14:15.

Agent.X7 wrote on Aug 16, 2012, 12:52:
You guys all realize that Pandarens were around long before Kung Fu Panda, right?

There's no point bothering. It's been "lol Kungfu Pandas!!!" for the last year regardless of how monumentally boring that's got. Inevitably someone will escalate to "Pandas? lol WoW kids stuff now!1!! I r too manly and just too fuckin' cool for Pandas!!"

I've played the beta and I like it a lot, the new zones are bright and well done, I enjoy the aesthetics and I like the increased focus on having lots of different things to do other than run sodding dungeons forever.