The Pandaren were supposed to be included a while back, but apparently Blizzard's relationship with China prevented them from adding the race sooner because apparently pandas killing things and/or dying is a bad thing in China. The Monk is fun to play, though I didn't get very much time to try it out.

I'll try to compile all sorts of links and such for the OP tonight if I'm feeling better.

I don't understand why pandarens are even in the WC universe. They don't have any place in a world with dwarves, night elves, undead monsters, and dread lords. Where did Blizzard get this idea from? It's like adding a medieval knight to Starcraft; it just wouldn't fit.

Why are walking cows more acceptable to you?

What are you talking about. If it was like a bear or a Tiger everyone would be cool with it but if they use pandas it's a huge problem? WoW isn't some grimdark medieval game to begin with. It's colorful and cartoony visually bro.

If they used bears or tigers, I'd still think it was dumb.

So essentially you think the game is dumb, not just this expansion? They have walking bears, tigers (and panthers), cows, snakes/fish, pandas, wolves, owls, hyenas, and many more.

So how ridiculous do you think it would be if I told you the pandaren were originally an April fools joke drawn up by one of the Blizzard artists for fun?

http://www.wowwiki.com/Pandaren_(April_Fools)

From the Pandaren page:http://www.wowwiki.com/Pandaren

So is dota basically an especially-fancy custom map? Or are they giving it the stand-alone treatment?

Trying to figure how to classify this...

It is a fancy custom map, just like the other custom maps Blizzard released. If they actually follow through with the ability to match people based on skill, though, then I'd classify it as more than a custom map since we can't do that with our maps.

The ridiculousness of Pandaria lies not in the Pandaren themselves, but in that we call them 'Panda-ren' and their continent 'Pandaria'. If Tauren were 'Bull-men', or something along those lines, I'd be disappointed. Calling an empire after a creature we identify their appearance as lessens how much we can distance them from actual pandas. By calling the panda-men pandaren in the empire of Pandaria on the continent of Pandaria keeps shoving it in our faces. It's just not believable and annoying.

Plus, it goes a bit deep into the Asian culture there. The only expansion to go into a national culture before was the one with Arthas, and that was dabbling; there was no aping of architecture, just a naming convention and other small bits and pieces. Scandinavian, for those interested; the... indigenous race in Northrend, whatever it's called, were portrayed like some fantasy vikings with Scandinavian names. Here, we have pandas, associated with China, with Chinese architecture, Chinese-like characters (the writing), behaviors, and an added 'asian-related' class. If Northrend had a cultural puddle, this is a damn pool. And with a country with which I, personally, feel much less affinity with. Though this bit is subjective.

This expansion just really, really irritates me. Do we even have a 'big bad guy' at the end, or are we going there for the hell of it?

Well, good thing I won't be buying it either way.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Oct 25 2011, 3:52 am by Centreri.

Tauren comes from Taurus, though, and people born with this zodialogical sign can be refered to as Taureans, so unfortunately I see it as being just as literal. :/

As for the big bad guy at the end, Chris Metzen addressed that in the opening speech. Essentially there is no powerful bad guy to look forward to (aside from those founds in raids and whatnot), but he kept talking about the fight being more about the conflict between Alliance and Horde. I'm not exactly sure what that's supposed to entail, though.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Oct 25 2011, 5:36 am by DevliN.

My guess about the expansion is they mean to take a break from taking the story up to the next tier of villain-behind-the-villains and just try to have fun with it for a change. I guess silliness is sorta the whole point. The whole potentially-ill-conceived point.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 25 2011, 7:27 am by Tuxedo-Templar.

Couldn't have said it better.

FYI, the front page lags like how now with all the video links.

This is very true. The HotS trailer loads like 3 seconds before the rest of the front page even appears.

Interesting, it all loads instantly for me. I'll cut it back, then, I guess.

EDIT:
Removed the DOTA images, as I have a feeling they were causing the issue. How is it now?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 27 2011, 9:12 am by DevliN.

Much better!