Yeah so I'm probably late to discover the rumors/reality of panda's coming to wow. Theres gonna be pandas everywhere once it comes out...just like dks =D but still awesome! It's just...i dont know how many of you have played chinese mmorpgs but its starting to feel like wow is nearing china's (or probably korea's since china steals everything) playstyle. PET BATTLE! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!? pokemon ftw

http://www.wowheadnews.com/blog=196426/blizzcon-2011-mists-of-pandaria-and-what-we-know#genchanges-general-changes

Korea's national animal isn't a a panda though. The whole conflict between China and Blizzard was because Blizzard depicted pandas in a japanese lifestyle. Nothing more insulting than that to the Chinese.
About the actual rumors, I think that's what they just are: rumors. I think Blizzard is just trying to throw people off-balance; they don't want anybody to spoil the surprise like for Cataclysm where there was a leak of information, so everybody knew about the Cataclysm. But, if we do the expansion, I don't pandas will be a playable race. Blizzard always follows the same pattern of alternating between new class, new race every new expansion. For TBC, we had Blood Elves and Dranei. For Wotlk, we had the Death knight class and for the Cataclysm, we had 2 new races added. I think we'll just get them as NPC, and be able to explore their land. Like the Etherals of the Consortium.

How about we beat Deathwing in 4.3, which is the longest encounter ever made (according to Blizzard, just like every expansions MOST POWERFUL BOSS ), first?

Yeah I didnt think Pandas would ever be playable.
Theres not even any difinitive panda lore in game, or an NPC I've ever seen.
I like the idea of adding them to the game as an NPC faction or an easter egg town, but thats what they are in the "world."
Maybe they could have made a quest where after you drink something everyone becomes pandas, or you can sneak into a panda town. A quest out in the middle of nowhere that needs a bunch of odd prerequsits (sp?)
Afterall they are reclusive, but festive enough to help our brewfest.

Honestly I'm more excited about seeing the new class.
Truthfully I dont like the changes, its going to take what was a unique game where each player had some choices and roles and further simplify it making it a little boy loot fest. Oh well, heres hoping that with simple character development they really focus on encounters and PvP systems.

Although for now I hope I have enough time, and my language gets good enough to hit 85 and raid Deathy. Hopefully interesting.

Wasnt talking about Korea with pandas =P its the playstyle that they're changing it to in the expansion. Like the change in how talent points work. Kind of more...stupid friendly. But Pandas have a high probability of being playable. Even china's mainsite revealed the same info. Level cap will be 90.

Verilus wrote:

Wasnt talking about Korea with pandas =P its the playstyle that they're changing it to in the expansion. Like the change in how talent points work. Kind of more...stupid friendly. But Pandas have a high probability of being playable. Even china's mainsite revealed the same info. Level cap will be 90.

I don't think Korean gamers are stupid friendly xD. I mean look at all the SC2 professionals out there! Most of them are Korean!
But honestly, the "stupid friendly" part of the game didn't start in Cataclysm, I think. It really started in Wotlk. ICC was stupid easy to get into and beat the first 4 bosses whereas if you did that in Sunwell Plateau back in TBC, you'd get raped by the mobs in the blink of an eye.
On the contrary, Cataclysm actually introduced something new: more challenging dungeons! You couldn't just pull 10 mobs as a tank like in Wotlk in Cataclysm instances. Of course that means that instances are longer but I think that makes them even more interesting as a whole as you get immersed much faster into the Lore. Compared to Wotlk "Heroics", of which most people had no idea of the lore because you went through the damn place so fast.

As for Pandaren, I don't know. We've got very little lore about them except for the very vague: "they are a friendly bunch of individuals" , "They don't like war" and "They were here as long as the Night Elves but disappeared from Azeroth's eyes". And, if they do add Pandaren into the game as a playable race, that means there needs to be another race added to balance the Horde/Alliance equation. I could never play as a Naga. Maybe an ethereal, but Blizzard has shown that they are like the Steamwheedle Cartel (not to be confused with the Bilgewater Cartel, the playable goblins in WoW); a neutral race only interested in money.

I say:

they say that after completing the pandaren starting questline, you can choose between horde or alliance

Verilus wrote:

they say that after completing the pandaren starting questline, you can choose between horde or alliance

Wow. Guess Blizzard owned the Horde/Alliance on that one. I am NOT going to look forward to this.

I'm a sad panda.
Well the good news is now we know why blizzard releaded all those books and other things with "lore" about pandas.
To fill the gaping hole which this expansion would need to leap over.

Why is wow turning into Kungfu Panda with Pokemon filler?