World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria?

By Robert Purchese Published 3 August, 2011

No it's not April.

Are those pesky panderan panda-people finally coming to World of Warcraft?

A new trademark registered yesterday by Blizzard to protect the Mists of Pandaria title has rekindled hope.

The pandaren people, who live in the land of Pandaria, are cuddly, drunken and very deadly martial arts masters.

The pandaren began life as an April Fools joke for Warcraft 3, but such was the fan response that Blizzard soon added them, via an expansion, to the game.

In 1st April 2005, Blizzard announced the Pandaren Express for World of Warcraft. This was an April Fools joke parodying EverQuest 2's order-a-pizza feature, but with Chinese food instead.

The pandaren were also strongly rumoured to be the new playable alliance race in the first World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade. Rumour has it that Blizzard had intended this, but at the last minute opted for the draenei race because of Chinese laws protecting the portrayal of the revered panda. And China, remember, is one of WOW's most successful territories.

Blizzard has not announced what the fourth World of Warcraft expansion will be, but we do know the developer aims to decrease the amount of time before we see one. The infamous leaked Blizzard release schedule claimed that the next WOW expansion will be released in Q2 2012 - a year and a half after Cataclysm.

A fifth expansion will be supposedly released in Q4 2013.

World of Warcraft patch 4.2.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 10 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • StolenGlory #1 10 months ago

    Bullshit.

  • Softie2k #2 10 months ago

    Not likely. Emerald Dream or GTFO.

  • Bleh #3 10 months ago

    They wanna thrive on the Kung Fu Panda success.

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #4 10 months ago

    Had forgotten about Kung Fu Panda.

    If Blizzard could add pandarens in a way that wasn't silly, this could work brilliantly. What would the opposing Horde race be? Or would pandarens be faction-neutral?

  • superfurry #5 10 months ago

    Get Jack Black to voice their racial leader and I'm sold.

  • Zozzilla #6 10 months ago

    I agree with Softie - give us the Emerald Dream!

  • TruSmiles #7 10 months ago

    I would actually start playing WoW if I could make a Kung Fu Panda class.

  • nooneyouknow #8 10 months ago

    New MMOs coming from Blizzard soon so why not do what the hell they want?!

  • Dewin #9 10 months ago

    Red herring....

  • darkmorgado #10 10 months ago

    The pandaren were also strongly rumoured to be the new playable alliance race in the first World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade. Rumour has it that Blizzard had intended this, but at the last minute opted for the draenei race because of Chinese laws protecting the portrayal of the revered panda. And China, remember, is one of WOW's most successful territories.

    Yeah, that's been thoroughly debunked. No such laws exist limiting the use of violence against pandas in games. Dozens of online games in China feature pandas exploding into bloody chunks and generally engaging in violence. Legend of Mir springs to mind.
    Edited by darkmorgado at 03/08/11 @ 11:08

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #11 10 months ago

    @darkmorgado

    Good info - thanks.

  • darkmorgado #12 10 months ago

    Anyway, if anything comes of this - and it's a big if - I would imagine that the pandarens would be an NPC race rather than directly playable. Yet another two races would be getting a bit silly (let alone the work involved with animation and creating an opposing race), and the third faction would create significant lore problems as well as looking malnourished compared to a horde/aliance dominated world with 6 races and 5 capital cities a piece.

  • a8a #13 10 months ago

    While I would love to see a third faction, to keep the game fresh, if this is what is actually happening I would expect them to be an NPC race also. A third faction would be a *hell* of a lot of work, and cause many logistical issues. Additionally, based on the expansion pattern beginning to emerge, I would expect the next expansion to introduce a new hero class, rather than a new playable race.

    @Softie2k
    I think Emerald Dream is definitely on the cards, but I wouldn't expect to see it next. The Emerald Dream is, after all, Azeroth as it was "supposed" to be. Which means it would be a new imagining of the existing continents. After Cataclysm, I think they will want to get away from the familiar landmarks rather than revisiting them yet again.

  • deano2099 #14 10 months ago

    @jn2002dk

    Emerald Dream is technically a copy of the entirety of Azeroth, geographically, just different. Like an alternate universe. So there's a lot to work with.

  • ColdCoffee #15 10 months ago

    I've forgotten WoW. THis will bring me back.

  • havoc2011 #16 10 months ago

    Here's hoping the next World of Warcraft expansion will have Pandaren and Tuskaar playable races - now that will be awesomes.

  • Nephirion #17 10 months ago

    People still play WoW? .... No seriously this game should be free 2 play now the MMO is 6 years old. Sure there is cool stuff thats added but the fundamental gameplay and world design remains the same.

  • Softie2k #18 10 months ago

    I quit earlier this year after playing it hardcore since launch. Blizzard are at the crossroads now (ganking), people are losing interest after using the same mechanics for over half a decade. They've either to invest fully in the next expansion, or simply put stuff out that's just about good enough and ride it out until the new MMO.

    In the latter's case, the Emerald Dream will be in WoW2.

  • a8a #19 10 months ago

    @Nephirion
    There seems to be some kind of accepted logic that when a MMO gets old, it should become Free 2 Play. I don't understand where this came from - as a model, it worked reasonably well for a few MMOs that werent doing particularly well (and one or two that were), but if a business has over 10 million paying subscribers, you don't say "Well, that's the 6 year mark - time to go free".

  • jimr9999us #20 10 months ago

    Looks like China is WoW's #1 market now. Good for them.

  • FortysixterUK #21 10 months ago

    I'd like to see improved character models for most of the races, taller humans with more control over the look of their faces etc etc.

    Next up I'd like to see a really bold move. The Horde & The Alliance eventually have to band together again to deal with Deathwing, essentially becoming the Azerothian Union or some such collective name.

    Two new factions , each with 5 races with some old and some new classes, create a detailed lore for them .

    As the planet of Azeroth is explored more new massive landmasses are found. These landmasses are home to the two new factions, each locked in eternal combat against each other, and now they are aware of you, the Azerothian Union, and are openly aggressive. A 3 way war ensues.

    The discovery of new magical teleports re-open those previously closed down in cataclysm and global travel becomes simple, with vast safe havens based around these teleport hubs near every city.

    Meanwhile , consideration is given to all the previously forgotten zones of WOW:- Dalaran, Wintergrasp, the Burning Crusade etc etc and new reason is given to hunt and fight there, triple XP zones, greater honour in WG, which is now instanced for each level band from 20 onwards. Reason is found and given merit to go back to all the old WOW content and players are encouraged and rewarded to keep going back.

    Account wise, you are able to have double the number of toons on any one server ( 20 ) or perhaps even better, have your account limit of 50 toons on one server if you want.

    WOW becomes a vast planet, with a multitude of options, and the virtual elimination of ghost towns or ghost zones.

    Then I woke up.
    Damn, I should be on Blizzards payroll, I'd make WOW awesome. Well, more awesome than it already is at least.

  • Spekingur #22 10 months ago

    Well, obviously the Horde side would get the peafowl race.

  • Zozzilla #23 10 months ago

    @Nephirion
    People still play FFXI and that's 9 years old. If people like something, they play it, funnily enough. Doesn't matter how old it is...I still play games from the 80's.

  • dfinit #24 10 months ago

    Seeing at what point wow became a huge mix pot of everything and whatever, as one of their designs leaders was saying, they can pour in almost anything...

    just more of the same.