Seriously. The new WoW expansion is entitled Mists of Pandaria, and in addition to raising the level cap from 85 to 90, it will include a new race: Pandarens. Warcraft enthusiasts will remember the creatures from Warcraft 3. Wired has an interview with the wonderfully named J. Allen Brack on the entire situation:
Wired.com: Some critics are saying that Blizzard is “jumping the shark” by having cute “kung-fu pandas” in their expansion. What do you say to that?
Brack: We don’t really worry about that because we really feel that our fans are going to be really excited about it. We have the community that’s really excited about what we’re doing.
The team is really excited about doing it. So that’s really what’s important. When it comes out, it’s going to be great. I can understand the concept of “Why isn’t there a big bad guy?” in this expansion? But how many times can we say, “This bad guy is going to destroy the world now and this time it’s serious? No, this guy, he’s really, really, really, really bad!”
This is hard-hitting journalism conducted by adults for adults, if I’ve ever seen it. For the record, Cataclysm, the previous WoW expansion pack, had a dragon on its cover. It was totally bad ass. Mists of Pandaria, which is again a game that is ostensibly for adults, will have a panda on its cover. Only time will tell how well the expansion pack ages.
-Drew Millard