Good luck marketing that Panda class as it was removed as a pet in GW because of endangered species laws.

"The panda was removed prior to game's release in China because that country does allow the depiction of death for members of an endangered species"

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Talk:Animal_companion/Archive#Fern_Lizard_and_Panda_Pet.3F

Originally posted by Gruug

I saw the pic with that announcement and all that came to mind was "Kung Fu Panda". Then I facepalmed and laughed till my sides hurt. What next, "My Little Pony"?

My Little Pony isn't next, Pokemon is.  The Pet Battle System is a Pokemon-esque battle game using vanity pets.

Kung-Fu Panda, literally.  Wow.  My brother has been playing WoW religiously for the last 6 years.  After reading about the next expansion, he believes that this will finally break him of his WoW addiction, and SWTOR is the game he's looking at a lot more closely now.

Now they just need to engage Jack Black to do some voice-over work.

Originally posted by Cecropia

Originally posted by GreenHell

I agree. While Pandas are not what the "kewl" kids wanted I think this will be nothing but positive for WoW. I love how everyone is only looking at the Panda part of it. The fact that there is also..

• Class: Monk
• Pet battle system
• PvE scenarios
• New talent system
• New continent
• Level cap increase to 90
• Challenge mode dungeons

..well good or bad we can ignore all of that and just focus on the Kung Fu panda. Ya I'm sure Blizzard never saw that reference coming. The monk class alone will draw people back just like the DK class did. Curiosity about the rest will keep people there. I don't play WoW and I probably won't play TOR either but to think for a moment that Blizzard gave anything to TOR is just insane. I can't believe that I am defending Blizzard.

I think after discovering that Pandas (yes, Pandas) are going to be the new race, most people (above the age of 10) are putting this expansion into the "who gives a shit" bin. It's just a little too much, really. As another poster said: what's next...My Little Pony?

If you're not a youngster or a girly girl, frankly, I do not see how anyone could continue playing an mmo that has Pandas as a race. Pandas ffs!

A lot of people that play the game WANTED this. It had been talked about for a long time. It's not about being a youngster or a girly girl. If you discard WoW because of a panda race you are just crazy.

Seriously this is WoW. The whole damn game is a who's who of Noahs Ark. Talking cows,space goats,and worgan not to mention the zoo of NPC races. You really believe that pandas are going to hurt WoW or are you more hoping it does?

I think the Panderan expansion looks cool. Drunken Master Kung Fu Monk Pandas. Cataclysm was pretty 'meh', but this expansion at least looks interesting. A heroic Scarlet Monastery? Sounds cool to me.

Originally posted by OkhamsRazor

I've always thought StarWars was going to be successful but the degree of success was always in question . The elephant in the room was always what Blizzard were going to do to combat the potential competition from TOR . With the annoucement of the Kung Fu Panda expanion yesterday which seams extremly weak in concept I think Blizzard have given it to TOR on a plate . If the game is as polished and fun as early reviews make it out to be the potential exodus from WoW to StarWars could now be on a epic scale . There must be howls of delight and relief in the Bioware offices at the huge miss step by Blizzard just as they are about to release TOR .

An early Christmas present indeed .

Already replied to you in the thread ABOUT THIS EXACT SUBJECT in the WoW forum: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/330011/Todays-the-day-I-realised-I-would-never-return-to-WoW-Pandas-.html

Why go around and spam every forum mate? Can't you just accept the fact that just because you don't like it, it does not mean that you need to convince others of what they need / needn't to like?

Originally posted by Zezel

Good luck marketing that Panda class as it was removed as a pet in GW because of endangered species laws.

 

"The panda was removed prior to game's release in China because that country doesn't allow the depiction of death for members of an endangered species" (fixed)

 

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Talk:Animal_companion/Archive#Fern_Lizard_and_Panda_Pet.3F

 

 

Very interesting information.  Thank you.  I have to question the source a bit....it's in a wiki comments conversation, so...I don't know.  But it's interesting nonetheless.

May be they will change it to a Koala in China.

Originally posted by kitarad

May be they will change it to a Koala in China.

LOL our friends down under already get hot tempered as it is, don't give em another reason :)

Originally posted by kitarad

May be they will change it to a Koala in China.

Pandas are from China.

Koalas are from Australia.

Originally posted by just1opinion

Originally posted by Zezel

Good luck marketing that Panda class as it was removed as a pet in GW because of endangered species laws.

 

"The panda was removed prior to game's release in China because that country doesn't allow the depiction of death for members of an endangered species" (fixed)

 

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Talk:Animal_companion/Archive#Fern_Lizard_and_Panda_Pet.3F

 

 

 

Very interesting information.  Thank you.  I have to question the source a bit....it's in a wiki comments conversation, so...I don't know.  But it's interesting nonetheless.

No problem I remembered becuase I had one then it was gone and replaced with the crane I beleive.

Originally posted by just1opinion

Originally posted by Zezel

Good luck marketing that Panda class as it was removed as a pet in GW because of endangered species laws.

 

"The panda was removed prior to game's release in China because that country doesn't allow the depiction of death for members of an endangered species" (fixed)

 

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Talk:Animal_companion/Archive#Fern_Lizard_and_Panda_Pet.3F

 

 

 

Very interesting information.  Thank you.  I have to question the source a bit....it's in a wiki comments conversation, so...I don't know.  But it's interesting nonetheless.

I was looking into info on this last night and it would seem it may be bogus, supposedly there is no law of the sort in China, if anyone can find something that actually confirms it it would be much appreciated. I sure as hell couldn't. Though the one quote I did find was from blizzcon 09, in which it was stated by Blizzard the reason Pandareans were not used as of yet was due to some form of dispute with china, yet in the same WOWwiki addition, they said this actual law was bogus.

In short i have no clue what the truth is here.

Here's the part I am referring to

http://www.wowwiki.com/Pandaren

""Another persistent rumor regarding their non-inclusion in the game is that there is a law in China prohibiting any depiction of violence against pandas, even anthropomorphic pandas, even in a video game. This rumor is, in fact, baseless. Not only does such a law not exist, but there is at least one Chinese MMO that does feature both PvP and a playable race of pandas.

During the discussion panel at Blizzcon 2009, it was stated that the Pandaren have not had an increased presence in the game due to legal issues with China.""

Seems contradictory...

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Talk:Animal_companion/Archive#Panda.2FChina_Clarification

Personally, this is the ONE race I really wanted to be in the game, aside from the Goblin. I always thought the Goblin should have been playable from day one.

For those of you who don't know about WoW's fuzzy Panda people, they were originally in Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne. (Thought not extensively.) The horde campaign within the Frozen Throne, which was added later, featured a Pandorian Brewmaster unit that helped the main character(Rexxar) throughout his journey.

From there, it grew, and has become one of the most requested races for WoW. So far, I'm looking at the contents of the new expansion, and I am happy about a few things. For one, they didn't decide to break lore and put them on just one side. The Pandorians were always a neutral race, and if they ever got involved with Horde/Alliance conflicts, they would choose a side independently, not as a whole group.

I think this, and the much talked about Emerald Dream expansion are two content packs that people have been asking for since the beginning of wow.

And to be fair to Blizzard, they had the whole Kung Fu Panda thing long before Jack Black took it over.

That said, I think this expansion is sounding a bit...lame. It's lackluster, even compared to Cata. It also doesn't seem to have a major threat like the last three expansions.

Not to mention, some of the changes are terrible. Particularly, what they're doing with the talent system. I think that alone will get people to play something else. Not just TOR, but just something else.

This Expansion is too little too late for me, though. I probably won't buy it simply on the grounds that I quit playing wow nearly a year ago, and haven't really looked back since.

Originally posted by Zezel

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Talk:Animal_companion/Archive#Panda.2FChina_Clarification

"The Chengdu Municipal Committee of the National People's Congress, in west China's Sichuan province, on Friday confirmed the receipt of the planned law, jointly outlined by the municipal bureaus of forestry, parks and woods.

If passed, it would become the world's first panda law. (emphasis added)

So, in summary, even though it isn't illegal to depict violence against Pandas in China, it is at the minimum offensive to people there (including the government). ArenaNet or any other company never needed a law to justify removing something that was considered offensive to their customers or potential customers."

I did see this last night during my inquiries, what i was looking for and couldn't find is something saying if it ever was passed.

i was reading about their new expansion and kept thinking to myself "wtf, this isn't april fools?"

This expansion looks like a huge gigantic joke.  Goofy panda's, whether they were in the game or not, they just don't fit at this point.  Further dumbing down of the talent tree's and further complete class revamps.  Ridiculous.  I can thank blizzard for this one, now there is absolutely no danger of me EVER going back to wow.

It just makes me wonder what kind of game Titan will really be and what playerbase is it going to cater to..

Also.. do you really want current WoW players to migrate to SWTOR from day one? Ugh.. think about it. IMO it's better if new players (the real fans) set the basis for a growing community and not the other way around if you know what I mean. Imagine WoW players telling you how to behave in SWTOR..

Originally posted by Purutzil

Pretty much this expansion screams "Casual hardcore!" If thats even a word, I'll make it one. 

Casual hardcore: A game that is so intuned to casual players, its considered an extreme and his unforigen to dedicated or traditional hardcore players.

As for giving it to SWTOR... sorry, not going to happen. Plenty of other games out there. If anything, the expansion just makes it a little less 'bad' on the game. Over-all, SWTOR I feel will have to struggle to prove itself being a game. Not only will it have to get over the hurdle that its a 'generic' style game in terms of combat (given they don't massively change things), but they will also get over the hurdle that MMo players will skim over or completely skip story for gameplay

If they manage to get players interested into the story elements bioware is well known for, then I'd say this 'expansion' could do well in boosting SWTOR's likely playerbase. While I'm doubting ToR will be good in terms of how it plays out (though I WILL try it out, just not buying it and only playing free trial when it comes out), if there is one thing I'm hopeful for, its that this game manages to find a way to make story a more focused aspect of an MMO, and if possible it can actually make it feel like a multiplayer game with it, rather then a single player 'online' experience. While I have my doubts, as a game enthusiest and one who plans to get involved in the industry sometime, i can't help but also cheer and hope for the best with this game while being very iffy on actually playing it myself. :)

And you wanna be part of the game industry?. LoL, sry but you should choose another career. Just a really small number of player will play swtor skipping the story, and that will be just a great way to gimp urself, is like buy a movie to watch just the end, is just stupid. And what other games are you talking about?, Rift? lol most the rift playerbase is there just waiting to play swtor. All that Bioware need is a game a lil better than anything that we have in the market now, and they have that game, i mean, tor have enough quality and content to keep the pvp and pve community happy, even better when they have the money and the resourses to make updates and expansion pretty fast to keep the players in the game. 

Originally posted by Kenze

dont fool yourself. people will fuss and rage but when the xpac comes out Every one of them will be rolling Pandaran Monks.

Right now people and  "playing cool" jumping on troll bandwagons raging against the HORROR!!11!one

theyll get over it.

 

As for SWTOR dont be supprised when its not recieved as the 2nd coming its being hyped as.

SOME of us are adults and actually know our own opinions on things and don't waver with the wind as you assume.  I agree with you on the second statement you make, but the first is misguided assumption based perhaps on the decision making process of teens and twenty-somethings that actually CARE about "being cool." 

Well the mistake your all making is that we swtor give a shit about wow players coming to swtor we dont want or need you lol

Jeez I know they are from Australia but if you do not want to upset the Chinese you put another animal to appease them and koalas the closest cutesy thing to pandas.