The Queue: Panda-monium 2: Electric Bamboogaloo
by Alex Ziebart 
Aug 3rd 2011 at 11:00AM
This is all your fault, Blizzard. I hope you can live with yourself after that title.
Garghle asked:
Um... Mists of Pandaria? Is that really the next expansion? Pandaland?
Man, I hope not. I don't think there could exist a thing I care about less than Pandaria. Personally, I'm really hoping Mists of Pandaria is some smaller project that ties into the expansion but isn't actually the expansion. I would be totally cool with Mists of Pandaria being a mobile or social game that ties into a pandaren appearance in the next expansion.
You guys know me -- I've been writing The Queue for years now. It's well-established that I don't give a damn about pandas. A pandaren expansion is my worst WoW nightmare.
Maybe it's a red herring, a trademark troll to throw us off the scent. A guy can hope, right?
Shyster asked:
What in the hell happened with Mograine senior? There's a SLIGHT plot resolution if you finish off the Shadowmourne chain, but there still doesn't seem to be any indication of where he ran off to once Naxx floated on up to that snow cone they call northrend. Just a plot hole along with all the others -cough Turalyon cough- then?
Darion Mograine sacrificed himself to free his father from the Lich King and prevent him from being used by the Scourge. Unfortunately, his father got yanked into Frostmourne. Post-Lich King, he's been freed. So what you've seen is the resolution. He's free to move on.
Also, I don't think plot hole means what you think it means. Turalyon isn't a plot hole. It's just a plot angle that hasn't been addressed yet. A plot hole would be if Turalyon were sitting in Stormwind tomorrow and was talking about his contributions to the fight against the Lich King. We know damn well he wasn't in Northrend at the time.
ktphillips1217 asked:
question: I've been noticing lately that i have flight paths in zones i have never even set foot in, yet when i look at the flight master i have flight paths to those zones, is this a glitch or something working as intended by blizz?
I believe that you automatically get flight paths in low-level zones whilst leveling now. I'm not 100% sure of the trigger for it, but from what I understand, if you use the Hero's Board to pick your next questing destination, the game checks your flight paths and makes sure you have an available direct route to the zone you picked and fills in all the flight paths in between that you don't have.
Amaxe asked:
I have ten toons on US Shadow Council (all Alliance all in a vanity guild) and was thinking of using a mule to take my heirlooms to another server for an all Horde vanity guild to see the other side. What RP server is a good one to try for this? (remembering Shadow Council is full and I want nothing more to do with a PvP server)? Any thoughts?
My personal experience is extremely limited. My RP server, Cenarion Circle, is the only server I've ever really played on. It's been a few years since I would recommend it for its amount or quality of roleplay.
I have heard good things about Wyrmrest Accord, but I've also heard "Moon Guard Light" in regards to Wyrmrest Accord. Whether that's positive or negative ... I'll leave that to you to decide.
Readers, any input?
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 16)
walkman222222 Aug 3rd 2011 11:05AM
Question for the Queue, whatever happened to Southern Barrens (might have been Northern don't remember) becoming like a world pvp zone?
Cephas Aug 3rd 2011 11:15AM
It's a zone where the Horde/Alliance conflict is front and center, and if you're questing in the area while the opposite faction is also questing there, world PvP can break out, but I don't think anyone ever said it was going to be like a "PvP zone".
Nathanyel Aug 3rd 2011 1:45PM
I don't think "a level 35 char killing a level 30 char" qualifies as "World PvP"
Naphtali Aug 3rd 2011 6:07PM
@Nathanyel
World PvP would be any PvP not done in an instance....so regardless of level, if opposing sides are fighting in "the world" then it's "World PvP".
vinniedcleaner Aug 3rd 2011 7:02PM
In the pure technical sense... yes it would be world pvp. Traditionally though, world pvp would be groups fighting one another in a world environment, not the ganking that goes on now.
Artificial Aug 3rd 2011 8:30PM
I think you mean "ideally" there. Ideally, world PvP would be the groups fighting in the world. Traditionally, it's been the ganking that goes on now and always has.
MattKrotzer Aug 3rd 2011 11:05AM
I'm all for "Mists of Pandaria" as the next expansion. It'd be nice to get another one like Burning Crusade, where it's largely unknown, mysterious territory.
I'll never forget the first time going from Hellfire Peninsula to Zangarmarsh and being like... "Holy $#!+..."
Outland was only a vague concept, so it gave the artists a lot of room to play. Northrend, we kind of knew a bit. Cataclysm was a revamp of familiar areas, but Pandaria...? Total blank slate. It'd be nice to see the artists really cut loose again.
Cephas Aug 3rd 2011 11:19AM
I always thought that the Pandarans were just a joke. The fact that they got totally buried when WoW came out cemented the idea for me that they just aren't "in canon", so they don't strike me as good material for the focal point of an expansion. It really sounds like a red herring to me, but I might end up eating my hat come Blizzcon.
loop_not_defined Aug 3rd 2011 11:32AM
It might be that Perfect World convinced Blizzard that playable pandas in China isn't too bad, serving as a barometer of sorts. I know some have called it a "myth", but certain elements of China's government were seriously considering banning the use of panda imagery for awhile (I think it was back in 2007).
Zabrah Aug 3rd 2011 11:38AM
"Mists of Pandaria"........
Please, Lord, no. That just sounds so damn goofy. And how the heck are you going to have an entire EXPANSION about freaking Pandaren, which up to this point, have ZERO lore? A patch? Sure thing; I can see a patch worth of stuff about them.
While I agree with Matt, it would be really, really cool to have an expansion that would be a clean slate for the Devs to go crazy, but this just sounds too cheesy.
Maybe Blizzard decided to open their own Chinese theme park.......
Literaltruth Aug 3rd 2011 11:38AM
I wonder if the mystery angle might be the way it goes.
We could be arriving on Pandaria and the native population has vanished without a trace, leaving behind only ruins and artefacts for archeologists to explore in order to solve the mystery of where they went.
As for what leads us there - perhaps a Burning Legion incursion into Azeroth, using a previously unheard of portal that the Pandaren were keeping sealed and which their mysterious dissapearance has led to opening. The mages detect the incursion of Fel energy when this happens, which leads the mortal races to finally discover the location of the island.
This would also allow Blizzard to say - No. Not a playable race. Not now, not ever - they're all dead.
Sqtsquish Aug 3rd 2011 11:50AM
It is probably a title for some sub project Blizz is working on for the mobile, or some other silly little venture. On a side note though, what? you mean you didn't see Turalyon when we were fighting the Lich King? Look harder my friends, he was in those places those times, with that stuff, with Alleria and their kids, doing whathap.
Docseuzz Aug 3rd 2011 11:55AM
Mists of pandarian... Sounds like panda flatulence land... :) if they introduce a new class... They need to increase the character limit per server.
Thanatos Aug 3rd 2011 11:58AM
Pandaren Achievement: The Sound of One Hand Clapping - 100 /facepalms completed while capturing the enemy flag in Warsong Gulch without dropping.
(cutaia) Aug 3rd 2011 11:59AM
"how the heck are you going to have an entire EXPANSION about freaking Pandaren, which up to this point, have ZERO lore?"
One thing I do find interesting, is that Blizzard constantly gets crap for reusing or overusing certain storylines or characters. For example, there's a ton of troll lore, but every time a troll dungeon/zone appears, people go, "Oh great, not trolls again..."
Yet, when the possibility of utilizing something that doesn't have existing lore comes up, people get upset about that, too.
It's lose/lose for Blizzard.
herra.ledonne Aug 3rd 2011 12:07PM
I'm kinda torn between whether to believe in that or not, but like discussed in the earlier blog, doing this just to throw us off the scent seems a bit excessive. However, since it seems one reason why we haven't seen Pandaren in WoW's been 'cause the Chinese throw a fit or something whenever a panda is mentioned, I'm beginning to wonder if this is also a way to extract some payback for a certain copyright-breaking theme park...
I just hope that if this isn't just a hoax they'll do a better job than with the female Worgen...
mik3st3r Aug 3rd 2011 12:15PM
It would be interesting if they added a new hero class, but it is only available to one race. The class being the Brewmaster, and the race being the Pandaren. It could be the first race to be available to both the Horde and Alliance?
raposo02790 Aug 3rd 2011 12:16PM
I'm not focused on the pandas. I think it's just as viable as any other of the anthromorphic races what I am drooling over is that we might finally get a Kung Fu class, that and the Asian style artwork that has been sorely left out of wow. Gimme some qi plz
Skarn Aug 3rd 2011 12:16PM
Eh. IF Pandaria is the next expansion, it is actually the first one I have NOT been excited about. The Pandaren have always amused me, but that's it. I know some people ADORE the idea, but I'm not a fan. I like them as a side-joke, but not as a real game element and especially not as a focal point.
Will this "cure" me of WoW? No idea! When details come out at BlizzCon, I may find myself loving the idea.
Revnah Aug 3rd 2011 12:18PM
I'm with Matt on this one. I mean, what will the next expansion be? Yet another hero-gone-insane/bad/corrupted by Titans, blah blah... After Vanilla + three expansions it's getting a little old. A completely new "world" (island) would be something else.
Also, I find "Mists of Pandaria" no cheesier than "Wrath of the Lich King" :-)