Blizzard's Metzen: Pandaren are as 'serious as a heart attack'

World of Warcraft - Pandaren concept art

OK, time for a show of hands. How many of you initially thought Mists of Pandaria was a joke? After all, there was the April Fools' Day Pandaren incident in Warcraft III, and there's the fact that giant panda bears are inherently cute and somewhat difficult to take seriously.

World of Warcraft's latest expansion is no laughing matter, though, according to Blizzard's Chris Metzen.

"These guys are not a joke. This is an idea that we've been thinking about for years. It's one of our favorite flavors of Warcraft. It's not ultimately really silly, it's just a little lighter," Metzen explained over the weekend. He went on to describe how WoW's senior art director Sam Didier has been doodling around with Pandaren subjects for years now and has produced some "crazy panda shamans" and other work that is off the proverbial hook. "This is not a throw-away silly silly haha funny expansion set," Metzen continued. "It is absolutely the next vital chapter and as things ratchet up, they're gonna get really gnarly."

Reader Comments (179)

"They're gonna get really gnarly".

LOL. How did Death Knights work out for you guys?

@Grumms Excuse me for not being able to tell, but was that sarcasm?

@mattwo No sarcasm :)

He forgot to mention the part about how pandern and dwaves exchange beer recepies :P

the amount of damage control Blizzard is being forced to do is truly amazing. I dont think it will be enough tho

With World of PandaCraft they have digged their own grave

@Fabius Bile Never heard that before.

@(Unverified)

"never heard that before"

Do they charge $15 per month fee to the Asian market that they are obviously targeting? They can scream that they have x million subs but the bottom line is the $$ per sub. This time next year should shed some light on total sub lose from 2011 and if they're still on the decline.

@Fabius Bile

They offered a free copy of Diablo 3 and entrance to the beta with a year sub with WoW.

No damage control needed.

@Oskiee

"They offered a free copy of Diablo 3 and entrance to the beta with a year sub with WoW.

No damage control needed."

That IS Blizz' damage control.

@(Unverified)

They aren't appealing to the Asian market, these pandas were around since WC3

and since your bringing in $ per sub WoW's profit margin has GONE UP not down, that should tell you a bit about which subs it's been losing, west or east

@Vgk
yes but in WC3 they where a LITTERAL april fools joke that got one neutral hero unit for lawls... they where in NO way part of the real story.

@(Unverified) : Western WoW players have been begging for Pandaren for years. It's one of the most requested things in WoW's history.

@Shirvington

Exactly. They lost subs after Cata and they are now willing to throw Diablo 3 under the bus to get their behemoth looking good to their investors again. Whoa, sweet! WoW subs have gone up again, guess we didn't screw up as bad as we thought with the last expansion! Whew, we can go back to being lackadaisical about development!

Now I want the Librarian in Diablo III.

Ooh I'm scared.

@dudes

Run for your life, the pedo's are coming :O

I'm sensing that Blizzard is getting worried that Kung Fu Panda isn't exactly being well received. Well at least the D3 bribe to stay subbed to WOW is going to arrest some of the sub leakage.

You just get the feeling that Blizzard is swimming in shark waters and have just noticed they have a couple of cuts on them.

It's a shame, Blizzard used to be such a good company once upon a time. Least that's something they sahre with SWTOR... George Lucas used to be good once too...

Now look at him.

@mmogaddict Activision is killing Blizzard. EA is killing Bioware.

Two great production houses done in by greed.

@Lucidus

It's like the Capulets and the Montagues, isn't it! ;)

@Lucidus

You should blame on the logic of economy. They are forced to present increasing revenues and profits every year to shareholders and are expected to beat analists expectations or be labeled as disapointing.
They then get desperate to grab money from people and reach a point that the average customer will say is enough. And on that point the decline begins...

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Blizzard's Metzen: Pandaren are as 'serious as a heart attack'

Reader Comments (179)

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:08AM Grumms said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:10AM mattwo said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 10:21AM Grumms said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:09AM mattwo said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:12AM Fabius Bile said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:15AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:36AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:53AM Oskiee said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 10:24AM Shirvington said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 7:36PM Vgk said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 2:01PM Aselus said

Posted: Oct 26th 2011 9:44PM TheClaw said

Posted: Oct 27th 2011 5:23PM OutThere said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:13AM MithranArkanere said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:16AM dudes said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 5:32PM doublerainbow said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:16AM mmogaddict said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 9:58AM Lucidus said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 10:52AM Space Cobra said

Posted: Oct 25th 2011 11:30AM Gaugamela said

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