NERD ALERT (If you aren’t interested in MMORPG’s, World of Warctaft, Blizzard, etc… feel free to skip this post.)
So apparently yesterday some brave soul stumbled upon a new trademark filed by Blizzard, makers of all things Warcraftian. This trademark was filed for “computer game software” and the international codes used in the trademark only appear on Blizzards trademarks for other Online games so it stands to reason that this new trademark may in fact be the name for Blizzards next WoW expansion.
So what is it?
“MISTS OF PANDAREN”….
For those not aware, the Pandaren are a race of overly cute, Asian-ish panda people that appeared in one of the Warcraft III expansions if I’m not mistaken and have hat bits of story hidden in the Warcaft lore over the years. Blizzard has always seemingly had had tongue firmly embedded in cheek when bringing up the Pandaren (the Pandaren Xpress art was a personal favorite, Google it) and has used them as part of elaborate jokes in the past so on first blush it would seem that this has got to be a ruse (a lark in the courtyard of the king if you will).
But what if its real?
As a former player (and I stress former its hard to see a scenario where I want to go back to WoW at this stage of my life, Cataclysm broke my spirit) it feels awfully strange to go down this road if its real because the Pandaren have always seemingly fit outside of the realm of WoW even if they do have some sparse lore to back them up (aw who am I kidding, if they can force aliens in and give us talking cows why not Pandas?). Then again, fans have been clamoring for the Pandaren for years now and in the face of declining subscriptions for the first time in the games history maybe a nod towards the direction of your diehard fanbase is the way to go. Heaven knows its hard enough to pull in new users when faced with an overwhelming three expansion packs and 5+ years of history and game. Even at its user friendliest times one can’t help but feel that you’ll never catch up.
Personally for me Cataclysm just showed me that new races are just a new coat of paint on an old house, one that weathers away once you get past the new starting zones. New classes are what really delivers long term game play for me so I hope if this is real that its more then just another cute face.
No matter which side of the Pandaren fence you fall on, it seems odd that Blizzard would be stupid enough to give everything away via mistake on a simple trademark application right? Again it feels like this is either an elaborate ruse, or a trademark for another product.
