Over the weekend, Blizzard made some pretty huge announcements regarding their numerous successful franchises. Fans got up-close looks at Diablo III and a weird DOTA game, in addition to tons of information about upcoming changes to World of Warcraft. Perhaps the biggest reveal, however, was the next World of Warcraft expansion, titled Mists of Pandaria.

Now, it’s worth noting that the Pandaren were originally introduced into Warcraft III as a joke, and it was only thanks to player demand that they actually ended up an integral part of the game. It’s also worth noting that Blizzard has used Pandaren as an April Fool’s joke for World of Warcraft in the past. So it’s no wonder that some players still feel like the entire thing is one huge joke, and many of the ones who don’t seem disappointed in what is collectively being called “lore-rape.”

Chris Metzen, lead designer at Blizzard and the man responsible for most of the memorable characters and lore in the Warcraft universe, stepped in to let people know that the company is deadly serious about their new expansion, and seemed to be asking players not to judge it without playing first.

After being asked whether Mists would see actual, serious story content in the WoW lore panel on Sunday, Metzen had this to say:

“This is no joke. This is not a throw-away silly-silly ha ha funny expansion set; it is absolutely the next vital chapter and as things ratchet up, they’re gonna get really gnarly.”

I’ve talked previously about my feelings regarding this new expansion, so I’m not going to get too much into my opinion in this particular post. What I can say for sure is that if your first job after announcing a massive expansion to your incredibly successful game is convincing players that it’s not actually a joke, you might be on thin ice.

Blizzard is pretty good at what they do, so the best thing to do for now is wait and see how the expansion develops. Who knows, maybe they can take the Pandaren story and turn it into something really compelling. There could be some really cool dungeons hidden   away on Pandaria, just waiting to be conquered.

What do you think about Mists of Pandaria?

Via GameFront

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