Next Expansion " Mists of Pandoria"

[EaTCarbS]

I wish they would update the older races models. They look like minecraft characters compared to the newer races models.

[Khatovar]

I wish they would update the older races models. They look like minecraft characters compared to the newer races models.

They plan to, but who knows when that will be


http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/to...4612?page=5#86

Art Director Chris Robinson spoke on this just moments ago at the BlizzCon Open Q&A panel. It was in reply to an attendee who brought up that, in the art panel, it was explained that the pandaren model has 10 times the bone structures of the classic races, allowing for many more facial animations.

To paraphrase his statement -- which isn't too different from what I've said here on the forums before -- we absolutely plan on updating the existing models. As Chris mentioned, we want to make sure we preserve the look and feel of the original models players have come to know and love, while vastly improving their model and animation quality to be more in-line with the newer races.

We're not going to hide behind the statement that too many players will get mad if we tamper with their models, but it's a concern -- not a concern that's going to stop us from doing it, however. I want to stress as well that it's a massive undertaking to go back and do this. And to a lot of people it's something that won't be considered shiny new content. But not only do we hear the masses of players calling for this update, we really feel it's time to bring them up to par with newer models as well.

The game continues to age, but as we have no plans of slowing down on development any time in the near future, we want to keep updating and polishing it to stand the test of time (again, without sacrificing the look and feel which has brought players in over the years).

[Tonuss]

Until now my point of view has been that the Pandaren are influenced, at least to some degree, by the Dreamworks movie. But now I am not so sure. MMO-Champion has links to a topic where a blue posted this:

This is something I want to touch on a bit more. People seem to think that Pandaren were a joke, a throw away easter egg that we never fully intended as a playable race.

I will direct you to recall the Warcraft RPG (pen and paper) manuals released in 2003. While much of it hasn't been canon for quite some time, the Pandaren occupy a greater amount of pages and space within the manuals to establish their lore and story than pretty much every other creature on Azeroth. To give it some context, they occupy the same number of pages as Trolls in the Monster Manual, and share the same amount space in the Alliance and Horde Compendium with Orcs or Humans, and just like them ... you guessed it... Pandaren were a playable race.

[...]

It would simply be inaccurate to state that Pandaren were a throw away. Our intent, going back to Warcraft III, when the vast majority of the world lore and story was established for the franchise, was always to have a deep and rich history for a race known as the Pandaren.

And then someone linked to this 2003 drawing by Chris Metzen. The Pandaren in that drawing looks a heck of a lot like the main character in the movie... except that the drawing pre-dates the film by about five years.

[Lyonheart]

Until now my point of view has been that the Pandaren are influenced, at least to some degree, by the Dreamworks movie. But now I am not so sure. MMO-Champion has links to a topic where a blue posted this:

And then someone linked to this 2003 drawing by Chris Metzen. The Pandaren in that drawing looks a heck of a lot like the main character in the movie... except that the drawing pre-dates the film by about five years.

I was just about to post this as well. Pandas were always meant to be!