I’ve been largely absent from Azeroth and blogging for a while. This has been due to a combination of factors ranging from Twig’s resistance to bedtime, feeling let down by Blizzard on the difficult tuning and overnerfing of the Firelands, and not much to say otherwise. If you don’t have something to say, it probably it is best not speak. But with the announcement of the next expansion of World of Warcraft I have seen the community in general start acting dumb. They say write what you know, and I know about being dumb so here we go.

The first faction in the Panda war is the Panda Hate Crew. I have many friends who fall into the Panda Hate Crew. They view the Pandas as a joke, ruining the game for me, make it too comical. “I’m gonna leave over this Dreamworks knockoff!” Well good for you. It is nice to know what you want and what you don’t and be able to make those decisions. Best of luck!

These are the people who are absolutely and utterly stunned that the Panda Hater Crew exists. They are Pandas. I mean COME ON THEY ARE EFFING PANDAS! How can you not love these guys?!? They do martial arts and all those gorgeous Asian styled landscapes and architecture. This is gonna be so awesome. Well good for you. It is nice to know what you want and be able to look forward to it with the optimism which helps build community. Best of luck!

If that was the extent of the divide it would be fine, but you idiots can’t leave well enough alone. See the Panda Hater Crew probably has their panties in a wad a bit too tight and are getting evangelical about it. You know that guy who graduated high school the year before you and bitched about how much high school sucked, but stuck around for another year still bitching? Yeah, don’t be that guy. Take the time you had with WoW pack it into a memory scrapbook of screenshots, probably write your farewell letter and put it all in a virtual shoebox in the back of your closet. Five years from now you are gonna open it up and be in a nostalgia overdose. You will forget every crappy thing about the game you ever had to deal with, and it will be great.

And Panda Lovers you are not off  the hook either. You guys are idiots because in the rally about how the Panda Haters are dividing the community thus ruining the game, you are in turn dividing the community and doing damage to the game. Everyone plays for different things. You have to be willing to let your friends make their choices about it and walk away if they want to see another game, or just want to sit this expansion out.  But if you get on your high horse and berate people for having a different opinion than yours you force the issue and make them less likely to calm down and rethink it and maybe be Panda Neutral.

Gnomes. Seriously. Gnomes have always been the answer. You didn’t hear me complain about Goblins, Humans, Tauren, Forsaken, Orcs, Trolls, Draenei, Elves (Blood or Night variety), or Worgen. And you won’t hear me complain about Pandas. Why? Because I know that not everyone gets it, and I’m okay with that. And if I get worked up to the point that a race addition to the game makes me hate the game or hate people who hate that race, then I’ve taken it too seriously and need to quit the game for my own sanity. Like the game or don’t. Play the game or don’t. But arguing over whether this is a betrayal of what WoW is, comes off as ridiculous.  If you want to know what a betrayal of a game is like go talk to an SWG vet about the NGE.