If you got into World of Warcraft after 2012 when the Mists of Pandaria expansion came out, it’s probably a jarring experience to create a character and see the Pandaren as a customizable option for your character’s race. The half-panda, half-humanoid race is extremely unconventional for WoW, or even any RPG, and there’s really no denying that as serious as their storylines might be at times, Pandaren are inherently silly to look at.
In a post on the WoW subreddit earlier today, players exchanged ideas on how they’d visually update the Pandaren, and they came to the consensus that more customization options (like the ones other races in the game have received) are needed.
“The artwork for the Pandaren is cool, but the designs in-game are very goofy,” the original poster of the thread, Kyber99, said. “Which is great, and a lot of people like it. But they should really have more serious, heroic customizations to match the concept art.”
What’s holding the Pandaren back in terms of customization is that their faces are relatively cartoonish. And I know that’s not saying much considering the cartoony nature of WoW, but even in comparison to some of the other races in the game, there’s a case to be made that Pandaren are the silliest. Perhaps it’s the way they lean into their panda side more than their humanoid side, or perhaps it’s the fact they can never seem to wipe the grins off their faces. Whatever it is, Pandaren just look a bit less serious than the other races in WoW.
“Pandaren were once the pinnacle of slick model tech when they came out, and they wanted all the playable models to get up to panda standards,” a WoW player named Snukb said in the Reddit comments. “Now they’re left in the dust. Even Worgen got rid of their permanent snarl when they got remodeled. I want no less for Pandaren.”
What’s most frustrating about the Pandaren is that if you actually go back into the WoW lore, they’re a pretty cool race. Even in-game, the story of the Pandaren is one of the best that WoW has to offer, and the Mists of Pandaria leveling experience is a candidate for the best out of every expansion. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that the Pandaren models are relatively unserious.
Over the last few WoW expansions, all of the game’s races have been receiving customization updates, with new facial features, hairstyles, piercings, tattoos, and other niche additions being made. Pandaren, however, still feel slightly dated, even with the new updates in mind. Some players on Reddit agreed it’s time for male Pandaren to lose their mandatory “beer bellies,” and that a slimmed-down model for the race would benefit the race in a quest to look more imposing.
With how open and responsive Blizzard has been with the WoW community as of late, it’s possible that if enough noise is made, a visual update for the Pandaren could be coming down the pipeline. Still, the devs have no announced plans for anything panda-related at this time—but perhaps changes could come when the next WoW expansion gets announced.
