A Follow-up to WoW's Next Expansion - Mists of Pandaria

With Cataclysm's release worldwide, WoW's next expansion has become a hot topic among players. Blizzard has recently registered a trademark called "Mists of Pandaria", which, in the view of many insiders and players, may be the name of WoW's next expansion.

It is said that Pandaren and Ethereals will be introduced into WoW's new expansion as new playable characters. Specifically, the Pandaren will be tied to the Horde, while the Ethereals to the Alliance, and Queen Azshara and the new Old God N'zoth will show up in company with new fields & maps, challenging Rexxar-related storyline quests and so on.

Though it's not an official announcement, MMO-Champion expressed not long ago that the international codes of 009 and 041 only seemed to appear on Blizzard's online game trademarks. As alleged by MMO-Champion, the newly-registered trademark does not mean a book or anything like that, and in view of the previous trademarks, it probably accounts to a new expansion.

Anyway, Blizzard once also registered some trademarks that failed to be put into effect eventually. So, trademarks cannot stand as convincing evidence of new products. In a recent interview with IGN, Game Director Tom Chilton said that the speculation was, "wildly overhyped." He added, "If you look at traditionally how we've handled that race it's been in those secondary products because we haven't realized it in the world. Most of the time when we do anything panda-related it's going to be a comic book or a figurine or something like that." So what the earth will Mists of Pandaria be? Comic books, figurines, or a new expansion? Maybe things will come to light at BlizzCon this October.