World of Warcraft Expansion Pack Adds a New Character…A Panda?

On Friday, October 21st Blizzard Entertainment announced at BlizzCon 2011 that it would be releasing its fourth add-on to its incredibly popular role-playing game World of Warcraft. The expansion, “World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria,” adds another whole continent for gamers to explore in the world Azaroth.

However, the new lost continent is not the only new thing that players can enjoy. Now there is the option to play as a new character, a bear-like creature that is called a pandaren. If players decide to play as this neutral character, they can choose to join one of the two factions that are constantly at war with each other throughout the game, the Alliance or the Horde.

The expansion also adds a new class to the game. Players can now choose to be a martial arts-focused Monk and decide whether they want to play in the game as a tank, a damage dealer or a healer.

With the new add-on the level cap has also been increased. Players can now work all the way up to level 90. This expansion continues in the years past the “Cataclysm.” This was an event that reset the world in the game and modified some of the continents and added new opponents and dungeons.

"In the aftermath of the Cataclysm played out in World of Warcraft's third expansion, Pandaria's heroes are emerging from their land's lush forests and cloud-ringed mountains to choose sides in the escalating war between the Alliance and the Horde and to share the extraordinary secrets of their ancient martial arts," Blizzard said in a statement. "As tensions between the factions near a breaking point following the discovery of this new world, players will be called upon to explore Pandaria's exotic expanses, make contact with its strange indigenous creatures, and unlock the world-changing secrets that have been hiding in the mists for millennia."

Although Blizzard announced the new Pandaria expansion, they have not given a release date for it yet. If you’re a World of Warcraft player, I guess that you will be forced to sit on pins and needles until Blizzard decides to be kind enough to discuss the release date. Until then, feel free to enjoy the preview trailer.

Source: PCMag - World of Warcraft Adds Kung-Fu Pandaren in Fourth Expansion

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Therapists Hoping To Treat "Addicted" World of Warcraft Players

Gaming addiction is a highly debated issue among medical and psychological professionals around the world. Some believe that gaming fixation can be an official addiction and thus a type of mental disorder. There have been many incidents in countries like China and South Korea where gamers engage in gaming marathons that has resulted in the occasional death of the player. Yet despite these incidents, the American Medical Association still doesn't recognize the addiction.

But a recent study in Sweden recently found that gaming is not only addictive, but also found the psychological effects of gaming addiction to be more severe than those of crack cocaine addiction. Wait, what? Video games are more harmful than cocaine!?!? Sounds a little ridiculous. Yet that doesn't stop many professionals from looking for at ways to treat it. Among the professionals trying to treat said video game addiction is prominent London Psychologist Dr. Richard Graham.

Graham is taking a slightly different approach to the treatment of the "disease". His method? Entering the world of the gamers by joining World of Warcraft this fall. By doing this Graham hopes that other mental health experts and therapists will follow his lead. Graham states that "Those affected don't exhibit the same outward warning signs as most teenage anti-social behavior issues do because they're in their bedrooms most of the time, seemingly out of trouble. Because of this we can't get through to them in the traditional educational environment or intrude on their actual bedrooms. We need to turn to the internet itself to tackle these problems."

Graham is taking this approach seriously and has even taken his plan to Blizzard, the creators of the game. Graham is attempting to negotiate a deal in which Blizzard will provide him and his colleagues free subscriptions to the game (yeah, good luck with that). Graham is also working in tandem with other World of Warcraft players in order to create per advocacy groups in which players can report other players who they believe are suffering from the addiction.

An interesting paradox arises from Graham's noble quest. While joining the masses if addicted, will Graham and his colleagues themselves become addicted? Is the will power of Graham and his army of "shrinks" strong enough to withstand the draw of WoW? Whichever way it goes, this study should bring forth some interesting developments of this potential "video game addiction" disorder.

Source: G4TV