World Of Warcraft: Mists Of Pandaria Cinematic Trailer Will Be Accompanied By Chinese Drums

Blizzard has something special planned for this year's gamescom. They plan to show off the opening cinematic video from World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria during a special event at the European gaming convention.
The cinematic will premiere on August 16th at 14:00. Blizzard will air it in English and German on large screens on their booth. After the trailer concludes, MANAO - Drums of China will perform. This all-female Chinese drumming group gained global attention by performing at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games. I guess they're an appropriate choice for a musical performance, considering that Mists of Pandaria has a pseudo-Chinese theme.

Pandaria, the fourth expansion for World of Warcraft, introduces a new continent of the same name. This mysterious land, home to the Panda-like humanoids known as Pandaren, will offer up new challenges to high-level players. The usual raft of additional content (dungeons, higher level cap, raids) will be accompanied by new features like pet battles and challenge modes. Players will also have access to a new Monk class and the Pandaren race.

When Pandaria was first announced, cynics assumed that the game's premise was an attempt to shore up subscriptions over in China. The drum concert won't disabuse people of that notion. Still, the whole "they put pandas in the game so Chinese people would play" argument never held much water for me. It's like assuming Americans would automatically buy a game with bald eagles.

Blizzard won't be holding a BlizzCon this year so they're planning to have a big presence at gamescom. They're planning to show off Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm in addition to Pandaria. They'll also hold BlizzCon-like activities like dance and costume contests.

gamescom 2012 will run from August 15th to 19th in Cologne, Germany.