So if pandaren make an appearance in the game....

[Meggers]

Well, revenge more so like spite.

[cowmuflage]

They would proberly put them in becouse they want to put them in.

[Dr. Rockso]

Essentially it's an internet urban legend. I'm sure China frowns on panda violence, but there is no actual concrete law against that, and especially in an American game there would be no effect. At most China's version of WoW would be edited or censored much like they did for WotLK.

Pretty much this. Going to the bother of rolling out Mists of Pandaria and then not having pandas appear in any meaningful form (and bearing in mind the pandaren brewmaster hero has always been playable on WC3 battlenet throughout) would be rather silly...

this is a way different situation that what they did for WOTLK and WC3 was nothing like Wow is today. As far as this being an American game that statement might have been true 4 years ago but the way WoW has grown its an international phenomenon. with that said blizzard will want to keep everyone happy and by making Pandas and Pandarean mobs that cant be attacked and or harmed in the game that will keep there china customers happy along with everyone else. Im not saying they wont put Pandarean in the game what in saying is its a very slight chance it will be a class/mob that can be attacked same goes for any kind of Panda bear mod that might be put in the game.

[Agravaine]

Well, revenge more so like spite.

Exactly. True tit-for-tat revenge would involve forcing American prisoners to farm gold in Perfect World or some such Chinese game, wouldn't it?

They would proberly put them in becouse they want to put them in.

Of course, in the end it is their call. Just to put things into perspective, though, when Metzen and Brack said what they did in that Q&A in October 08, they were trying to maintain their subscriber base in China. At the end of 08, WotLK came out and the Chinese censors banned it twice. In April 09, Blizzard announced that they were dropping the9, their Chinese distributor, and giving operations/distribution rights to NetEase in June of 09. WoW was under tremendous scrutiny and strict regulations that kept it unavailable in China until September of that year. WotLK, tweaked to satisfy the Chinese censors, finally released in 2010, nearly 2 years after we got it.

At this point I'd say they're probably not too concerned about their subscriber numbers, public approval and toeing the line in China -- which wasn't a huge part of their revenue in the first place.

So yeah, if they do put Pandaren in it'll definitely be because they want to.

[Worba]

Essentially it's an internet urban legend. I'm sure China frowns on panda violence, but there is no actual concrete law against that, and especially in an American game there would be no effect. At most China's version of WoW would be edited or censored much like they did for WotLK.

Pretty much this. Going to the bother of rolling out Mists of Pandaria and then not having pandas appear in any meaningful form (and bearing in mind the pandaren brewmaster hero has always been playable on WC3 battlenet throughout) would be rather silly...

this is a way different situation that what they did for WOTLK and WC3 was nothing like Wow is today. As far as this being an American game that statement might have been true 4 years ago but the way WoW has grown its an international phenomenon. with that said blizzard will want to keep everyone happy and by making Pandas and Pandarean mobs that cant be attacked and or harmed in the game that will keep there china customers happy along with everyone else. Im not saying they wont put Pandarean in the game what in saying is its a very slight chance it will be a class/mob that can be attacked same goes for any kind of Panda bear mod that might be put in the game.

First of all WC3 is still played on battlenet classic, so it's not just something that happened 8 years ago - Blizzard still hosts it, (killable) pandaren brewmaster and all. And it's available in China. So if the panda thing really was grounds for major loss of business on Blizzard's part, that rather noteworthy feature would have been changed or removed.

Yet it wasn't - the only thing changed was that new Blizzard pandaren concept art was altered to omit the samurai theme. That's it.

Now. Does that mean Blizzard's Chinese distributor will encounter no hurdles when it tries to roll out the Mists of Pandaria xpac (assuming this trademark follows the same precedent all of its predecessors have)? It may - recall that it took them 2 years after western release date to get wotlk tweaked to meet China's requirements. Also recall that those changes and others like having modified undeads on their servers that showed no bones, had zero impact on the western gaming experience - as Vephriel pointed out, history has shown that Blizzard addresses Chinese cultural (read: governmental) concerns by giving it to them later, in a modified version and not by allowing said concerns to hold the entire xpac hostage worldwide.

So no, they're not going to release something called Mists of Pandaria and have it include pandaren who are untouchable or otherwise not central to the plot. Assuming they do object, China would just get it later, probably with the pandaren re-skinned as plain ol' furbolgs or etc. Leaving the rest of us free to enjoy the full version.

[cowmuflage]

A Tuatara would be cool to see as a mount or tameable pet. Yes I know they are not asian BUT they would fit in. I mean who would'nt want to tame a reptile that LOOKS like a lizard but is not infact one?

Edit: I was going to say something like maybe a Taniwha BUT it proberly would piss the maoris off and heck if they made LEGO change some of their Bionicle names I think they would make blizz do something :S

[Dr. Rockso]

First of all WC3 is still played on battlenet classic, so it's not just something that happened 8 years ago - Blizzard still hosts it, (killable) pandaren brewmaster and all. And it's available in China. So if the panda thing really was grounds for major loss of business on Blizzard's part, that rather noteworthy feature would have been changed or removed.

Yet it wasn't - the only thing changed was that new Blizzard pandaren concept art was altered to omit the samurai theme. That's it.

Now. Does that mean Blizzard's Chinese distributor will encounter no hurdles when it tries to roll out the Mists of Pandaria xpac (assuming this trademark follows the same precedent all of its predecessors have)? It may - recall that it took them 2 years after western release date to get wotlk tweaked to meet China's requirements. Also recall that those changes and others like having modified undeads on their servers that showed no bones, had zero impact on the western gaming experience - as Vephriel pointed out, history has shown that Blizzard addresses Chinese cultural (read: governmental) concerns by giving it to them later, in a modified version and not by allowing said concerns to hold the entire xpac hostage worldwide.

So no, they're not going to release something called Mists of Pandaria and have it include pandaren who are untouchable or otherwise not central to the plot. Assuming they do object, China would just get it later, probably with the pandaren re-skinned as plain ol' furbolgs or etc. Leaving the rest of us free to enjoy the full version.

first of all WC3 and WoW are on 2 different lvls WC3 is so below the radar its not even funny. blizzard will do whatever it takes to make all there community happy and playing the game, point of the matter is they could very well lose alot of Chinese players to this and they know that, thats the whole reason you haven't seen a single Pandalike mob in the game. that's why its a VERY SLIM chance you will see the panda race or panda mobs as a playable class, Killable mob, or tamable pet. You cant just assume that this is an Americana game anymore so they will do whatever there American player want they have to think about there entire community.

[Chimera]

i would moreso see The Mists of Pandaria showing the Pandarians as a neutral race, their city a sanctuary (so no pvp), and they facing off against an ancient enemy that has managed to turn the tide against them (with of course, the npc's so rediculiously weak that they are in an endless loop of battle when you go to scenes where battles between the two races are fighting)

[cowmuflage]

That Xakaal is a very good idea!

Edit: random idea for the big bad guy a evil murloc king!

[Wain]

Assuming they do object, China would just get it later, probably with the pandaren re-skinned as plain ol' furbolgs or etc. Leaving the rest of us free to enjoy the full version.

There's actually a "panda" furbolg skin already in the database, though to my knowledge it's never been used

[cowmuflage]

Pandaren and furblog's are related too so I could see that.

[Chimera]

Yep there is:



And just cause i was bored, a little softening of the model xD

[Worba]

First of all WC3 is still played on battlenet classic, so it's not just something that happened 8 years ago - Blizzard still hosts it, (killable) pandaren brewmaster and all. And it's available in China. So if the panda thing really was grounds for major loss of business on Blizzard's part, that rather noteworthy feature would have been changed or removed.

Yet it wasn't - the only thing changed was that new Blizzard pandaren concept art was altered to omit the samurai theme. That's it.

Now. Does that mean Blizzard's Chinese distributor will encounter no hurdles when it tries to roll out the Mists of Pandaria xpac (assuming this trademark follows the same precedent all of its predecessors have)? It may - recall that it took them 2 years after western release date to get wotlk tweaked to meet China's requirements. Also recall that those changes and others like having modified undeads on their servers that showed no bones, had zero impact on the western gaming experience - as Vephriel pointed out, history has shown that Blizzard addresses Chinese cultural (read: governmental) concerns by giving it to them later, in a modified version and not by allowing said concerns to hold the entire xpac hostage worldwide.

So no, they're not going to release something called Mists of Pandaria and have it include pandaren who are untouchable or otherwise not central to the plot. Assuming they do object, China would just get it later, probably with the pandaren re-skinned as plain ol' furbolgs or etc. Leaving the rest of us free to enjoy the full version.

first of all WC3 and WoW are on 2 different lvls WC3 is so below the radar its not even funny. blizzard will do whatever it takes to make all there community happy and playing the game, point of the matter is they could very well lose alot of Chinese players to this and they know that, thats the whole reason you haven't seen a single Pandalike mob in the game. that's why its a VERY SLIM chance you will see the panda race or panda mobs as a playable class, Killable mob, or tamable pet. You cant just assume that this is an Americana game anymore so they will do whatever there American player want they have to think about there entire community.

Below the radar? WC3 is the source of the entire panda issue actually... so that statement is about 180 degrees off.

That aside, you're swimming against the tide of precedent - if you look at Chinese distribution of WoW over the years, from the beginning Blizzard has rolled out re-tooled versions of WoW to meet the requirements of the Chinese government. China felt that showing exposed bones in undead models was disrespectful to their ancestors* - now if what you're projecting is true, that would mean horde undead (and NPCs, mobs etc) would all have been modified in the western version. Were they? Nope. Just in the Chinese version.

How about wotlk? The entire xpac was stalled for 2 years until more (China server-only) adjustments were made. Did that have the slightest impact on the game the rest of the world plays? Nope. Yet you think this time it will be different. Despite the entire upcoming xpac being predicated on the home of the Pandaren.

I guess we'll see, eh?

*Again, it's worth noting that even where these Chinese-side adjustments have happened, it's to meet government requirements not about offending Chinese consumers - for example Chinese demand for wotlk at time of western release date was massive, bones and all. And even where the Chinese govt does get involved, they're incredibly selective and arbitrary about where they apply their restrictions - the movie Chinese Ghost Story for example features lots of animated skeletons, and they have playable pandas in Perfect World (a very popular Chinese MMO). Etc, etc. Etc.

[Chimera]

Yea, being a now active member of PWI I see a lota panda bear mounts and panda Untamed (the name of the race, you can choose from different animal forms in the creation screen)

I myself can see the pandarians using the tuskarr model moreso then furbolg if they're gonna be the center or at least a key piece to the xpac but maybe the furbolgs as a more feral race of the pandarens, as if evolution split them in half long long ago (maybe have them split up by a great mountain range?), they wouldnt be evil, but a neutral faction you can gain rep with, like the timbermaws, and US version can have the option to go to war but chinese will have that greyed out

[Worba]

Yeah, there are lore reasons both for and against having Pandaren playable, but not cultural ones. The only way the Chinese govt would object is if Blizzard kept them wearing samurai gear - and even then, they'd just get re-tooled as samurai furbolg with a non-panda name on the Chinese servers, same as they've done for every other item the Chinese govt red-flagged.

How do you like Perfect World?

[Chimera]

Yea, all in all despite there being all sorts of ways to make it do-able for both sides, its gonna be up to blizz if they wanna go to those lengths, specially with the whole WotLK crazyness they went through.. i hope though that one day, much like the Emerald Dream (which im reeeeally hoping they'll introduce down the road as an xpac), that we'll get to see Pandarens ^-^

PWI is actually really fun, theres annoying aspects to it, actually theres a LOT that i could ramble on and on for many paragraphs about but i just read the forums and suck it up that, being a free game, 98% of the awesome killer stuff like aerocrafts (their version of flying mounts) and ground mounts cost real money to aquire. And that you need some weird device i have yet to look up to talk in World Chat

[Skeeter]

wasnt this already debunked by blizzard? i coulda swore i saw a post on MMOchampion stating that anything that has to do with Pandaria will be strictly for Comic books and Novels

[Worba]

Nope. To the contrary this whole thing is based on Blizzard's recent trademark acquisition.

[Wain]

wasnt this already debunked by blizzard? i coulda swore i saw a post on MMOchampion stating that anything that has to do with Pandaria will be strictly for Comic books and Novels

Not exactly. What Tom Chilton said was:
"...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."

The key word there is "most", meaning that this time could be different. Or not. He's being evasive. But of course he is... Blizzard doesn't comment on the nature of an expansion before they're ready to, and that means not denying anything as well as not confirming it. From what I remember the trademark number/code/something-like-that was one that Blizzard has used in the past only for expansions, or at least the MMO itself. Never books, comics etc. This is what is fuelling the speculation.

[Skeeter]

wasnt this already debunked by blizzard? i coulda swore i saw a post on MMOchampion stating that anything that has to do with Pandaria will be strictly for Comic books and Novels

Not exactly. What Tom Chilton said was:
"...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."

The key word there is "most", meaning that this time could be different. Or not. He's being evasive. But of course he is... Blizzard doesn't comment on the nature of an expansion before they're ready to, and that means not denying anything as well as not confirming it. From what I remember the trademark number/code/something-like-that was one that Blizzard has used in the past only for expansions, or at least the MMO itself. Never books, comics etc. This is what is fuelling the speculation.

ahh yep thats the quote i was thinkin about, thanks, i read it awhile ago when i was bored and decided to see what WoW was up to (hadnt played it in months) so i wasnt even interested in the debate at the time