I’ll add my two cents, I haven’t really played WoW as FFXIV has taken me, and I haven’t even RPed since BfA. But I’ve always loved the Pandaren Summit and would gladly help out or show up to it! It has been a heated topic on the inclusion of non Pandaren to the Summit and I have to stay as someone who has been to all Summits, I think they should continue to be Pandaren restricted. If anything maybe consider lifting it to just the races of Pandaria so Hozen, Jinyu… and uggh Mogu can even come along or even those whose characters reside in Pandaria.
I look at it this way… Why would a Resident of say… Orgrimmar or Stormwind want to come listen to Pandaren speak on subjects partaining to Pandaria? The stuff we do talk about has nothing to do with them, and it is ICly spoken in Pandaria so they wouldn’t even be able to understand it?
I get that people love Pandaria but hate RPing as or playing as Pandaren so they want to go to Pandaren themed events on a non Pandaren but there are events for that, this isn’t it. There have been talks of Pandaren being outnumbered if we did open it to everyone and yeah that absolutely would happen, of the two Pandaren themed festivals I hosted Pandaren didn’t have much of a presence and they were always outnumbered, the same would happen here. People forget how small the Pandaren RP community is compared to say the Tauren, Vulpera, or Blood Elf communties. We don’t have a whole lot of us and most of our big guilds are dead, Jadepaw is dead, I don’t know about Steelpaw, Kui-Zhang is dead, I think as mentioned Pandaren Empire is the only one still doing things.
There is a time and place for an open to all Pandaren themed event and I would be more than happy to help make one of those as a separate event if that is what people are looking for, a Pandaren Heritage Festival would be much more fun to be an open event. Wouldn’t you rather want to come to an event involving Pandaren food, brew, sparring, lorewalker songs/stories, monks and warriors showing off some Pandaren fighting techniques, rather than listen to a bunch of Pandaren sitting in a circle giving speeches?
I’m not making this post entirely without any knowledge of what’s going on. I’ve been communicating with friends (like @Raton of the Wolfmane Tribe) who have been to these events in the past, and I’m not making these arguments without any understanding of the situation.
I won’t go into a long-winded counter-argument. I’ll just say I welcome both approaches, just not with this particular event. I like it as is and I think the concerns we mentioned are justifiable. The Pandaren community has declined quite a bit, other populations have grown quite a bit, and I think changing up the core of the event kind of defeats the whole purpose of it. To be honest, if I saw that the event was suddenly dominated by non-Pandaren, that’s going to disincentivize me from wanting to attend and speak at all… which contributes to the reduction of actual Pandaren at a Pandaren event.
Because not all orcs are from Orgrimmar, not all tauren are in Mulgore, not all blood elves are in Silvermoon, and so on and so forth. There may be orcs, or tauren or others living in Pandaria. Or they may even be travellers who are interested in Pandaren culture. These are all valid reasons to be wanting to be there, and will not interfere with Pandaren discussions in any way.
Which is why I said it could be open to those that reside within Pandaria as my Night Elf would also be of this special case, he is married to a Pandaren, resides in Pandaira and has a Pandaren child, as well as actively defends Pandaria. But opening the floodgates to everyone is something we shouldn’t do.
Of the pandaren events I’ve been to, I have seen pandaren outnumbered, but it did not harm the pandaren image of the event. There were still pandaren present and pandaren culture and themed RP available. It being outnumbered just wasn’t an issue. People go there for pandaren themed rp, most of them aren’t gonna want to detract from it.
I think this rule is really only for the speakers? I’ve seen non-Pandaren there (such as yourself) attend in the past, just not actually… y’know, contribute in the discussions. But I didn’t help found anything.
That is subjective and, I’m sorry, I have to disagree tremendously. I don’t know about others, but that’s a big problem for me.
Members of other races who reside within Pandaria still can’t visit the summit, or participate in it though. Especially if it is being spoken exclusively in Pandaren language.
My friend and I actually co-host a Pandaria event as well once a year called the Soju Slam, but it’s a lot of work to run one event. It’s why a topic like this is important, because depending on the scale you start needing the cooperation and consensus of others just to have the manpower for it. It seems many of the people prior involved with the summit want it to remain similar to the ones prior. I’ve attended all of them so far and would urge everyone to not let the rule of Pandaren-only attendance discourage you from going because it’s still pretty good.
To be frank while I was more curious about the scale but that is a trickier thing to establish, which is asking should the event last more than one day and encompass more than the debate itself. The Summit could at least the the opening point to get interest in Pandaren and Pandaria rp again and get some coordinating for events that do include more people.
It was stated why I was allowed there and then allowed to stay. It has been main very clear that the summits were Pandaren exclusive. Now if others were allowed to speak, that is news to me.
I want to add that if someone is concerned about not being able to mechanically participate because they can’t speak Pandaren, I would recommend making a mage alt and picking up the tongues spell from Sisters Sorcerous in Northrend Dalaran. This should let you understand Pandaren, no matter your race.
You’re making arguments and conclusions based on your own perceptions while dismissing others and their analogies on how they’ve interacted, and led, the events and how they style them. A good pointer to this is how you believe that those who don’t wish to roll a Pandaren to be apart of a Pandaren-exclusive event will be further disenfranchised despite Lianshi specifically stating that they’ve made a lot of accommodations to new and low-level Pandaren. You’re also arguing from an egocentric point of view because you’re attempting to change a year-long event and morph it into something that you deem acceptable erstwhile ignoring that you can practically create your own one - likely with those opposed (even mine) vocal, and maybe further, support.
Wuvvums is an excellent event-creator and organizer. I know them personally and have talked to her over the years. They’re much more adept at creating things on their own and has had resounding applause towards it. They can, and likely will, create their own version of a Pandaren summit - with other’s support most likely - without wishing to interfere with the ones that preceded them, or co-opting it.
I do not mean to speak for Wuvvums on what they will do, but how I view what they’re likely going to. Apologies if I accidentally offend you, Wuvvums.
That is awesome! I would love to attend sometime. Help out if I can. I am spread thin these days. RL can be mean.
Sadly there are people that are discouraged by that rule that have attended or heard of it through word of mouth. Since I am talking about this thread in voice, a friend actually said they just couldn’t go to an event like that. Earlier another friend mentioned that they went to one of the summits as was disappointed that it was Pandaren exclusive. There are people out there that it just rubs the wrong way.
But in the end it is up to the hosts to decide who is and isn’t invited to their event and how it is run. The event has been a success from the sounds of it so why change it for the mystery number that might be out there. And I personally know you cannot please everyone. True statement. All things to consider.
However, I feel that you were on the right track with your original post and judging from what everyone said, those who favor the original summit staying that way are fine with you hosting your event how you want it. Besides, I’d say that this thread also proves that there are plenty of people that want to see more Pandaren events anyway.
I’m sorry, but it seems you are ignoring my own arguments for the sake of supporting your position. I specifically argued with that point stating that this isn’t just about the ease of creating new pandaren, but the inconsistency it has with baseline pandaren culture in the lore, and have provided various arguments since surrounding that.
Just because something has been done one way for a long while, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily good or right. Secondly, this isn’t about creating a new event, this is about this event. I’m not ignoring that I can’t just create a new event, but it is disingeneous to frame that as an alternative when we all know that organizing new events isn’t easy or a simple alternative. That’s why there’s so much investment in this event. Especially so when it is labelled as “Pandaren Summit” and hence implies the voice of all pandaren roleplayers.
I do not disagree with Wuvvums being an excellent event-creator and organizer. I’m certain that anyone who has been able to bring so many pandaren to an event is a solid event organizer. I don’t mean to offend them either, and she was not in the center of my argument at all. My disagreement is with this one aspect of the event, and not her.
I feel like you are really getting upset and offended over an event that hasn’t been created cause you may or may not be able to bring your non Pandaren to it. We haven’t even made an event or even know if there will be one yet. Maybe relax and take a deep breath and when that time comes talk to the organizer and see what they say.
I think this was already addressed as an OOC concern, though, right? This isn’t about any kind of IC prejudice or something.
I don’t want to sound demeaning, but I think you’re reading too much into this. There’s no “right” or “wrong” here, it’s just an RP event. There’s plenty of reason to create an event all your own – almost everyone of whom agrees or even disagrees with you would gladly attend, if my read is correct – without changing one that exists. This is kind of our way to “take stock” of our community. We’re a fraction of a much, much larger whole and this places the whole concept at risk.
On a positive note, it’s good to see all you Pandaren in this thread. I feel like I never see very many of you out in the wild and I say that as a Gnome.
