Pandas can't talk to each other? Why?

#1 - Oct. 24, 2011, 4:15 p.m.

Taken from http://www.wowheadnews.com/blog=196641/blizzcon-2011-exclusive-interview-with-dave-kosak-wow-lead-quest-designer:

Q: When new pandaren are created they are all neutral. Will they lose their ability to communicate with other Pandaren of the other faction once they have chosen a side?

A: Pandaren will not be able to speak to pandaren from other factions.

My question is, why? From a lore standpoint this makes absolutely no sense. Pandaren are there to be the peacemongers and I am quite sure that once you choose a faction there's not some magical language barrier that gets cast on the members of said faction that would prevent you from speaking your native language. From a purely technical standpoint, and maybe from a PvP battleground standpoint, I might understand. Maybe.

If I click the chat bubble and find "Pandanese" or whatever their language is supposed to be, then we should be able to /say or /yell hi to each other. Given the nature of the Pandaren and what was said about them in the Q&A sessions there's just no real reason for it except for someone's asinine desire to absolutely prevent cross-faction talking. To restrict even members of the exact same race who set off from their home land on separate paths at the same time from being able to talk to each other is far more of a nuisance than anything else.

TL;DR: Pandarens not being able to talk to each other cross-faction makes no sense. While a small detail, is quite story breaking especially because of the Pandaren's main purpose for being there in the first place.

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#13 - Oct. 24, 2011, 9:29 p.m.

We do understand that, by not allowing pandaren of the opposite faction to communicate with one another, there's a breakdown in the story there. But we feel strongly at this point that changing the precedent on cross-faction communication for one race only will ultimately not lead to a good gameplay experience. We're very excited to introduce a race that can be chosen by either faction, though we don't see our philosophy on cross-faction communication changing as a result of this.

This isn't very related, nor is it a way of properly compensating for that communication limitation, but one thing we'd like to do (we think is cool and warranted) is make a unique place in the world exclusive to monks -- think Moonglade for druids.