All or most of the lands of Subeta and the areas within them were inspired by RL things/places/people/events/holidays. All games, movies, TV series, books, etc in RL are all inspired, or based on, RL people/places/events/things/holidays. A lot of things are made up, too. However, that being said, you can't get away from RL influence. You can't have it any other way. So what if the name's Mandarin and the inspiration is Asian? It's better to have a real Mandarin name than, what someone said, a pseudo-Mandarin name that could wind up being EXTREMELY offensive to people who are Chinese. They wanted to keep with the spirit of things. There's nothing wrong with being courteous to the language and have a place with a correct name and not a pseudo.

Again, I'm going to be repeating myself because you seem to be missing my point. As has pointed out in this thread already, staff created things, then noted their desire to stray from real life. i wouldn't expect them to change everything created before that point (although they did change some things). I could give two shits less what they actually do, but I'd prefer that if they want to stay with real life things, they don't say the opposite and then stick with them. It's completely fine (at least to me) to do something for a while and change your mind when you realize you want your own autonomy. The same as it's completely cool to draw from real life things (where we all exist). I would just much prefer that they stick with one "want" and one "action" that are the same, as time goes on.

Again, it's not about whether they choose real life or not real life it's about STICKING WITH THE DECISION.

I assume this is why turtle island is in the spot it is. so it fills that time zone hole. it doesn't answer the sacred lands question though

I don't have any problem with it being the theme it is, I just find it funny it wasn't put in that part empty spot.

and I, too, will also say that you can't have everything imaginary. Everything on this site, even in the minutest of ways, has some connection to the real world. Unless someone on staff decides that there should be animals flying around wearing jet packs or transportation from land to land by transporter or a time machine or anything that isn't part of the real world but solely a figment of the imagination, the things/places/events/animals/minions/etc/etc will most be influenced by the real world in some way. There's no getting around it. All games have basis in the real world or influence from the real world. The world was here first. Imaginations were around second. There's no getting around it.

A game has a weapon in it. Is it a weapon that's found in RL? Maybe not. Is the concept of the fact that there are weapons in RL that were drawn from for inspiration for the weapon in the game? Most definitely. There's nothing in a game/book/TV show or series/movie that doesn't have things drawn upon from RL. It just isn't doable.

The consistency is that all places/things/etc on this site are drawn from/inspired by RL but given an imaginary twist to it to make them become part of an imaginary game instead of 100% RL.

I agree absolutely. That's again why I said I was cool when they decided to take some of it from the real world, like the culture and the holiday it represents (with the spirits) and perhaps dropped the real world and went imagination when choosing a name. That way they did bring both to it, instead it seemed too much like real world and none of the "we want to stay away from real world" attitude they had said before. Or if they don't give to giant craps about staying away, just stick with that in words as well. Apparently though, I'm about the only one who would want to see it more gray (pun intended) and not so black and white. I think there are a plethora of possibilities for them to have chosen an Asian sounding name without being literal meaning (even if you couldn't come up with something with the "second imagination" there is a plethora of character sets from various Asian languages without researching meanings), having used real life culture and holiday already. Or in the future pick a culture and focus it around a non-holiday with real names. Some of the "we want to stray from real world" that was said, would have been nice to see.

That's the first thing I thought when I saw the news, lol.

WOW's Pandaria is a copy of Shenkuu too.. tbh even whole China is a copy of Shenkuu. Neopets did everything first! they created all the cultures, lands, EVERYTHING.

You know, if you want to make a China-like land, you need to stick to their style.. if you change a bit, it's not China-like anymore..

and it's much more beautiful than the basic and generic Shenkuu :P

I was actually somehow anticipating to see a new land with this plot so it doesn't seem so "sudden and out of place" to me. The dialogue hinted a bit at it. And when I saw that spirit storm thing on the map, my first thought was that it would probably reveal some sort of new land. Now, I haven't been on neopets in ages but I do remember when Shenkuu was discovered and it wasn't anything like this plot at all. The inspirations might be similar but that's where the resemblance ends for me. Just because neopets decided to have an asian-ish area, doesn't mean that Subeta has to stop themselves from creating their own twist on it.

I think it looks a bit out of place on the map because our current explore page isn't really so current. Space for expansion wasn't a priority at the time imo? Not to mention how new Subeta timezones are.

Again, I think people are jumping the gun a lot here. There's not much to judge based on what we've got so far and I do think people are nitpicking and being overly critical.

It*s the old discussion of NP and Subeta. Yes, of course there are a lot of similar items, Pets and lands. But there is no copyright on an asian land or a cat looking pet. There are themes People love- like Pirates, asian things, Zombies... that's why you find it everywhere. And even if it's a copy- who cares? I wasn'T on NP for month and I love the idea of an asian style land here on Subeta. Maybe a new pet color, too?

I'd love a vaguely Asian-inspired spirit color or something else based on Asian lore. I think the praise for the Battle Challenger art for this plot was pretty much universal.

I think I would absolutely faint if we got a South American-style land.

After and some educated users cleared everything up, I think it's very obvious here what was referenced and what wasn't. I think it's a toss up for the creators: do you have a 'totally' original concept - which is impossible- or do you reference cultures within the real world to create a cohesive vision? I personally would rather have something well-built. Whenever I try to create a world from scratch, my ideas get stuck in prehistoric times, thinking about tribal history and rock structure in the region... yeah. Just thinking about it gives me a headache. So many stalled ideas. I bet this area is going to have some very cool things. Why can't we wait and see?

I would love a pet colour like the grey pets from NP here on Subeta. Waiting for them for years now. Maybe sometimes... ^^ As rainy pets (ok, not longer since there are the storm pets) or emo pets. Copy? Who cares? Want! ^^

You can't please everyone because there will always be complaints that something is either too close or not faithful enough to its reference. I guarantee someone would have made a topic about "bastardized" Asian customs and mythology if Subeta had run too much in the opposite direction.

well like Rah said - times change and things change withing those times. It's super hard to do foreign language names based on a particular country/culture without possibly finding a way of making it insulting. That's probably why the real words were chosen for this name just to keep international peace. Totally different example is when someone's getting a tattoo and they think that the writing they're getting means one thing and it means something else completely and they wind up offending everyone that can read their tattoo because it means something offensive to that nationality >_<

As there's so official "Subetan Language", and I'm willing to bet no officially graduated university linguists on staff to be able to create one, it's nice that it's kinda going this route. It gives it a bit of a RL feel to a place that's imaginary and fun, yet keeping things separate at the same time :)

If what you mean by "more grey" is indeed a bit more integration of RL within the fantasy and unreality of Subeta, then, yes, I'd love it, too. It might be an inspiration to research more into the different cultures and see what there really is out there. Even if it's just in the naming of places and items on this site. It'd give us a moment to stop and think about where things are from and how something real can be turned into something fantastical. And, like you said, maybe a new holiday or two? :D

Heh...myth and lore, fantasy and legend all have basis in fact. I'm looking forward to seeing this new land become an amazing addition to this site! :D

Aside from the points people have already brought up, the lore behind Shengui Guo and Shenkuu is totally different. This plot was all about appeasing angry/forgotten spirits. Shenkuu's plot was about a crew of merchants in their flying ship looking for their missing navigator. We had to guess which crew member pushed him overboard.

Shengui Guo seems to be a land heavily based in spiritual mythology, while Shenkuu is just a merchant town. So, unless the people of Shengui Guo turn out to have flying merchant ships, I'd say their similarities end with their cultural influence.

Did you even read any of the posts on this thread before posting, or did you only read the subject

Ok.. I honestly don't remember much about Shenkuu and if I remember Shenkuu's mythology correctly, there wasn't honestly that much about spirits anything.

This seems to be based more on the Chinese idea of wandering spirits, ancestor worship from what I got from the plot. So, in terms of plot, Shenkuu and Shengui Guo are actually pretty different in how they were created.

I could be wrong, I don't really remember what the Shenkuu creation myth was on neopets though I can't honestly remember there being any mention of spirits in the land.

Lastly, as someone who is Chinese I kind of think this land is pretty cool. The idea of spirits, gods and demons, in general and how they operate in Chinese mythology has kind of always fascinated me. Plus, the turtle myth of a turtle who carries the world around on his back was always one of my favorite chinese myths as a kid.

Now, we need a monkey pet because I want something that's monkey king based from that land. XD

I've a friend I dearly care for but he's constantly looking for the most negative possible interpretation of things and it drives him up the wall that I'm willing to be patient, to wait to see what happens and to look for the good things that might happen. It's the same thing with this new land. It's so new, so full of potential that I can't see any point in trying to rip it all to shreds purely based on it's appearance.

As for the 'it doesn't fit with modern Subeta' as a complaint, well, yeah that's kinda the point with this land having been restored from how long lost? I would expect it to have a whole different feel, culture and patterns of behavior. I am really excited to see what they do with it.

The jolliest koi fish NPC ever! ❤

Love the Floating Market and the new fresh selections!