Discovery Gaming Community

Hey all

I've noticed recently that language on the server causes some issues - and im not talking about swearing, i mean... languages which are spoken on the server.
I was in NY the other day and a fellow started posting in Chinese, i quickly told him that he should speak English on the server, (in my god-awful Chinese) and Hoodlum chimed up as well saying that English should be spoken in system chat.

Last night, while menacing a trader in my cruiser (menacing, but not shooting, looking fierce in my toothless tiger.. oh whatever, you all know my opinions on that from another thread hehe:)) the guy took a while to respond, and when he did, the poor bloke told me his English wasn't good and he was getting a dictionary. To his credit, after a while, he got the message of what i was trying to suggest, and even eventually played along. (I threatened to call my Titan wielding brothers if he didn't deliver a cargo load of food to Crete). I've seen this guys name in game quite a few times, he's doing a well known trade run and is pretty likely to get pounced on.... and often.

And he's not the only one... I've been dishing out some hefty Role Play lines in system quite a few times.. and the guys at the other end, either don't understand at all, or, as my sporting friend last night did, might need a dictionary. Very often i suspect, they might get the "vibe" of what you're saying, but not actually know how to respond.
This can become an issue, because the fact that someone doesn't HALT, when you tell them to, or tell you who they are when they don't understand the word "state" in "State your ID", or seem to reply when you tell them "//re-engaging is against server rules", could indicate that the person simply doesn't speak English - and is not the rule-breaker, bad Rp-er that people might instantly suspect.


But it does have pretty serious implications for RP, (it makes it.. pretty difficult) and also implications for rule infractions. I think some of these guys simply don't understand what they are told in game, and possibly for that matter, what the rules actually mean - and by that i mean, the rules are in a foreign language and they don't understand them.
I'm not sure, but i have a suspicion that some of the groups being hassled out now for being "pvp/cap ship whores" might not actually understand whats being said to them, and possibly might not, literally know what "Role Play" means.... i dunno.. thats just a theory.


From what Hoodlum said in NY the other night i gather that officially this is an English speaking server, but i think there are a fair amount of non English speaking players in game, and i think that some of these people might be getting misunderstood, killed in PVP unnecessarily, possibly even sanctioned perhaps because of a language barrier.

I guess what im saying is, before filing a violation report, or engaging in PVP with someone doesn't respond, or does..but in a strange way that doesn't seem to make.. much sense. - it might be worth checking if the other person actually speaks your language, and being a little patient with them.

I dunno - Does the server have a policy on this?

The problem is if they cannot understand the primary language of this server, then they will never be able to
communicate, with the administrative team concerning any problems or rule violations. And primarily, with
any of you to be able to roleplay in any way. This is why the server is English speaking only.
We have been down this road before. We need to be able as admins to get an immediate answer. Otherwise
what do we do ? Cosmopolitan as we are here, we do need some common ground, and language is it ...

Hoodlum

What I think would be great, would be if upon logging in for the first time to teh server on a new account, the playewr was propted to type in answeres to a few questions in English. The questions could be even about rules if you wanted them to be. But it would help people realise that this is an english only server. MIght seam a bit harsh and the coding might now allow it, but It would do the job.

Verg

' Wrote:What I think would be great, would be if upon logging in for the first time to teh server on a new account, the playewr was propted to type in answeres to a few questions in English. The questions could be even about rules if you wanted them to be. But it would help people realise that this is an english only server. MIght seam a bit harsh and the coding might now allow it, but It would do the job.

Verg

Uh... you yourself made errors and typos there. It wouldn't work, considering how poor at grammar and spelling we all are without the aid of a certain Juan Arquero.

The sad fact of the matter is, as a RP server, communication is paramount, and because this is a server slated as an english speaking one, communication is made in english (perhaps in the future we will see a french or korean (or other languages) discovery RP server).

It's harsh, it's totalitarian, but until every person on the planet, is capable of speaking every language on the planet, it's something that works, just remember, when someone responds slowly, or has to think about each individual word, they're not stupid, and in most cases, are probably doing better in your language than you would in theirs.

disco was advancing to be one of the top mods for freelancer again - so many people want to check it out. its just a download and the obstacles to log on the server. many of those come from other servers that went down due to the global support being down.

many of those are from countries that are most likely not teaching english in school. - but they may still be willing to play. the rules / server puts a LOT of importance on the "protection" of the young / children ( 7 days ban for swearing ) ... but its often those people that are not as great at a foreign language. (( makes little sense to protect them from swearing on the one hand and kicking them for not speaking english properly on the other ))

language is the main important tool to roleplay, no doubt. but thats an issue that will fix itself. if people see that they have problems finding "friends" or fitting in, they ll simply leave. - those that try hard will stay and will at some time fit in. i don t see a problem there.

I posted the same language thing a while ago. I think the verdict was that as long as they are words that could be globaly known, such as "jawohl" and "guten abend" in german or whatever, then it's ok. But nothing as complex as "Und warum duerfen wir nicht Deutsch ueberall reden?" is not allowed. But I think that if you're in private with a person who can understand you, then it's ok.

Also....in other countries where they speak only limited english (sometimes its picked up from TV, movies,music)..look at the number of curse words used....I spent 6 months cleaning up my wife's speech,as she's from the Republic of Georgia,and only knew a little english(as well as speaking Georgian,Russian,German), and some of the words were of the "not so nice in public" form. And these she picked from watching english tv,movies and music.So...before I ramble on too much...I guess what I'm saying is that in a way we have shot ourselves in the foot when it comes to language used on the server because thats how they think we speak normally......and thats my 2 cents worth.

Blunt: I've quoted your post in pieces below, so that I could give you my reaction as I read it.

' Wrote:Uh... you yourself made errors and typos there.

At this point, I quickly proofread Verg's post and found five typos. ((After I finished reading Blunt's post I checked Verg's post again and found three more typos.))

Quote:It wouldn't work, considering how poor at grammar and spelling we all are...

My instant reaction: "Hey, speak for yourself."

Quote:...without the aid of a certain Juan Arquero.

Now I started laughing my head off.:lol:

Jinx: Ironically, I believe that the first words of English that most foreigners learn are swear words, as pointed out by gafwmn (which I can never remember how to pronounce, even though he has repeatedly told me). Even without the influence of movies and television, that is still true. I'm sure that swear words were among the first English words that my father learned in Argentina in the 1930s and 1940s, long before he had seen a television set and at a time when swearing was extremely rare in movies. The first words I learned in Italian were swear words, long before I saw Italian television when I visited Italy in 1989, but that was mostly influence from my father who grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where Italian swear words were (and probably still are) used as slang.

SwissScorch: Of the three initial German words you listed ("jawohl" and "guten abend"), I'm only familiar with "guten" which I know means good. I've never heard the other two, so those words aren't as globally-known as you think. Ironically, my RL last name is Swiss, but in the German language.

gafwmn: Welcome to the Disco forums and thanks again for your generosity. You helped me get all three of my characters started on the SDS server, not knowing that I controlled all three (until I told you who I was after each generous donation). I think I've also run across you on one or two other servers. Freelancer is a small universe.

What about translating the RP server rules into a few of the more significant languages?