My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels…?
Senior Online Community Manager Stephen Reid dropped by the forums this week to discuss SWTOR servers and languages. Would it bother you if your server did have a fair number of people on it who spoke something other than your primary tongue?
Dangit, I knew I should have paid more attention in class...
Read on for Stephen’s thoughts on the matter:
Before we get into definitions of what’s racist or not, and get this thread locked…
While we can’t discuss this in much detail – yet – it’s safe to assume there will be servers that will be designated as being ‘officially’ French, German and so on.
That said, in this day and age it’s always possible that foreign language speakers will appear on a predominantly English-speaking server, for any number of reasons. If that happens, you should be tolerant and respectful of them. We’re all gamers, just trying to game.
We’re not planning, however, to force all languages together in one giant multilingual global chat channel.
For North American servers that I’ve played on, there have occasionally been larger populations of Portuguese and French speakers, and sometimes Spanish speakers as well. Personally, I loved the opportunity to learn a smattering of those languages here and there. EVE Online for example, is essentially one “server” that houses people from all over the world. My own guild, Mongbat, is home to a number of polyglots, and that’s been a very positive experience as well.
Have any of you had any bad experiences related to language issues? What about really positive experiences?
On a related note, be on the lookout over the next few days for another language-themed post by yours truly. I’ll give you a hint: Bounty Hunters should be pleased…
And for anyone unfortunate enough to not be acquainted with the title, may I present Monty Python’s Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook sketch. Did you know that the language site Omniglot has an entire page devoted to this phrase? Wondrous, I tell you!
10 Responses to “My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels…?”
the only game that I ever really remember running into people speaking another language was UO. It seems like as time has went on from that point that i guess game companies have gotten better at setting up servers that can be the most convenient for peoples in other time zones and regions I guess, so maybe the population in a game realm tends to become segregated more than in the beginning of the genre.
It just seems that way for me at least, maybe I just have got more unaware of it as I have played over the years or something also, kinda desensitized to it.
Never had a truely bad experience, but as someone who is in a guild run by Finns (who speak great English), I do occasionally have to go, mid conversation: “Guys, I have no idea what that means, but THINK OF THE CHILDREN.” Otherwise my screen is filled with 352 vowels and 2 consonants.
Haha, the first part of that Arabic reads: “If you only knew the power of the side of shadows…”
And the transliteration of Obi Wans name is hilarious: Awouby Waan. God I love Arabic.
It pleases me to no end that you caught that, John! Ana kaman uhibuha al-‘Arabi kathiran! 🙂
Mumtaz! Kyf t’alimta al Arabi? Shaksian, ‘alimtu fil jaysh (wa thumma: Ila Al Iraq!!)
Wait? Are you from the Mongbat that “captured” Mythics’ offices back before Warhammer came out?Mudhuk jidn jidn!!
Hahah, the one and only, yes indeed! Our fellow ‘Bats are responsible for all sorts of shenanigans – there’s no telling what we’ll do next…
As far as the language goes:
درسته قلیلآ فی جامعيي من أجل ترجمة الجرائد ولكن لا اتكلمه
I still have nightmares about filling out verb tables, or looking up archaic roots in Hans Wehr… XD
Ah, Uncle Hans. My most unhappy Arabic memories revolve around 2 hour long sessions of number drills. Gotta love the Army “system of education.”
Doesn’t bother me. Didn’t hinder any of my operations in EVE. If the population is high enough, then this shouldn’t be an issue.