Common Districts->Anets Joke Right?

"There would be the exact same reaction from any of the other European countries",

Merely conjecture.

"people who are saying that we are whining really don't get the point."

False statement. There is no 'The' point. Merely a point (that I understand and do not agree with) that you personally want to make into something, speaking for others. You certainly do not speak for me even though i speak English and am from the UK.

"Yes many languages do not have their own home district, and I welcome the idea of a multi-lingual district"

Glad to hear that.

"removing our home district (or just renaming it as some people claim) to do this I find offensive. "

Why use brackets...it was "just renamed".
That you find the renaming of a zone, in a computer game, offensive, when there was absolutely zero intent nor motive to insult and the majority of English speakers around the globe would have trouble accepting that it even could be insulting, is, frankly your choosing to feel insulted rather than actually being insulted. Feelings are subjective, not objective.

"OK, so if the English are not allowed a home district why should the French of Germans have one?"

"The English" referrs to the People of England. They have never had a home district. What you should be referring to is English speakers. English speakers were able to use the English district and International district, and now they can use teh Commonn and International district. The only change, for English speakers, has been semantic.

"Why are they better than us?"

Why do you ask that? No one has said "they" are better than us, so you are asking a question that has no basis.

"To me, calling someone 'common' is offensive, it refers to my background (calling me working class), my income, type of job and general lifestyle. I am not 'common as muck' as the phrase goes."

That is your choice, to believe that calling someone 'common' is offensive. However, in the case of this computer game name change of a zone, noone is being called common. The zone itself, an area on the internet, is called a European common area. Common to Europeans. It in no way infers that you are "common as muck". It infers that all Europeans, share equally the right to be able to enter that zone.

"While you may not think that a 'common district' is calling someone common, it is."

No, it is not.

"French districts are for French speaking people, German for German speakers and 'Common' for the leftovers."

No, that statement is utterly false.

"There is no 'Common' language"

That is not the case. In Europe, which is what we are talking about, English is indeed the primary common language.

"So why take our home district away from us?"

It hasnt been taken away, the zone name remains, with a different arrangement of letters as it's title.

"Why not add a correctly named Multi-Lingual district rather than insulting us."

You can not speak for "us". Neither I, nor many other people who understand English were insulted.

You say the zone being named Multi-Lingual would be correct, that does not mean that it would be correct or nessessary or useful.

I would suggest one possible reason for the name change, and one definate benefit of the name change:

It removes English speakers sense of a false 'right' to demand that others speak only English while in that zone. Demanding that someone speak in a certain language when they arent even speaking directly to you, is insulting.

In closing, for those that do not think English is a Common language:

I could suggest that English is the common language of the internet - GW is an internet game - English is the common language of GW - Common district has English as the common language.

edit - "The abuse in the English districts was immature yes. The complaints on this thread are not, don't be so ignorant. If you want the Euro server to be a big melting pot where we can all get along, then just have European districts, no French, German, Italian etc."

Any abuse is wrong. Some of the complaints on this thread are immature and wrong also. None of this has anything to do with there being a "big melting pot". Suggesting that there might only be a European district would not be useful.

A player who speaks English as their primary language, will automatically be placed in the district where the primary language spoken will be English. That has been the case, is still the case, and likely will always be the case.

The above statement, while true, results in arguments about this name change, being semantical or political and not best suited to a fantasy computer games forum.

There never was a European district for English speakers. Never.

When they were called "English districts" that was a misnomer, because ANet lumped everyone in there whose language isn't supported by the game. That has always been the case and still is. The only thing they did was fix the name of these districts. The name now actually covers the character of these districts, finally. Better late than never.

English language districts haven't been taken away, they never existed in the first place. Just like almost every other language in existance doesn't have its own districts. I do think there should be English districts though, it seems only proper.

xD ...

English refers to the language not the nationality just a FYI. No need to rename it British.


On the subject of being abused in the English districts for speaking a foreign language.. yes being insulting and abusive is wrong but also spamming the English district with a foreign language is rude and annoying for those wo can't speak it. When you go to a district named English you should speak English and same goes for French, German.. Spanish etc.

English is the "common" language of the world.

(for reasons I hate in some way, but is the truth)

This thread is precisely why the district names should have been left alone, which everyone more or less agreed with. Unless Anet really wants to deal with words loaded with political and historical baggages.

Wheres my Canadian server? frozen?

After the whole rampaging moose incident, it's going to take a while to roll that out.

Only kidding. Canada rocks -- if only in very small part because without Canada the world would not have hockey, and hockey is a very fine thing! (There are a million other reasons, too, of course.)

Here is some information on the naming of the districts. Forgive if you read it elsewhere:

I did share the concern about the world "Common" with one of the co-founders, "Hey, you do realize that 'common' has a couple of meanings?" I figure that most of us reading this thread know that the House of Commons is a pretty decent institution. But you'd never want your mother to say, "My son's girlfriend is a nice girl, but a little common."

Anyway, the name change is not a high priority, but please don't worry, we'll likely change it pretty soon. There is no offense intended in the meantime.

There you go Good old Anet will fix it soon

QFT

I'm British, live in the UK and as I said in the original update thread before I don't find the use of the word "Common" for a district offensive at all. Yes it does feel a bit odd that there is no English district whereas there are Spanish / French etc but then perhaps that's because English is so widely spoken that we don't have to be concerned that we'll feel isolated in a district that isn't dedicated to English speakers.

I've been sickened by some of the abuse I've seen being targetted at non English speaking players in some outposts, and now that their (very tenuous) justification attempts for their pathetic behaviour has been removed I'm all for it.

First of all i'm English, and i'm not offended by this.

It's not refering to people as common but the language(s) spoken. Ok there is no "common" language since you can't really say English and Spanish are the same.

But look at all the languages that have never had there own district, hell the poor Russians could only type using there alphabet a few months ago.

If English gets put back what's to stop everyone else from saying "This isn't fair we want XYZ district", where do Anet draw the line?

And are more districts really the answer? Ok let's say everyone gets to play in a district for there native language, what happens when someone from Dutch 1 goes to Thristy River and it's empty?

Should they have to stay there and suffer because they wanted a Dutch district?

Should they be allowed to head to say English 1 and join a team there?

Would the English players then say "Go back to your own district, isn't that what you wanted? It's not our fault it's empty"

There is already a PvP / PvE divide in the game, let's not sub-divide even more because of the sake of district naming.

Personally I think there should just be "common" (Or a name that fits all), and add a few more chat channels for the most spoken languages.

That way everyone is in the same place making it a lot easier to get into a team

Nearly every other online role playing game manages to get by with people speaking different language on the same server / district why should GWs be any different?

I just went back to Eve and o my EVERYONE is on the same server and it works.

Reagarding the change, I get the feeling that the reason for the change war Anet seeing too much of:

Player X:"Bosanski esnaf trazi nove clanove, imamo cape, guild hall!"
Player X:"Bosanski esnaf trazi nove clanove, imamo cape, guild hall!"
Player Z:"THIS IS AN ENGLISH DISTRICT, SO SPEAK ENGLISH!"
Player X:"But there's no bosnian districts!"
...

Could be a reason...

Who said the Scott's had no sense of humour, brilliant post, I'm for London and get called a Cockney W**nker from our northern brethren but all in jest.

Unfortunately, as with everything written or e-mailed, these things can be taken the wrong way and any changes made should err on the very cautious side of things.

As I’m writing this I know this is a fuss about nothing and I should really get a life, but it is slightly irksome that us English are told to shut up and not complain, maybe that’s the cost of once having and empire.

/Signed - This must be the reason and if so I can understand it too.

It is not the fault of the English people that our language is so universally spoken.

We are still a nation in our own right and proud to be English. This move by Anet is disgusting in my opinion and many English people in my guild feel the same. Not that Anet care Im sure.

We had our own district, where we could expect that English would be spoken. It is only fair that there is an English language district, especially if its considered necessary for their to be a Spanish district, Italian district etc.

By removing 'English' and changing it to 'Common' Guild wars is now a MMO with no district reserved for the English language. Its ridiculous.

Before anyone say it makes no difference, I have frequently found myself in a Common district full of Dutch, Swedish, German etc chat and have no idea what is being said anymore. The change has given the go ahead for people who previously made the effort to speak English because it was an English district to ignore common courtesy in a multi-lingual area.

Now, add a Common district if you want, where 10 different languages can clash horribly in local chat leaving everyone confused, BUT, why take away the English district??

The English have just as much right to their own district, we DID have our own district, and it is wrong to suddenly take that away as though, as a nation, the English do not exist or do not matter.

Very dissapointed in Anet.

I gotta say, having all the Traders that can't speak good enough English to answer anything other than a bid is pretty annoying...No one wants 7 Unid golds anyway :P

I /sign this, give us the English district back.

When the districts were split up, the French dis was for French speakers, German for German speakers etc. and English dis for English speakers. Just because ANet put speakers of other languages into the English district does not make it a free for all. From the beginning, there should have been a common district as well as the ones I listed above. They have now installed Polish and Russian districts for people who speak those languages. There is now NOT a district for people who solely speak English. That is a problem whether you like it or not.

I appreciate Gaile coming into this thread with an explanation. I am glad the name is being reverted back to English. However, PLEASE add the Common district AS WELL.

/signed If english districts are removed all other districts except common should go as well to be fair

yeah! where's my Mexican district? or at least a Latinamerican district?

every big city I write in spanish there's at least 1 person that answers correctly and not just the usual chatty stuff people can learn in a spanish class

you guys are just overreacting, it's just a name ffs, did the whiners stopped feeling special because they "lost" their district name and because of that their identity? grow up please

Ah, I see. Thanks for the clarification.

Where do you get that from?

As I already said now Guild wars is a MMO with no district for the English language, where people who speak English, want to speak English, prefer to speak English and dont understand other languages can go.

That is truly ridiculous of any major online game.

When there is no district for the English language, it is laughable to think there needs to be one for the Spanish, the Italian or any other nationality.

What people like you fail to understand is the difference between 'English' and 'Common'. They are not just names.

The English nation and the English only speakers of the world used to have a district in which they could speak that language. Now they do not. That is not a good change.

Sorry, no, but that's not true at all.
You still can speak English in Common European Districts and you still will be understood by those who used to and still do know English.

Nope. Good try but your still not understanding the problem. We know that we can speak English in the Common district, thanks for pointng out the obvious. However, theres does not exist a district where the ONLY language being spoken is English. There is a district where the only language spoken is French. Same for German, Italian, Spanish and now Russian and Polish.

If that does not matter , then I don't see why there is a problem speaking any language in any district, therefore making the names of the districts completely irrelevant.

I think this is the point where someone points out that English is the "common" language for Europe. Again this is irrelevant. No matter where you are form in Europe, if you want to use English then by all means use the English district. However, seeing several different languages being spammed does not help in communicating, which I believe was the original intent of splitting the districts.

As to your earlier post about my comment "reverted back to English". Gaile said in her post that the name will be changed pretty soon. She could have meant changed to something like "Multi-Lingual district". I just hope the change isn't something so trivial.

Does it makes your eyes bleed if you occasionally see people type in another language? I live in a city where people speak several languages publically. I fail to see what's so bad about it.

So, this is a jealousy thing (i.e. "They have it, so we should too")?

What if one want to use English and his/her non-English native language?

Gaile Gray said that in reply to those who say "common" sounds insulting, so it's very likely it's going to be just that "trivial".
I allready suspected your comment to be wishfull thinking of your part.


By what logic do you find it defendable that European players should be pressured into speaking a non-native language?
Nobody ever forced you to speak another language, nor ever will; you allready complain about seeing something in another language, but you do find it acceptable for others to be pressured into speaking your language.

yeah, i perceive that as a big old middle finger at great britain. maybe if they combined all "english speaking countries" into a "common" district it would be less lame...even then it would kinda feel like a disrespectful slant at non-english speaking countries...are they "uncommon"?

regardless, lame move by anet.

Of the groups upset about this change, I see two groups:

1. People who thought of the 'English' districts as referring to their country. This one's a national pride thing.

2. People who would rather not have to see another language spoken in what they perceive as their 'own' district. I think these people have been complaining about this even before this change was made.

IMO, if ANET puts back English districts while retaining Common... everyone will just move back into English, and Common will be empty.

Personally, I don't care at all how they changed English to Common. If anyone ever spoke non-English in the English districts, I didn't give a toss. Why should I? They weren't speaking to me. They didn't mess my playing experience. If anything, I found it cool to be reminded how incredibly diverse human culture is.

Human District-1
Human District-2

Well, from that point of view ther never was such a district. (That, by the way, is exactly what I've been repeating for about a week now). There may have been a disctict that was called "english", but it was not an "english only" district, as all the Dutch, Serbian, Greek, Polish, Scandinavian etc... people were there, too. Thus the name "english" was an illusion and there would be no ground on which to complain about the change now (you'd rather have to have complained from day 1 that there was no other district where to put all the foreigners that pollute your english district ).

Oh so true. The more I follow this discussion, the more I whish Anet never had created districts for different languages in the first place. Multilingual environments work like a charm in many other games. All they seem to do here, is creating discord.

I'm sorry but this isn't just petty whining.

All the major languages in Europe have their own district apart from English.. fair enough add a "Common" district but give us back our English district please.. there's no reason to remove it ffs.

Nothing was removed. They just named those districts appropriately, finally. They've always been common districts.

The English district was removed.. there is no English district.

Renaming it with no mention of the word Englsh anywhere to be seen is removing the district.

That's semantics and is typical of this whole thread, really. Semantics, false premisses (like that "English" is somehow connected to "english nation") and jingoism rule.

My stance is two-fold, one; its simply reflecting the fact that there are more players (as there always have been btw) from other locations then "English" and that "english" has always been the common language, second is "what the hell is the big deal anyway, my country has made up a large part of the GW community for years and we've never had our own districts and we never needed them"

My theory is that the major instigator for all this dissatisfaction is the fact that the British don't have their own district anymore, whereas the French and the Germans still do. If they removed the French District and replaced with the Common District--because everyone spoke French and everyone was there--I'd expect the French to be in an uproar as well.

It's not nice to be disenfranchised. True, when people from other countries would speak their language on the English district, there would be some who complained -- but that's to be expected, because there are bigots from every nation in the world. The majority of British players happily tolerated these few 'foreigners' though, because they are, as a whole, quite a tolerant people.

However, to FORCE them to become tolerant to other people by taking away their what they subconsciously thought of as their 'National' identity is another thing entirely.

For an extreme analogy, it's akin to being invaded by a foreign country and being made to play nice to all the visiting civilian invaders. These civilians may be wonderful people, but they will still be seen as 'the invaders who took away what we were'.

.........

As for those people who hate this change simply because they don't want 'foreigners' in their own district -- like I said earlier, there are bigots in every nation.

Okay, when I read previous posts they made it seem like Anet Killed all the other servers and smashed them together and Common was the result. SO basically this boils down to, you ppl not liking your district to be called 'common'...*sigh* I don't get how it's that effecting. If it's that bad just hop on into the American districts and play.

Taking your points one at a time:

No it doesn't make my eyes bleed. It does however make communicating in a single language difficult. I live in a city where several DOZEN languages are spoken publically. I don't have a problem with it. However it was a ridiculous analogy.

Jealousy has nothing to do with it. Ease of use does. PLease try and be constructive in your comments.

It was wishful thinking, however they have addressed the concerns of those who thought "Common" was insulting so we are already a step forward.

I don't think that at all. Again your not reading all of my points. I want English AND Common districts, I've already said that several times in this and other threads. Either that, or have no language specific districts at all. OR, have a district for every single language spoken in Europe.


@ 84175 - Please refer to my earlier post where I said that English AND Common districts should have been there from the start. I believe ANet lumped everyone in the English district assuming that they all spoke English. This has proven not to be the case. And like I said above, I don't mind there being lots of multi-lingual districts.

@ Melkorium and Gli - I'll QFT Phoenixar's replies.

What people conveniently skip whenever they say this change makes no difference is this fact (which I have stated 2 times already):

Naming it Common has given the go ahead for people who previously spoke English in this district out of courtesy and because it was labelled English to speak whatever they like. All attempts at speaking any kind of universally understood language have been dumped. As a result the Common district is now a chaotic jumble of 10 languages at once.

It is already much worse in the Common districts than it was when they were called English. It is not occasional chat in other languages anymore. I went to Lions Arch yesterday and could not understand a word for 10 minutes until I left.

I have played dozens of MMORPGS and there is always an area for European players where English is the preferred / accepted language.

With the vast number of English speakers and the better quality of gaming that comes when people speak a mutually understood language, it is insane for Guild wars to have no English language area.

I cant see how anyone can think its a good move to have an MMORPG with no English language area.

Agree with everything said in your post.


I'm not even sure English is the "common" language being spoken in the district tbh.. I was in RA dis 1 for an hour earlier and most of the time English wasn't being spoken :/

The cascade of tradechat going on in Kamadan Common District-1 at the moment is all in English.

They assumed more continental players spoke English as their second language than any other, which is correct. Since it isn't feasible to have a district for every language but just the common ones, it makes sense to default to English. Of course you already know all of this being a reasonably intelligent person, so I have to wonder why you try to argue otherwise. The English district has always been a cultural commons, a place where the none-English can actually find enough people to build a group, with an increased chance of everyone sharing a common language (oh look, there's that word again!). Changing the name of the district has changed absolutely nothing. I believe they have said they will change it back, but I hope they don't just out of spite.

Lets put this into perspective. The actual numbers of non-English speakers isn't going to change because of a district name-change. If people have a district that can cater to their language, they will default there, if not they go to English. If they need more players they are still likely to go to English. None of this has changed. The ONLY thing that has changed is that a few people with a specific mindset have had their pride dented. That's it. This hasn't changed the use of the district, but more accurately labeled the current use of the district. In essence, people are literally complaining about a word being different. Epic.

My first experience in MMOs was FF11. Since the past 3+ years I have expanded my experiences with several other MMOs, both Asian and Western. The thing that strikes me is that I was so terribly mistaken about the Global nature of MMOs. FF11 is the only game I have played in which the entire world play together on all servers. FF11 manages to defeat the language barrier via an 'auto translate' function.

What's my point? I seem to never get over my surprise and shock when every new MMO I try out is, yet again and invariably, segregated into Geographical/Linguistic play-regions (be it IP restrictions on game-server access, or in this case, language-specific channels which seemingly include IP identifiers as to the client's locale in order to access -- i.e. I am running a client in NA, I have never seen these 'French' etc. channels as on option for me to join).

I am apalled at the xenophobia and Linguistic Primacy displayed in this thread.

This thread is a massive phail, and, it would seem, Guild Wars as well.

Well then, I have some Dutch friends and a Russian LS to hang out with, as well as some cool Japanese people I've met over the years, back 'home' in FF11. Have fun in your Bigot Wars universe, folks, I for one am happily uninstalling this game for it is frequented by a sad, sad lot.

I still think it's funny how the Polish and the Russians got a district, but the Dutch didn't.

Lol.

not everyone is in that boat. posts which point by point refute that particular ΄logic΄ have been made, screenshot evidence has also been posted.