Quote:
|
Originally Posted by bamm bamm bamm
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. |
I do, and I've seen a change since the name was changed. People that speak languages that have their own dedicated districts have increased in numbers, most of them in Trade Chat.
The loss of a place where you can be assured that you know that your language, the most spoken language in the world, has been eliminated. Sure there's a high probability that there will be people that speak English, but there's still that chance. And since the update, that chance that they won't speak English has gone up.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Stalinfalcon
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. |
If all Europeans were in the same district (like they were at first), it would be chaos. It only makes sense to give each major language a place to be spoken, in order to help people find others that can understand them.
Wanting your own place to speak your own language is far from xenophobia, it's wanting a place to call your own.
