EU players on US servers, why?

This only became a problem when player base was dwindling as a whole. Read all the complains about foreign languages being talked in european english 1 on this thread, or the discussions that pops up when some Dutchy is talking Dutch in Kamadan ee1...
German and French are quite occupied really. Only English is empty, because every English speaker went to US districts, thus making the European English even more empty, so even more people went to the US districts etc.

I played in the EU district the first couple of years.

But now i'm in a american guild and i also find it extremely annoying to trade in european districts. now i can obv understand some basic german and french. But it's no where near enough, and there is a big chance they can't understand me. So i have to go to US districts for that.

It all happened when they added french, polish, german etc. districts. Before that we only had euro-english. That's why it was just as full as the US servers now are.

That's also the reason why i cba to to switch to EU alot when i play the game itself. It takes time! And US has much more people anyways. easyer to PUG etc.

my ping in EU is superb! (16-30). And in US arround 150 or so. But i rly don't care about that unless i'm playing pvp ofcourse

If only they'd make a Dutch district. It would definitely be more populated than the Polish one .. (Thought I'd probably still populate the American district). You can't blame Dutch people for speaking their language because there's no place for them to go. Most of them still speak English anyway, I don't see them often.

True. I see alot of dutchies in the EE district. Actually i see alot of dutchies in the entire game. I'm always wondering how much dutchies play this game compared to russians and poles.

Lol, I say that all the time in game, let the Dutch have a district. If there was ever a need for it, it's now.

As for me, I used to play in the EU english districts (I remember when Kamadan EE used to have 4+ districts on a normal day (outside festivals). Now everybody has moved to AE. So I did too.

Oh, I never go into any server that isnt English, I should have said EU English servers. Servers for languages other than English would be used by people who cant speak English anyway, so thats no surprise.

I started playing on AM servers long before the European ones got deserted. First of all, they all spoke english, which in this day and age, should be the primary language for any game.

And then there was the fact that it was so much easier to get wins in RA and TA on american servers. It always seemed to me like euro and asian players were better than americans. :P Unfortunately, my ping on american servers are always orange, ranging from 300 - 600ms, making it impossible to play profession which requires some reaction.

Now, if all europeans started playing in Euro districts, I'd come back there. We could always petition to revert to the old favor system.

Lol, I remember a few weeks ago when I was selling things in Kamadan - American districts, and I PM'd a dude I was selling the item he was looking for in Party Search, and he said he doesn't do trades with Americans and started to insult me for no reason (even though I'm not even American).XD What's up with those German people?

Because there are much players in the American districts and not much in the European districts.

Because the fireworks are pretty.

Ah, so I should go to German to PuG and stick to English for quiet H&H

Same thing as what's up whith too many people these days, they generalize. Eat one rotten apple and they're all bad. Their loss really.

It's almost like your generalising about German people

Yes there is, it's called the International District. Going to an English district and then not using English is just plain rude.

Everyone has the right to speak whatever language they want. The penalty is only being understood by people who also speak that language.

I know it's annoying, but really - in a worldwide game, you'll have to get used to the idea that other people speak other languages.

I'm afraid that this time around being ill-treated is the norm, whereas the 'golden apple' is an exception from the rule. Even when I spoke in communicative German I was quickly identified as 'foreigner' and treated differently than the rest, even if they could perfectly understand what I say and I was genuine enough to speak in their language. Most funny practise is when you admit to be Polish and get kicked shortly afterwards. I'm sorry but I don't buy your 'eat one rotten apple and they're all bad'. Treating foreigners bad is a norm, not an exception.

This was a problem since beginning, the only difference is that at first there were much more EU players in total than AM ones so it wasn't that noticeable. I don't mind people talking their own languages on global/English channels, simply because English is a global language. You can't compare a Dutch on a global district talking his own babble to a Frenchman talking French on a Russian district, it's not the same.

Obviously, some people won't use English because they don't know it, or will stick only to guys of their own nationality for reason unknown, but if they want to actually do something on the global district, they have to use English. English is the standard. More: English should be a standard, because it's a most-spoken foreign language of the educated class, pretty much covering most of your GW players.

You'll never find as many people able to speak German, French or Spanish, as you'll find talking English, amongst all of your GW players. It is only common sense to standardise the language and set it as English, as well as soften up the rules of foreign languages speaking on the global districts. When you move everyone to English-dominant district, then you create a pressure to use this particular language. No other language save for English will work flawlessly in case of EU/AM players. It is pure pragmatism. Notice how many players live and work in America, yet they all speak English on AM districts no matter their nationality.

Assumption that educated European might not be taught English is a myth. He is taught English, it's just that ridiculous national pride won't allow some to speak anything but their own language even if they perfectly understand the opposite party talking English. It's a problem of mentality, not a problem of education. As far as I know MMO developers fight with wrong mentality of their players, instead of embracing it.

There is a reason no language-based worlds have been confirmed for GW2. There simply won't be any, because Anet isn't willing to repeat the same, terrible error of the past. World is nothing besides oversized, semi-persistent district of entire campaign, so it's not a big deal here.

I hate to sound mean here but...

I play in the English districts because I speak English and want to be able to play with other people who speak my language. If I spoke French, I'd be in the French district speaking French. If I was German, I'd be in the German district speaking German. I disagree that things are too harsh in that respect. That is part of the reason why so many English speakers moved to ADs. Because they actually wanted to be able to understand what was going on.

I know from playing other MMOs with European servers exactly how literate most Europeans are. It's VERY rare to come across someone who doesn't understand you entirely. Yes, it IS somewhat pride for them to not speak English, but I also find it disrespectful. When I go to other countries, I make the effort to speak their language. I might fail and then ask if anyone speaks English, but I at least make an effort. I've played in other languages and spoken German/French and yes, there is somewhat of an attitude at times. Mostly I've found that they're accepting and appreciate the fact that you're making an effort. I don't see why it's a case of English people should put up with it in their districts.

Maybe I'll start a new trend of playing in the Polish (picked a country at random, no offence meant to anyone) districts and speaking entirely in English to see how many of them get annoyed. Probably few as they'll understand what I'm saying. Hmm, must get the thesaurus out...

Also, if you really feel the need to speak to someone in a language that's not the one in the top left corner, there's that whisper function. There's team chat. Guild chat. Alliance chat. If you're advertising a guild, it's enough to say which language you are, not write the whole guild message in your language whilst in the English district. Please and thankyou.

Also, part of me realises how silly it is to be debating this given the fact that the playerbase has shrunk so considerably.

Many European players do speak English. All Scandinavian, Dutch, Swiss, Austrian and Polish players I know speak English. National pride is mostly an issue for the French, Spanish and Italian players, and I don't have a clue why Germans are a problem because they stick to their own districts so they're not really a nuisance.

It becomes a problem when you have 150-250 pings in EU PvE zone (moderately playable, PvP pings are somewhat better ... 75-150, usually) compared to 200-500 pings in AM PvE zone, not to mention sudden lag spikes. With concentration of players on German districts you're pretty much dependant on them, outside guild and friend list.

The only semi-working solution is looking for people on AM districts, asking who's from Europe and if the rest (non-EU) agrees to switch to EU district. It's more an issue of simple convenience for me, but for more laid-back players without a guild this becomes a nuisance.

Personally I haven't experienced as much nationality-based hostility in other MMOs which have standardised English channels, probably because everyone learned to just cope with each other. The privilege of this is that nobody spams the trade channel with offers in foreign language, because he wants to damn make sure he is understood. Conversely, when I see trade offers in GW written in German/French/Spanish/whatever I want to hurt somebody. How could a trader be so much of an ignorant and ass by making his offer understandable only to few? He wants to annoy the hell out of me or sell/buy an item!? Like I said, it's a problem of mentality. Language-based districts only fuel this sad mentality, which should have no entry in any MMO game.

Why is this debate returning?

They'll still communicate better and more natural in their own language then through the English they get thaught at school. It's only natural that a group of people doing something together would use the language that helpes them communicate best. Their pride is not the issue, you simply have no right to interfere with a group of people talking with each other, or demand they use your language for your convenience.

Where you see their pride, they see your arrogance.

Then you best get used to seeing non-english in chat. English is not a requirement for GW-1 and it's not likely to be one for GW-2.

Or maybe they'll just implement a system for language differentiation the same way they did for trade. That way everyone would still be in same town for grouping and trading, without americans becoming so annoyed with non-english chat.

Then next time consider that their game probably shows them localized names for the stuff they want to sell and they likely have no idea what it might be named in english, so they couldn't advertise in english even if they wanted to.

European players from territories without their own language district don't "go to an English district." ANet puts them there by default. They stay there because the only district that would make sense for them to go (international) has always been a ghost town.

Dumping everyone who doesn't speak one of the supported languages into a single district can't work anyway. Since the majority of them understand English, but very few (if any) of the languages other than their own that they'd encounter in the 'every other language' district, nobody would want to be there. Why would someone go to a district where they'd only understand 1% of the conversation (their own language) if they could go to a district where they'd understand most of the conversation (their own language + english)?

That's the charm of the English language districts: if some people are speaking your own language there, great! If not, well, there's still English.

I use to go to American servers just for trading, as there are a lot more players in there than in Spanish servers.

Of course, i try to speak english the best way i can, and i don't try to force anybody to understand me speaking spanish. And, like me, i've seen other spanish players speaking english in "english servers".
Given that, i'm not agree with Lord Mip, who says that "national pride is an issue for French, Spanish and Italian players"... i think that these "national pride" is more linked to "some players", who feel it that way, regardless their nationality

I didn't say all of them did, but for the most part, I daresay it's true. Italians, Spanish and French mostly form their own guilds and do not mix with other language players. That's more likely to be so for people from for instance Scandinavia, I encounter those a lot in English guilds. The same goes for Dutch and East European people.

How is joining a guild of people using your own language any indicator for national pride, Lord Mip? That must be one of the dumbest things I've read on this forum.
Would you say the same of americans who join english-language guilds?

Most people communicate better, with less effort and fewer misunderstandings in their own language, even if they know (some) english. Avoiding the use of a foreign language makes perfect sense, I don't understand why you'd resent this.

There's many players from all over the EU using the US servers, and even on the US servers they speak their own languages, though not as frequently. The main reason you don't know they're there is because they're speaking English!

The main reason the EU servers are low populated is because the US servers are where the higher population is. The population is getting smaller as people hang up their adventuring boots, and let's not also forget more areas to hang out in since Eye of the North was launched, meaning the population has spread out more over four campaigns aswell.

English is global language, get over it. You can quickly switch language to English, see what it is and advertise, it's that easy. MMO is about playing with people across the globe no matter their nationality or ethnic background. If someone is incapable of thinking & acting globally in the game, then he is basically a waste to the game's community, because he is able to interact only with a tiny part of it.

Pride, arrogance? Hilarious. No, I'm sorry, I'm not English and I don't expect anyone to speak Polish. The only reason why I expect others to speak English if all other means of communication fail, is because it is the best way to communicate globally, so that most people in the team would actually understand what's going on.

Non-English district chat is of no problem to me, as long as when I whisper the guy he responds in English & puts English trade offers. In the very same way I don't want to see a 'national pride movement' in my team, where a bunch of Germans/Frenchmen/whatever speak in their own language and completely ignore the rest.

It's only common courtesy to use a language almost everyone understands, and expecting someone to use it is not arrogance. If someone wasn't taught English in school, then that's his problem and not mine, when he comes to the game. Lack of education is no excuse to be an ass or fail to communicate.

What a load of crock. MMO's are basically about moving around pixels on a computer monitor for entertainment purposes. Any kind of deeper commitment is purely optional, and expectations on your part for anyone to play along with that are delusional. There's no such thing as a "game's community". There's just you and the people you're playing with or talking to at any particular time.

Yet somehow, I don't think any of those "asses" will feel they have a problem. The problem is definitely yours, witness your rant.

When the game came out there was a lot of euro and koreans. The koreans stopped playing because they got tired of pwning everyone and move onto other games. For european i am gonna hazard a guess and say that the population slowly decreased (which wasn't as big as the american pop) because of players getting bored i guess.

I think you need to do some travelling, see how many people don't speak english. Try... northern, mediterranean Africa. French will do wonders. English won't do anything.

Would you really feel that way if GW population in the USA dropped too and everyone that still played would be, say, the French? And then, only French districts would be populated? English has indeed become the lingua franca of modern day - but think about the term for a bit.

Not getting understood is perfectly enough of a punishment for not speaking more languages.

As an aside note - I speak several languages. And more than once, I found the other person's english was abysmal to the level that I was the one that asked him to speak another language. Even if it meant that I had to go and change my own display language so I could figure out what things were called in the other guy's language.

It takes time to figure out that to the germans, a ranger is a "wood runner" - Waldlaufer or "waldi" for short and so on...

Really? Well, so are spanish and french and with 80 million germans to play with, I don't think they'll begging to play with you.

People around the world aren't going to oblige you, they'll use their own language rather then english. Get over it.

Really? As I've pointed out before, localized (non-english) versions of Guildwars have item names and description in their language. So no, switching to english is not that easy.

Thinking globally includes making room for differences and 'the world' may be different where they live. How can you expect them to use the english names and descriptions when items in their localized versions of Guildwars have descriptions in their language? They probably don't get any RPG-idiom thaught in their english lessons at schools. Get in touch with reality, please.

I just went to the american server because I'm new to the game and know absolutely no one and the European severs seem deserted. I am however a Dutch guy, and if I'd see someone else who is Dutch I think I would start speaking Dutch with him/her, as long as I don't bother other people with it it's not a crime is it?

Sigh, this again...

The game hasn't been ruined - the game is OLD. O L D ! That's all! You play through and you stop playing, that's all.

Is that a dumb thing to say? Indeed it is useful to be in a guild of your own language, but there's a difference between playing with people who speak your own language and not mixing with the community at all. Also, just speak with some of the earlier mentioned types of players and you will find out soon enough that my argument has some validity. I may not have phrased it in the best way but that does not mean it is untrue.

GW may not fit with your idea of MMO's, but that is not an indication that the don't care. GW's ten times better then the boring, mindnumbing, preprogrammed grindfests that define any typical MMO.

GW has a story and once you've played it, you're basically done with it. You can then play it in a harder mode or experiment with GW's skill system that allows you to create actually unique characters and teams and 'beat challenges' in your own way.

But eventually it gets old, people find new things to do and leave it. Typical MMO's don't get old so fast because they have no real story, players just grind from level to level in an infinite tredmill.

I prefer GW, even when it means having to say goodbye from it at some point.

Yes.

Why? If their english is anything like my french I can completely understand that they'd prefer to play with people who use their language. Using a poorly known foreign language can be extremely exhausting - especially over the internet where you can't improvise.

Sorry, but it's fairly difficult to speak with absent or your hypothetical players and I've never found, or noticed, much national pride.

and you will find out soon enough that my argument has some validity. I may not have phrased it in the best way but that does not mean it is untrue.[/QUOTE]

There is no single community. There are just subsets of players who are more connected with each other than they are with outsiders. What do you think the French/Spanish/German speaking players have? Ghettos?

Good point. Arenanet doesn't have an endless cashstream. Blizzard does, which is why they can actually pay attention to their games.

Im a Uk player but play on American servers.... Why? couple of reasons.

No1: Trade, As Eu servers are completly empty.
No2: Alot more players to team up with for daily WiK Bountys , Zaishen etc.
No3: Players also tend to be alot better in American districts.
No4: Eu English for example there is french/german talking people there so there servers must be even more quiet.
No5: Although my Guild is European Uk/Holland etc we are in American Alliance which nicely evens out there playing time for late night players, and we all been friends for long time if you ask why we would want to do this.

Im Assuming most Eu players would have at least 2 reason from the above list.

In my opinion, this is exactly it. I noticed this a few years back, the European English servers got less and less, then I'd perhaps move to the French or German districts for missions as I knew there were more people there to team up with. Then these started to diminish and so my options were limited.

Then I swapped to the American servers where you're guaranteed a steady player base for the remaining time of GW1

I have to disagree with what you have said and although this is slightly off the original topic. I run an International alliance and have on many an occasion joined up with varying foreign players to help them out. When I get transported to their home district after helping or to meet them, I have had to sometimes talk in local chat(not always intentionally). Now as I cannot really speak foreign languages well I use English to talk, because yes it is considered to be the international language by every country on our fair planet. Yet nearly every time I speak English in a foreign district all I get from the locals is lots of abuse and swearing, telling me i'm a noob and should **** off back to my own country(mostly in their own language so they think they can avoid getting caught out). It helps that whomever i'm with can translate for me so I can see what they are saying. Now explain to me how this is not their national pride taking over their common sense and abusing the foreigner. When in either the American or European English districts I can honestly say I have not encountered this hostility towards people who speak other languages(not saying it doesn't happen just not that i have noticed while in Spamadan or other outposts).

This is an international game and has various people playing from 12-60yr olds, so why should people feel they don't have to be courteous to others?

On topic, I do spend most my time in European English districts unless I wish to trade then as it is far more populous I move to the American districts.

The snip makes it hard to tell what you respond to, but it seems you are combining it in ways I did not put in. I do not see national pride in using ones own language.

It's the same kind of response one gets when using non-english in an english district - and don't to try to tell me the don't because that same negative attitude is present even on this forum. It's the same response which, most likely, they got before there were seperate language districts.

Perhaps they respond in a way similar to how they or their friends were treated.

The existence of idiots on one side doesn't excuse the idiots on the other side. After all, this very thread shows how many people would like non-english to shut up wherever they can see them...