Curse

Axeman002 · Dec 23, 2009, 08:23 PM // 20:23

dunno where to put this but anyway...the past week i have been in and out of europe ENGLISH district 1 in LA...and not 1 person speaks english in it?!...any chance u could drop the polish/russian district and give them a dutch channel regina?

or u guys go to say district 2 and jabba away in there?

upier · Dec 23, 2009, 08:47 PM // 20:47

Wait, there were people in EU-E?
YOU LIE!!1!
LIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!1!!

MarkusParkus · Dec 23, 2009, 09:53 PM // 21:53

...Why Dont You Just Go To American Dist's? Most People Are English Speaking There And If Your Getting Bad Ping Switch To Amer/Dis 2+
Poland Is In The Eu.. Lol

Rexion · Dec 23, 2009, 10:01 PM // 22:01

Don't come to American district.
I need to get the presents to those poor present-less children.
Dagummit goblins!

Regina Buenaobra · Dec 23, 2009, 10:33 PM // 22:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Axeman002

dunno where to put this but anyway...the past week i have been in and out of europe ENGLISH district 1 in LA...and not 1 person speaks english in it?!...any chance u could drop the polish/russian district and give them a dutch channel regina?

or u guys go to say district 2 and jabba away in there?

There are districts for languages that the in-game text is localized in. Because the game is not localized in Dutch, but is localized in Polish and Russian, there are no districts for Dutch, but there are for Polish and Russian. There are no plans to localize the in-game text into Dutch, so it is unlikely that there will be Dutch language districts.

Leohan · Dec 24, 2009, 07:31 AM // 07:31

I know pings can be high for people on the other side of the world when connecting to a NCsoft Texas servers. If you aren't tolerant of other languages and get annoyed the America English districts tend to hang people socially if anyone speaks anything other than English.
It would be nice if every major language had it's own home district but, separating the player base is not what GW is about.

I to sometimes get annoyed when I can't understand what someone is saying, an in-game translator would be some sweet piece a tech. Although I think Anet as better things to do with their time in GW1.

wilson · Dec 24, 2009, 09:03 AM // 09:03

I always enjoy the fact to see so many people from so many different countries speaking so many different languages. I wouldn't want that to change.

Do note that "so many" is relative for GWs current population.

Lourens · Dec 24, 2009, 10:48 AM // 10:48

I would love dutch districts :P

Iuris · Dec 24, 2009, 10:53 AM // 10:53

You have far too many languages present to have districts for all of them, and if you did, the districts would be too small and people would flow over to the more populous ones. Already many europeans play over in the US districts because there are more players there.

And wherever you have people, they will speak what they will.

It's annoying, but then, who are we to tell people what to do.

Anon-e-mouse · Dec 24, 2009, 10:59 AM // 10:59

I just wish people who were in English districts, actually USED English. If you don't want to use English, take it to the International District, which should after all be home district of any language which doesn't have a home district.

Not using English in an English district, is just plain rude. Nothing worse than zoning into an Euro-English district and finding walls of text from Dutch people (in Dutch), often abusing English people who ask them to at least respect the language of the district.

This has been a problem for a while, is basically just getting worse now.

Kenzo Skunk · Dec 24, 2009, 11:04 AM // 11:04

Invasion of Dutch Speaking English District Snatchers

in cinemas from dec.2009

Mindtrust · Dec 24, 2009, 11:08 AM // 11:08

i left EU and went to AM because it's to empty in EU since there are already to many different districts! I know many people are against it but i would suggest that you merge the EU districts again.

Ps!
You will never manage to have just english in EU-E, after all we are just humans...

Mercesa · Dec 24, 2009, 11:08 AM // 11:08

I rather speak English then Dutch to be honest I even speak English with my Dutch friends and they speak English back I just got used to It.

But yes Dutch servers for ping would be awesome..

WinterSnowblind · Dec 24, 2009, 11:32 AM // 11:32

Again.. as a player from the UK, I quickly decided to hop over to the US servers. May as well go where the majority of the English speaking players are.

AmbientMelody · Dec 24, 2009, 11:34 AM // 11:34

Now, I'm going to say something very unpopular, but since the population of active players has been shrinking for a long time, it's pretty obvious to everyone we will eventually come to a point that we will have less players than we had in first month of the launch of the game (been there, done that - on multiple trial accounts and shortly after got the game itself).

I'm afraid that Anet's moral duty is to merge all of the localised EU districts into one, big ENGLISH (or simply EU so some people won't feel offended, but the end result will be the same ...) series of districts for the good of this game. Why? Because districts are empty. Entire purpose of districts is meeting other people.

Previously introduced 'party search' module was said to reduce the problem of wide-spread community, but in the end not many people use it at all and there are still many who act like this feature didn't exist. So, they just hop from district to district, while you do exactly the same ... in turn everyone is hopping districts and no teams are formed, better yet, impression of emptiness is astounding. Now, I'm not talking about abandoned prophecies outposts but generally about any outpost which is not Spamadan ENG-1.

Now, of course we have a big problem, since publishers in localised countries will go berserk that they can't advertise that their game not only has localised language but also districts and that could mean breaching some kind of permanent (theoretically) agreements.

So what's the problem exactly, why it's not as easy as 'quote my post, write 'gtfo noob, you have party search!' or 'game is dying, stop QQ!''? It's not as easy because there are still people wishing to play this game, but not necessarily committed enough to enter it few days in a week and participate in a guild. Basically such people now have nobody to play with and are given false impression that nobody is in the outpost. Something as silly as merging ENG, DEU and FRA districts would already do wonders. But hey, explain to proud Frenchman now that he 'has' to use English now? No sarcasm intended, but that's what will happen.

Basically, Anet has shot it's own feet with introducing localised districts, since the beginning. I remember that when there were very few different kinds of EU districts and playerbase was moderately big such problem wasn't the case. I could go to FRA or DEU district, shout anything in English and I would get immediate attention when it came to joining or forming a party and then discussing strategy, tactics, skill bars and all else.

These people (dunno, maybe matter of education program in school or simple good manners?), even if on their own districts, didn't create unnecessary communication problems. But that was early. When more different districts were introduced, FRA and DEU were no longer treated by their primary users as 'global-national' districts, but many started to act in a way they were their sole property and if you don't speak their language you don't 'deserve' to even talk to them.

Now, this is heavy kind of b-shit, but I could clearly notice it after launch of Nightfall. This was most noticeable on arrogant Polish players (mainly kids I guess?), who deliberately cursed everyone who came to their district, refused to talk in understandable English and even deliberately joined English districts to talk in their native language.

I remember all the hype then, they felt like they are gods and no longer 'second-category' users because their version was localised. Sadly, attitude of most of them towards other nationalities and players in general was unacceptable. This was true more or less for other localised versions in other languages, but since I'm Polish I saw this disaster on my own eyes and for that simple fact I can't be biased, it's not national rant but example from my own experience of playing this game close to 4 years.

Now, I could imagine many other users to get 'diseased' with this attitude and start to act rude as well. Now, when I join Deutsch or French district I'm basically forced to speak in German/French and have good grammar, otherwise chance is good they will rather take their own folk instead of me to the team. It wasn't uncommon for me as well to get cursed for shouting in English. It's not matter of generalisation, I'm merely saying that such behaviour was considered unacceptable and was quite uncommon back at the time there was only Prophecies campaign (speaking from my experience). Level of manners and social norms was way higher, so do the willingness to communicate with foreigners even on own districts. My belief is that it was closely connected with small number of localised versions as well as good English and manners of it's players.

Ironically enough, problem wouldn't exist if there was only ENGLISH/EU district on EU part since the beginning. Everyone who wanted to play this game would feel the need to read and write in understandable English, just like it pretty much was at the game's launch. That sole need of learning (for many) foreign language set the bar much higher for all newcomers and greatly contributed to more mature player base. Now, save me your national rants, because from my experience game was much better back then when everyone at least tried to use most common and effective means of communication, and that was English language.

So, that's it.

TL'DR' - Localised districts serve no gameplay purpose. We need to get rid of them, even if it's too late now. Certainly something to rethink in upcoming GW2, which won't last for ages no matter your delusions and wishes.

Arduin · Dec 24, 2009, 12:06 PM // 12:06

AmbientMelody, French and German EU districts are still pretty big. So I see no need to merge those two.

Also,

Quote:

Originally Posted by AmbientMelody

Everyone who wanted to play this game would feel the need to read and write in understandable English, just like it pretty much was at the game's launch.

apparently isn't true, because Dutch players are talking Dutch in the English district, thus not feeling the need to read and write in understandable English.

Dzjudz · Dec 24, 2009, 12:20 PM // 12:20

Maybe Americans shouldn't be so arrogant as to think everybody speaks/writes English when they themselves can only speak one language? Europe-English is the standard district Dutch people are put in, not International. Maybe Europe-English should be changed to Europe-General, and leave America-English as an exclusive English-speaking district. Even then, why would two or more Dutch people converse with each other in English?

P.S. Playing the game requires a different level of English than speaking/writing fluently. I'm in a Dutch alliance and I know many of them aren't that good in writing English. Sure, they can type the regular pug stuff, but actual conversations are much harder. If they're talking to other Dutch people, Dutch is a logical choice for them.

Axeman002 · Dec 24, 2009, 12:42 PM // 12:42

but im not american... im an english european....i cant run my game on american servers as they make me lagg to hell...so i have to stay in a server full of gibberish??...i never go to french or german district as i respect that its for them (and i dont understand them lol).

AmbientMelody · Dec 24, 2009, 12:45 PM // 12:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arduin

AmbientMelody, French and German EU districts are still pretty big. So I see no need to merge those two.

Also,
apparently isn't true, because Dutch players are talking Dutch in the English district, thus not feeling the need to read and write in understandable English.

That's what I said. The problem is in mentality, massed marketing based on 'hey buy this game, you can be a fag and not understand English at all but you can still play it!' (real-life example, I met a guy who couldn't understand and write in English on a basic level and even had problems with his native language ... 12 y. old kiddo, educational fail) brought loads of players with disrespectful, selfish attitude, more concerned about themselves than putting up their own national pride and using a language everyone else can understand.

I myself find it a must to join AM districts instead, while I still remember times when most of the jerks were on AM districts while ENG ones were like oasis on the desert. Well, I guess times change, the policy of introducing more and more 'local' districts has just taken it's toll on the game itself. It would be much better if everyone just united under a single banner of 'gw player' in districts for everyone instead of isolating in remote 'local' districts.

Also, spare me the wall'o'text in previous post, the entire idea was that the change of mentality changed attitudes of gamers, thus moonspeak, spam and insults on English channels as well as hostile attitude to English-speaking players on local districts became a social norm, while at first such behaviour was considered worth of a report and social stigma accompanying the offender.

Dzjudz · Dec 24, 2009, 12:54 PM // 12:54

You don't understand the point.

Imagine the following situation:
- The game is localised in Dutch.
- You are American, you only speak English, but can get by playing the game by knowing a little Dutch.
- The districts are: Dutch, French, German.
- You are automatically put into the Dutch district when starting the game.

What do you do? You stop talking to other Americans in English altogether? Don't think so.

Reverse the situation and you know how it is for Dutch people.