Curse

Miths · May 05, 2005, 02:25 AM // 02:25

No, this is not an anti French or German thread - I have nothing whatsoever against either language or country, but I'm still a little surprised to see that around 75% of the chat I see going in most hub areas are in French and to a lesser extent German. Slight exaggeration perhaps, but sometimes you get one English sentence drifting by surrounded by 15 in French and six or seven in German

.

Guess I shouldn't be that surprised, afterall France and Germany are the two largest countries in Europe (hope my very rusty geography skills aren't failing me here?), but it definately takes some getting used to that the Euro districts are not split up in English, German and French like you get with the server equivalent in most other games.

I actually just took the step and changed account location to US, since one of the things I personally enjoy in MMOs is the chatter that gives the game a bit of life (especially since I solo a lot) - understanding zero French and with my German even more rusty than my geography skills

, I tend to feel a bit alienated no matter which district I enter.
I can't rule out of course that I'll quickly return to the Euro districts where I only understand 25% once I have been exposed to 100% of what the English speaking players have to say (whether they are American or European)

.

Ellestar · May 05, 2005, 03:23 AM // 03:23

Well, there are more people in USA districts during Euro prime time, so it seems that it's better just to play on USA.
Either Korea or USA holds Hall of Heroes during Euro prime time. So including Euro in a Worlds at War was stupid too.

Ollaolas · May 05, 2005, 05:20 AM // 05:20

Russia is the biggest country in Europe... and I think Britan is larger than both France and Germany.

bald · May 05, 2005, 07:56 AM // 07:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ollaolas

Russia is the biggest country in Europe... and I think Britan is larger than both France and Germany.

still you cant type in russian here.

Aiwahead · May 05, 2005, 08:12 AM // 08:12

Sorry for the hijack.. :P
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isnt russia technically in Asia? I thought it was completely over the Urals by current borders?

JYX · May 05, 2005, 08:42 AM // 08:42

Moscow is firmly in Asia if that counts for anything...though my Russian friend insists that Russia is in Europe...if that counts for anything

According to the CIA factbook:

France: 60,656,178 (July 2005 est.)
Germany: 82,431,390 (July 2005 est.)
United Kingdom: 60,441,457 (July 2005 est.)

so erm...yeah Germany's just got more people. UK has about the same number of people as France, so the reason nobody's speaking english but many people are speaking French and German has to be down to something else. I personally think its bad marketing, in the UK there's been no adverts about Guild Wars, no posters, pre-orders have been all over the place...Taking a quick wander around the internet Cafes in central Birmingham...theres not a single one that knows what Guild Wars is

Arianna Fairfeather · May 05, 2005, 09:10 AM // 09:10

How do you change your account location? I have the same thing....hardly anyone speaks English on my server

Oracle · May 05, 2005, 09:13 AM // 09:13

No, Russia is not in Europe.

And I agree with the above poster who said that advertising in the UK has been lousy. I have been on the American servers since day 1 and am quite content there. I think it's a real shame that the WaW thing wasn't done on languages (rather than continent) but c'est la vie as the French would say!

Sublett · May 05, 2005, 09:29 AM // 09:29

I fail to see how moving over to the American territory, only due to language difference, HELPS the Euro territory...

And that's what's bothering me.. All these people moving over to the American side, only thinks about themselfs. You hardly aid those of us who actually DO speak english, instead you just abandon (spell) us.

I don't want to represent America, hence why I don't play in that territory. It's simple. I come from Europe, and I wan't to represent Europe.

Shame on you people *gives the angry looking eye*.

Oracle · May 05, 2005, 10:15 AM // 10:15

I wouldn't say I moved to American servers "for myself" - I did it because I'm in an international guild of 20+ people and it made more sense to choose America (language, number of people online, etc) than Europe. I don't care for WaW at all so that side of the game won't bother me. That said, I want to hold HoH to get a sigil, but I do it for the guild, not for any continent.

Sublett · May 05, 2005, 10:20 AM // 10:20

Oh yes, I forgot to say that. The shame doesn't apply for the people who did it for guild reasons, hence that is not a selfish act. But the rest of you...!

In my own humble opinion, people who change territory only for language differences, are weak.. But that is as said, my own humble opinion

Mimu · May 05, 2005, 10:24 AM // 10:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sublett

Oh yes, I forgot to say that. The shame doesn't apply for the people who did it for guild reasons, hence that is not a selfish act. But the rest of you...!

In my own humble opinion, people who change territory only for language differences, are weak.. But that is as said, my own humble opinion

So people switching because they want to be able to talk to other players in an online game are weak?

I live in England, hence I play on the European servers and find the language barrier incredibly annoying.

If it wasn't for my real life friends who play this game I would definitely switch to the American servers. (I still may in the future.)

Sublett · May 05, 2005, 10:33 AM // 10:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mimu

So people switching because they want to be able to talk to other players in an online game are weak?

I live in England, hence I play on the European servers and find the language barrier incredibly annoying.

If it wasn't for my real life friends who play this game I would definitely switch to the American servers. (I still may in the future.)

When there are people that still talks in english in the european territory, yes! They are weak. If there are a few sentances that you cannot understand, well, gee.. I don't think they were meant for you. I can however agree that the lack of english is quite bothersome, not cause I don't understand the other players, but rather that it's hard to be social. But I don't think that this has with territories to do with, but rather the lack of people who wants to start a discussion. If you wan't people to start speaking english to you, then start speaking english to them.

Still, all these people moving over to the american side hardly aids us who wants to stay with the euro side (and represent europe), and still speak english. Of course there will be no english speaking people left if you leave! Not rocket science you know.

Joenus Marine · May 05, 2005, 10:34 AM // 10:34

I have to agree with Oracle at first i played on the eropean servers but hardly anyone on at euro prime time in local chat was speaking english.

I then changed over to US server and finally in local loads of english talkers people that i can communicate with and thats one major parts of why i play online games in the first place.

Now im happily in a guild and having great fun, Saying that though if they decide to make a english,french,korean speaking servers ile go back.

Greenlock · May 05, 2005, 11:07 AM // 11:07

english speaker in mmorpgs here and seriously thinking about moving over as well as I can't seem to communicate with over half the european population...

and by the way, since when did they move Moscow to Asia? When I studied geography last it was still in Europe and so says my atlas. the majority of russias population is in europe as well it's just that most of the area of the country is in asia(siberia among other things).

Ellestar · May 06, 2005, 03:31 AM // 03:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Everous

Moscow is firmly in Asia if that counts for anything...though my Russian friend insists that Russia is in Europe...if that counts for anything

Last time i checked i'm in Moscow and it's in Eastern Europe. The part of the Russia that is to the east from Ural mountains is in Asia, it's a bigger part by territory, but there are far less people than in a european part of Russia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Europe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:P..._of_Europe.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...8/Asia-map.png

Oracle · May 06, 2005, 09:02 AM // 09:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ellestar

Last time i checked i'm in Moscow and it's in Eastern Europe. The part of the Russia that is to the east from Ural mountains is in Asia, it's a bigger part by territory, but there are far less people than in a european part of Russia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Europe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:P..._of_Europe.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...8/Asia-map.png

Geographically, Russia may be considered part of Europe, but culturally and politically it is not in Europe, nor could it be considered 'European'. Personally, I tend to subscribe to this view of Europe:

"In another usage, Europe is increasingly being used as a short-form for the European Union (EU) and its members, currently consisting of 25 member states."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe

bald · May 06, 2005, 09:13 AM // 09:13

Quote:

Geographically, Russia may be considered part of Europe, but culturally and politically it is not in Europe, nor could it be considered 'European'.

umm so poland is more "european" that russia? or u moved it to africa just by "cultural and political" reasons?

anyway, how do you change servers? im bored of all that "european" ppl who cant speak english.

Droniac · May 06, 2005, 09:29 AM // 09:29

Once you get to Lion's Arch you'll see a vast decrease in the amount of non-english language usage in local chat.
Heck, I've only once seen two people talk in German in Lion's Arch - everyone else speaks English. (though I may just be lucky, I am joining at prime-time though (8 pm CET) so I hopefully have more luck trading items ;\)
The only region I've actually seen a load of German/French talk going on was in Ascalon.

And if you're really annoyed by people speaking their own language, you can just turn off local chat and talk only with your friends/guildies until you get to a region where there are less players from a single nation - and thus less non-english chat. (it was good all the way from Yak's Bend when I got there, but that was a while ago - I don't know how it is now)

As for Euro never winning WaW, you must not have been paying attention the past few days. Europe and Korea are the ones that are winning most of the recent matches - even if a portion of english-speakers joined the American world.

Tormunda · May 06, 2005, 09:45 AM // 09:45

Because I played Beta my account defaulted to USA. Last night I changed my account to be Europe.
Hopefully the European community will continue to grow (unless you all leave for USA) and more english speakers abound.
My other option was to join USA guilds and PvP vs Europe and help Europe win - lol. (Joke!)