R: [MUD-Dev] Internationalisation: The effect of Tongues in virtualsocietes

[Ghilardi Filippo]

From:: Peter "Pietro" Rossmann

>   but now, the world opens more once again. we've got virtual
>   worlds.  everybody likes it, everybody wants to have it. even
>   the "rest" of the world that is non-english speaking. So they
>   get in. and then, evem that the player can generally communicate
>   in english, he will be laid off. because all this games are
>   built around socializing, in which he cannot take a part. he has
>   never met words like grinding, threadmilling [if he don't goes
>   to gym] and such.  So, i am wondering - would the VW (virtual
>   worlds, not volkswagen) help to unite us by usage of english? Or
>   will it be dedicated only to those speeking (writing) english?

> please also don't forget about many applications of UOX3 (amateur
> UO server) running only because of the "tongue" reason.  i
> personally has been playing on one such czech server and i enjoyed
> it very much that everybody speaks czech.

I'm italian and I saw a lot of things happening within the italian
community in many different VW (Just to be exact, Ultima Online,
Dark Age of Camelot, and now StarWarsGalaxies).

Also, I've seen different aspects as I've played DAOC on US servers
and on a specific italian server.

One thing that I've notices is that tongue barier won't stop a
player from playing as long as s/he is introduced by a
friend. Probably is like when people in RL move from one country to
another. It's easier if you have friends or relatives that are
already in the new country. Probably many won't even start playing a
MMO without having a friend that help them out during the very first
hours of gameplay.

I know of italian players that don't speak english but still play UO
on the european server. Those are capable to play and in few days
start to grab some basic understand of english.... just to be able
to sell or buy and the like. In some cases of a real and urgent need
to talk and understand a better english, they just ask help from
other italian players. There's a profession in RL that translate
from a language to another, in MMO games is the same and ppl can
understand eachother using most of the same clever tricks that can
be used in RL.

Having a multicultural and language rich game is a big plus for me
as it add variety. This is true even when you have big groups
(guilds) forming from the same country. Those guilds offer (directly
and indirectly) support, a sense of home and a way to keep speaking
using your mother tongue.

Being able to speek freely with your own natural language is fun as
you can use jokes, write and read faster and being able to speak
without too much thinking.

In DAOC I found some interesting things appening (from a social
stand point).  For who don't know, Dark Age of Camelot (DAOC) is
avaible in US but there's also foreign versions. What is really
different from other franchise like UO and EQ is that DAOC servers
(outside US) are managed by different companies.  So, in italy
there's a different version of DAOC fully translated in italian and
played by italians. (other companies handle french, german and
english UK versions)

With this kind of commercialization of the product 99% of italian
daoc players play on an italian (and official) server. This is
because of the language and that isn't easy to buy a US version of
the game. You can find the game almost everywhere in italy, but is
the italian version. For the US version you need to buy directly
from US.

All this just to say that we have a good example of a monocultural
and monolanguage server.

What I've observed is that ther's some sort of slang that is a mix
from english and italian even if the server is italian. And note
that software is fully translated and give no reason for the mix of
english used. (actually this mix are some english words transposed
in italian like they were verbs).

In the end I would say that language can be a big problem in a MUD
(as it rely only on words). In a graphical mud (UO, DAOC, EQ, SWG
etc.) is still something to count but anyone can (with help) get at
it.

> ps: this idea has refreshed itseft when i've been fighting with my
> inability to express myself properly in all my previous
> posts. (this including :))

I regret to have to say (like a newbie in a forum): "me too"

ciao ciao
Filippo
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