[MUD-Dev] Internationalisation: The effect of Tongues in virtual societes

[Shu-yu Guo {Laptop}]

On Thursday 03 July 2003 16:57, Peter \ wrote:

>   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?

Second question first,

It's not dedicated only to those who speak English. Take Asia for
example, Ragnarok Online have a pretty big player base from both
Korea and Japan, and they speak their own languages on the
respective servers. I would say it's dedicated to those countries
which have:

	- Enough of a market for online RPGs
	- An economy developed enough to carry out such services.

Language wouldn't be a problem if there were enough players from any
one locale to spark the interest of some gaming company to develop
such a game in their native language. Though since the biggest
market will remain the US for a while, I guess they would have to
learn English to play.

Back to the first question, I don't exactly understand what you mean
by uniting us by usage of English. Language homogenity doesn't
equate to cultural and values homogenity. Just by speaking English
wouldn't create too much of a unison...

--
"hohoemi wa itsuwari. shinjitsu wa itami"
Shu-yu Guo              <shu at rufuran.org>
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