Guild Wars 2

I play on Whiteside Ridge, which is an EU (non-specific server).

Someone advertised for a guild in what I think was Italian, and he was immediately shouted down by two people for “not speaking English in the public chat”. One of these people then got into how, because it’s an EU (non specific) server, everyone should speak in English on the /map channel because “it’s polite.”

I got quite annoyed by this. I’m English but I’ve lived in different places in the EU, and it annoys me. I actually find it to be somewhat racist that he tells someone that they should not speak in a language other than English in the /map channel.

Am I over reacting, or do other people find this quite disturbing?

Why is their FR and DE servers but no English lanuage server ?

Racist isn’t the right term, I think the word your looking for is nationalist but that’s besides the point . I think if it’s the EU server people have the right to speak in their native tongue . With that said however I’m not sure its a good idea to post such a topic here as it will likely end in a flame war

The best way to solve this is to give us English speakers a English Server, the Spanish,French and Germans have one. I do not mind other people talking in their language, but it does make me wish i could find an EU server where everyone speaks the same language as i do.

I play on BlackTide and the majority seem to speak English, but at times the chat is filled with Polish and Russian, nothing against it i just do not understand what they are saying, which is why i’d like to find a EU server where i know everybody on there will be able to understand each other.

NA servers speak english (lets not argue semantics the majority speak english and 2 largest governments run in english) So naturally when in NA servers I expect to see english. I don’t care if other nationalities join the servers. bothers me not one bit. But when they speak in something other than english they must realize that most people cannot understand what they are saying.

Why would you go to a server where most people cannot understand you? Dosen’t make sense to me. If I went to a polish server and couldn’t understand them or they couldn’t understand me… it would ruin my game expirence. Talk about fustration.

I always show bad attiude when they can’t respect common knowledge to speak English in a public chat.

I mean they can’t be that stupid to realise that other people doesn’t understand what they say.

It’s an EU server, so they can speak any EU language by definition.

Saying they must speak English is just absurd.

Are you naive enough to believe that only Brits play on EU servers?

Sounds like normal European gamer behaviour to me. If you are not a native from someone’s country prepare for the bigotry and hate.

The best way is to be tolerant and don’t feed trolls.
The language topic is becoming tedious; if you find a server where there is a big national group, you have to expect to find that nation language too in the chat. Because not all people knows english and not all people knows the “netiquette”. Games are played mostly by young people that doesn’t care about “rules”.
I’m Italian, I usually talk english in general chat but part of our community is deeply divided between two extremes: those who knows english and pretend that all players talks it and those who wont do that for a silly nationalism.
I’m in the middle because no one can’t forbid another person to talk his own language, expecially if it’s the only one he know; but a good manner (NOT A RULE) is to talk in a language understandable by the majority.
Trolls damage all communityes, so don’t feed them and don’t begin flames about those stupid argouments. I’m totally ok to see other language (other than English and Italian) in chat, especially in an EU server, but I hate the Spam and the CAPS strings in all languages.
Another thing, if a person talks in his language, probably doesn’t care to be understood by the others who don’t talk it.

Eternal Duty.4789:

I always show bad attiude when they can’t respect common knowledge to speak English in a public chat.

I mean they can’t be that stupid to realise that other people doesn’t understand what they say.

Here you got your answer.

Some peole are simply ignorant and will hate on people for whatever reason they can find. It’s always amusing when you see someone recruit for a one nationality guild in their own language and immediately see a bunch of people go “zomg enlgihs pelase!” because they didn’t understand. Well guess what, it was never meant for you!

Try playing on Sea of Sorrows (US, but mostly Aussies). I keep to guild chat, because the public chat is all racist, misogynistic and extremely immature. The last thing I want to do is read the garbage spewed by middle-class, white, male teenagers.

I mean nothing bad with what I wrote below

Some countries does not teach english as much as others, and that might make it hard for that person to understand, and talk english himself, obviously. The best way then to make commercial about your guild is in your own language, if the guild is aimed towards your own country men.

It’s a sad thing that shouldn’t be happening in MMOs. Instead of being diverse and open-minded we have more people on games who are complete opposites who think gaming is for them, and themselves only.

Zaxan the current unruly ones in the MMO-Player base were hardly around back in the days of Ultima Online. Were online-games were more focused on fan-bases and the fans that played them.

It’s easy for anyone to be rude behind the PC but EU/NA is made up of many people of many different nationalities. These countries have plenty of people who speak spanish, french and other languages or come from different backgrounds and ethnicity. MMO’s should be no different in diversity and anyone who has a problem with it are just those who think haughty of themselves.

Don’t let them get to you. You are allowed to speak any language of your country just like anyone else who can play GW2. As long as their comments don’t boderline on racism feel free to ignore these immature and insecure player-types.

Eternal Duty.4789:

I always show bad attiude when they can’t respect common knowledge to speak English in a public chat.

I mean they can’t be that stupid to realise that other people doesn’t understand what they say.

It’s not bad attitude. It’s you making a big deal out of something that doesn’t concern you.

Kailthir.6384:

I don’t care if other nationalities join the servers. bothers me not one bit. But when they speak in something other than english they must realize that most people cannot understand what they are saying.

This is so typical.

Here’s something YOU need to realize. No one care if you don’t understand.
If someone speak in a language that you don’t understand, they are not talking to you. Simple as that.
If a guild is advertising in Italian, they don’t give a kitten if non Italian speaking people understand or not because they are asking to people who speak and understand Italian only.

Elric of Grans.7684:

Try playing on Sea of Sorrows (US, but mostly Aussies). I keep to guild chat, because the public chat is all racist, misogynistic and extremely immature. The last thing I want to do is read the garbage spewed by middle-class, white, male teenagers.

I don’t know if “middle class, white, male teenagers” is a fair response to this… in fact it is just more bigotry/prejudice to argue against prejudice.

If somebody wants to speak their language in the game, then go ahead. I see no problem AT ALL with letting other people speak in whatever form they want. It obviously doesn’t concern me or if it does then they will probably try to whisper me in which case I can politely tell them that I don’t understand them the best way I can, in english.

Everybody is free to write in their own language. There is no rules for that and nobody can say that is not polite to write in world chat other language than English. Who invented that?

Why would anyone be offended by the existence/presence of another language? Are you somehow so self-important that you must read what everyone types?

If it is done in a language you do not understand, then it wasn’t intended for you anyway, so ignore it.

silentnight warrior.2714:

Everybody is free to write in their own language. There is no rules for that and nobody can say that is not polite to write in world chat other language than English. Who invented that?

I have no problems with other nations joining in on the fun. However, communication suffers from multiple languages trying achieve a goal. With that said though, the rewards outweigh the cost.

I honestly can’t fathom why people are offended when they see other people speaking in a different language. What is it that bugs these people?

JoxerNL.3752:

My personal beef is with germans/french speaking their native tongue on the EU servers, they got their own flippin servers as it is, no need to polute the normal EU servers.

And as an addenum : I am Dutch, and i refuse to speak Dutch in public in any MMO, as i consider it extremely rude.

You consider other languages pollution?

You know, there are plenty of people out there who speak more than one language and are completely fine with having other languages, even completely foreign ones, on their servers. Seriously, what’s with all the xenophobia? If someone speaks a language you don’t understand, well, too bad for you.

Farzo.8410:

I mean nothing bad with what I wrote below

Some countries does not teach english as much as others, and that might make it hard for that person to understand, and talk english himself, obviously. The best way then to make commercial about your guild is in your own language, if the guild is aimed towards your own country men.

Yes, EXACTLY this.

And on the flip side, there are lots of French-speaking people in NA. So do we have to go to a dedicated EU server just because a handful of English-speakers on the NA ones will be offended by our bilingualism?

I don’t know why people get so wound up seeing a different language in open chat. That channel isn’t their private message service so there’s bound to be stuff in it that just doesn’t apply to them. If it’s something written in another language, then that obviously qualifies as being “not meant for them”. Deal with it and move on.

Frankly, I think it’s just the busy-body types that care about this. The types that peer through a crack in the curtains and furtively watch their neighbours’ comings and goings, notepad in hand. Just mind your own business.

I don’t understand, either. I may be curious if I see/hear someone speaking another language but I certainly wouldn’t be egotistical enough to demand that everyone in my presence speak only a language I can understand. It’s not imperative I know what they’re talking about.

Besides, I rarely even glance at map chat. I don’t get the fascination with it.. I’m focused on the game.

Eternal Duty.4789:

I always show bad attiude when they can’t respect common knowledge to speak English in a public chat.

I mean they can’t be that stupid to realise that other people doesn’t understand what they say.

You can’t be serious. Non-english speakers (those that CAN’T) should be what? reduced to eternal silence? Banned? This is nonsense.
English speakers get all the comfort, fine, but don’t take it for granted too much.

JoxerNL.3752:

Craven.5468:

JoxerNL.3752:

My personal beef is with germans/french speaking their native tongue on the EU servers, they got their own flippin servers as it is, no need to polute the normal EU servers.

And as an addenum : I am Dutch, and i refuse to speak Dutch in public in any MMO, as i consider it extremely rude.

You consider other languages pollution?

I call nationalities whom have their own flippin servers, spamming in their native tongue pollution yes.

So any Germans, for example, who want to game with both German and English-speaking people are SOL, basically?

People who are offended by the mere sight of a foreign language are closed-minded bigots.

If the people are spamming you can blacklist them; otherwise you can just deal.

It’s not like there are a certain number of bits and bytes on the internet available to everyone and these people are taking them up. There is room here for all of us in this globalized culture.

Build a bridge and get over your bigotry.

JoxerNL.3752:

Craven.5468:

JoxerNL.3752:

My personal beef is with germans/french speaking their native tongue on the EU servers, they got their own flippin servers as it is, no need to polute the normal EU servers.

And as an addenum : I am Dutch, and i refuse to speak Dutch in public in any MMO, as i consider it extremely rude.

You consider other languages pollution?

I call nationalities whom have their own flippin servers, spamming in their native tongue on EU servers pollution yes.

Well, one should define what EU stands for, then. As if english speakers didn’t spread pollution themselves from time to time…

No Leaf Clover.4893:

JoxerNL.3752:

Craven.5468:

JoxerNL.3752:

My personal beef is with germans/french speaking their native tongue on the EU servers, they got their own flippin servers as it is, no need to polute the normal EU servers.

And as an addenum : I am Dutch, and i refuse to speak Dutch in public in any MMO, as i consider it extremely rude.

You consider other languages pollution?

I call nationalities whom have their own flippin servers, spamming in their native tongue on EU servers pollution yes.

Well, one should define what EU stands for, then. As if english speakers didn’t spread pollution themselves from time to time…

Clearly some people think it means English Union

douceline.2741:

So any Germans, for example, who want to game with both German and English-speaking people are SOL, basically?

Think it’s save to say these germans can speak english then, no?

JoxerNL.3752:

douceline.2741:

So any Germans, for example, who want to game with both German and English-speaking people are SOL, basically?

Think it’s save to say these germans can speak english then, no?

No, it’s not. Lots of people can’t speak English. And lots of people can, but still find this arbitrary privileging of English to be completely ridiculous and offensive. I’m a native English speaker and even I find it offensive. So rather than forcing your ignorant xenophobia to dictate the way everyone interacts, why not just use your handy little “block” button in the chat window and let the rest of us enjoy the game.

Maybe I don’t mind when people talk in languages I don’t understand because I live in a large and very multi-cultural city… So, I never understood it why people get so mad about that.

JoxerNL.3752:

douceline.2741:

So any Germans, for example, who want to game with both German and English-speaking people are SOL, basically?

Think it’s save to say these germans can speak english then, no?

I think it’s SAFE to say that you cannot speak English that well yourself.

Thus, why get angry when someone else decides to converse in their native language?

EU stands for EUROPEAN Union. There are many countries in the EUROPEAN Union that have English as a secondary language.

The falsely privileged mindset of many English speakers embarrasses us as a whole.

Adine.2184:

Racist isn’t the right term, I think the word your looking for is nationalist but that’s besides the point . I think if it’s the EU server people have the right to speak in their native tongue . With that said however I’m not sure its a good idea to post such a topic here as it will likely end in a flame war

Lol, that’s not the right term either. It’s common decency to speak the proper language in the proper server, simple as that.

Kungkonung.6758:

Adine.2184:

Racist isn’t the right term, I think the word your looking for is nationalist but that’s besides the point . I think if it’s the EU server people have the right to speak in their native tongue . With that said however I’m not sure its a good idea to post such a topic here as it will likely end in a flame war

Lol, that’s not the right term either. It’s common decency to speak the proper language in the proper server, simple as that.

No, it is not. It is merely the opinion of some people.

ZaxanRazor.6235:

It’s an EU server, so they can speak any EU language by definition.

Saying they must speak English is just absurd.

Are you naive enough to believe that only Brits play on EU servers?

So you’re saying that Germany, France, and Spain doesn’t belong to the EU?

Craven.5468:

Kungkonung.6758:

Adine.2184:

Racist isn’t the right term, I think the word your looking for is nationalist but that’s besides the point . I think if it’s the EU server people have the right to speak in their native tongue . With that said however I’m not sure its a good idea to post such a topic here as it will likely end in a flame war

Lol, that’s not the right term either. It’s common decency to speak the proper language in the proper server, simple as that.

No, it is not. It is merely the opinion of some people.

It is. There are servers specifically for german, french, and spanish people, but none for english-speaking people in the EU with your logic.

Somehow it seems that it’s mostly people who can only speak English that complain about other people speaking their own languages. I don’t understand the problem. If something’s being said/written in a language you don’t understand, but it’s not specifically aimed at you, why can’t you ignore it?

That said, I barely see people use languages other than English. I’m on Gandara and I’ve seen someone advertise a guild in Italian and someone asking if there were any German guilds in German, and that’s it. I think it’s cool to see different languages, though. It’s definitely better than people arguing in the map chat about whether it’s your right to be racist if you wish to be.

Some of you are taking this to an extreme that it shouldn’t be taken to. I saw someone posting in some Asian language last night in Isles of Janthir which is mainly an English speaking server 98% of the time.

I actually didn’t mind it at all. It’s these situations where we see just how intolerant and ignorant some MMORPG gamers can be to let something so miniscule offend and bother them so much.

Conflict stirs from lack of communication, and the said lack is a breeding ground for ignorance, xenophobia, nationalism and racism. Like it or not, a cohesive community with a single dominant language used for communication will have far less conflicts and far more understanding for other cultures, religions and nations within the said community, than a "melting pot" of cultures which live side by side with each other, but have no means of communication. If "don’t disturb them" replaces "state your business and ask what their problem is", and "don’t talk about them" replaces "get to know them better", then we have a problem.

You can’t have a multicultural society without unified language and code of conduct, because without that most basic ground for communication and problem-solving people won’t go that extra mile to learn a foreign language, study foreign culture or preach foreign gods. Instead, they will lock themselves up in their comfortable apartments with like-minded people and avoid those who they can’t communicate with in any reasonable way.

The moral of this story is, it’s in everybody interest to pick up basic English for communication. Once communication exists, cultural exchange can begin, and the multicultural community can thrive. If successful communication is not established, it will lead to all sorts of problems that "tolerance" and "acceptance" of others were supposed to prevent - sadly, you can’t tolerate what you perceive as a threat, and you can’t accept that which you don’t understand. You can neither tolerate nor accept other people, if you can’t communicate with them in any reasonable way.

Why English? Because it happens to be the global language of the Internet. It’s not priviledged or "better" than any other language based on some intristic quality, it’s simply best-suited to establish the most basic communication. If most basic communication existed and functioned properly, this thread wouldn’t even be created. Nobody would bring up racism, bigotry or xenophobia, because these terms would be part of history, carefully archived in old, dusty books.

Demosthene.2195:

Conflict stirs from lack of communication, and the said lack is a breeding ground for ignorance, xenophobia, nationalism and racism. Like it or not, a cohesive community with a single dominant language used for communication will have far less conflicts and far more understanding for other cultures, religions and nations within the said community, than a “melting pot” of cultures which live side by side with each other, but have no means of communication. If “don’t disturb them” replaces “state your business and ask what their problem is”, and “don’t talk about them” replaces “get to know them better”, then we have a problem.

You can’t have a multicultural society without unified language and code of conduct, because without that most basic ground for communication and problem-solving people won’t go that extra mile to learn a foreign language, study foreign culture or preach foreign gods. Instead, they will lock themselves up in their comfortable apartments with like-minded people and avoid those who they can’t communicate with in any reasonable way.

The moral of this story is, it’s in everybody interest to pick up basic English for communication. Once communication exists, cultural exchange can begin, and the multicultural community can thrive. If successful communication is not established, it will lead to all sorts of problems that “tolerance” and “acceptance” of others were supposed to prevent – sadly, you can’t tolerate what you perceive as a threat, and you can’t accept that which you don’t understand. You can neither tolerate nor accept other people, if you can’t communicate with them in any reasonable way.

Why English? Because it happens to be the global language of the Internet. It’s not priviledged or “better” than any other language based on some intristic quality, it’s simply best-suited to establish the most basic communication. If most basic communication existed and functioned properly, this thread wouldn’t even be created. Nobody would bring up racism, bigotry or xenophobia, because these terms would be part of history, carefully archived in old, dusty books.

So if I understand your point, all types of societies need a common language.
And then…?
Let’s pick english, for, as you say, BASIC communication. What do you do with NON-BASIC?
I’m french. I play on a EU english server. I never speak my native language, because I somewhat manage to make myself understable in english. Yesterday, a guy wanted to give me an object he looted and which he thought was best for me to have. so he whispered, but managed bad english really, he was Russian, and said so (sorry for english, etc). I felt ashamed not to be able to answer to someone that, in fact, was fighting his own barriers to be kind to me. I felt ashamed and ill at ease, not being able to communicate with someone who cannot speak english.
This might be because I’m not part of the whole “my language is the top one in the whole universe” population. Maybe native english speakers who are unable to speak any other language should meditate on their own laziness, not all their fault, but still. many of you guys didn’t need to learn another language, and didn’t, and now you would blame people that did the exact same thing, but who, unfortunately, belong to a minor language category?
Come on.
it’s not racism, in the end it’s just plain stupidity.

Eternal Duty.4789:

I always show bad attiude when they can’t respect common knowledge to speak English in a public chat.

I mean they can’t be that stupid to realise that other people doesn’t understand what they say.

I find it delightfully ironic that, although English is not my first language, I could tear your post to pieces due to your appalling English usage.

I have no problem with non-English players using their native tongues.
I have no problem with “English as a second or third language” players making gramattical errors when typing English.
I do have a problem with players criticising the above in poorly-formatted English.

English isn’t my first language either, but atleast I try. I’m not here either, on the forum to write English essayes.

Please go ahead, tear my post to pieces. Feedback is appreciated

I may have exaggerated a bit in my first post, but it still stands.
Public chat should be understandable by the masses, hence the use of the international language English.

A guild recruitment advertisment is fine once in a while but a discussion, no.

Kailthir.6384:

NA servers speak english (lets not argue semantics the majority speak english and 2 largest governments run in english) So naturally when in NA servers I expect to see english. I don’t care if other nationalities join the servers. bothers me not one bit. But when they speak in something other than english they must realize that most people cannot understand what they are saying.

Why would you go to a server where most people cannot understand you? Dosen’t make sense to me. If I went to a polish server and couldn’t understand them or they couldn’t understand me… it would ruin my game expirence. Talk about fustration.

Becasue SA have to Join “NA” servers there are no Spanish or portuguese servers on this side.

Italian here.

I feel people are entitled to make guild advertisement in their own language in order to attract others from the same country, but should refrain from spammy chatter in a specific language, because if we all do that it’s going to be a pain for everyone.

Honestly tho, I still believe that if you don’t speak 3-4 languages in 2012 you better turn off your computer and get some education.

Sending a guild recruiting message once in a day in a foreign language is fine, nobody should ever complain about that, if someone does he probably has some personal frustrations (you should at least allow the rights to guild leaders to recruit politely, as you would do).
As well as asking once for help and continuing the discussion in whisper if you don’t have a guild should be allowed, what should someone do if he doesn’t have a guild and doesn’t know english very well?

What is not fine is discussing in a foreign language, spamming the chat with 3 or 4 messages, than it’s fine to ask for english and complain. We all know some english or we’d not play the game, since it’s not translated in all european locales.
Fwiw, I’m not english mother tongue.

This is a really dumb concern, why on earth does anyone care if they can’t understand what other people are saying?

I do use english on chat but not becasue its “polite” (if you think this you are being racist, you just don’t know it) I do it simply becasue I get to practice it.

You guys must really hate airports then what with all those freaky foreigners talking in exotics tongues.

Eh. Give a “Language” checkbox for everyone to select in the chat options that designates the language you will be speaking, and then add a filter for everyone to hide whatever languages they desire.

This way everyone (generally) only sees what they’re OK with.

I can only speak english, spanish, and a little german. If someone wants to speak in their mother language more power to them. I can understand that is is hard to understand them(lol), but I hardly see justifying insults and bigotry because they speak another language. Heck I dont care and I am an American, a Southern American; we pretty much made intolerance an artform.

Also why cant they just have a translation program that translates other languages into what you flag as your native language. Sure the grammar would be wrong, and there would be a little miscommunication still but it seems like it would help. If google chrome (a web browser) can manage it with a tiny program why couldnt the game?

My grammar is most likely terrible, it is the internet afterall. In my term paper I am sure it will be impeccable, in a gaming forum; not so much.