Guild Wars 2

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Why do the forums support the cyrillic alphabet, but in-game it comes up as blank ? I also noticed that certain characters in Japanese become invisible. How are Greeks, Russians and Serbs supposed to komyoukneecate with each other ? :P

will support for this ever be implemented ?

EDIT: oh nvm, when you type it, it comes up fine, but when you post it it comes up as question marks. I guess the forum doesn’t support cyrillic either…

Because the game does not officially support languages that uses the cyrillic alphabet?

lordkrall.7241:

Because the game does not officially support languages that uses the cyrillic alphabet?

He knows that. He’s asking why.

Probably mostly because it costs money to hire people to regulate and maintain several languages.

Also, on the topic of language discrimination I’d like to know why the game only has the US flag to represent the English language and not half US/Half union flag like in beta

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

Also, on the topic of language discrimination I’d like to know why the game only has the US flag to represent the English language and not half US/Half union flag like in beta

Because there are more countries than just the US and UK that have English as their main language?

The official language of the forums is American.

Hint: The language is called English. Not American. Why should there be a US flag there at all?

The language used in the game is American English rather than British English. For example it uses armor instead of armour, pants instead of trousers, a cookie is what I’d call a biscuit and a biscuit is a scone etc.

I seem to remember Anet said that there weren’t enough players using other alphabets to justify the time and effort it would take to properly include them in the game (based on the number of copies sold in each country).

I would have thought they could compromise by allowing the alphabet to be used in chat and just not translating the text, but maybe there’s a reason they can’t do that.

and yet there are lots of lines of chat with Asian Characters…

Mhmm… I think in this time it’s more or less an evidence to be able to speak either English, Spanish or French.

lordkrall.7241:

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

Also, on the topic of language discrimination I’d like to know why the game only has the US flag to represent the English language and not half US/Half union flag like in beta

Because there are more countries than just the US and UK that have English as their main language?

Being mischievous. I think you’ll find way more countries that have English as their native language have part of the union flag as their flag than ones that have stars and stripes :p

Danikat.8537:

I seem to remember Anet said that there weren’t enough players using other alphabets to justify the time and effort it would take to properly include them in the game (based on the number of copies sold in each country).

This.
/15characters

Ashabhi.1365:

and yet there are lots of lines of chat with Asian Characters…

Yeah that was added as part of the preparation for the game being released in China. I’m pretty sure it showing up on the existing servers was a bug.

Yargesh.4965:

Probably mostly because it costs money to hire people to regulate and maintain several languages.

what is there to maintain ? all they have to do is put the numerics in so that the game accepts them(doesn’t show up blank in-game), they’re basically blocking the alphabets because they can’t handle people saying things that they can’t understand

Shpongle.6025:

Yargesh.4965:

Probably mostly because it costs money to hire people to regulate and maintain several languages.

what is there to maintain ? all they have to do is put the numerics in so that the game accepts them(doesn’t show up blank in-game), they’re basically blocking the alphabets because they can’t handle people saying things that they can’t understand

Well, what would it cost (time & resources) to implement a system that could understand the other languages? I don’t know, but it does sound costly to me.

Shpongle.6025:

Yargesh.4965:

Probably mostly because it costs money to hire people to regulate and maintain several languages.

what is there to maintain ? all they have to do is put the numerics in so that the game accepts them(doesn’t show up blank in-game), they’re basically blocking the alphabets because they can’t handle people saying things that they can’t understand

Data base entries for new languages on gear, database entires for new languages on skills, database entires for new languages on the UI, database entries for the entire quest system and personal story. And thats just for the old stuff in the game.

Every patch would require additional resources on translation, entry and verification of new languages. It would require translators for every living story update, patch notes etc etc. Then there are the voice actors for all the NPC conversations, player interactions etc.

That’s some of the requirements for adding a new language to a game. Its not as simple as just adding in characters to the chat system. Its not as easy as you make out, nor is it cheap.

Shpongle.6025:

Yargesh.4965:

Probably mostly because it costs money to hire people to regulate and maintain several languages.

what is there to maintain ? all they have to do is put the numerics in so that the game accepts them(doesn’t show up blank in-game), they’re basically blocking the alphabets because they can’t handle people saying things that they can’t understand

More to the point, they cannot moderate what they can’t understand. Suppose someone sent them a report on offensive language in chat, and they have seen something written in cyrilic. They’d need to have someone on staff able to read it.

Astralporing.1957:

Shpongle.6025:

Yargesh.4965:

Probably mostly because it costs money to hire people to regulate and maintain several languages.

what is there to maintain ? all they have to do is put the numerics in so that the game accepts them(doesn’t show up blank in-game), they’re basically blocking the alphabets because they can’t handle people saying things that they can’t understand

More to the point, they cannot moderate what they can’t understand. Suppose someone sent them a report on offensive language in chat, and they have seen something written in cyrilic. They’d need to have someone on staff able to read it.

When I worked for another MMO, this was a key reason for similar limits. We didn’t deliberately support any language unless we had at least two full-time GM/customer support people and one full-time community person who could speak them. We had a community rep who spoke six languages, but because we couldn’t find enough customer support people to match all her languages, she was only authorized to use four of the six. Like, even if posts were made in one of the other two, she was under orders from corporate to ignore them. And that’s just for dealing with customers who play an existing version of the game that we did produce, but wanted to speak some other language on the forums or in support tickets. That doesn’t even touch on actually translating the game itself to another language.

I can’t speak towards the process at ANet with any certainty, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s part of it.

Astralporing.1957:

Shpongle.6025:

Yargesh.4965:

Probably mostly because it costs money to hire people to regulate and maintain several languages.

what is there to maintain ? all they have to do is put the numerics in so that the game accepts them(doesn’t show up blank in-game), they’re basically blocking the alphabets because they can’t handle people saying things that they can’t understand

More to the point, they cannot moderate what they can’t understand. Suppose someone sent them a report on offensive language in chat, and they have seen something written in cyrilic. They’d need to have someone on staff able to read it.

That’s not a reason at all.

English characters are used all the time instead of native ones, so you still can’t moderate anything unless you speak the language.

AntiGw.9367:

Astralporing.1957:

Shpongle.6025:

Yargesh.4965:

Probably mostly because it costs money to hire people to regulate and maintain several languages.

what is there to maintain ? all they have to do is put the numerics in so that the game accepts them(doesn’t show up blank in-game), they’re basically blocking the alphabets because they can’t handle people saying things that they can’t understand

More to the point, they cannot moderate what they can’t understand. Suppose someone sent them a report on offensive language in chat, and they have seen something written in cyrilic. They’d need to have someone on staff able to read it.

That’s not a reason at all.

English characters are used all the time instead of native ones, so you still can’t moderate anything unless you speak the language.

It definitely is a reason. You can’t block communications entirely, sure, but it provably diminishes the frequency of communication in an unsupported language.

Because the game supports only Spanish, German and French as if these were the only people worth of having the game in their own language? Not speaking of servers, so don’t start with “Because these have more people” or something.

Melchior.2135:

AntiGw.9367:

Astralporing.1957:

Shpongle.6025:

Yargesh.4965:

Probably mostly because it costs money to hire people to regulate and maintain several languages.

what is there to maintain ? all they have to do is put the numerics in so that the game accepts them(doesn’t show up blank in-game), they’re basically blocking the alphabets because they can’t handle people saying things that they can’t understand

More to the point, they cannot moderate what they can’t understand. Suppose someone sent them a report on offensive language in chat, and they have seen something written in cyrilic. They’d need to have someone on staff able to read it.

That’s not a reason at all.

English characters are used all the time instead of native ones, so you still can’t moderate anything unless you speak the language.

It definitely is a reason. You can’t block communications entirely, sure, but it provably diminishes the frequency of communication in an unsupported language.

If you call throwing the baby out with the water a reason, sure…

AntiGw.9367:

Astralporing.1957:

Shpongle.6025:

Yargesh.4965:

Probably mostly because it costs money to hire people to regulate and maintain several languages.

what is there to maintain ? all they have to do is put the numerics in so that the game accepts them(doesn’t show up blank in-game), they’re basically blocking the alphabets because they can’t handle people saying things that they can’t understand

More to the point, they cannot moderate what they can’t understand. Suppose someone sent them a report on offensive language in chat, and they have seen something written in cyrilic. They’d need to have someone on staff able to read it.

That’s not a reason at all.

English characters are used all the time instead of native ones, so you still can’t moderate anything unless you speak the language.

Of course that is a reason (or at least one of the reasons). Yes, you can use latin alphabet to speak other languages than teh officially supported ones, that’s true. The difference here is that you can use cyrilic (and similar other alphabets) only to speak unsupported languages – there are no supported ones that make use of it. Thus, deliberately introducing a writing they know they won’t be able to understand, and which will cause them trouble for certain is not a very good idea. Not without expanding a list of officially supported languages anyway.

lordkrall.7241:

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

Also, on the topic of language discrimination I’d like to know why the game only has the US flag to represent the English language and not half US/Half union flag like in beta

Because there are more countries than just the US and UK that have English as their main language?

It could be a mosaic to cover all the different English speaking countries but then it’ll look like they are censoring the flag. :P

how about u just speak english