Guild Wars 2

ATM in EU like 70% of the LFG’s are in german. This is so annoying. Anet should either make a filter so i can choose english language only, or the germans should get their own LFG tool…

As a german I feel offended. Just kidding. It’s just that most of the EU population is german, but I agree, there should be a language filter, yet you could have mentioned that less… discriminatory.

And we should remove [DE] players from the forums.

Azraelle.1683:

And we should remove [DE] players from the forums.

NoooooooOoooOoooooooOooooo

Agreed, this is very irritating.

Maybe you should type in German? Since it is the majority as you said. Instead of the majority trying to mold in to fit the minority?

Justdeifyme.9387:

most of the EU population is german.

Do you have any evidence to support this?

Im going to type backwards in lfg now.

Xcom.1926:

Maybe you should type in German? Since it is the majority as you said. Instead of the majority trying to mold in to fit the minority?

Are you implying that all Europeans are (supposed to be) fluent in German? o_o

Meh, the issue is at ANet’s end. They have set up both the NA and EU server farm the same way, but the EU one is not a single language. You can see this with overflows as well, as they lump people from all the language specific worlds together.

As it stands, the LFG is a cross server farm bulletin board. With little to no control on who answers or gets to see the message.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Justdeifyme.9387:

most of the EU population is german.

Do you have any evidence to support this?

Well, it wont be the majority of all EU population (but it will be close, i assume) but german is the most common spoken native language from all players on EU servers.

If he is right with his claim that 70% is in german, I guess he really IS the minority, and should adapt. I assume that the post just overblown as is usual on forums and he is just ranting because he saw a few german entries. In that case, deal with it.

P.S. the few times I looked most entries were in french. No big deal.

Wanze.8410:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Justdeifyme.9387:

most of the EU population is german.

Do you have any evidence to support this?

Well, it wont be the majority of all EU population (but it will be close, i assume) but german is the most common spoken native language from all players on EU servers.

Sorry but this is nonsense. English the most spoken language in the EU, its the “international buisness” language. Its taught all over Europe as a second language. Spanish and French players speak some english, many German players speak English and the Nordic counrties generally speak excellent English.

So no German is definately not the most common language. Its not even close.

Lexandro.1456:

Wanze.8410:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Justdeifyme.9387:

most of the EU population is german.

Do you have any evidence to support this?

Well, it wont be the majority of all EU population (but it will be close, i assume) but german is the most common spoken native language from all players on EU servers.

Sorry but this is nonsense. English the most spoken language in the EU, its the “international buisness” language. Its taught all over Europe as a second language. Spanish and French players speak some english, many German players speak English and the Nordic counrties generally speak excellent English.

So no German is definately not the most common language. Its not even close.

Just because it’s the most common language in the region does not mean that it is the most common language on those servers. Pretty sure he is saying that a disproportionate number of germans play the game.

Shufflepants.9785:

Lexandro.1456:

Wanze.8410:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Justdeifyme.9387:

most of the EU population is german.

Do you have any evidence to support this?

Well, it wont be the majority of all EU population (but it will be close, i assume) but german is the most common spoken native language from all players on EU servers.

Sorry but this is nonsense. English the most spoken language in the EU, its the “international buisness” language. Its taught all over Europe as a second language. Spanish and French players speak some english, many German players speak English and the Nordic counrties generally speak excellent English.

So no German is definately not the most common language. Its not even close.

Just because it’s the most common language in the region does not mean that it is the most common language on those servers. Pretty sure he is saying that a disproportionate number of germans play the game.

And yet he is still wrong because

1. There are nearly double the number of English servers to german servers in the game
2. The English servers in the majority are high population
3. German speakers are outnumbered massively by French/Spanish/English speakers combined,
4. And thats not even mentioning Nordic countries, Baltic countries, and mediteranian countries that all have some grasp of English who also play GW2.

He is wrong in his assumption. It is based on anecdotal evidence, which is proven false with actual RL information.

Inallyfay, away lacepay Iway ancay useway igpay atinlay. Ativenay igpay atinlay peakersay, Uniteway!

Serophous.9085:

Im going to type backwards in lfg now.

.oot doog si tahT

A filter would be great, but everyone no matter their nationality should be able to enjoy every aspect of the game, besides the tool is still in development, like the language toggle in your options menu, I would assume they would be able to put the same toggle in the tool itself.

Best if they post in German than they post in English and then just speaks German whole time excluding you during the run, as it too often happened to me using the LFG website. (Not just German people of course, Spanish and French as well, nothing against anyone, but it’s the kind of things which makes me drop a team right away since I claim to be part of team not excluded like a reject for speaking another language.)

digiowl.9620:

Meh, the issue is at ANet’s end. They have set up both the NA and EU server farm the same way, but the EU one is not a single language.

Neither is NA.

The NA datacenter is designated to serve a player base from countries which account for 4 official languages(English, French, Spanish and Portuguese)

There are no language limitations built in to the game nor are any needed. if you come across chat or msgs in languages which you do not understand: simply ignore them as they are not meant for you.

Looks like my post was misinterpreted and I didn’t type enough information about what I actually meant.

With my statement I didn’t mean EU as a Continent, I meant the Population of the Server Region Europe of Guild Wars 2. Of course German isn’t the most common language in Europe, that wasn’t what I was trying to say either. It’s just that because Germany is the Country with the highest Population in Europe (you can google that if you want) more germans play Guild Wars 2 than french, spanish or eastern european people and for the fact that most of the eastern and northern countries tend to speak english, because they don’t mind.

Germans and French do mind, it’s a national proud thing, especially from french people you can’t expect hearing english that often and neither from germans. If we can speak our language with the majority understanding us, we will do that.

I never thought this would be me, but here goes

Get back on topic guys

GrandmaFunk.3052:

There are no language limitations built in to the game nor are any needed. if you come across chat or msgs in languages which you do not understand: _simply ignore them as they are not meant for you

I agree with that. If they type their LFGs in german, they obviously only want germans to join and you can ignore it anyways, simple as that.

Justdeifyme.9387:

GrandmaFunk.3052:

There are no language limitations built in to the game nor are any needed. if you come across chat or msgs in languages which you do not understand: _simply ignore them as they are not meant for you

I agree with that. If they type their LFGs in german, they obviously only want germans to join and you can ignore it anyways, simple as that.

I disagree. Or – Well yes you can ignore them, but it would help tremendously to be able to cut away half the LFG’s to find an appropriate one faster The LFG tool works without it, but it would be nice to have.

And what about to write note in both your mother tongue and english? both parties would be happy

If they are posting in the LFG in German then likely they will chat in German while playing. So you want to force them the chat in English too?

It’s fine. Start your own party in English and post it in the LFG tool if you want an English speaking party. It seems pretty obvious thing to do.

Justdeifyme.9387:

Germans and French do mind, it’s a national proud thing, especially from french people you can’t expect hearing english that often and neither from germans. If we can speak our language with the majority understanding us, we will do that.

Oh, come on. We germans violate and have violated our language in so many ways, its more than sad.
And if this games community isnt totally different from all other communities, half of the words in the chat are english or denglisch anyways.
I guess it will be quite an experience for an engish speaker to guest on a german server and read the chat for a bit.

Alternatively: Ignore those kittening posts.

How would you feel if someone came to the forums asking people to type their LFG in german because they like it better? How much of an entitled kitten would you consider them? How much of a whiny, non-issue, a complaint?

Yes, English is my favorite language too. No, that doesn’t mean it should be everyone else’s.

Get over yourselves and deal with it. Jeez…

Justdeifyme.9387:

GrandmaFunk.3052:

There are no language limitations built in to the game nor are any needed. if you come across chat or msgs in languages which you do not understand: _simply ignore them as they are not meant for you

I agree with that. If they type their LFGs in german, they obviously only want germans to join and you can ignore it anyways, simple as that.

Pretty much this! Ignore people that do not post their lfg group in a language you do not speak, because they are sending a pretty clear message through that.

Lexandro.1456:

Shufflepants.9785:

Lexandro.1456:

Wanze.8410:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Justdeifyme.9387:

most of the EU population is german.

Do you have any evidence to support this?

Well, it wont be the majority of all EU population (but it will be close, i assume) but german is the most common spoken native language from all players on EU servers.

Sorry but this is nonsense. English the most spoken language in the EU, its the “international buisness” language. Its taught all over Europe as a second language. Spanish and French players speak some english, many German players speak English and the Nordic counrties generally speak excellent English.

So no German is definately not the most common language. Its not even close.

Just because it’s the most common language in the region does not mean that it is the most common language on those servers. Pretty sure he is saying that a disproportionate number of germans play the game.

And yet he is still wrong because

1. There are nearly double the number of English servers to german servers in the game
2. The English servers in the majority are high population
3. German speakers are outnumbered massively by French/Spanish/English speakers combined,
4. And thats not even mentioning Nordic countries, Baltic countries, and mediteranian countries that all have some grasp of English who also play GW2.

He is wrong in his assumption. It is based on anecdotal evidence, which is proven false with actual RL information.

Source? But until you work at ANet or can link to ANet language statistics or demographic statistics, I’m afraid your claims are as baseless as his.

Would you rather join a group and find out the other members are speaking German or would you rather see a LFG post in German and know that probably isn’t the group for you?

Lexandro.1456:

And yet he is still wrong because

1. There are nearly double the number of English servers to german servers in the game

The English servers aren’t really English servers they’re EU misc servers that have players that speak tons of different languages and varying levels of fluency in any second language.

Lexandro.1456:

And yet he is still wrong because

1. There are nearly double the number of English servers to german servers in the game

There are no English servers. There are international servers. The only “national” servers you have are French, Spanish and German, because of legal issues.

Lexandro.1456:

1. German speakers are outnumbered massively by French/Spanish/English speakers combined,

Source? Or is this number as pulled out of your kitten as anyone else’s?

Lexandro.1456:

He is wrong in his assumption. It is based on anecdotal evidence, which is proven false with actual RL information.

The irony being, you’re not even providing anecdotal evidence. You’re not providing any evidence, so, honestly, you’re both in the same boat of failure.

Lexandro.1456:

Wanze.8410:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Justdeifyme.9387:

most of the EU population is german.

Do you have any evidence to support this?

Well, it wont be the majority of all EU population (but it will be close, i assume) but german is the most common spoken native language from all players on EU servers.

Sorry but this is nonsense. English the most spoken language in the EU, its the “international buisness” language. Its taught all over Europe as a second language. Spanish and French players speak some english, many German players speak English and the Nordic counrties generally speak excellent English.

So no German is definately not the most common language. Its not even close.

You completely missed my point. I highlighted in my original post what you seem to have misread.

Also GW2 sold more copies in Germany than in any other european country.

Edit: For reference:

16% of all EU citizens have german as their first language,
13% each have italian or english
12% have french
8% have spanish or polish
as their first language.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_European_Union

All it proves is that Germans have embraced the LFG tool. Or that their groups aren’t filled within minutes.

Lexandro.1456:

Shufflepants.9785:

Lexandro.1456:

Wanze.8410:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Justdeifyme.9387:

most of the EU population is german.

Do you have any evidence to support this?

Well, it wont be the majority of all EU population (but it will be close, i assume) but german is the most common spoken native language from all players on EU servers.

Sorry but this is nonsense. English the most spoken language in the EU, its the “international buisness” language. Its taught all over Europe as a second language. Spanish and French players speak some english, many German players speak English and the Nordic counrties generally speak excellent English.

So no German is definately not the most common language. Its not even close.

Just because it’s the most common language in the region does not mean that it is the most common language on those servers. Pretty sure he is saying that a disproportionate number of germans play the game.

And yet he is still wrong because

1. There are nearly double the number of English servers to german servers in the game
2. The English servers in the majority are high population
3. German speakers are outnumbered massively by French/Spanish/English speakers combined,
4. And thats not even mentioning Nordic countries, Baltic countries, and mediteranian countries that all have some grasp of English who also play GW2.

He is wrong in his assumption. It is based on anecdotal evidence, which is proven false with actual RL information.

Here is my anecdotal evidence:

As of 7th of September 2013:
A total of 747,367 copies of GW2 were sold in Europe and of those copies 351,434 were sold in Germany.
If you add the copies sold in Austria and the german speaking parts of Switzerland, i think its fair to assume that the majority of the european player base speaks german.
Source for total sales in europe: http://www.vgchartz.com/game/37350/guild-wars-2/Europe/
Source for Germany:
http://www.vgchartz.com/game/37350/guild-wars-2/Germany/

English is not the official language of the world

Le français n’est pas la langue officielle du monde

Deutsch ist nicht die offizielle Weltsprache

Nederlands is niet de officiele taal van de wereld

Español no esta la lengua del mundo

No matter how much you’d want to, English isn’t an official language of the world, internet or Guild Wars 2. Unless there’s a language filter, people are free to type whatever they’d like.

Player-chosen filtering is the correct solution. Enforcing English is nothing more than racism.

Xcom.1926:

Maybe you should type in German? Since it is the majority as you said. Instead of the majority trying to mold in to fit the minority?

Do you leave toilet seat up or, like me put the toilet seat up after you have been to ensure that no silly boys dirty it?

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Justdeifyme.9387:

most of the EU population is german.

Do you have any evidence to support this?

Only personal experiences.

1/ Germany speaks German (duh)
2/ Austria has German as the sole official language
3/ In Switzerland and Belgium, German is a minority language
4/ In the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary and Denmark, German is the most important second language. In Belgium it’s the most important second language after French.
5/ Everyone who works in automation, steel industry, green energy, … on a technical or higher level has to know German to one degree or another since it is the primary language in those industries.

Which means that German is the most important language in Europe, whether you want it or not. But hey, I’m a polyglot Belgian. I just try to accommodate. No one in the world knows my mother tongue, no one even bothers. Most in the world don’t even know Dutch is the majority language here. and just speak french for some reason.

marnick.4305:

.But hey, I’m a polyglot Belgian. I just try to accommodate. No one in the world knows my mother tongue, no one even bothers.

Vlaams?

(I don’t speak it.)

marnick.4305:

4/ In the Netherlands, Poland, Bulgary and Denmark, German is the most important second language. In Belgium it’s the most important second language after French.

I’m pretty sure English is the most important second language in Poland and that it’s Bulgaria, not Bulgary.

In Bulgaria it’s Bulgarian 1st, English 2nd, Russian 3rd, German is not common at all.

I usually ignore LFGs that are not in English. There is enough English ones so no problem for me.

haviz.1340:

marnick.4305:

4/ In the Netherlands, Poland, Bulgary and Denmark, German is the most important second language. In Belgium it’s the most important second language after French.

I’m pretty sure English is the most important second language in Poland and that it’s Bulgaria, not Bulgary.

Rest are pretty much spot on.

Switched Bulgaria for Hungary.
I’ve been in Hungary several times. Good luck using English in that country. A little bit of German goes a long way though.

I’m just playing advocate of the devil. I’d prefer one good language too, but that’s not what happens in the real world. I know how to communicate in 5 languages because everyone thinks his language is the most important in the world.

Although germans are the highest EU population, English in the biggest understandable language currently in game.

EU english servers are home for many non English countries and they are forced to speak it. Some Asian/African countries play in there too, and therefore are forced to speak english.
NA servers are obviously home for many players (south american, asian and african), which are forced to speak english too…

Isn’t writing French/German/Spanish in a multi-cross server tool being a little to selfish? Specially because the majority of these players speak/type very well english.

/cheers

LHound.8964:

Isn’t writing French/German/Spanish in a multi-cross server tool being a little to selfish? Specially because the majority of these players speak/type very well english.

Isn’t refusing to learn a few other languages being a little too selfish? Especially since a lot of French/Spanish/German people speak exactly one language they consider to be a world language just as much as you consider English to be one. In fact, more people speak Spanish or English at home than English. That’s the primary reason why French/Spanish/German servers exist but no Dutch, Polish or Hungarian.

Advocate of the devil here. The tool should have a language filter, but at no point should you consider English to be the main language on a multi-language game.

/cheers

/cheers to you too.

Durian.5419:

marnick.4305:

.But hey, I’m a polyglot Belgian. I just try to accommodate. No one in the world knows my mother tongue, no one even bothers.

Vlaams?

(I don’t speak it.)

If it is Vlaams it is very close to my mother tongue which is Afrikaans.
Or at least the two native speakers can understand each other :p

OP have you ever considered that maybe they were looking to make up a party of people who speak German?
the world really does not evolve around English- implying that on a EU server is just funny- on a NA server I could maybe understand but not on a EU server.

Durian.5419:

marnick.4305:

.But hey, I’m a polyglot Belgian. I just try to accommodate. No one in the world knows my mother tongue, no one even bothers.

Vlaams?

(I don’t speak it.)

Vlaams isn’t a language, but rather a dialect of Dutch, much like Austrian isn’t a language but a dialect of German. Afrikaans is a separate language, but Vlaams isn’t.

marnick.4305:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Justdeifyme.9387:

most of the EU population is german.

Do you have any evidence to support this?

Only personal experiences.

1/ Germany speaks German (duh)
2/ Austria has German as the sole official language
3/ In Switzerland and Belgium, German is a minority language
4/ In the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary and Denmark, German is the most important second language. In Belgium it’s the most important second language after French.
5/ Everyone who works in automation, steel industry, green energy, … on a technical or higher level has to know German to one degree or another since it is the primary language in those industries.

Which means that German is the most important language in Europe, whether you want it or not. But hey, I’m a polyglot Belgian. I just try to accommodate. No one in the world knows my mother tongue, no one even bothers. Most in the world don’t even know Dutch is the majority language here. and just speak french for some reason.

Your example fails because the great majority of the German speaking people in those countries also know quite a bit of English aswell.

If there was one language you’d learn to be able to communicate with people all over Europe, which one would you choose?

I’ll give a hint. It’s not German.

I haven’t read all those posts above, but if the Lfgs are in a foreign language, probably the players want to communicate in this language. So why should they need to make an English Lfg if they don’t wanna speak/write in English?.

Justdeifyme.9387:

It’s just that most of the EU population is german, but …

Uhmm? As European I do find that hard to believe. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_population
Germany includes 10.93% of European population.

It’s been several years since I was in school, but 10.93% wasn’t majority back when I was in school. Sure the mathematics might have been changed since then.

But back to original post.
English is one of the most popular languages and easily understandable in multiple countries. So speaking and typing English is common courtesy so that majority of players will actually understand you.
And no, my first language isn’t English.