Guild Wars 2

Added a chat option – enabled by default – that shows only the messages coming from players sharing your client’s text language.

Though the idea sounds right, the implementation is far from perfect, as it naturally leads to

• people whose speaking language and UI language are different losing relevant messages (i.e. Spanish UI, English-speaking or English UI, English-German-French-speaking),
• people who use non-listed languages have UI set to English but continue to speak in native languages (thus provoking further discrimination),
• and as a result the chat will more often than not turn into a mess where half of the messages get filtered out and the conversation makes no sense.

The other problem is people not aware of this feature. Having this option enabled by default will lead to less problems than disabled by default, but not eliminate them:

• enabled: people who’re unaware of the option will get occasionally ignored;
• disabled: discrimination will go on, and people who turn the option on will simply see a part of the discrimination turned into a mess – different disconnected phrases in mixed languages.

I would suggest adding a more extensive control of preffered languages in the Options menu instead:

• I usually speak in chat in:
  • [v] English
  • [ ] French
  • [ ] German
  • [ ] Spanish
  • [ ] other languages

• I can understand and prefer to see chat messages in:
  • [v] English
  • [ ] French
  • [ ] German
  • [ ] Spanish
  • [ ] other languages

This system may not be perfect (and at least requires a clear message to indicate its presence), but at least it allows more control over languages than the current implementation.

This is a lazy solution to a larger problem. I would suggest they admit megaserver is a fail and try something else (districts).

Moss.5371:

This is a lazy solution to a larger problem. I would suggest they admit megaserver is a fail and try something else (districts).

Agreed. This is a lazy solution but not as lazy as the current one.

I agree that people from different language servers shouldn’t be mixed together in the first place. I also agree that there’s no point in always mixing in a whole map crammed with people (apart from the “lower server costs” reason, that is).

This is exactly the kind of “solution” i was expecting from Anet…

Just put people on French servers into the same megaserver, those on English servers into the same megaserver, etc.

Is Anet so desperate for money that they can’t afford to have one instance of each map for each language? Perhaps the reports of dwindling population are true after all?

People who are hoping that the Megaserver will get removed, have to change their wishes cause it will never happen.

the current solution is horrible – i am german, play on dzagonur (a german server) and have my client set to english because i dont like the german voice acting…
i am the kind of player who answers questions in map chat or do general conversiations in it… now other players from other german servers (there are 7 of them) will not see me – great! -.-

the suggested solution would definitly be better then the current one but the best one would be to not put servers with different languages together

another “quick” (not a permanent one) solution would be different map channels so map(english), map(german), map(french), map(spanish), map(all)

Hi

I agree with OP : the new option, while reducing the issue in a nice quick fix, it not the best solution.
For example I speak both French and English, have my client set to French, and often reply to questions in map chat. My answers in English are going to be filtered, while they will be seen by French players who checked the option.

But I don’t think the OP solution is ideal either. Would have to change the “I usually speak in” option every time I write something.
Districts idea is completely wrong, won’t write a wall of text to explain why.

Solution A
- Remove the current option
- Add a new chat channel : “/l /language”
- Let player choose which language this channel refers to
- Let people hide /m if they only want to speak/read their own language
- Let people write either in /m or /l depending on who they want to talk/answer to

Solution B
- Keep the current option
- Replace “Client’s Text Language” with an automatic filter counting the words that only appear in English/French/German dictionary. (and showing to everyone the messages that can’t be auto-filtered)
- Let players choose what language they want to use

Solution C
- Keep the current option
- Let players check which language(s) they want to use (multiple checkboxes)
- If the player checked only one box, assume his messages are only in that language and show them only to players who checked the same box
- If the player checked several boxes, add selectable languages flags in front of the /m or /s text input so they can indicate in which language they are writing.

Regards,

Eowyn

I can think of another solution as mentioned here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Chat-changes-and-a-lot-of-trouble/first#post3926835

Create Map-Chats for english, german, spanish, french and let us choose which ones we want to see/ which one we want to write something in

Eowin Of Rohan.2619:

Hi

I agree with OP : the new option, while reducing the issue in a nice quick fix, it not the best solution.
For example I speak both French and English, have my client set to French, and often reply to questions in map chat. My answers in English are going to be filtered, while they will be seen by French players who checked the option.

But I don’t think the OP solution is ideal either. Would have to change the “I usually speak in” option every time I write something.
Districts idea is completely wrong, won’t write a wall of text to explain why.

I understand that my solution will not fully solve the problem, but it will make a lot more sense. Using language dictionaries is really nice, but a) it requires resources and we all know that megaservers contribute a lot to cost-efficiency, b) there’s lots of players who make mistakes or use 1337. Using separate map channels does not look like an elegant solution to me either… So yes, the best option is to group each language on their own instances in the first place.

this “feature” seems to be hastly implemented and not really thinked trough well.

as many ppl i know playing on a germen tagged server, i use the client in english because of silly voiceacting, stupid translations etc etc.

now im no longer able to communicate with other german players using the client in german. and this is a mess. especially by making this filter activated by default.
but the whole thing making this system controlled by the client language is absolutely wrong.

the whole thing is not really working into a building communities way, its now a isolate players from each others thing.

in my opinion the simplest solution would be to let the ppl use language based map chats, at least for the supported languages. so they can decide if they wanna stick to their language or go international. OR make the megaservers work as intended so that ppl speaking the same language (choosed on the server they play on) are merged together and not simply everyone.

also, i dont want to change my clients language for the named reasons, the german voiceacting is utterly poor and many translations are really really bad. i just like to play the game as is was made originally.