Guild Wars 2

I am creating this thread again because last one was taken down due to some people having an unintelligent racial argument.

Anyway, what I am suggesting is to be able to block any chats in any channel that isn’t English. Since during evening time in my server, there are many people talking in Chinese, it spams up my chatbox with something I dont quite understand, hence making it a “spam” for me.

With that said, I dont think that chatting in any other language is bad, its just annoying if others can’t understand you. Imagine me writing my post in my 1st Language. I know it will be annoying to many others who are in a NA server to communicate in English.

I hope this will not turn out like last thread, so please keep the discussion civil.

EDIT: I know there’s a block button, but I dont wish to use it because in scenarios like WvW, if the player wishes to deliver an information, in English, I would like to see that message. Also they didnt do any thing wrong to get “blocked”

I doubt it will happen at least you only see them in the evenings.
I am normally a third shift worker EST so I play at odd hours, but I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago so I could play at time I normally could not. So somewhere during the past year the server I’ve played on since the head start must have become the unofficial server of Brazil.
Portuguese is starting to flood the map chats. I hope that Anet has some translators among their moderators as if getting verbally abused for breaking a champ train wasn’t bad enough now you get it multiple languages.

Bran.7425:

as if getting verbally abused for breaking a champ train wasn’t bad enough now you get it multiple languages.

+1 for this. really cool statement.

Ehh, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt. We’d get rid of the people complaining about others using their native language when their native doesn’t happen to be your native.

Although I think it would be challenging to get working efficiently, seen how many of the natives can’t really type properly at all. (I have a few friends that I exchange emails with, and you need some sort of cipher to understand what they are saying. Not a single word typed correctly.)
Then again, if you give it loose definition of English, it might allow languages similar to English. Or some completely different languages with slang words from English.

The main issue with this is that the only languages that can actually be blocked are those that use non-English letters.
Loads of other languages uses the same letters as English, but still wouldn’t be understandable by someone that only speaks English.

Bran.7425:

I doubt it will happen at least you only see them in the evenings.
I am normally a third shift worker EST so I play at odd hours, but I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago so I could play at time I normally could not. So somewhere during the past year the server I’ve played on since the head start must have become the unofficial server of Brazil.
Portuguese is starting to flood the map chats. I hope that Anet has some translators among their moderators as if getting verbally abused for breaking a champ train wasn’t bad enough now you get it multiple languages.

The problem is, I only play in evening. And with my channel flooding with characters of Chinese, it gets impossible for me to see my Guild Chat or any sensible map chat (which rarely happens).

Another thing I found annoying is, few times when I used LFG tool to get a party, two people started to chat in party chat in Chinese. I asked them to take their chat in PM since the rest of us couldnt understand, but they started abusing me, calling me “racist” (what?) and then kicked me out.

I hope that ArenaNet does something about it, the server is an English Server. I dont mind people speaking in their Native language. But I want them to keep it in a channel where others dont mind. And specially not public channels like /say and /map

Flanar.5981:

I hope that ArenaNet does something about it, the server is an English Server. I dont mind people speaking in their Native language. But I want them to keep it in a channel where others dont mind. And specially not public channels like /say and /map

As was pointed out in the previous thread, there is no such thing as an “English” server. Any server not labelled as a specific language (e.g. [FR], [DE], etc) is international and anyone is free to speak any language they like in those servers. What you should be pressing ANet for is an English-only server.

uknortherner.2670:

Flanar.5981:

I hope that ArenaNet does something about it, the server is an English Server. I dont mind people speaking in their Native language. But I want them to keep it in a channel where others dont mind. And specially not public channels like /say and /map

As was pointed out in the previous thread, there is no such thing as an “English” server. Any server not labelled as a specific language (e.g. [FR], [DE], etc) is international and anyone is free to speak any language they like in those servers. What you should be pressing ANet for is an English-only server.

My bad then, I assumed that since the servers are “NA” they were English server.
But even if its Internation server, I think its rather unpolite to talk in any other language than English in Map or /say chat, since everyone should be able to understand what a random person is saying and English is officially accepted language in most of the countries. But that might again be what I am thinking.

Also, just for the record, English is not my first language (heck its not even the language of the local people around me).

Bad idea
This kick out every player that don’t have minimal control of English (like me).
I think GW2 community waste with this, resulting in mass leaving by non English speakers.

But i agree with you, if this mechanism could be turned On or Off by the player, so that only himself have non English words filtered.

JETWING.2759:

But i agree with you, if this mechanism could be turned On or Off by the player, so that only himself have non English words filtered.

Actually it might be nice if a player could set their preferred language, so that the folks speaking Chinese could filter out English as well as the other way around.

Pandemoniac.4739:

JETWING.2759:

But i agree with you, if this mechanism could be turned On or Off by the player, so that only himself have non English words filtered.

Actually it might be nice if a player could set their preferred language, so that the folks speaking Chinese could filter out English as well as the other way around.

Yes!
I messed a bit, but you said all Thanks!

Just wait until asian servers are up and your problem will be mostly solved.

What you’re asking for is text recognition software embedded within translation software that is hooked up to some sort of automated message-deletion service. There are no rules that say you cannot speak in foreign languages, and it would be completely un-user-friendly to squelch an entire demographic(s) based on your perceived need to have a “clean and pure” chat.

That’s not just morally being wrong, its morally being an kittenhole.

LoreChief.8391:

Just wait until asian servers are up and your problem will be mostly solved.

What you’re asking for is text recognition software embedded within translation software that is hooked up to some sort of automated message-deletion service. There are no rules that say you cannot speak in foreign languages, and it would be completely un-user-friendly to squelch an entire demographic(s) based on your perceived need to have a “clean and pure” chat.

That’s not just morally being wrong, its morally being an kittenhole.

You make me sound like a jerk while I am trying to present this is the softest way I can.
I am not against people talking in any other language, even I do that with friends. I am just saying don’t do it on map chat or /say, where majority cant understand you.
Its annoying to have 2 people conversing on some other language in map chat. And it happens more often than not.

Do people choose the language they are speaking in beforehand? Does the server check every character to see if it isn’t English? If just one character isn’t English does it still block the message? If not where is the cutoff? Expect massive lag if the server has to check every message (maybe every character) to check if it is in English, who has the filter on who has what language filter and do this for everyone receiving the message in say or map chat. Arena net would also need to invest in the technology to make this happen

Heta.8629:

Do people choose the language they are speaking in beforehand? Does the server check every character to see if it isn’t English? If just one character isn’t English does it still block the message? If not where is the cutoff? Expect massive lag if the server has to check every message (maybe every character) to check if it is in English, who has the filter on who has what language filter and do this for everyone receiving the message in say or map chat. Arena net would also need to invest in the technology to make this happen

The ANet folks are fairly brilliant when coming up with clever solutions (Yay for no regular server maintenance days!). What’s the problem with the OP expressing a desire to be able to do something and just letting ANet decide if there is some way to accommodate that desire?

Maybe the solution isn’t exactly what the OP posted – maybe instead of a filter, it’s language specific channels that you chat in by default when you specify a preferred language. Then folks that don’t want to see English untick the English channel in their main tab, and the folks that are multilingual leave all languages visible.

There were a lot of very specific suggestions for fixing magic find and I think ANet did a great job at figuring out what was bugging people about MF and fixing it in a way that actually fixed a couple of other issues at the same time. Have some faith – ANet has a good track record (in my opinion).

Heta.8629:

Do people choose the language they are speaking in beforehand? Does the server check every character to see if it isn’t English? If just one character isn’t English does it still block the message? If not where is the cutoff? Expect massive lag if the server has to check every message (maybe every character) to check if it is in English, who has the filter on who has what language filter and do this for everyone receiving the message in say or map chat. Arena net would also need to invest in the technology to make this happen

1: People can select/unselect the language they wish to block anytime.

2: The language filter can work the same way the profanity filter in the game does. That is, there can be 3 modes (soft, medium or hard filter) which can block a message based on % of non-English characters in it.

3: The server does not have to deal with the messages. The program can work at client side. Your client receives every message. But decides and only allows the user to see the message he desires to. I know this algorithm can be complex but I doubt the change will be very vast. Since we already have profanity filter, maybe all they have to do is add extra options to control the language and add tons of keywords to filter.

Embedding the code at client side might mean that the software will require more processing more when the filter is turned on, but I think its a nice option to have.

About how the program decides how to block a message: They can use a set of auxiliary verb each language use to create a list of “Blocking Filter”.

Since most of the sentence use Auxiliary verbs, almost all the chats will be filtered out.
For language which dont use English alphabets, its easier to filter them by the character

But how would it actually work?

If I write something like:

Are you suggesting that they somehow spend time, money and resources to have a filter that checks some kind of database with all English words to decide if the message is written in English?

About how the program decides how to block a message: They can use a set of auxiliary verb each language use to create a list of “Blocking Filter”.
Since most of the sentence use Auxiliary verbs, almost all the chats will be filtered out.
For language which dont use English alphabets, its easier to filter them by the character

The players can help creating a list of these keywords.

FYI — I’m a Latin American gamer who was born and raised in the United States. Just so we’re clear.

I don’t feel as if the original post is racist at all. It is mentions some important points. We do have international non-English speaking players logging onto the American servers. I’ve seen a few non-English speaking Koreans Germans, and Latin Americans on the TC server late at night (Pacific Time). So I completely sympathize with your situation.

For the time being, it may be necessary to change servers, so you can join a decent zerg for WvW. The Tarnished Coast server has mostly English speaking gamers.

Lastly, IT IS RUDE for an non-English speaker to be speaking a foreign language on an American server for events like WvW, where it is necessary to communicate plans and instructions to other players in the zerg. In my real life community, many of us Hispanics won’t speak Spanish if it will leave the English speakers feeling alienated. No one wants to feel like an outsider.

That leads me to another point. Speaking in a foreign language also makes other players on the team feel left out and unwanted. Plus, a zerg that doesn’t have good commuication among its members is a failed zerg.

WvW can only be won with teamwork. That’s my 2 cents.

How much bandwidth would be required to translate ALL player text to the language you specify in Options? It would probably be a ton, but it would resolve the issue. Everyone would be able to understand everyone else…or at least get the basic meaning of what they’re saying. Oh the lag!!!

Or just release the game in Asia and make Asian servers..

And Oceanic servers, give everyone free transfers as well. Tired of t1 servers that buy out Oceanic players to win WvW.

I’m not pointing any fingers, but you knowwwww… Jade Queue.

psyckos.6893:

How much bandwidth would be required to translate ALL player text to the language you specify in Options? It would probably be a ton, but it would resolve the issue. Everyone would be able to understand everyone else…or at least get the basic meaning of what they’re saying. Oh the lag!!!

It would be very hard to translate messages. Not only that, translations wont be accurate either. So its better to have no translation than wrong translation

Sounds like a very complex coding, if this is possible I would support it.

I am not native english speaker but I realy get annoyed when people starts to chat in non-english language. I usually say that if you have to speak your own non-english language then you surely can do it in party/whisper/guild chat if every one in the chat is ok with it. I though not speaking enlgish on an international server was a break to the EULA just like cursing or something, it is in some other games I have played.

Easy solution:

Make “Map-Chat-Channels”.
The would be a Channel for every (at least the most commen) languages.
Everybody is then free to choose, which channels he wants to join.
Then everything you write only gets displayed in this channel.

Example:
Available Channels: English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, All
-> Join “English-Channel” -> you only see what ppl write in this Ch and only can post in this Channel

Edit:
Funfact, why a feature which recognizes and filters languages wont work:
It happens in some games, that the word “kitten” gets blocked due to censorship, as it is a slang for certain body parts.
However, “kitten” means in German just “thick / fat” so if you are German and just want to use your mother tongue, you get censored.
;)
…lol, it even gets censored in the forums xD

EverythingEnds.4261:

Easy solution:

Make “Map-Chat-Channels”.
The would be a Channel for every (at least the most commen) languages.
Everybody is then free to choose, which channels he wants to join.
Then everything you write only gets displayed in this channel.

Example:
Available Channels: English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, All
-> Join “English-Channel” -> you only see what ppl write in this Ch and only can post in this Channel

The problem is not just with Map chat. Team chat, squad, party or even /say.

The solution shouldn’t be hard. They already have profanity filter which works. Its just a matter of adding more options to control it and adding keywords to the blocking filter.

Whats the problem there?

Maybe you just shouldnt join teams or parties writing in languages you don’t want.
Additionaly, in a party it should be easy, to agree on writing english, as there are only 5 players.
If this isnt possible, you shoud maybe leave the party.

In addition, the “spam”-factor of foreign languages is in a party probably not as high as in map chat.

EverythingEnds.4261:

Whats the problem there?

Maybe you just shouldnt join teams or parties writing in languages you don’t want.
Additionaly, in a party it should be easy, to agree on writing english, as there are only 5 players.
If this isnt possible, you shoud maybe leave the party.

In addition, the “spam”-factor of foreign languages is in a party probably not as high as in map chat.

Its hard to determine whether people in my party are English speakers. I have specifically mentioned “English speakers only” and yet after having done 50% of dungeon people start chatting in other language. I dont wish to leave party because I that will mean having my time wasted so I have to forcibly endure the annoying chat. I cant block them, in case they say something important.

I really think its easier to just implement a filter instead of multiple channels.

Flanar.5981:

I really think its easier to just implement a filter instead of multiple channels.

It’s better to just describe your requirements than to try to come up with an implementation. Let the folks that know all the details about how the chat system works and what technology they have access to come up with the best way to meet your requirements. ANet’s solution may be to set up more regional servers, or to implement some sort of chat filter, or something we haven’t thought of.

I like EverthingEnds.4261 suggestion and would not agree too Flanar.5981 suggestion since map chat imo is where I have most problem with it, so if I where to use Flanar.5981 idéa I would block my own language since I like to speak in my native language in my guild or with my friends I party with. What I don’t like is people who disrespectfully speak in a non-english language when there are others who are “listening” and can’t understand.
If I see someone speak like spanish in my group I kindly ask them if they would mind to speak english, if they do not accept that I either block them or leave the group since they are not serious enough to be concidered worth listening too.
Map/team/say chat is though a little bit more different and I do like EverthingEnds.4261 sulotion to that.

In the end it is all about too respect others, just the same with cursing.

My opinion.

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

I like EverthingEnds.4261 suggestion and would not agree too Flanar.5981 suggestion since map chat imo is where I have most problem with it, so if I where to use Flanar.5981 idéa I would block my own language since I like to speak in my native language in my guild or with my friends I party with. What I don’t like is people who disrespectfully speak in a non-english language when there are others who are “listening” and can’t understand.
If I see someone speak like spanish in my group I kindly ask them if they would mind to speak english, if they do not accept that I either block them or leave the group since they are not serious enough to be concidered worth listening too.
Map/team/say chat is though a little bit more different and I do like EverthingEnds.4261 sulotion to that.

In the end it is all about too respect others, just the same with cursing.

My opinion.

As much as I like his suggestion, I have played enough MMORPG to know that there will be people who will still abuse these system.

About the filter, what I was trying to suggest was a filter that can be customized for every language, not just one option to block non-English language.

I bet if we ask nicely, most people would happily provide a list of Auxiliary verbs and characters of their language to create a list of filter.

Anyway, I will leave it upto Anet how they do it. In the end, I just want dont want other languages to be seen in my chatbo

uknortherner.2670:

Flanar.5981:

I hope that ArenaNet does something about it, the server is an English Server. I dont mind people speaking in their Native language. But I want them to keep it in a channel where others dont mind. And specially not public channels like /say and /map

As was pointed out in the previous thread, there is no such thing as an “English” server. Any server not labelled as a specific language (e.g. [FR], [DE], etc) is international and anyone is free to speak any language they like in those servers. What you should be pressing ANet for is an English-only server.

Not really. Any server not labeled as a specific language, is the default international language. Which, despite all the knickers that get in a knot from various nations, IS English. You wanna chat up in anything else, you can whisper, chat in your group, or in the growing number of nationality guilds.
Me, I just block ppl who insist on talking in other languages. if they don’t want people to understand them, then they aren’t worth listening to, hence, aren’t worth wasting my chat scroll on and missing stuff I actually want to read.

kta.6502:

FYI — I’m a Latin American gamer who was born and raised in the United States. Just so we’re clear.

I don’t feel as if the original post is racist at all. It is mentions some important points. We do have international non-English speaking players logging onto the American servers. I’ve seen a few non-English speaking Koreans Germans, and Latin Americans on the TC server late at night (Pacific Time). So I completely sympathize with your situation.

For the time being, it may be necessary to change servers, so you can join a decent zerg for WvW. The Tarnished Coast server has mostly English speaking gamers.

Lastly, IT IS RUDE for an non-English speaker to be speaking a foreign language on an American server for events like WvW, where it is necessary to communicate plans and instructions to other players in the zerg. In my real life community, many of us Hispanics won’t speak Spanish if it will leave the English speakers feeling alienated. No one wants to feel like an outsider.

That leads me to another point. Speaking in a foreign language also makes other players on the team feel left out and unwanted. Plus, a zerg that doesn’t have good commuication among its members is a failed zerg.

WvW can only be won with teamwork. That’s my 2 cents.

Pretty much exactly how I see it. If you are deliberately speaking so other people around you can’t understand you. You are being deliberately and provocatively rude. Essentially trolling for someone to bash with the inevitable racist stick they always use when you call them on their bullkitten.

Sleel.8365:

Not really. Any server not labeled as a specific language, is the default international language. Which, despite all the knickers that get in a knot from various nations, IS English. You wanna chat up in anything else, you can whisper, chat in your group, or in the growing number of nationality guilds.

We had this conversation back in the old thread, and yes, while English is AN international language it is not THE international language.
There are more.

lordkrall.7241:

Sleel.8365:

Not really. Any server not labeled as a specific language, is the default international language. Which, despite all the knickers that get in a knot from various nations, IS English. You wanna chat up in anything else, you can whisper, chat in your group, or in the growing number of nationality guilds.

We had this conversation back in the old thread, and yes, while English is AN international language it is not THE international language.
There are more.

Tell that to the business world and not thread dwellers with their nationalistic knickers in a twist.

Oh?
I am rather sure that the UN uses French, and a rather large part of world-wide industry uses German.

I think it’s time ANet stepped in and stated what they consider to be the “international” language on their privately-owned/run servers. For all we know, it could be Klingon, or New Krytan.

So if it’s English, it wouldn’t be considered spam although you might not even read them anyway if it’s not meant for you? Are you implying that you read everything on your chat even if it’s not meant for you? Why would it matter to you if the texts that appear on your chat are English or martian if they’re not meant to be for you anyway? If I don’t care about the msg appearing on my chat, even if it’s English, then it’s just texts appearing on my chat, why would it bother me? If it’s text clustering then it doesn’t matter if it’s English or non-english because both can create text clustering and that’s a totally different issue.

If you’re talking about Chinese flooding TEAM chat or Map chat in WVW then I might see your point. But now it seems to me that you don’t want to see anything non-english on your screen whatsoever.

I am confused with your reasoning. And it seems to me that you just don’t want to see non-English. And that is not a valid reason to be taken seriously because it is perfectly a form of discrimination. You can glorify your reasoning whatever you want.

From non-native English speaker.

DavyMcB.1603:

So if it’s English, it wouldn’t be considered spam although you might not even read them anyway if it’s not meant for you? Are you implying that you read everything on your chat even if it’s not meant for you? Why would it matter to you if the texts that appear on your chat are English or martian if they’re not meant to be for you anyway? If I don’t care about the msg appearing on my chat, even if it’s English, then it’s just texts appearing on my chat, why would it bother me? If it’s text clustering then it doesn’t matter if it’s English or non-english because both can create text clustering and that’s a totally different issue.

If you’re talking about Chinese flooding TEAM chat or Map chat in WVW then I might see your point. But now it seems to me that you don’t want to see anything non-english on your screen whatsoever.

I am confused with your reasoning. And it seems to me that you just don’t want to see non-English. And that is not a valid reason to be taken seriously because it is perfectly a form of discrimination. You can glorify your reasoning whatever you want.

From non-native English speaker.

I am non-native English speaker too, but I think its common sense to talk in a language which majority of people understand in any public chat

Saying that the message should be ignored because “its not meant for me” makes no sense. In that case maybe people are stupid to call gold sellers “spammers” because obviously that message is not for them and according to you, they should just ignore it.

I would also like to point out these scenario when a message appears in my chat.

• /map- The message here is meant so that everyone can undersand
• /party- The message here is meant so that everyone in party can understand. Unless its my fault and I joined an advertised “non-English” party, I think the chat should be in English
• /team- Same as party chat
• /whisper- If you are messaging me in a language I cannot understand, I am obviously the wrong person.
• /guild- No problems here, because I have an option to choose the guild.
• /say

So I think, maybe with an exception of /say, if I see a message, I should be given a chance to understand, interpret and then decide if that message is for me or not.