Playing a german character, advice?

[Hustler0ne]

First of all, I'm not posting this in general support because any post that has the word "advice" in part of the subject line, is definetly going to bring opinionated sudjestions(which means chatter)

So anyways, I want to make a german character. I plan on using google translation tools as my main form of working around and being a contributing RP'er in the german region. The only problem I can think of right now is translation of the interface, I'v tried babblefish and google page translation, but it's all a one time thing(if you reload the page it goes back to the original language)

By the way, can some one who knows german and english tell me how accurate this is?

Greetings everyone my name is blablabla I come from english isle
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Grüße alle mein Name ist blablabla Ich komme aus Englisch Insel

(is this a bad idea? )

[notsure]

But if you spawn a German charrie, you won't be coming from the English island...

notsure

[DylPickle]

It might be a bad idea... From my personal experience, you can really tell when characters are played by players using translators. It starts to be really hard to play with them, and it puts people to sleep (literally in game.) Even in the French zone, where we desperately need more french characters, it's just no fun to play with someone using a translator. (and I feel bad enough for my french char's companions who have to sit through my already poor french)

But, it's probably fine for you to give it a shot. Just don't actually say you're from an english island or anything like that :p Spawning a char in the German area makes it a German-language character. But, you probably knew that already.

[Piscator]

Well, it's understandible but it screams "online translator".

Do you speak German at all or are you going to rely solely on the translators?

[notsure]

Plus you might actually spawn in Spanish, Dutch or French Land...

notsure

[Hustler0ne]

It might be a bad idea... From my personal experience, you can really tell when characters are played by players using translators. It starts to be really hard to play with them, and it puts people to sleep (literally in game.) Even in the French zone, where we desperately need more french characters, it's just no fun to play with someone using a translator. (and I feel bad enough for my french char's companions who have to sit through my already poor french)

But, it's probably fine for you to give it a shot. Just don't actually say you're from an english island or anything like that :p Spawning a char in the German area makes it a German-language character. But, you probably knew that already.

English Isle was only one example. Yes, I noticed what you speak, and I copied a few themes from the German LG in Google's translator, and they come from fairly decent, but the translations are a little lazy
(Translation from english to german and back to english - Is this what your talking about?)


Yea, maybe it's not such a good idea. I'll probably end up being killed within the first day I spawn, or If I'm lucky I'll just piss everyone off

Thanks for your help guys

[Piscator]

I don't think you will get killed. At least not by Germans. We're to small a group to kill another character just like that. As long as you're not sleeping all the time and do what you're told people will probably like you.

[sanchez]

Please don't spawn chars in languages you have no competence in. It's fine and in fact a good idea to spawn a char in a language you know enough to communicate a bit in already and want to practise in, or develop your skills. But it's disruptive to other players to rely on machine translation, which never resembles native ability.

[Pilot]

You are not the first player who want to spawn a character in an unknown language. The least I can say is you'll get bored and give up.

One of my oldest chars spawned in a town with no one he could understand, just dutch people. I had to learn almost from scratch. I gave it a try only because of the similarity with german, a language I remember of my school days (12 years in a row when I was little).

Months later I found an on-line translator which I use as a dictionary to correct my writing, not to understand others because the slang they use doesn't come in there. I only catch some important words and my char asks ingame what I don't get. People explain or emote in dutch what they mean. My char is over 60 and will never speak as a dutch... and now he lost most of the structure of his native language but it's one of my favorite characters. I never emote on english among the dutch fellows because they never do. My bad dutch is pure Cantr, I have never read nothing other than ingame and forum dutch.

As for german, my chars that have learned it over the years by contact in game use it, they never emote in english and I don't use on-line translators. I first used a paper dictionary but now I find more fun in rp just what I learn ingame.

But I have seen the reactions of characters when someone uses on-line translators... from insults to dead.

[Gran]

Alf, I had a similar experience with lithuanian. I can talk it like an nice outlander, but never a native. All the "Labas, kas tu? As Fulanus *šypsosi*", but nothing too much complex usually. Pretty much everywhere there are dictionaries or maps or some sort of script where you can take some things out and try to understand.

I'm experiencing much more problem with my spanish char. I can read, but I'm not allways sure of how to talk.

[wichita]

Mein Anrate: Lernen Sie spanisch, wenn du einer Deutscher spielen wollen. In die letze Tage meine Deutscherin Leben ich sprach nur spanische Leute mit...

That and I don't have much time to finish learning German anymore. Hard enough at the moment to maintain an English character and a Finnish character with the bare minimum input needed for the game right now.


Having played character in five language groups now, and only one in a language that I had absolutely no proficiency in, I have to follow the advice given by Sanchez and Alf. You can do it, but you'll have to be dedicated to actually learning the words.

Being text based, it's hard to keep yourself oriented if you're not actively imagining the items in your inventory. You can't even tell if people are looking at you...it's a very isolating experience. It does illustrate just how important non-verbal communication can be, though, so as a learning experience it would be worth it there.


What ever you do, don't just talk through the translator. If you're going to talk, learn the language. My approach, if you really really wanted to attempt it, is to play a retard learning to survive in society. There are still a handful of role players out there that will find it entertaining and take the time to interact with you and try to teach you words and stuff.

My silly little Polish guy made it to his forties that way before he finally lost the will to keep living.

[Doug R.]

The retard option is the best, and I agree, you'll need to learn.

I took 4 years of high-school german and spawned a german character. The amount of slang and improper grammar used was such that I couldn't find it in book dictionaries and the translators were useless (meaning they couldn't translate most of the german to english). That character lasted a week.

Also remember that you'll be handicapped learning. The best way to learn the meanings of words is to be shown. "River" - *man points to a river*. Except being text-based, emotes will be in a language you don't know also. It'll be brutal.