the unpopular language rule

[KAOS]

there seem to be many players who don't know their chars are only allowed to speak their chosen language when spawning - although if you create a new char it's clearly pointed out on the registration site.

that really sucks.
experimenting with communication is what i like best about cantr and this "i know several languages"-behaviour distracts RPing.

how do you think about that? have you experienced multilingual newspawns? have you even been one yourself?
i'd like to know if there are really so many people who don't know about this language rule or if this is just my personal impression.

[Mafia Salad]

I have never spawned a bilingual character, mostly because I really only speak English well enough to be comfortable playing a character of that language. I have one character in an area with a lot of Spanish and English characters, because of that exposure I allow him as much understanding of Spanish as I as a player have without using online translators (except for emotes). I grew up in the American southwest so I have exposure to Spanish but no real education in it, so it seemed a fitting enough parallel.

My view on the matter is that Cantrians are much quicker to learn anything than we are, and that includes languages, but they do need to take some time and learn it instead of spawning bilingual or worse yet, knowing instantly upon first exposure even if they are 40. Working past language barriers is a great challenge unique to this game that really adds to it.

My opinions can only count for so much since I don't speak multiple languages so I'm not trying to ignore what I read in the other language as I play.

[Piscator]

I think the problem is that PD not always has staff members who can handle cases in certain languages or if it does, those members have to concentrate on major breaches. This can lead to some issues not being properly adressed. Languages rules are such an area and I find it quite annoying myself that they seem to be virtually unknown among players of certain LGs.

If you don't want to outright report the player, giving him an OOC message is always a good option. If he's trying to use a bridge language (that is, a language neither of the chars should know) you can also just ignore what was said.

[EchoMan]

There was also this bug that made people spawn pretty much anywhere in other langage groups.

[Indigo]

One of my first chars was one of those.... She spawned in the wrong place, I guess (no one there spoke the language she had chosen), and that happened before I really read the rules of the game

And right now, one of my chars is in an english speaking place, which has recently had two newspawns of another language. This char chose this second language to play, but, though she has not RP'ed a real apprenticeship of english, she observed the rule of the two years (she was not given the chance to RP that apprenticeship).

It's really annoying when you spawn in a place where -nobody- speak the language you have chosen...

[Doug R.]

If two others spawned with your character, there must be another character there that speaks the same language, even if they're silent. One character alone can't produce spawns. It takes two to tango.

[Indigo]

Well, there are two people there who have never spoken... maybe I danced that tango with one of them, and I missed it?? Awwww... too bad...

[raspberrytea]

I know several languages but my characters are all complete failures at learning any of them (aside from what they spawn as). Most of them don't even try, but even the ones that try don't ever succeed in anything but broken speech, though that's for a different reason-- it so happens the languages I know rarely come in contact with each other, and I do not have the time to learn another language just because my character's trying to.

I suppose it helps that I find it quite entertaining to roleplay language barriers.

As for bilingual-on-spawning characters-- I have yet to encounter any that I'm certain of, though I'm had doubts about quite a few. As a player I just try to tolerate them, and my characters interact with them the same as usual.

[Mafia Salad]

You may be getting spawns of another language, because someone spawned that language, saw the notes, and played them as English characters from the get go. They speak and look English, but register as the other language for spawning purposes.

[SekoETC]

Yeah, people like that sort of ruin the game. Makes me think that spawning shouldn't be something that just happens. People should be able to choose not to make newspawns. It's awkward when you stop in an empty location while sailing and somebody spawns, you're sort of obliged to take them along, at least if the location is awful.

I've had this idea that people could mark a location as their home town and spawning rates would receive a slight boost when the person was in their home town but they wouldn't count towards the spawn-creating population outside their home town. Of course if they wanted to, they could always mark the next town they travel to as their home town and be able to "breed" anywhere, but it would take the conscious choice to click. Or then the person could just erase their hometown preference and have equal spawning rates anywhere they go.

[FiziKx]

This makes me wonder. Lets say there is a certain language that one person loves using but is not supported by the game. Could they bring that language into the game by having their charrie know it?

[EchoMan]

I've met a couple of Norwegian speaking chars. They spawn as Swedish chars. The languages are quite similar.

[Doug R.]

This makes me wonder. Lets say there is a certain language that one person loves using but is not supported by the game. Could they bring that language into the game by having their charrie know it?

No. The PD put their thumb down on some Japanese characters a few years back, so there is precedent for this. If it wasn't a real language, but something created in-game by characters that already spoke a supported language, it would be fine.

Norwegians beware.

[FiziKx]

Norwegians beware.

[Piscator]

Swedish chars using Norwegian or Danish is not much different from an English char employing a Scottish accent. As long as the languages are more or less mutually intelligible and the creation of separate LGs is unlikely, I really don't see a problem.