Foreign language, is it suspendable?

[Vargur]

Well, a few years back I had a french friend on a english realm who had a few lock macros. The thing with them was that they were in french. We did a raid and about a week later, he talks to me again. I hadn't heard from him, but I did see him online. He told me that he had received a talking suspension for speaking a foreign language on an english language dedicated server. He also told me that he was informed that should he violate this rule again, he would be asked to server xfer to an appropriate server for that language. After all that, he ended up quitting because of this.

When I told trade about this the other day in warning to someone posting in a french macro, I got laughed at, called a troll, and basically was ignored as the guy then proceeded to spam his macro even more just to be spiteful. So, I am wandering if what my friend had said was true. Is there any truth that you can receive a talking suspension for speaking a language other then what a server is dedicated too? At the bottom of the realm lists, there are tabs that indicate which zone those realms are in. So I always assumed he was telling the truth.

PUBLIC channels on English servers. Makes sense and it also must be in EULA and TOS somewhere, the ones that nobody ever reads. So yes, suspend them for all I care. I don't need to see random letters in PUBLIC channels.

[Wilian]

Well, I don't know when people have seen this supposed "You MUST speak english" message but thus far the evidence posted from modern realm has not proven anything other than encouraging of usage and looking at the chat rules part of ToS from my recently reinstalled and updated 1.12 WoW client, it has no mention about about languages at all (Except of course for the foul one, duh).




Should get my hands on a preview of the original realm selection fairly soon aswell to just to prove the point further.

[stresskiller]

as if anyone actually read that .. my guess is that +90% of the players scroll down and hit accept without reading it.

[Deleted]

Well, I don't know when people have seen this supposed "You MUST speak english" message but thus far the evidence posted from modern realm has not proven anything other than encouraging of usage and looking at the chat rules part of ToS from my recently reinstalled and updated 1.12 WoW client, it has no mention about about languages at all (Except of course for the foul one, duh).




Should get my hands on a preview of the original realm selection fairly soon aswell to just to prove the point further.

i said i dont think it was ever in the ToS, just that little message i posted last page. but thats not a rule, more of a guideline of that server, i dont think anywhere says its bannable to not speak English. the only way i thought you could get a speaking ban on wow was through spamming a chat channel. i dont think the person in ops post got banned just for speaking a different language.

---------- Post added 2012-12-10 at 11:28 AM ----------

as if anyone actually read that .. my guess is that +90% of the players scroll down and hit accept without reading it.

i dont think ive ever read a ToS in my life.

[Honzi]

There are only servers dedicated to English/German/French/Spanish/Russian/Italian in Europe. Where are all others that don't speak one of these languages supposed to play? If it was suspendable, Blizzard would have to suspend a buttload of players on EU realms.

[Galbrei]

If anyone ask me a stupid question sometimes I respond in spainsh. Never been reported for it, though I did get a nerd rage from a guy complaining that my spainsh was horrible.

Well, you do say "spainish"...

[Gimpy1091]

There are only servers dedicated to English/German/French/Spanish/Russian/Italian in Europe. Where are all others that don't speak one of these languages supposed to play? If it was suspendable, Blizzard would have to suspend a buttload of players on EU realms.

Same in North America, if you're french Canadian you better polish your English skills or find a french guild...

[Deleted]

There are only servers dedicated to English/German/French/Spanish/Russian/Italian in Europe. Where are all others that don't speak one of these languages supposed to play? If it was suspendable, Blizzard would have to suspend a buttload of players on EU realms.

have you ever been to Crushridge EU? the whole server basically speaks Itallian, so if it were bannable blizzard would have ban entire servers.

[Wildtree]

Well, a few years back I had a french friend on a english realm who had a few lock macros. The thing with them was that they were in french. We did a raid and about a week later, he talks to me again. I hadn't heard from him, but I did see him online. He told me that he had received a talking suspension for speaking a foreign language on an english language dedicated server. He also told me that he was informed that should he violate this rule again, he would be asked to server xfer to an appropriate server for that language. After all that, he ended up quitting because of this.

When I told trade about this the other day in warning to someone posting in a french macro, I got laughed at, called a troll, and basically was ignored as the guy then proceeded to spam his macro even more just to be spiteful. So, I am wandering if what my friend had said was true. Is there any truth that you can receive a talking suspension for speaking a language other then what a server is dedicated too? At the bottom of the realm lists, there are tabs that indicate which zone those realms are in. So I always assumed he was telling the truth.

it would be very good if you'd include what realms we are talking about.
EU realm? US realm?
In either way however I am not buying the story from your friend.
Europe.... is a melting pot of languages. Every few hundred miles a whole new language. Wouldn't make sense there.
US...... It's completely normal to see french communication on US realms. After all many Canadians speak french. Besides, and here's the kicker, the USA has probably the most strict minority protection laws of any modern country. Such action wouldn't be just a strike the account holder has to take, it would be subject to a lawsuit which Blizzard would lose for sure. The TOU isn't a waterproof pamphlet that's above all law.
It is a discrimination of a minority, if such action was taken by Blizz, and the law in the US is very touchy on that matter.
That's most likely the background why the wording change on the language selection.
You should select, instead of you have to select.
I've talked German in public channels times and again. There was never any problem.
Now, however, if someone thinks to use a foreign language to mask the content, like talking shit and/or cussing at someone else, who just doesn't understand it. Then we have another situation.

[Scummer]

Are you sure he didn't say something rude in French?
Either way it's not a rule to speak in a foreign language on an English Speaking server.

However I do wish Blizzard policed this better and more rigorously. For those of us who are from the UK and only speak English we will go and join an English realm because that's what we expect to speak, so it's damn frustrating when we trade chat full of what are most of the time Scandinavians speaking some language only they understand that is not the official language of the server.

[alemaite]

Your friend probably did something wrong and lied to you.

[velde046]

However I do wish Blizzard policed this better and more rigorously. For those of us who are from the UK and only speak English we will go and join an English realm because that's what we expect to speak, so it's damn frustrating when we trade chat full of what are most of the time Scandinavians speaking some language only they understand that is not the official language of the server.

Yeah but where would the Scandinavian, the Dutch, the Romanian or the Belgians etc. go then? I really fail to understand the problem, how hard is it to ignore those chats even? Whenever I see some language I don't understand I ignore it. Besides ingame you also have language for races that are unreadable by other races, Gnomish cannot be read by Night Elves for example... at least for /say, /yell etc.

So all in all if that's the main issue someone has with the game, then I think the game is in a great spot.

[Wildtree]

Are you sure he didn't say something rude in French?
Either way it's not a rule to speak in a foreign language on an English Speaking server.

However I do wish Blizzard policed this better and more rigorously. For those of us who are from the UK and only speak English we will go and join an English realm because that's what we expect to speak, so it's damn frustrating when we trade chat full of what are most of the time Scandinavians speaking some language only they understand that is not the official language of the server.

We got that on US realms too.... It's fun when you think to run a quick 5 man heroic, and you end up being the only one with 4 ppl from Brazil, and all they talk is Portuguese, and you don't understand a word they say, as much as they don't understand you.
Been there several times.

[Scummer]

Yeah but where would the Scandinavian, the Dutch, the Romanian or the Belgians etc. go then?

I know that's the main problem.
Blizzard should be trying to make servers for those demographics as it's the cause of this language barrier problem, currently they seem to acknowledge this considering only recently they made Italian and Portuguese servers.

My suggestion more an after thought after such servers were implemented. I'm sorry I failed to mention that.

I really fail to understand the problem, how hard is it to ignore those chats even? Whenever I see some language I don't understand I ignore it.

Language barriers inevitably split communities.
Not to mention how when I as a Brit go to an English speaking server I expect to see that language used as it's the one I speak and the language the server is labelled as.

If you wish to form a guild that speaks that language you are fully welcome to do so, but don't go around on a English speaking Server speaking some other language when it just serves to isolate those who only speak the official language of the server.

[velde046]

If you wish to form a guild that speaks that language you are fully welcome to do so, but don't go around on a English speaking Server speaking some other language when it just serves to isolate those who only speak the official language of the server.

I'm making an educated guess you're not on an RP server then, because I have been on a server (when I started and was clueless) and a lot of people would speak in their racial language, that did not affect general channels, but it does affect /yell and /say so that was confusing quite abit back then until I learned to ignore it basically. If people want to set themselves apart from the group by speaking a foreign language then so be it.
Besides where would you draw the line? Should people using l33t speak be punished too? Or acronyms like ROFLMAO and LOL? These can be confusing to a lot of people too... I know I'm spliiting hairs here, but still it's clear you must be careful, because basically it's like shunning people that want nothing more than you, play the game in an environment where they want to speak their own language yet they have no place to go.

And on a personal note, I can enjoy the foreign languages every now and then, trying to figure out what they're saying. We have Danish, Swedish, English, Dutch and Belgian people in our guild and we do sometimes chat in our native language only to be made fun of by the others mostly

[jaakkeli]

Language barriers inevitably split communities.

Kyl säkin voit opetella suomea jos väkisin haluat mukaan stormin jonnejengeihin.

Not to mention how when I as a Brit go to an English speaking server I expect to see that language used as it's the one I speak and the language the server is labelled as.

This might have made sense on release when you had no idea how the servers were going to turn out and you might have ended up on one that's full of only Turks who speak no English but these days it's all stable and you can figure out the facts about the server you're planning to roll on before you even log in on the game. It's what, you know, most of us do. If we have to ask around to find the Finnish/Swedish/Dutch/whatever server, you're not going to get much sympathy for your complaint that English speakers are having to actually ask around about servers to find one without foreigners.

Especially not since your problem is that you don't want to see foreigners, our problem is just actually finding the one server with our compatriots. I don't give a fuck if there's some language that I don't understand on trade chat. It's not like I'm going to go join that Greek guild even if Blizzard were to force them to recruit in English...

[Deleted]

you can figure out the facts about the server you're planning to roll on before you even log in on the game.

Can you? Where? I'm positive no new player would ever find the obscure source you are going to name.

[jaakkeli]

Can you? Where? I'm positive no new player would ever find the obscure source you are going to name.

Like, uh, other people? If you're a gamer, the odds are very low that you don't know anyone that plays WoW and you probably read some gaming forums and such. If you want to find out which servers have a ton of, say, Dutch people then I can't exactly help you but I'm sure Dutch people can ask that on some Dutch gaming forums and get a quick answer...

If you're *totally* new to WoW and video gaming and have no one to talk to, the game recommends some empty servers for newcomers. Those servers are pretty much guaranteed to not have a dominant trade chat language apart from English since they are, you know, empty, while all the people of a particular nationality conspiring to roll on a particular server tend to populate it pretty well...

[Scummer]

I'm making an educated guess you're not on an RP server then, because I have been on a server (when I started and was clueless) and a lot of people would speak in their racial language, that did not affect general channels, but it does affect /yell and /say so that was confusing quite abit back then until I learned to ignore it basically.

Game mechanics for RP are not the same a language barrier that exists in every day conversation in-game.

If people want to set themselves apart from the group by speaking a foreign language then so be it.

They can do that by forming a guild, not by talking in trade chat where others are reading it and trying to pay attention to it.

Besides where would you draw the line? Should people using l33t speak be punished too? Or acronyms like ROFLMAO and LOL? These can be confusing to a lot of people too... I know I'm spliiting hairs here, but still it's clear you must be careful, because basically it's like shunning people that want nothing more than you, play the game in an environment where they want to speak their own language yet they have no place to go.

Yes that is a bit of a straw-man argument, so I'll stay away from as you know as well as I do that l33tspeak is completely different to a person speaking in a foreign language.

[LazarusLong]

That was in Burning Crusade, but I remember people suspended for talking russian in public channels. But it's talking and rather long - not just few random phrases or macro.