Language Friendly Blocktopia Servers

[Wheelbarrow]

I'm new here on this Blocktopia Forums - not sure which suitable category I can start this thread. Sorry if it is in the wrong category. But anyway,

I'd like to raise my point here that I dislike the fact how non-English speaking minecraft players were treated differently from English speaking minecraft players on Blocktopia Servers. Every time there is a Polish player and the Polish player do not know any English so they cannot comply with the typical rules because they don't understand the rules.

They should be allowed to choose the language of their choice while playing Blocktopia server. Even though I understand the language policy that players should only use English in the server chat "so it would be accesible for English-speaking players" but is it fair for non-English speaking?

Let's pretend if you don't know any English words (never studied the language) and you want to play Minecraft and thought you'd chat with other players. Boom, there are a sentence in bright yellow warning you for failing to comply with English-only in server chat. Do you think non-English speaking players would even understand that?

This is the point that pisses me off, every time there is a French player, or maybe Polish player - I have to translate the OP (or Trusted)'s warnings in their language for them to understand. After when I'm done with translating, I sometimes get warned for not using English. What the? I'm assisting the international players in their language to tell them to comply with English-only for server chat, and then I'm getting a warning for failing to comply with the rules.

Sometimes, rarely, some OP (or trusted) ask me to translate what I said to the non-English speaking players for English speaking players in order for them to understand what I am saying.

I am asking you, seriously, to change the rules or set up an automatic translation (for rules) to tell them to use English in their language. It will greatly benefit them.

To be honest, I WAS the non-English speaking player and played Minecraft, was often get kicked and sometimes banned (in my old account) because I don't understand what the OP (or trusted) are saying to me.

After a year or two studying English, I finally understood what they are saying to me. I am not happy at all.

Thank you for letting me to bring up this point
Wheelbarrow

(actively in Blocktopia Zombies server)

 

[DumbShooter]

Good point, it would be good to have the translations of the rules in the main languages, such as french, italian, spanish, germany, polish etc.. I would post this in suggestions.
Dumb :)

 

[Wheelbarrow]

Thank you for your time reading this.

The International players can access Minecraft using their language, there are few browsers that use auto-translating everything you surf the Internet in foreign language. Unfortunately the MMPORG games and online game that use internet chat server do not support the browser's automatic translation.

Someone just told me that I could just PM (Private message) them, to be honest, I do NOT have an energy to translate everything what the OP (or Trusted) want me to tell to the non-English speaking players. I want to play Minecraft as well.

And otherwise, is there anyone out there who is fluent in many languages willing to translate everything for International players while playing Minecraft? No.

So the problem like this must be fixed. There is an online technology that allows automatic translation accordingly to where you live. I'm sure Blocktopia sever managers could implement a technology like that in-game to benefit the non-English speaking players.

Wheel

 

[Vatumok]

I'm totally in favor of the rules also being in other languages, it has been suggested before (for the zombie server, that is) but nothing really has been done with it. A command /rules [player] [language] would be very useful to send the rules to people that can't speak english so they can still understand what they are doing wrong. Maybe /warn [player] @[rule] [optional language (nothing is english)] would be nice too. (at least for languages as German, French and Polish, because most people that don't speak english in chat speak one of these languages)

http://blocktopia.net/forum/threads/rules-in-other-languages.1160/

 

[Wheelbarrow]

I am sketipically disagree with this because if the OP or Trusted send a warning command to a troubled international player, for example "Warned for Rule 7 (or whatever), Only speak English in the server chat". The non-English speaking players would have no idea what you the warning mean, so they continue speaking the language of their choice.

If the Blocktopia Server managers find a way, maybe to establish a new code or .xml coding file to comply with online game to establish an automatic translation accordingly to which language they use. The non-English speaking will find it useful and thankful.

It seem to be a little bit stupid seeing a English person nagging a non-English person to speak English while the non-English player don't understand any English at all. You know?

Online games like Minecraft SHOULD be equal based on languages the player choose, not to limit them to English only. Minecraft is a well popular international game, it don't make any sense to only use English in the WORLDWIDE Blocktopia server.

 

[Vatumok]

I am sketipically disagree with this because if the OP or Trusted send a warning command to a troubled international player, for example "Warned for Rule 7 (or whatever), Only speak English in the server chat". The non-English speaking players would have no idea what you the warning mean, so they continue speaking the language of their choice.

Maybe /warn [player] @[rule] [optional language (nothing is english)]

??

Translating things only makes it extremely weird and complicated, how would we even explain a person to enable/disable the translator if he can't speak English? We would still need to ask other people to tell them in their native language that they can use a translator. We are an English speaking community, this means that on our servers you have to speak English in our main chat and if you can't you will either have to talk through PMs or not.
Having instructions and/or rules in another language sounds like a great idea to me, but using translators and everything is just silly.

 

[Razinao]

As much as I don't intend to be rude, the internet language is English. However, I'm not really in a position to commentate as, a TNT staff member, we have a few ops with different languages at our disposal to tell the individual straight off, and we usually use google translate to try and convey our point (albeit weakly) if a different-language speaking staff member isn't present.

Yes, we can make the rules in different languages, and we should. However how are we meant to convey a single rule's redirect [considering zombie only has the rules in different languages on the wiki, i think], in everyones language, in a small enough space that doesn't spam?

Maybe /rules LANGUAGE? But then we have to tell them to use /rules LANGUAGE. And then we're still at square one.

 

[Notme]

What about servers automatically check our ip to find out what country we are living, and when using /rules displays correct language?
It would be like:

+MaciekPL [Poland] joins server
DETECTED LAUNGAGE: Polish
Wpisz /zasady w okno chatu ; Type /rules into chat window.

And there could be list of rules in Polish.
1.....
2.....
3.....

 

[Swate]

What about servers automatically check our ip to find out what country we are living, and when using /rules displays correct language?

Now this here is a darn good idea. Might be a leeetle bit of coding involved but it would totally be worth it.

 

[Mac27]

I think you guys are missing the point sorry. This community has always been an English community, why? Because 99% of its player base speak English. Communities just have to pick a language to operate in. Else things get messy.

Look at a French based community, they speak french don't they? That's because their player base is French speaking.

I could go on for awhile, but this is a Head Admin topic, so I'll leave it to them.

 

[Trap_Wolf]

I think you guys are missing the point sorry. This community has always been an English community, why? Because 99% of its player base speak English. Communities just have to pick a language to operate in. Else things get messy.

Look at a French based community, they speak french don't they? That's because their player base is French speaking.

I could go on for awhile, but this is a Head Admin topic, so I'll leave it to them.

I don't think he is proposing that we make this an all language community. What I'm reading at the moment is that we need a translation of the rules. From the recent posts and such.

Misleading title?

 

[kraby1]

First off, the wiki page containing all the languages that we have translated the rules into, regarding zombie.
http://blocktopia.net/wiki/Zombie_Rules

Staff and players remind people who don't speak English in the main chat. It can be tricky sometimes, taking a long time, but it's one of the things we enforce and has to be done. We cannot leave a player confused, and left 'alone' can we?

What raxo came up with, is probably the best thing to do in this situation, and will sort out one of the biggest problems that exist on the server. A bit of coding, and it could be solved.

 

[Swate]

We cannot leave a player confused, and left 'alone' can we?

 

[Theodorre]

Hmm.. Yes I can see your point, BUT if the player thought he'd chat with other players, and he doesn't speak English, then most of the players aren't going to understand him. And, they can still use @(name) to PM (Private Message) with another player in another language, and as there aren't usually many foreign language speakers on at the same time, this basically gets rid of the problem.

That said, I do like the idea of the IP address translation. There would be only one problem. And that is that some countries have more than one official language. An example would be New Zealand, where English and Maori are the two official languages

 

[Specter2k11]

Maybe it couldn't hurt for them to just learn a bit of english THEN go back to our servers and play. Also maybe we should ask notch to make a "server language" flag next to the server list so that people could identify that this is an English speaking server since because the server is hosted in german then germans think this server speaks german.

Lastly,

What about servers automatically check our ip to find out what country we are living, and when using /rules displays correct language?
It would be like:

+MaciekPL [Poland] joins server
DETECTED LAUNGAGE: Polish
Wpisz /zasady w okno chatu ; Type /rules into chat window.

And there could be list of rules in Polish.
1.....
2.....
3.....

That works too.

 

[Wheelbarrow]

I understand all of what you are saying, but I disagree with the fact that English is the "Internet Language". English and French both are the official language of United Nations, why don't you also use French in Minecraft? The Blocktopia servers are from Germany, how would you feel if they use it completely in German? The German OP and Trusted would pick on English players.

Basically, my whole point is that the servers should be more aware of different languages incurred in the server chat. Rather than slamming them down that they broke a rule while they don't even understand what you are saying.

Raxo222, this is the EXAMPLE which I am thinking about that Bloocktopia should enforce and add it to the normal coding system. This is an excellent idea basically, and shame on the people who wouldn't accept something like this.

Oh! Just thought of something, English is third most popular language and yet it is still favoured. It is really UNFAIR on international players. You just say "Oh English is the base language" or whatever like that - I understand, but you could just do an alternative approach to explain the international players to speak English only in their language.

Mac27, you said French servers speak French. I understand, but Blocktopia server is from GERMANY. Not from England or from US, or even from majorily English-speaking country. So there is a huge irony within this server.

Theo, yeah that'd be good but would they even know how to use the Private Message tool when the OP or Trusted ask them to use PM if they want to talk in their language in English..? How does it even work?

You will understand better if you play Chinese version of Minecraft...

 

[Iguana]

This is coming from me, who was raised speaking Cantonese, Vietnamese, English, and French...

We might be based in Germany, but our roots are from an American community (generally).
We started as TheOne's, and our servers were based in the midwest of America, and we've kept our playerbase and community, just moved our hosting to Germany as it was easier for the new system admin (GmK). All of it is focused on our roots, and we generally dislike change. Humans enjoy repetition, and don't like to see change.

I understand where you're coming from, the whole issue of non-native English speakers being picked on, but this isn't something that you can change by just making a post and letting the whole community stumble upon it 1-by-1. If you want to see change, be the change you want to see. You're going to have to pm each of the higher staff of each server, and talk to them about how you're not a native English speaker and want to see changed. Most servers, the staff are expected to be respectable to players, so just tell the higher staff that you're not seeing that in the staff members of whatever server.

Regardless of whether or not this should be a German speaking, or a French speaking, or a Chinese speaking community, staff still have regulations to follow. We must be polite, courteous to players, and respect their backgrounds. If they speak a different language than us, then we're going to try our best to help out. Despite being an English community, we actually have people from all over the world. We have many people who are also multilingual and would gladly help any non-English speakers.

 

[Deadl0ck]

Fun fact time.

English is the second most spoken language in the world. (beaten only by Chinese.)
English is the most used language on the internet. (Second place is Chinese.) (So yes, it is the language of the net.)
Our servers are hosted in Germany due to server cost / ease of maintenance, however, the community has always been based in the USA. This is also where the majority of our players come from. Also, where most of our staff comes from.

We have the rule about language because we also have rules about swearing at people, and staff need to moderate chat as much as they need to moderate gameplay. You cannot moderate chat if you cannot understand what is said. So, we are not going to switch to an all language community. Because that would be simply unmanageable. As is most likely, changing rules to other languages, and integrate them in gameplay.

If you have issues with this, that is fine. It's your right. But we are not changing it because of that. I respect and appreciate you are translating what the op is saying. If you feel the need to do that, fine. But tell staff you are translating for them. If they don't know you will risk being warned.

All that said, Language is one of our less strict rules, and as far as I know, staff tend to give chat warnings first two or three times, then an official server warning, then followed by two kicks, then a ban, unless suspected of rude behaviour. Normal procedure is official server warning, kick, kick, ban. This hasn't been set in stone though, so I will also be making a post about this on the staff forums.

 

[Wheelbarrow]

Hello, I'm back here now.

I am not asking you guys to "transform" Blocktopia servers to include more languages, I am just asking if it is possible to translate the rules. Even though English is an "Internet Language", but it is STILL unfair for foreign players who use the languages other than English. Sometimes I am in a great mood to translate everything of what trusted or OP is saying to an international player, but sometimes I am not in a good mood. So it is a great idea for a translation of rules .. that all, to ensure that international players who don't speak English feel inclusive to the Blocktopia servers.

Wheelbarrow

 

[Pick Yer Poison]

Hello, I'm back here now.

I am not asking you guys to "transform" Blocktopia servers to include more languages, I am just asking if it is possible to translate the rules. Even though English is an "Internet Language", but it is STILL unfair for foreign players who use the languages other than English. Sometimes I am in a great mood to translate everything of what trusted or OP is saying to an international player, but sometimes I am not in a good mood. So it is a great idea for a translation of rules .. that all, to ensure that international players who don't speak English feel inclusive to the Blocktopia servers.

Wheelbarrow

So, taking the feedback in this thread into account, do you have any ideas as to what to do? Good arguments have been made against this, so the neutral stance you're taking really won't get anything to happen. At this point you're going to have to actively convince us as to why this suggestion is not only doable, but worth the effort.

 

[Wheelbarrow]

I've used all of my efforts to ensure the non-English speaking players to feel involved and included in the online gameplay by translating and communicating with them in their foreign language. I wish that Blocktopia would take that as a consideration, to possibly establish a new codes to allow an auto-translating of the rules itself into maybe 3 main languages? French, German and Polish? I've noticed a lot of French German and Polish players lately.

If the local language is detected, the rules that the Trusted or an Operator sends to the player would be automatically translated according to a codes. However in the normal game chat, it is not possible to translate that I understand. But I just wish that the rules would be translated for few languages. It will greatly benefit the International players.

 

[erik1979]

The thing that gets me most is that a warn isn't THAT bad. Also, another thing is that it is as simple as finding an online translator, typing in text, and getting a message out of it that is REASONABLY close to what the person in the other language was trying to say, or at least the person using the translator will be able to get the gist of the message.

What you are suggesting is a code that auto-detects IP addresses and changes the users in-game messages to a language of that region. My question is, why would we use our developers in this manner? Think about it. This is not something that would be easy to do, would require translations for every rule/message on the server, and then our developers would have to figure out a way to setup a location detection system. Wouldn't you rather have the developers working on awesome new servers and fine-tuning them, to bring about better playing experiences all across the community? With this they would be wasting time on trying to figure out a way to incorporate your ideas into the servers that they already have, consuming more time on the schedules of our developers that they really don't have.

Not only that, what about the countries that have multiple national languages? The IP address may be detected of a country, choose that country's language, and the person might not even speak it. Also, the person may have a sort of built-in proxy system that would lead the server software they are in another location. There are just way too many flaws and bugs with this system.

My best advice on this topic would be variable usage. Have different $ variables for each main language around the world that an OP+ would send to a user telling that user (in German for example): Bitte sprechen Sie Englisch im Chat. Sie können einen Online-Übersetzer. translate.google.de funktioniert gut.

 

[Sephhh]

I understand where you're coming from since communication is a very essential factor. However, I agree with Erik that we should have variables that could tell them to speak English. They could also use private messaging to speak with people that they would like with the same language if they're not comfortable with using English publicly.

 

[Drakyle]

i have read the above and maybe my reply wont be acknowledged becuz im not of the higher ups so no one really cares but yh i agree its unfair on them but s its been sed its just to complicated if the concern is of enough importance for change would you not expect other ppl to post about this and also translate for the foreign ppl it just takes a translation and a heads up to admin letting know what ur doing and nothign ever got done with shortcuts nor does any change get anywhere without determination and effort if you want the change to happen you are going to have to keep translating and find an easy way for solution to be put in place if its really important others will share your opinion and speak it if they feel as strongly about it

 

[Defiant_Blob]

Drakyle We don't have the staff to translate every single language we might come up on the server.