The MUD i play is completely different from one that restricts player to use only english. In fact, we have 34 unique languages coded in, that the players can learn, they are not real world languages such as spanish or english, they are for example Trollish, Underdark, and Abyssal. Players must seek out a trainer for each language and pay a fee to learn them, this makes some people made because people are using public channels in different languages, but i think it is fun, just because it adds some real lifeness to the game...

Yall arent talking about the real issue here... it's a public IC channel, and those don't usually make much sense d=.

That's exactly what we want you to think.  
Pay no attention to the admin behind the curtain.  
When you least expect it, all your mud are belong to us.

Kind of ironic.. The mud I play on is hosted in Sweden, is almost 100% english in use and has Swe, Fin and 1-2 other alternate language channels, which rarely get used. It is a tad interesting when some admin screams something I see as complete gibberish, but there hasn't been a major problem.

Then again, the few of us that discussed scripting translators thats could convert english to and from a mix of Japanese and something like Navajo, for the Kitsune players, could never manage to get enough info on Navajo to make one. lol If we had, it could have made things interesting. lol

It has already been mentioned, but I wanted to agree with the importance of such a rule for enforcing channel or communication rules.

If the administration cannot know what someone is saying, they cannot know if the person is cheating, advertising a different mud, violating channel rules (like not being IC via an IC mode of communication), etc.

The argument that they can just open a chat program and do any of the above is a worthless argument. Of course they can do that, but at least they are having to go through the extra step. An administrator should at least have the capacity to enforce rules on his or her own mud.

I see no issues in naming a 'universal' language for a Mu* to base the common channels on as long as the subject is addressed immediately when a player creates. English happens to be a good choice IMHO since it appears to be required learning in quite a few schools around the world, rightly or wrongly.

There needs to be a tolerance of other languages though and I've found Swedish, Finn, Russian, Estonian and even Dutch to be wonderful players if you don't ride them about english abilities and teach them instead. It's those Aussies and Canucks who are the loo-mouths and need considerable watching, Oi!

Honestly though, I can speak/understand 5 languages to different degrees and so can most of our staff so it's not an issue if you have more than a handful of managers working with you. A world written in english tends to discourage those who don't speak the language and the few who do stick around in it I find actually want to learn to use it better.

Interesting.  The Japanese figure it out in WWII either. ;-)

I may be a little late, it seems, to jump into the conversation, but I would like to focus my attention on and reply to the starting post of this thread.

I can see where you are coming from, but I really must say that I disagree.

For all those non-USers out there, I would just like to start this off by saying that the US is -highly- multicultural. I live in a small town in a residential school, and at any given time I can walk down the hallway and hear just about anything. English, French, Cajun French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Swahili (spelling?), and various other Asian/African languages I can not even put a name too.

-------------------------------
So... Concerning Rudeness:
I am saying this as someone who can only speak English. It doesn't bother me in the slightest bit to go down the hall and hear someone talking on the phone to their family or whatever in their own language. That is there private conversation, and, besides, I have no right to be listening in on it in the first place. This can be an example of the rule that says it's fine to speak whatever you want on -private- channels.

However, I DO find it rude, uncomfortable, or (in a few particular cases) embarrasing when I find that I am the odd (wo)man out of everything, or that the topic of these people's conversations are of a more hostile or inappropriate nature. You seem to have a very good hold on English, so why not use it? It's far more convient for you to show off your cultural skills than it is for someone else to go and just learn a whole new language they did not even grow up with.

------------------------------
Concerning Creator/Imm-Player Relations

Not all qualified creators/imms can speak every language brought to their MUD from the outside world by its players. Yet, instead of banning these people or attempting to keep them out, they put in a rule that prohibits anything but English on public channels (those channels which, I would assume, need the most patrolling). I am also going to assume that since your playing the game, you can also speak and read English decently enough to adhere to these rules quite easily.

Scanning through several various posts, I've seen other people state the obvious to you concerning the administrative reasons for such a regulation.



So, where am I going with this?

I am sorry that seeing such rules tick you off, but they are there for a very good reason and are very easy to follow for most people competant in English enough to be playing the MUD in the first place.

*chuckles* That's not exactly what I had in mind, but after considering the extensive differences between them I'm sure they could possibly be added to a 'thorough' resume. It would probably cause a bit of head scratching to those that read it though.

I've been formally educated in Korean, French and I think English, resided 3 years in Germany for an informal version and resided 10 years in Los Angeles and Merced where English was the second language and Spanish ruled. The other members of the staff range from Dutch speaking to Estonian and Russian as well as a good smattering of the romance languages.

On a side note... I've done searches before and not found much in the way of forgein language muds... but if anyone has a mud that has a lot of swedish (descriptions, names, channels, etc) Let me know. I'm trying to learn swedish and I figure doing it in a mud environment would be more fun than a textbook. ;) Hanging out in chatrooms works and is what I'm doing right now, but a more interactive environment would be cool.

Thanks!

Jaenelle

I wouldn't get my hopes up too much, Jaenelle.
I am Swedish myself, and I know there are at least a couple of Muds hosted in Sweden around, and there is also an amazingly big number of Swedish Mud-players, considering how small the country is - (probably because of the climate).

But Swedish is a very small language, all kids in Sweden start to learn English in 6th grade or so, and I very much doubt you'll find any Swedish language muds around. After all, the internet is international, and a language that is only spoken by about 8 million people is just to small to support a playerbase.

Anyway, if there were one, I'd probably have heard of it.