Guild Languages

[Stronith]

I\'ve read something somewhere about guild members developing their own languages, but cannot find it for the life of me now.  

I was discussing this with my wife (Zorbels) and we agreed it would be difficult and annoying to have to \"learn a whole language for a game\", but she figured - why not have a language option for a guild that would allow conversations in public (via the chat window) that translated as an original tongue of sorts to others but to fellow members it was in the language as typed by the user.  This may counter the purpose for the guild chat, but it\'s an idea.


This game is so addicting.  I shudder to think how much I\'ll play when it\'s complete. (BTW, kudos to the Dev team for not losing my stats and keeping my location most of the time when the game crashes - I\'d have tossed the game long ago if I had to start over every time)

[Karyuu]

I honestly fail to see the point :)

How would such a tongue arise? I can understand languages of different races and species (and indeed, this is often an RP must-have), but where would guilds come up with entire different languages? And taking into consideration the sheer amount of guilds out there and the need of a completely unique language for each of them...

It\'s just no good.

[Arklari Rereler]

Translated into gibberish to those who don\'t know it?

Stronith says, \"hi\" in Kranese

but to someone who doesn\'t understand it;

Stronith says, \"hhhyyii\" in Kranese

[Stronith]

I guess \'the point\' I had in mind was something along the lines of adding another sense of realism to the game.  

I was thinking, that as much as it\'s cool to communicate solely with your people regardless of the company you\'ve got in the area...sort of unreal unless telepathy is the method.  

In retrospect, not such a hot idea considering the number of guilds is limitless (essentially) and not pre-defined. (as well as some other reasons I\'ve thought of)

So touch?


Just the fact that I can bring up the idea is cool enough though.  

Thanks.

[SuburbanPlankton]

This could possibly be accomplished by \"encrypting\" guild conversations.  Ant guild chat would be visible in the main chat window, but wold appear as gibberish to anyone who was not in the guild.  This way, guild members could carry on \"private\" conversations in full view of the general public.

The bigger question is whether or not this is a good idea.  I don\'t think it is.  It is certainly plausible that a guild might develop some sort of secret code for internal communications.    But the best way to implement this in-game is for a guild to develop some sort of secret code for internal communications, not to  accommodate it through game mechanics.

[Stronith]

Exactly. I agree.

[Neryam]

Having guild chat in public would not only be a bit pointless, but would also severely clutter the interface. ALthough realistic.. :/

ALso, have you ever tried Google Translator? It works well enoguht hat you can get the drift of what someone\'s saying in German or whatever, but grammar is usually horrible and and misspelled words or non-dictionary words do not work well.
Seeing as how many spelling errors people make when typing fast in an MMORPG and the fact that there can be umpteen guilds, I don\'t think this would really be possible.

Unless you use two-way random key encryption, but then it wouldn\'t even be another language it would be \"qysixbsgdfbfdhdjhdsb\" or ba3hjf5w274bsvar1eh1bf\".

[Leeloo]

It can be done with one-way \"translation\". Let those who are supposed to understand get the unmodified text, and the others get the \"translated\" version.

E.g. when two krans are talking, they would both see exactly what the other types, but everyone else would just see some kind of (egyptian-like) hieroglyphs.

(hieroglyphs is how I imagine kran writing would look like).

[Stronith]

This is what I had in mind, the text to be legible to guild members, but not to others.  The cluttered chat window is a good point, of course.

I think that in fact - This IS a good idea that could be worked on, just maybe not for this game.  It may work well for a game environment based on races being aligned naturally as opposed to one where players are grouped by choice in mixed race guilds...

Thanks for the feedback.

[Karyuu]

No, I still honestly do not see the point. You weren\'t suggesting languages for races, you were suggesting them for guilds, weren\'t you?

Why would guild conversations have to be encrypted publicly? If a guild wants to learn an entirely different language and have their members use it, do it the real, natural, hard way - create/learn another language.

[Stronith]

Originally posted by Stronith

It may work well for a game environment based on races being aligned naturally as opposed to one where players are grouped by choice in mixed race guilds...

Since I made the original post, I\'ve rethought it based on further experience with the game.