Major global DC travel/test issue (cultural/language)

Someone had to step up and say something, I don't mind doing the honours. It's a tough subject but silence would be the same as submission.

At this point in time, it would actually be better if the devs took the harder but rightful path of forcing all players to permanently move/play on the data center in their own region (as soon as practical), to protect and respect cultures at their roots by default. The OCE situation is not ideal (having been created late) and players from there that started or are located in other region's DCs, have little reason or are too embedded elsewhere to move there without being forced. But ultimately this harder path will work out better for all parties. Some people will lose houses and friends, but it must be done and they can easily be refunded and also pass off a free company to the next member in line in those cases.

It is unfortunate that such effort has been made to make global travel possible, at a point in history where it's now the opposite of what's needed regarding the internet. 20+ years ago, the problem that has now clearly emerged did not exist, as 'few' people were using the internet- but now that 'everyone' is basically forced to use the internet, a threat to certain cultures and languages exists and is growing. Through the conduit of the internet, those cultures and languages are at absolute risk of being replaced or swallowed by others, making internet segregation the right path, in lieu of restricting who/how many people can use it back to levels before ~2005.

The main threat that has emerged (for my language/culture) is that N-A English is already eating away at British-English and Australian-English, and without corrective action will eventually replace both. Make no mistake- our regions do not speak the same language and we do not share the same values (we all know this). But there are far more North-American-English speakers on the internet than B-E and A-E speakers- and this means language replacement/contamination is, without action, inevitable in a matter of under 2 decades because our regions' people are simply outnumbered on the internet. This is compounded further by more internet use in recent years, and a lessened ability for societies to self-correct due to less public interaction- and less of a country's exposure to it's own culture across the board. Politicians are of course weak and will not do their duty to defend their regions, and will always take the no-action path leading to complete erosion, followed by later telling their region's people that 'they chose to start speaking N-A-English', and that their values are the same as NA values (this lie is already being told), when they absolutely are not. People in these regions are already being given decreased instances where their own culture appears as an option.

It is through the young that this danger is spreading and most potent, and why I must ask the devs to cancel the global DC travel, or at least apply trial-version chat restrictions upon all 'Voyagers' visiting the Materia/OCE. And eventually it is the wise decision to follow this up by giving players some manner of 6 month period to shift their characters to their own region's DC for free. This is the way it must be. You can already see British, European and Australian streamers on Twitch and other media mediums, speaking North-American-English words, phrases and sayings without realizing it- they should not be. This is not the same as 'a people' genuinely taking on one or two sayings, over a period of decades- although politicians will swear that what is now happening is 'just social change', when in fact it is culture and language replacement due to these things being left completely unprotected.

I should have posted this earlier, but I was not aware that the semi-global DC test was going to take place so soon, and for so long. The main immediate and urgent concern I have right now is that Easter is very soon, and given that NA has had Easter taken away from them internally and replaced with 'something else', we DO NOT want their 'non-easter situation' infecting our region. We do not want NA players coming to OCE and blasting their 'non-easter phrase' everywhere this coming weekend, it IS offensive and corrosive TO US because we still have Easter and Christmas etc- which in Australia long ago broke away from (and beyond) religion and became critical core cultural celebrations. We cannot tolerate the looming culture and language interference. Europe are also exposed and having the same problem, but should likewise be excluded from travel to OCE as the problem has spread into a few tiny pockets there already. Furthermore I will point out that Europeans learning English are supposed to be learning British-English, but some are nowadays learning North-American-English by mistake. This will also result in N-A-English phrases, terms and words being subconsciously translated into various European languages by the young people of those countries, and spoken out into those societies, making things even worse. Hence why European players should also be given the same period of time to shift their characters back to their region permanently.

This is a topic that will make some people uncomfortable, but the truth always is. I'd be letting my country down by remaining silent and hoping the problem will go away by itself, but it won't- and it's not even just my own country that is being subjected to this problem. I'm sure we all wanted to believe in our younger years that our lives were going to be nice and easy, that our nations' hardest times were in the past; things that happened long ago that get mentioned in a newspaper article anecdote- but this issue is real and is happening now, with our cultures and languages on a knife edge, if we lose them to replacement/contamination, they're gone forever.

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Originally Posted by Zofian

But there are far more North-American-English speakers on the internet than B-E and A-E speakers- and this means language replacement/contamination is, without action, inevitable in a matter of under 2 decades because our regions' people are simply outnumbered on the internet.

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You could fight it with a higher birth rate and later outnumber the american-english speakers. Problem solved. :)

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Originally Posted by Zofian

You can already see British, European and Australian streamers on Twitch and other media mediums, speaking North-American-English words, phrases and sayings without realizing it- they should not be.

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And american-english speakers also already use german words. This means german-american-english will also come to you, sooner or later. :)

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Originally Posted by Zofian

We do not want NA players coming to OCE and blasting their 'non-easter phrase' everywhere this coming weekend

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And you asked every OCE player so you can speak for them, right?


Cheers

sometimes... you just need to sit back, have a drink of tea.. and wonder silently if some poor village somewhere is missing its idiot.

bye the bye... Australian English isnt British English anymore either, and British English has never been a "pure" language, so, we all speak a very corrupted and living language.

My suggestion would be, go outside, take a deep breath, and throw another shrimp on the barbie mate and relax. After all.. North America does still have easter and christmas.. not sure what glue you have been sniffing...

My god sometimes I like reading the bait on this forum

10/10

I hate it when my English is replaced by other English. How am I supposed to enjoy English if other English is Englishing on my turf?

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it would actually be better if the devs took the harder but rightful path of forcing all players to permanently move/play on the data center in their own region (as soon as practical)

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Uhm, what if you have friends in another region? This is common between EU<->NA because of the shared English language.

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The OCE situation is not ideal (having been created late) and players from there that started or are located in other region's DCs, have little reason or are too embedded elsewhere to move there without being forced.

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Well it's not really just that. It's that Materia is dead. So region travel to it will really help and that literally is starting today.

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now that 'everyone' is basically forced to use the internet, a threat to certain cultures and languages exists and is growing.

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It's called evolution. Our cultures may all merge, but that is just life. Once upon a time, there were many different humanoid species next to humans. They merged with us, mingled with us and went extinct. That's life and we became better for it.

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The main threat that has emerged (for my language/culture) is that N-A English is already eating away at British-English and Australian-English

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Some of this is a good thing. NA has some better English terms, and some worse ones.

For example, in Britain it is "re" instead of "er" and I think "er" is better. However, "z" instead of "s" on the end of words is a lazy understanding of the language and there are many other signs of how American English began from people who knew English but didn't learn how to write it down or pronounce it properly, and that became standard in America. Just how it went.

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there are far more North-American-English speakers on the internet

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That's why I usually write in North American English. I understand the differences between them, but since the majority of my target audience is American I just write most of it with American nuance.

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We do not want NA players coming to OCE and blasting their 'non-easter phrase' everywhere this coming weekend, it IS offensive and corrosive TO US because we still have Easter and Christmas etc-

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I mean, regardless of religion, people still celebrate these. When you're not religious, Easter is just a time that you eat lots of chocolate eggs and christmas is just a time you spend with family and give presents. Obviously for people who are very religious it may have more meaning than just that, but I think that has eroded for many people.

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This will also result in N-A-English phrases, terms and words being subconsciously translated into various European languages by the young people of those countries, and spoken out into those societies, making things even worse.

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Language has ever evolved. You know of "old English", right? Some of the old English terms are used in this game. It's called old English because the language evolved over time due to the merging of different English regions and younger generations' slang. To this day, the dictionaries in the UK work hard to add the terms that the younger generation are using and all the gibberish that young people use is now in the dictionary. Things just change like that.

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telling their region's people that 'they chose to start speaking N-A-English', and that their values are the same as NA values (this lie is already being told), when they absolutely are not.

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to protect and respect cultures at their roots by default.

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You are painting people with too broad a brush. No country has "values". The people within said countries have different groups/people with different, often opposing values. For example, you have Republicans and Democrats in the US. The people who support those parties have wildly different values themselves - some of them may be "centrists" or "center right" or "right" or "center left" or flat out left. Even within that those people can have different values and opinions.

Even on the internet you have different groups, websites and discords with different opinions. So the idea that everyone will suddenly have the exact same values because of this is... not true.

I say old chap, are you feeling a bit under the weather? Have you not recently been able to go and take a holiday? I dear say that such talk makes one worried about what kinds of maladies are in the air down in His Majesty's Commonwealth of Australia. Or could the cause of this be from the stress of seeing such magnificent creatures as those Kangaroos just lazing about all day? Though I do hear some have taken it upon themselves to behaving in such a way as entering a building and acting as though they are the rightful owners. Whatever is the case perhaps a trip out to the countryside will do you some good. Or if you already reside in the countryside then mayhap one can go an explore one of the many beautiful cities.

Seriously language and culture are very fluid and it's not as though you can't interact with people off the internet. You sound like the French in the 90s or some Japanese any time they feel they have too many foreign words in their language. Which is kind of hilarious as one form of their written language still uses many borrowed Chinese characters. Also may I suggest that you go on a deep dive on where some of those phrases and words you think got their start in America (cause let's face it you probably forgot about your fellow Commonwealth companion) as I'm sure some didn't even start here.

I mean, you do realize that the US has like, the highest percentage of regular church goers, right?

It's actually kind of a problem.
Also, why you hating on your fellow Canadians?

And people complain about Americans randomly starting drama or being toxic with other regions....

LOL what are you on about? It's still Easter and Christmas here in the US.

Someone had to say something, but not you and not your message. I welcome the visitors. Hopefully we see OCE get a bump in actual player base. Probably wishful thinking.
And, very funny, about the concern of foreigners coming in and overtaking Australian-English, like Australia owns OCE. Speaking for my own FC and circle of friends, we have quite a mix of AU, NZ, NA and Asian players. Kinda like how Australia and NZ are in real life, no? But, maybe that is your IRL attitude too?
Also, love the Easter concern. Like Easter currently isn't just an chance to take a long break and go shopping, drinking, beach days, grinding out FL matches, whatever. Yes, AU/NZ, where we all 100% definitely spend Easter contemplating the meaning of Christ...

I think the OP is, Mansplaining®

Ok, deleted my original response because it's important to assume positive intent.

It is ok to feel concern over change, honestly it's very human to selfishly want things your own way.

But look at it from a business perspective and be realistic when thinking about if you're going to get your way:

1.)By the numbers OCE is a little over 20k endgame characters strong compared to the 300K, 500k and 600K for EU, JP and NA respectively. It is not a good financial decision for the company to have invested so much into physical data centers for a dead data center. Long term I would not be surprised if OCE becomes a location for all regions to travel to permanently to give it relevance.

2.)Xenophobia has no place in this game, by the community and more practically by the TOS. Especially when you speak from a small subjective view but try to inflate that opinion by using "we" statements. How about approaching this topic with constructive criticism, and give the devs something reasonable to maybe try and assuage your fears. You cannot really expect them to read your post and go "you're right, discriminating on players in 2024 IS a good reason to shut it all down" especially when your argument is as weak as "versions of very similar english, accents aside"

Currently this reads as very immature, xenophobic with misinformation left and right. It immediately destroys any credibility you hope to have here.

This is rather uneducated bait - "The main threat that has emerged (for my language/culture) is that N-A English is already eating away at British-English and Australian-English, and without corrective action will eventually replace both. Make no mistake- our regions do not speak the same language and we do not share the same values (we all know this). But there are far more North-American-English speakers on the internet than B-E and A-E speakers- and this means language replacement/contamination "

there is no such thing as "N-A" English. There's (very broadly) speaking American and Canadian English, and each of these has multiple dialects. We can easily confuse ourselves in our own countries if we want to, we don't need to DC travel.

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Originally Posted by IDontPetLalas

This is rather uneducated bait - "The main threat that has emerged (for my language/culture) is that N-A English is already eating away at British-English and Australian-English, and without corrective action will eventually replace both. Make no mistake- our regions do not speak the same language and we do not share the same values (we all know this). But there are far more North-American-English speakers on the internet than B-E and A-E speakers- and this means language replacement/contamination "

there is no such thing as "N-A" English. There's (very broadly) speaking American and Canadian English, and each of these has multiple dialects. We can easily confuse ourselves in our own countries if we want to, we don't need to DC travel.

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Sorry, I can't read that because of your accent. Can you please re-type that in "Australian"-English?

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Originally Posted by ChrysOCE

Sorry, I can't read that because of your accent. Can you please re-type that in "Australian"-English?

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This is what AI thinks Aussie's sound like:

This here's some proper bog-standard rubbish - "The big worry that's popped up is that Yankee English is already chomping away at British-English and Aussie-English, and if we don't do somethin' about it, it'll end up takin' over the whole shebang. Don't get me wrong - our neck of the woods ain't chattin' in the same tongue, and we sure as heck don't see eye-to-eye on everything (that's a given). But there's heaps more North American English speakers online than there are in the land Down Under or back in Blighty - and that spells trouble for our lingo's future."
As for that "N-A" English jazz, that's a load of hogwash. We've got American English and Canadian English, each with its own bushel of dialects. We could easily muddle ourselves up without even hoppin' on a plane to the States.

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Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth

This is what AI thinks Aussie's sound like:

This here's some proper bog-standard rubbish - "The big worry that's popped up is that Yankee English is already chomping away at British-English and Aussie-English, and if we don't do somethin' about it, it'll end up takin' over the whole shebang. Don't get me wrong - our neck of the woods ain't chattin' in the same tongue, and we sure as heck don't see eye-to-eye on everything (that's a given). But there's heaps more North American English speakers online than there are in the land Down Under or back in Blighty - and that spells trouble for our lingo's future."
As for that "N-A" English jazz, that's a load of hogwash. We've got American English and Canadian English, each with its own bushel of dialects. We could easily muddle ourselves up without even hoppin' on a plane to the States.

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Much better. I understood everything.

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Originally Posted by Teah_Kaye

It is very true that even without leaving NA there's a noticeable difference in dialect depending on where you go. I went to the South on a work trip recently and for the first time in my life felt like my relatively neutral (as American accents go) Californian-with-Midwestern-parents accent marked me as an outsider.

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Try growing up in the south with 2 parents from Detroit. I have no discernable accent. It was very weird listening to some people talk lol.

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Originally Posted by Teah_Kaye

It is very true that even without leaving NA there's a noticeable difference in dialect depending on where you go. I went to the South on a work trip recently and for the first time in my life felt like my relatively neutral (as American accents go) Californian-with-Midwestern-parents accent marked me as an outsider.

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Which is how I feel when I visit family in Michigan with my West Texas Accent.

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Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth

This is what AI thinks Aussie's sound like:

This here's some proper bog-standard rubbish - "The big worry that's popped up is that Yankee English is already chomping away at British-English and Aussie-English, and if we don't do somethin' about it, it'll end up takin' over the whole shebang. Don't get me wrong - our neck of the woods ain't chattin' in the same tongue, and we sure as heck don't see eye-to-eye on everything (that's a given). But there's heaps more North American English speakers online than there are in the land Down Under or back in Blighty - and that spells trouble for our lingo's future."
As for that "N-A" English jazz, that's a load of hogwash. We've got American English and Canadian English, each with its own bushel of dialects. We could easily muddle ourselves up without even hoppin' on a plane to the States.

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Had an Australian read this and they said your AI needs updating lolol

Cultures are meant to intermingle or else we alienate ourselves.

Pretty sure the thing this fellah is worried about is already proliferating far more outside of XIV anyway lmao. How laughable.

We'll have our revenge via Bluey. Give it a generation and the Americans will be calling things by their proper names.

Language evolves. Yes, it is sad that regional variants are dying out but that's nothing new. That's been happening for centuries, if not millennia. Now we have the advantage of being able to preserve them through digital technologies, though.

That aside, I find it very funny that a British person is complaining about another nation forcing their language to change. Forgetting very recent history, are we?

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Originally Posted by fantasiaaddict

Cultures are meant to intermingle or else we alienate ourselves.

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From my experience, contact with different cultures breaks down stereotypes and often helps avoid hate and bigotry. I'm a teacher in a very white, fairly xenophobic country. I can see in real time how our immigrant students who come from different countries, cultures and religions are forcing the others to face the fact that they are also just people and they are not that different. Sure, there is some pushback initially, but it never lasts.

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Originally Posted by PercibelTheren

From my experience, contact with different cultures breaks down stereotypes and often helps avoid hate and bigotry. I'm a teacher in a very white, fairly xenophobic country. I can see in real time how our immigrant students who come from different countries, cultures and religions are forcing the others to face the fact that they are also just people and they are not that different. Sure, there is some pushback initially, but it never lasts.

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That's so true. There wouldn't be these issues if multiple cultures were everywhere. The problem is when you have areas in a country with no cultural variety - which is still extremely common. It's nobody's fault really, just how it is.