Important Announcement from the Devs!!

[Raikki]

Segregated servers are coming because the vast majority of JP are isolationist and hate playing with anyone who doesn't speak Japanese. It doesn't really seem to matter whether we like it or not; they're going to get what they want. Got any JP friends in game? Not anymore after 2.0. No matter how friendly they seem to be toward you they'll migrate to a JP only server the instant SE offers it to them.

[Betelgeuzah]

Segregated servers are coming because the vast majority of JP are isolationist and hate playing with anyone who doesn't speak Japanese. It doesn't really seem to matter whether we like it or not; they're going to get what they want. Got any JP friends in game? Not anymore after 2.0. No matter how friendly they seem to be toward you they'll migrate to a JP only server the instant SE offers it to them.

Racist comments like that will get you banned around here.

It's not really true either. They just don't like to be embarrassed, and that includes not speaking fluent English even around people with English as a second language.

[Raikki]

Racist comments like that will get you banned around here.

Flinging accusations of racism is uncalled for. The point was to drive home to the countless people chiming in against the server segregation that this is what the JP community desperately wants and has always wanted from the day SE surprised them with foreigners on their servers in FFXI. There is nothing we can do about it, other than selfishly act like they should be forced to continue playing with us when they don't want to. If my bitterness about the subject has somehow been misconstrued as anti-JP sentiment, let me assure you that's not the message at all. It's simply an acknowledgement of the reality of the situation. If you think it's all about the language barrier, you're missing most of the picture. It's a cultural divide, not a language barrier. They mostly just don't like the way that non-JPs play the game.

[zed32]

Flinging accusations of racism is uncalled for. The point was to drive home to the countless people chiming in against the server segregation that this is what the JP community desperately wants and has always wanted from the day SE surprised them with foreigners on their servers in FFXI. There is nothing we can do about it, other than selfishly act like they should be forced to continue playing with us when they don't want to. If my bitterness about the subject has somehow been misconstrued as anti-JP sentiment, let me assure you that's not the message at all. It's simply an acknowledgement of the reality of the situation. If you think it's all about the language barrier, you're missing most of the picture. It's a cultural divide, not a language barrier. They mostly just don't like the way that non-JPs play the game.

Agreed. I don't get why stating the obvious is racism. It's not just Japanese, it's everyone. My cousin used to run a bunch of dedicated game servers from his house and his website started with DK. All of his servers also had his website in the title. DK happens to also be the country code for Denmark... In any game, it would lead to countless threats and screaming of "You're not ****ing Danish, get the **** off the server!" - "Danish only you idiots!"- and all sorts of other things. What amazed me was my cousins bonded T connection apparently was so great that people connecting from Denmark didn't experience any lag and thought the server was just a hundred or so miles away!

But just playing with all these Danish people in all this servers, it's exactly like one person said - they weren't playing to power game and brag about their skill. They were playing for social reasons. To talk about their country, things going on, ask how things are in other parts, talk about their culture, etc. etc. I think this is a prevailing "process" in not just Japan but a lot of Europe. They weren't focused on finding game breaking mechanics or powering through, it was more just something like a relaxing dinner conversation while playing a game and laughing. So much like you said - difference in play styles, culture divide, etc. etc.

[Kraggy]

Racist comments like that will get you banned around here.

What he said wasn't racist, it was stating an observable FACT, as all the "JP ONLY" seacom's in FFXI clearly shows.

[Betelgeuzah]

What he said wasn't racist, it was stating an observable FACT, as all the "JP ONLY" seacom's in FFXI clearly shows.

Making a connection between JP ONLY and "JPs are isolationist who hate playing with anyone else" is quite the stretch. There are multiple reasons, but I guess we can all generalize them under "hating foreigners" or whatever.

Nope, not racist at all.

[Burn]

Segregated servers are coming because the vast majority of JP are isolationist and hate playing with anyone who doesn't speak Japanese. It doesn't really seem to matter whether we like it or not; they're going to get what they want. Got any JP friends in game? Not anymore after 2.0. No matter how friendly they seem to be toward you they'll migrate to a JP only server the instant SE offers it to them.

I don't know if I would go as far to say that, a lot of JP are so bad at speaking English that they get embarrassed to try. This is why we always see them apologize after a line of broken english.

Japanese people are all about the social aspect, its not "just an exp party" to them, its an experience, a social outing where they meet and talk to people, they can't do that when they don't understand the language being spoken.

NA people meet up and its mostly all about business, "give me my exp fast!" most of the time its not a social outing, you gather, you exp, nobody talks much, its more of a "robotic experience".

[Jynx]

NA people meet up and its mostly all about business, "give me my exp fast!" most of the time its not a social outing, you gather, you exp, nobody talks much, its more of a "robotic experience".

I can't imagine any more of a broad stroke generalization than this, and it's steriotypes from both sides that hurt the game, I have been in tons of Japanese parties that were "All business" and tons of NA parties that were pretty casual friendly affairs.

hell I've had mixed parties where both try their best to put on some form of conversation!

People colouring communities with broad strokes like this ruffles my feathers as it's far from the truth.

[Kailok]

I can't imagine any more of a broad stroke generalization than this, and it's steriotypes from both sides that hurt the game, I have been in tons of Japanese parties that were "All business" and tons of NA parties that were pretty casual friendly affairs.

hell I've had mixed parties where both try their best to put on some form of conversation!

People colouring communities with broad strokes like this ruffles my feathers as it's far from the truth.

Agreed, and that's why "Language-Specific" servers should have never been a question. I always liked that there were JP players, and even players from other places around the world, playing on the same server as me and my friends. It just made things feel more full and diverse.

[Delsus]

Segregated servers are coming because the vast majority of JP are isolationist and hate playing with anyone who doesn't speak Japanese. It doesn't really seem to matter whether we like it or not; they're going to get what they want. Got any JP friends in game? Not anymore after 2.0. No matter how friendly they seem to be toward you they'll migrate to a JP only server the instant SE offers it to them.

The reason Japanese prefer to play with Japanese speaking people is because speaking in another language can be embarising when not to mention it can get kind of tough, trying to concentrate on a fight while thinking how to say things in another language, these are just a couple of reasons why they dont like playing with people that dont speak Japanese.

In Japan its not as important as Europe to speak English, so alot less Japanese people have had enough education in English as in France, Germany, Spain etc which is why the Germans, Spanish, French dont mind communicating in english because they know the language almost as well as thier native language.