Important Announcement from the Devs!!

[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.