Quote Originally Posted by origamikitsune View Post
That's a big no. There were, of course, problems with language and racism in 11, but with 8 years under my belt in that game I can definitely say that the positive experiences bar far outweighed the negative experiences. IIRC, part of SE's original choice for multi-lingual servers was to bring people from around the together in a positive way and I think as a whole it was smashing success. It is one of the things that SE got right from the start, and one of the few things they did right in 14.

I admit, I was uneasy with it at first in 11, but I found that a little politeness and formality went a far distance, and even a little attempt at trying to understand other cultures (Japanese in particular) went above and beyond in smoothing over any problems.

While, "Please forgive me, I do not speak Japanese" was a great phrase to learn, I found that a different one helped me even more, "Will you please teach me?" My formative years as a WHM were under the direction of a Japanese player who took it upon themselves to teach me that phrase, and took me to my first XP party in the dunes.
It's really amazing how helpful Japanese players are if you just put in a bit of effort and are respectful. What's even more amazing is that it's not even limited to the gaming world. It's true in real life too, outside of games.