Languages, Tribes and the Importance of Gestures

[tredo]

There was a game that already did this.. not sure about the name and if I find it I will edit the post, but you basically spammed the language in chat and the skill in that language went up and as you gained skill you began to learn it. There was people that would macro 4 or 5 lines of the language and spam it, would charge you x number of gold to learn the language they were teaching.

EDIT: Found it, the original Everquest, was a game that if you didn't know a language someone was talking you would get;

Tredo says in an unknown language: GEBg9oagua wiounag argiaf agiuabng

I could spam tells to you or in open chat I could just keep talking in that "unknown language" and you would begin to learn it.

Your skill in dwarf has increased to 4

spam
spam
spam

Your skill in dwarf has increased to 5

spam
spam
spam

Tredo says to you in Dwarven: Is it starting aaubnaserg aguibae adfgbiugr if not agauinae then arguinar
spam
spam

and so on... till you could read what I was saying and your skill was 20 or whatever the max was... I don't remember.

2nd edit: Here is a post I found on the Everquest forums. It depicts how the game starts with the languages already on a character.

I wanted to determine the language that each race starts with, so I created new characters of each race and noted the languages that each had. All races start with 100 in Common, with the exception of Ogres, Trolls, and Iksar which start a few points shy of 100. All races start with 100 in their racial language. I've left that data out of the below list, except in the case of the Half-Elf and Iksar where there is a tad bit of ambiguity about the racial language. If a race isn't listed, then it doesn't know additional languages beyond Common and it's racial language. Let me know if you notice any errors. Thanks!

Dark Elf: Elvish (54), Elder Elvish (54), Dark Speech (100)
Drakkin: Dragon (100), Elder Dragon (100)
Dwarves: Gnomish (25)
Frogloks: Troll (42)
Gnomes: Dwarvish (54)
Half-Elves: Elvish (100)
High Elves: Dark Elvish (51), Elder Elvish (51)
Iksar: Lizardman (100), Dark Speech (100)
Ogres: Dark Speech (100)
Trolls: Dark Speech (100)
Vah Shir: Erudian (32), Combine (100)

Rogues start with 100 skill in Thieves Cant.

Here is a list of all the languages available in that game;

Common Tongue
Barbarian
Erudian
Elvish
Dark Elvish
Dwarvish
Troll
Ogre
Gnomish
Halfling
Thieves Cant
Old Erudian
Elder Elvish
Froglok
Goblin
Gnoll
Combine Tongue
Elder Teir'Dal
Lizardman
Orcish
Faerie
Dragon
Elder Dragon
Dark Speech
Vah Shir

I could see where this could be fun... it was fun before in EQ.

[Digby Caesar]

Nice examples Bro. Yeah, languages can be fun and there can be so many too (Well depending on the number of tribes and how many opt to making a new language). The only thing is the spamlevel and i dont think anyone wants to walk around to find everyone spamming the absolute frikkin shit out their chatboxes just to boost up in their language level.

Gotta think of a workaround. I already know that teaching someone a language via a skill should consume far less time (and far less spamming) than just going all out and raping your keyboard till it cries from developing some odd..weird..anal fissure for keyboards. :dry:

[aliksteel]

Yea, EQ was a blast, But that was a race thing, Here we are all human, Well most of us are.

But if this was to go in, It would have to be that you could pick what language you would start with. And even with me being someone that would love this, there would have to be some type of work around for people that is not into RP type feature as we are. And that is what this is. In EQ you still could talk to who ever in (I think)/OOC.

And if type of feature did go in, It would be very cool if a tribe could name a language for there tribe, It could be as simple as XXX tribe language.(I know you have this in the OP, Just wanted to 2nd it)

Side note: It would be very cool if they could build into the game something like a google translater so that most people could talk in there native language and every one would read it in there on language.

[tredo]

Something just dawned on me...

What do you guys think about this.

So I'm walking along scavenging and find a book, its going to teach me to build snow skis(I can tell by the pictures), however, its written in (some language here). Well hell, now I have to find someone that can not only speak this but can translate it for me to my language. So I find Aliksteel, we talk for a bit, and I find out that he does speak (same language here) and he is fluent, therefor can translate the book for me. I agree to give him the original in exchange for the translation copy.

This promotes exchange between tribes, promotes trade, promotes need, and adds to cohesion.

Say Aliksteel finds a book that teaches him advanced (some ancient language), well that's a level 5 book. He has to learn 1 through 4 on his own or find a book that can teach him those. So he comes to Tredo and says

"hey, can you teach me Shinraeese, in exchange I will give you a artifact book that I believe is a book of origin for your language."

Tredo agrees to teach Aliksteel Shinraeese, he gives Tredo the book. Once the Shinra elders have a look at the book, they discover it is a ancient book of science and medicine from before the end of days.

They begin to study the book and learn ways of healing, and what is called steroids, a drug that is suppose to strengthen the body, or add to the ability to work longer with less fatigue. They begin gathering the items needed to make such things. They find that these medicines and drugs can be made from the world around them.

The elders agree, if this one book of vast knowledge made it through the tragedy, there must be others... so the search begins!

Edit:
This new knowledge is teachable. So, this would lead to another level of evolution in the game as well as lead to more substantial trade between tribes.

[Digby Caesar]

and so forth comes the ideology that rather than skills and the quality of items are the most valuable commodities of an MMO, Knowledge and Information becomes Key..Invaluable..Prized.

Good post Bro, I really like the "Learn from Books" idea! People can play a vital role in deciphiring and it adds a new form of Trade, A trade for skills!

[tredo]

Well it gives Xsyon a way to lead us to the next level of the game, as new books are found, new technology becomes available. The new technology could be in any form he likes for example;

Using RL modern examples:

The telegraph to telephone, to wireless phones, to cell phones.

Sand mortar to plaster and concrete to quikcrete.

Its a good transition form and would lead not all the the tribes to the same level at the same time. What one tribe might know, another might know something different depending on the books that are found, translated or deciphered, and studied.

[Xx1327]

its a neat lil idea for sure, could use some work for it to work, but it won't be in anytime soon because the game is set during the apocalypse and everyone was born before it occurred the youngest you can be is 16. so unless people went retarded from fallout or being the new dimension messed with their heads everyones gunna generally know the same language.

[aliksteel]

One way I have started to look at it Xx1327, And it's because we have so little lore about this world so far. Is using the rift in time and space. So to get every one from all over the world into this one area, There was not just been one rift, There was thousands and thousands of them all over the world, And different periods in time. Grabbing people from all walks of life and times, Just to dump them all off here and now.

At lest thats how I'm playing with it so far.

[Kinslayer]

aliksteel wrote:

One way I have started to look at it Xx1327, And it's because we have so little lore about this world so far. Is using the rift in time and space. So to get every one from all over the world into this one area, There was not just been one rift, There was thousands and thousands of them all over the world, And different periods in time. Grabbing people from all walks of life and times, Just to dump them all off here and now.

At lest thats how I'm playing with it so far.

Yeh, I have to say Im running with a very similar idea as this.

As for this topic, however, I am not a big fan of it. It's something that can be RP'd without the need for game mechanics, but I wouldnt want to see the year 0 wipe held back to implement something like this.

[trenixdecease]

While the idea seems nice, the lore would really lose it's taste. How bout players would keep the same "English" language and then begin to develop their own to fool other tribes. Everyone would always retain the original English language from the start. This would make it much easier for the newcomers to understand what everyone is saying if they speak to them in English.

However, hostile tribes would formulate their own language making you walk into a ambush. It could even be for security reasons, like to warn your tribe if someone is going to attack. It can also prevent spies who are continually checking on you. Maybe, a spy could even learn your language by talking or sealthing amongst you. Or maybe he's just an ex-member with a grudge.

You may actually not know it, but this language is considered slang. It exists in today's society. Like for example, "I'm strapped", or "he's a busta". This language would definitely diverse because of the security risks. Players could maybe redefine certain words into a random or created word to their choosing.

Of course we could just make up words and tell players what they mean in our tribe, but it would be nice to have a built in system for it. Let's say I set the word "traitor" to "trip". Whenever I say traitor, my tribe members would see the word traitor while everyone else who's not familiar with the language would see trip.

Maybe I should redefine this to my own thread? Since it is a little different...