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Route 29: mods ([personal profile] these_balls) wrote in [community profile] route_292010-06-09 04:58 pm

Weekly updates and Language Discussion

This weeks weather forecast is as follows:

Today/Tuesday was listed last week as clearing up after all that rain :)

Wednesday

Clear, sunny, comfortable temperatures around the 70s. Low wind.

Thursday

Clear, sunny, comfortable temperatures hanging around 70s and might even spike to almost 80 midday. Humidity feels like it is going up again. Low wind.

Friday

Clear, excessive sunshine, excessive heat. Temperatures between 85-90. Not even a breeze of wind today. High humidity.

Saturday

Clear, excessive sunshine, excessive heat. Temperatures between 90-almost 100. Very very mild breeze. High humidity; you guys will be sweating and it will not evaporate. Ew, smelly trainers!

Sunday

Clear, excessive sunshine, excessive heat. Temperatures between 80-85. Light 5MPH wind is going, so at least there's a chance of evaporating all that smelly sweat. High humidity, but nearing nightfall there will be dark clouds rolling in, and most wild Pokemon will be harder to find as they're preparing their shelters :)

Monday

Barely after midnight, a nasty thunderstorm is cracking into high gear, dropping buckets of water. Once the sun comes up, that rain is turning into golf ball sized hail, so best to take some shelter! It will remain a mixture of hail and rain throughout the day and for the rest of the night.
High 20MPH winds whip that water and ice around like nobodys business, and no wild Pokemon would be caught out in this weather so fat chance you guys will find anything unless its joining you in a cave.
Humidity is dropping steadily though so it's easier to dry off. Temperatures range in the low 60s, possibly dropping to 55.

Tuesday

The hail dissipates overnight and it remains raining hard, thunder cracking and lightning zapping through the air. Electric types will certainly like this weather, and water types will enjoy the rain.
Rain will linger all day at a steady pace, and slowly dwindle into drizzling as night arrives. Super low humidity, wind has dropped down to a mild 10MPH that comes in breezes, temperatures hanging around the low 60s.

Notes: Your characters may purchase umbrellas at the Cherrygrove store starting on Tuesday /o/ they are P100 and don't really break unless you try attacking someone with it (you wouldn't, would you?). Uhhh, there was something else but Okami is brainfarting and can't remember what it was fffffffffffffff IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE WEATHER, please feel free to hit her up! (She picked it! Also, PMing her personal journal would be preferred to asking here as we are having a big discussion below.)


Weekly Friend Add/Remove
Please copy the following into the Admin Console.



Language Discussion!

As for the language discussion, we've decided to ask the players for input before making a complete decision, seeing as this will affect the game as a whole. We would appreciate that you speak to us here, or on AIM, or continue using the questions/concerns and the F.A.Q., rather than jumping to anoncomm for every other circumstance.

First and foremost, we were both disappointed when we heard from a plethora of players that they had not known about the language barrier, when it had been part of the game since the start. To hear that people had not read it is very discouraging to us, but seeing as the game is still new and we are both forgiving people, we would like to ask that you be sure to read these things next time!

Now, for the subject at hand, we've received a handful of suggestions on how to appease the language barrier.

Suggestion 1: Remove the language barrier.
This seems like the one most of the anonymous comments have been suggesting. Rather than mess with the technical issues, just erase it.
[+] It would be easier to continue with "ignoring" the barrier and pretending it was never there.
[-] It dampens the fact that this is a "jamjar" game. They were summoned into Johto using technology, not magic. It would be illogical to have them suddenly speaking the same language without reason.

Suggestion 2: Keep the language barrier make but make PokéGear usage easier.
Instead of having the robot voice, have something sounding similar to the character to keep the inflection and feeling of the character speaking.
[+] The message and feeling of the speaking would travel through to the other characters.
[-] Face-to-face communications might be tricky, depending on how this is fully set up.

Suggestion 3: Keep the language barrier but have subtitles.
The character's voice would still be their native tongue, but their words would translate to the language of the receiving character's PokéGear.
[+] The inflection would not be changed. The meanings would get across directly.
[-] Face-to-face communications may be awkward, seeing as you would have to use your PokéGear to understand them.

Out of all of the suggestions, those were the ones we figured could clear things up the best. If there are other ones, or if we missed some, feel free to tell us here as well. Here's your chance for everyone to talk to us and each other and we can all figure out something that will work best for all of us.

[identity profile] usedmeteormash.livejournal.com 2010-06-09 01:29 am (UTC)(link)
Gonna go with 1.

Language barriers can be fun to play with, but I think it wouldn't be a lasting appeal and we'd eventually get bored/frustrated with it. And, as other people said, the game's already lighthearted/unrealistic (people losing their powers, becoming human, the background music, et cetera), so having this one particularly big chunk of awkward realism seems kind of out of place.

I also really love that you asked the players for their vote and input about this. I'm sure everyone agrees, even if they didn't mention it.

[identity profile] usedmeteormash.livejournal.com 2010-06-09 01:32 am (UTC)(link)
Also I was so concentrated on the language barrier thing that I missed the weather part of the post:

I love that, too.

[identity profile] stealinghats.livejournal.com 2010-06-09 02:36 am (UTC)(link)
Personally, I would prefer option 1 if only because I don't want to have to limit who I RP with just because our characters speak different languages. Plus, a lot of canons don't mention the character's actual language, or they do specify it but it's something no one else would ever know. So unless your character speaks Japanese or English, their options for interaction are going to be limitted...

How about the machine that brings everyone here also makes it so they speak and understand English/Japanese/Poke-ese/whatever the fuck they speak in Pokemon? They keep their native languages, but also have a universal language everyone can understand.

[identity profile] usedhyperbeam.livejournal.com 2010-06-09 02:47 am (UTC)(link)
I think first choice is the easiest (as well as what I've, uh, been doing so far) and the various arguments for and against have been laid out well enough.

I do like the idea of being able to switch between a universal language and, say, speaking Japanese. Like, that's the only way Nanoha would actually be able to explain that "Kokoro" means "heart" in Japanese, for instance XD

Barring that, the subtitle idea could be hilarious.

[identity profile] plant-type.livejournal.com 2010-06-09 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
I vote for option one. Honestly though it's more because it feels more pokemonish to me. One of the things I really like about this game so far is it doesn't feel like a Jamjar so much as my character IS getting the experience I get to a degree while I play the game. Only Vash gets even more immersion.

I think that if everyone can speak to the npcs without difficulty, the same should go for other characters. But, that's just my opinion.

[identity profile] usedfocuspunch.livejournal.com 2010-06-09 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
I'd... have to say I'd go with option one of removing the language barrier. Because honestly, I read all the rules and the FAQ page and stuff and don't remember seeing it. Plus, just think of how impossible it'd actually be for this game to actually function if the language barrier was in place.

Taking my character, Einhart for instance. Her character interaction would most likely be literally nothing more than Vivio, Vita, and maybe Signum if she couldn't actually TALK to anyone. Besides, things would be much more awkward if the characters had to stare at the Pokegear when they were talking, like in option 3.

[identity profile] itssextillion.livejournal.com 2010-06-09 05:36 am (UTC)(link)
I want to suggest bad dubbing where the language is off and the speech doesn't match the mouth movements, but that would be ridiculous.

I have no preference.

[identity profile] brave-phantom.livejournal.com 2010-06-09 01:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd say option one. Since some characters aren't from any "Earth", like FF characters, Ash, Link, etc. Sometimes their language doesn't have a name, in case of Ash, and Hylian would be weird for everyone but Link. The Pokemon regions are supposed to be in Japan, Earth, (Even Arcanine is a Chinese Pokemon, Xatu is South American, and Lt. Surge is from the U.S.) Option one would smooth out the game.


Pokemon is a mysterious world full of Psychic and Ancient powers. I mean if a society can create Warp Panels and Shrink machines inside a shrinking Pokeball and a genetically enhanced reproduction of an ancient Pokemon (Mewtwo)... Then whatever machine brought them here could have another machine that "corrects" language barrier.

[identity profile] suckmybaos.livejournal.com 2010-06-09 05:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm inclined to want the first one too, (I actually already sort-of hit into the idea everyone's magically speaking English because HK spoke in chinese and Ren Tao was pleased to hear Chinese, if that makes sense) not just for ease of play but also because I think at this point 'realism' in this game seems a little silly. I think we have plenty of things to think about and do while we play besides small details like language barriers.


Also I know for one, (my friend) Iceland and (me) Hong Kong both interject actual phrases/words in their native tongue, which would indicate they already speak English, and I would really appreciate it if we didn't have to worry about anything beyond that...I kind of don't want to have to worry that he's speaking Chinese and English but then someone else is speaking Japanese and don't get either of them or however it'd work. It just seems like a lot to worry about while we're already trying to play.
10yen_idol: (This IS my serious face.)

[personal profile] 10yen_idol 2010-06-09 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm... going to have to shoot for option one! Partly for ease and partly because I think that's what a LOT of people have assumed/relied on since day one.

It's mostly the latter point I'm the most worried about; the other two options would make it REALLY hard to integrate it into the game's culture, especially since it wasn't in the FAQ or the rules. Even if voice translators/subtitles could be shoehorned in, the effect on how we would HAVE to play face-to-face communication would be nothing short of game-changing.

[identity profile] idkmybfftoro.livejournal.com 2010-06-10 02:08 am (UTC)(link)
Gonna go with 1. It's the easiest of the choices and what most of the players have been doing so far.

WHY DOES EVERYONE UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER? Can we like, just blame Arceus or something?

[identity profile] honor-first.livejournal.com 2010-06-10 09:34 pm (UTC)(link)
2 seems like the happy medium, I guess.

In games I've been in, it's kinda been a player-by-player basis -- but then again, the lack of structure did confuse people sometimes. Hrm.

/...not helpful ever asldkj

[identity profile] icyempiricism.livejournal.com 2010-06-11 09:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Number 1 is most convenient but number 3 is also interesting. Number 1 would be my choice I think though.

[identity profile] usedmegakick.livejournal.com 2010-06-12 11:09 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm with choice one. As for an actual reason, well, maybe when they were brought here by the tech, it zapped them in the head and made them all speak the same language without realizing it.

:3a

One is just easier for roleplaying's sake.

[identity profile] used-conversion.livejournal.com 2010-06-13 08:09 am (UTC)(link)
Going with option number one because while three'd be hilarious, it'd have to seriously be policed and that may be a pretty difficult task for the mods. But I tend to go with the flow either way, so any's fine in the end. Rock could totally understand them since he's a robot I mean no

I'd also like to extend my appreciation for putting this out to the members like this, especially when it was first brought up in chat to help think up the ideas - it really makes me feel like everyone's equal in opinions. =D

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