Aces wrote:I am completely in favor of language whitelisting. It irritates me to know end that every security person and their dog knows Gutterband, because they shouldn't. It makes crook RP impossible. I have considered using Tradeband just to be a smartass.
That's pretty crummy of certain sec people to do that. However, if they have a rough childhood backstory I'd be ok with it.
A better fix is to just disable their ability to speak and understand gutterband when spawned as sec. Or, warn/reprimand the offending sec players for being so obviously metagamey on an
ERP server.
Aces wrote:You can't shouldn't be able to speak Vox without being a Vox. :U
But why though? Yes, their language has many squawks and other such bird noises, but slime people are very good at mimicry. Why shouldn't they be able to produce the sounds too? (through bubbling at certain frequencies or whatever). Ok, so we allow the slime people race to pick it, but what about legacy characters still using the human race for their slime char? (maybe they just don't like the slime people transparency or something). Etc. Etc. all these special cases to consider. I know one char whose parents/whatever were taken by vox traders, he might have learned the language etc.
There can be many reasons, and a physiological incapability to exactly replicate the sounds might just make for an accent, not necessarily unintelligibility. And, of course, all languages can be at the least
understood with study, provided they make sounds audible to a species' ears.
Furthermore, If we start white listing we add a whole other bureaucracy. I like being able to make a new demoness character without having to fill out a few forms just to be able to use the Daemon language. I'd rather suffer a few "oh man his reasons for speaking Unathi as a Taj aren't up to snuff" sentiments than add another barrier to character creation.
Tajarans joke in their native tongue as they clean dishes. A vox peddler haggles in his squawks etc. But, just like in real life, someone not of the ethnicity walks by and happens to speak their language. Some of the group are flattered, some angry, but that's just how life is.
The
ONLY language that can affect gameplay if abused is Gutterband, so
if we do whitelist a language, it should only be that one. I can see how that one specific instance can be an issue, but I still contend that there's a better solution.
Antsy Coder. Characters: Muffy (drider), Jaslene (naga), Susan (slime), Miki (oni), Alythess (Demon)