Blizzard's forum policy against foreign languages
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 28th 2007 at 2:12PM
This post on the official forums, like many others in languages that aren't English, got closed down. Why? Because it's a policy of Blizzard that they do not "offer foreign language support" on the forums (although, in looking through the Forums Guidelines, I can't see anything that officially says that). At any rate, the rule is no language but English on the official forums, and Timbal is sticking by that policy.And it's not just Spanish-- I've seen this come up on the EU forums as well, when someone posts in French or German. Why is Blizzard so opposed to players posting in their native language? Of course, as Timbal says, not everyone can know every language, but Timbal knew enough Spanish to realize the original thread (called "server latino") was asking for new realms. And this is 2007-- is it too much to ask for one Blizzard forums employee that speaks Spanish, or in the EU, French or German? They may not know enough to actually answer the questions in that language, but they should know enough to police players who are speaking in that language, maybe in a special foreign language section of the forum.
Now, also according to forums policy (but also not listed in the "guidelines"), you're also not supposed to request new realms, so even if the thread was in English, it would have been closed anyway. And if someone speaking a foreign language is somehow being obscene, that doesn't belong on the forums either. But it's unfair for people who have legitimate questions or requests and want to posit them in their native language to be shut down by Blizzard automatically. Nine million people play this game, and it's very likely a large number of them don't speak English as their native language-- for Blizzard to completely ignore them on the forums is a poor decision.
Update: Our terrific commenters point out that there are French, Spanish, and German forums for the EU servers. But the fact remains that Blizzard closes, without second thought, any thread started in a foreign language on the US servers.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Adys Aug 28th 2007 2:22PM
There's a fucking spanish board for this. Get over it...
Nails Aug 28th 2007 2:25PM
there is nowhere for non-english speakers to get WoW help? are you sure about that?
the entire world should speak spanish as Earth's official language. too bad it would be impossible to implement, ever. :P
i'm an american and speak english, and only know a tiny bit of spanish, but i do know that it's by far the easiest language to learn
Kyrra Aug 28th 2007 2:29PM
US forums are English only, and that's the way the board is run. The US does have a lot of Spanish speaking residence, but the US doesn't have an official language. This allows companies to run their boards any way they want.
http://www.us-english.org/inc/
If informative/useful information is being posted in Spanish on the English boards, I could imagine a large majority of the development staff will not be able to read it without it being translated first. This is something Blizzard chooses not to deal with
As for EU, there are forums for English/French/German/Spanish. When people post in Spanish on English forum is when the post gets locked down.
German: http://forums.wow-europe.com/index.html?sid=3
French: http://forums.wow-europe.com/index.html?sid=2
Caviar Aug 28th 2007 2:35PM
I disagree completely!
First, I am sick of people posting in their own language all the time. Not only on forums but its also in general chats, everywhere.
Germans, French and I think Italians and Spanish aswell, have their own forums and realms. You cannot make everything for everyone.
And if you cant speak english at all, why do you play World of Warcraft then? You wont understand any quests, nothing.
Also Blizzard stated many times what they intend to do with new realms, because of those spam topics with idiots asking *When is new realm coming up? I want rernd be first one to hit 70 so I look cool!* are being deleted it doesnt make Blizzard *removing freedom of speech*.
Dean Aug 28th 2007 2:53PM
Erm...
http://forums.wow-europe.com/index.html?sid=2
http://forums.wow-europe.com/index.html?sid=4
http://forums.wow-europe.com/index.html?sid=3
There are French, German and Spanish forums for the EU realms. There always have been. Along with English, these are the 4 languages officially supported by Blizzard in the client.
The reason people arn't allowed to just speak in any language is you then need a member of staff on hand that speaks that language to moderate that forum. A single staffer isn't enough as they can't work 24 hours a day 7 days a week, so you're looking at at least 4 or 5 people, per language.
And while it might make sense to have a Spanish board on the US forums, where do you stop?
In the EU Blizzard stop with the four languages supported with the client. Anyone playing the game has a basic grasp of one of these languages at least, or they wouldn't be able to understand the game.
bsides Aug 28th 2007 3:13PM
As a brazilian I never expected they could support any foreign language. The languages the game has (I believe english, french, spanish and german right now) should be supported thou.
But then again (and I'm sorry for saying this, don't get it personal) mostly every american do not know any other language too deep so it's very common in any game - except those that came from other countries.
Blizzard chose the easiest way to get rid of it and the dumbest as well.
Michel Aug 28th 2007 2:39PM
you would like I speak french on the us forum ?
Bonjour tout le monde ! enfin je peux parler avec une belle grammaire et un vocabulaire riche sur Wowinsider ! youhou. Dorénavant, la diaspora française va squatter Wowinsider, on fera nos propres débats, nos propres réponses entre nous et les dignes. :)
it would be fun, no ? it would be easier for me :)
well, seriously, I understand why Blizzard want to control the forums. French warcraft website is _very_ nice, complete and with ALL the forums needed for french discussion. and there are the same regulations : no german or english or spanish inside the french forums suddenly.
the same for the others countries.
but I'm sure blizzard does not erase every stranger text, just when they think it's gone to far and there are a little groups no others readers can understand.
RogueJedi86 Aug 28th 2007 2:40PM
As a member of the Alliance, I can't understand Hordies. :( It's like they're speaking a whole 'nother language. (That was a joke.)
Magnetite Aug 28th 2007 2:43PM
Er, aren't the 'US' forums for the US, Canada and Oceania? If anything, there should be a French forum first - at least Canada has 2 official languages. I'm not sure about Australia or New Zealand, but the US doesn't have an official language either, although some states do (Florida's is English, for instance).
Anyway, since the game is only available in English, I'm sure that Blizzard will continue only to support English on its official forums
mech Aug 28th 2007 2:49PM
mmm my first language is spanish, (im from chile btw)and i think not offering a multilanguage support is the best thing Blizz can do to keep things in order, but in the other hand sometimes i feel bad with some spanish ppl i met in the game cause they can barely (or simply no) understand anything.
i know theres some "latinos" guilds in nazgrel and burning blade but i play in tanaris server anyway, cause that way i can practice my english :).
pd1: great blog btw i read it almost everyday
pd2: sorry for my bad english :p
Janessriel Aug 28th 2007 2:48PM
The post is asking if there are servers that have predominately Spanish-speaking people (preferably 70-100% spanish speakers). S/he's says she's tired of people making fun of her because she can't speak English very well. I haven't even scrolled down very far, but I know the first two posts after it are exactly the kind of stuff s/he's talking about.
S/he says that she changed the page to Spanish and from that it said that Uldum and Zul'jin are predominately Spanish (I don't totally understand how that happened, but that's what it says.) Later s/he went to the servers to ask if that was true and she got mainly English answers, so that was confusing.
S/he then lists a few more servers and is asking the boards if those are mostly Spanish speaking servers.
Basically s/he wants to go to a server that is mainly Spanish so that it's easier to communicate and not be made fun of for not knowing English very well. So she's not asking for new realms, she wants a realm that has a lot of Spanish speakers, which, to be honest, is a fair question and has to have a real answer. I know from the servers I've been through I've met a few Spanish speakers.
The thing about the EU boards having a Spanish board is useless to anyone playing on the US realms, since it's totally seperate. They couldn't answer this question if they wanted to because it's different realms. They'd probably suggest asking it on the US realms and perhaps be as snotty about it as some people.
Kinda sucks, it's a fair question that got shot down very quickly.
Fabio Aug 28th 2007 2:51PM
@5 I hate this kind of american xenophoby. If you want that wow is restricted to english speakers ask blizzard to close their firewalls to other countries.
I understand that its boring when have portuguese, spanish or other languages on trade/general chat but its also boring to see stupid talks in english on those channels. Just move these channels to other window and hide it, or even better, filter it so you wont read them.
Im Brazillian, do parties with americans, europeans, chinas , arabians and dont have any problem. Sometimes I have problems with slangs but no worries.
Read quests? You just need to get the fucking name and put on some fucking site to get the locations.
Some americans must understand that the world is bigger than their country.
john Aug 28th 2007 2:51PM
all i have to say is stupid noobs.
spanish forum is that way --------------->
Matthew Aug 28th 2007 2:53PM
Speaking as someone who works on a website with a very large and very active set of forums, we also require people to speak english only. It's not a matter of disrespect or anything like that, but only because it's impossible to moderate foreign language posts - if you have a group of posters that are posting in a language that no moderators understand, then you basically have no clue what's going on on your forums.
Maybe we wouldn't be liable if someone planned a political assassination on our forums in Swahili or something like that, but why take the risk? We ask that everyone post in English to avoid any kind of moderation problems. It's just the simplest way to go in an already complicated system.
Magnetite Aug 28th 2007 2:56PM
The best solution would be for Blizzard to make French and Spanish (and possibly Portuguese, for the many Brazilians I understand that play) servers. The French and Spanish European clients shouldn't be too difficult to adapt (ok, I'm not a programmer!).
However, until that happens, I think Blizzard will continue their policy, as they do in Europe, as stated already.
Also, they seem more tolerant on the realm forums, although that doesn't help the OP
overneathe Aug 28th 2007 2:57PM
So I should post in Bulgarian then? Didn't think so...
Magnetite Aug 28th 2007 3:02PM
Oh, and, by the way, what is WoW Insider's policy on non-English posts?
Siva Aug 28th 2007 3:02PM
Blizzard is right in its ruling IMHO. There should be one language for every set realm/forum/chat. Even thought there are servers and forums in other languages. many people decide to use the english speaking forums due to popularity and population. This is ok, but just like I dont go around speaking hebrew to everyone (my native language), neither should swedes, german or french players. It makes it hard to communicate, raid and keep a general link between all the players.
I've had PuGs where a player couldn't speak a word of english, and if he wasn't kicked out very fast, he was very intolerable usually, due to the simple fact we couldn't talk to him.
The server languages are there for a reason, use them, or speak your servers language.
pkeller Aug 28th 2007 3:08PM
@11 Our (US) game, our language. Don't like it then play the latest version of "donde en la monde es carmen sandiego." Don't preach down that Americans are Xenophobes. This is our invention and our country lrn2speak or get out. I would not go to your country and demand everything is in English so where do you get off doing so?
Mike Schramm Aug 28th 2007 3:23PM
Heya Mag! I'm not sure if WoW Insider has a policy, but if I'm in charge of it (and why shouldn't I be?) then we have no policy. Foreign language posts fall under the same rules that all other posts do-- no major obscenity, no racism, nothing offensive as determined by our staffers. Other than that, speak French all you want! :)