Reset Password
Existing players used to logging in with their character name and moo password must signup for a website account.
- Ralph 9m
- QueenZombean 37s
a Mench 1m Doing a bit of everything.
a Kard 1h
- Zulfi 9m
- Komira 20s
- BigLammo 36s https://youtu.be/fE53m3N1WSc
- zxq 11s
- SmokePotion 28s
- Ameliorative 4m
- Blissus 9h
- Devi 46m
- BitLittle 1s
- Napoleon 17h
And 21 more hiding and/or disguised
Sindomedome logo
a cyberpunk roleplaying game
banner art by Grand Failure
Connect to Sindome @ moo.sindome.org:5555 or just Play Now
  • BgBB
  • Theme
  • SIC and languages
  • Please quit using non-English on SIC

SIC and languages
Please quit using non-English on SIC

Login to post. Membership required.
Jump To
Newest Post
Hello everyone, I'm here today to talk about SIC and You.

For the past month it has been at least once a week someone has used a foreign (non-English) language on public SIC. Please knock this off, SIC translates itself into the native language of the user's mind. So while you may be ICly thinking something in Spanish or Japanese, it WILL NOT, carry across as that to other people (or at least Theme-wise it doesn't!)

Have some fun with it, if you know a particular word doesn't translate into English well you can have fun making the English version sound kinda silly.

Anyways, main point is: Staff have said several times, don't use non-English on SIC. Please don't use anything but English on SIC, if my character is supposed to understand what word you're using because of the software implanted in my neck, it's not very themely if I have to ask what the hell you just said in my brain.

By stryder at Nov 3, 2014 12:31 PM
Understood. Wasn't aware of this, now I am. Sorry for the troubles.
By Kuzco at Nov 3, 2014 12:32 PM
"Translation" isn't EXACTLY the right terminology.

More like, SIC transmits thoughts, not words. So if you think "boobs", people on the receiving end know you're thinking about "boobs" even if they don't know what word means "boobs" in some language which maybe you speak and they don't.

By Linekin at Nov 3, 2014 12:40 PM
Okay, so if I think petricoin, should I just use the word on SIC, or should I use what it is? (The smell of dirt after rain)

IE, should I say, I enjoy petricoin.

Or, I enjoy the smell of dirt after rain?

By stryder at Nov 3, 2014 12:48 PM
I am not against people throwing one or two words in another language on SIC to add some color to what their characters say, but if SIC is as you say a universal translator then I guess for the sake of ICly they shouldn't.

However, SIC is one of the few things that for me ICly don't make sense. It's just another tool to generate RP, so maybe we shouldn't be so strict about it.

I mean, when 3 or more people use public SIC as their personal chat room to talk about how the like teddy bears and rainbows, that to me seem way more off theme than throwing the occasional word in a foreign language. Still, people do it all the time. But hey, what can you do?

No matter how hard you try, there will alway be game mechanics or game situations that break the suspension of disbelief. No matter how hardcore you want to RP, at the end of the day it is still a game and it has its limitations.

By olpolok at Nov 3, 2014 1:05 PM
If people want to talk about teddy bears and rainbows, that is totally theme-like. SIC is a communication tool, if that's what people want to communicate about all the better for them. However coloring SIC with foreign languages is not thematic, since I'm supposed to know what you're saying, and if I the player have NO IDEA what that word means, then it's not themely for me to not know what the word is.
By stryder at Nov 3, 2014 1:13 PM
So, as Johnny and I have said in the past. You may use 'slanguage' to make your speech more colorful. If a ganger chooses not to speak perfect english on the SIC, that is their perogotive. If a Japanese character prefers to use japanese words for specific things (where it can be mostly deciphered within the context of the conversation) so be it.

There is nothing wrong with not making your SIC conversation bland and using words to add flavor. However, please do not write full conversations in other languages as it is not what the SIC is intended for.

Stryder made a point about not using words that his character wouldn't understand. I have to disagree. There are children with SIC implants. They don't know every word in the english language, and the SIC is more about concepts anyway. It's not a 'chatroom' like IRC but it's not the real world where someone who speaks russian and no english wont understand a purely russian speaker.

This is one of those things where everyone has their own interpretation and we have not nailed something down because we leave it up to each persons imagination how they represent / visualize the SIC in their heads and their characters heads.

Don't scratch the walls too hard on this one.

By Slither at Nov 29, 2014 10:00 AM
Don't scratch the walls too hard on this one

I am inclined to agree. I find the pedantic, hairtrigger tendency for realtime hypercorrection in the MOO's Game-Help and OOC-Chat channels to be a fuck of a lot more disruptive and immersion breaking than a once-a-week IC occurrence.

By Vetra at Nov 29, 2014 1:12 PM
I'm guilty of that sometimes.

Sorry. :(

By Esther at Nov 29, 2014 1:13 PM
It is -not- just what my -CHARACTER- does or doesn't understand, but what the PLAYER does or does not understand. The SIC translates -everything- into it's meaning. If you think in your head 'That's a cold ass honkey' in german, into the SIC, people are going to "hear" 'That's a cold ass honkey' NO MATTER THE LANGUAGE. So, if I don't know the word as a player, how am I supposed to be able to have my character that has a CHIP IN THEIR HEAD THAT MAKES THEM UNDERSTAND IT, understand it?

It's in the end about common courtesy. Yes, cool, you in RL know a japanese word or a spanish word. You wanna use it for flavor? Use it over a phone or in the same room, but the SIC is the ONE PLACE that it shouldn't happen.

By stryder at Nov 29, 2014 1:16 PM
You, the player, have access to Google.
By Slither at Nov 29, 2014 1:25 PM
You also have access to @slang which may help. You can suggest new words be added to @slang, there is a forum topic for here around somewhere.

Slanguage, slang in general, etc, may not be familiar to you. You could also be playing a younger character that hasn't had as much schooling. There is nothing wrong with not understanding a word on the SIC.

If you want to keep it IC, consider this: SIC is about thoughts. Perhaps your character doesn't have the context with which to understand the thought being transmitted.

By Slither at Nov 29, 2014 1:27 PM
And all the other players have access to just using English on an English-primary game in which the SIC is a 'channel' in which no matter the language the user of the SIC is supposed to at least be able to marginally understand what is being said.

You wanna have whacked up English on SIC, sounds legit, maybe that's how you actually think about those words, but it is still -English-.

Is it so hard to ask just to use English, on one form of communication. I'm not saying 'Only use English all the time'. Or 'Only use your flavor words when you're using the whisper command' I am saying, ONE channel.

By stryder at Nov 29, 2014 1:29 PM
Yes, it is hard Stryder. Just because you don't want people to do something, or use language you don't understand, does not mean the community as a whole has to get with your program.

There are English as a Second Language players, there are third language english players. There are younger players and older players who have vastly different vocabulary. The SIC was not designed to be a universal translator. That is not it's purpose in the game, though as times, with characters that do not speak English, it is used for that purpose.

The SIC is primarily a vehicle for Role Play, and stripping out the unique flavor that people use to color their speech by restricting it to 100% English, non-slang words will improve role play.

If you don't understand a word, google it or ask ICly what it should mean or try @slang and see if you get something back. However, attempting to force any single or group of people to use a 'common' (and I use that word loosely because an 18 year old and a 55 year old have vastly different vocabularies, even if you don't take into account ESL and CP slang) vernacular on a common channel so that you don't have to ICly or OOCly figure out what the words mean -- is not going to happen.

By Slither at Nov 30, 2014 9:20 AM
EDIT:

The SIC is primarily a vehicle for Role Play, and stripping out the unique flavor that people use to color their speech by restricting it to 100% English, non-slang words will NOT improve role play.

Man, I gotta write an edit button.

By Slither at Nov 30, 2014 10:09 AM
I just would like to add an observation I had. It is just that.

English is a mutt language. We use French, German, Italian, etc. as 'English' words.

C'est la ve, bologna (baloney), de facto, coup d'etat, bona fide, au naturel - words we use as English. We even have some Japanese words coming into our culture. Baka is one and a big one in game too.

Plus, I can see that if a person is reading something to someone, has NO idea what the word is, it's language and more specifically it's meaning, even in English, that the word itself could just come across as that word in sic. After all, if it is a translation of thoughts and you really don't have any concept connected to it, there can be no real translation of it. Also, names of songs. Or shows. Those wouldn't be translated since they are names or titles. Someone has the name Abner, it's not going to translate to, My father is a light.

So, similar idea. To me. Not whole conversations in other languages, but some words, for flavor, fun, RP, yea, I can see that. Let's have fun with it! :)

By thecraftydragon at Nov 30, 2014 1:37 PM
Jump To Oldest Post