Help in a MMO problem requested

[JGonz]

Hi,

I just registered here after a long search. Thought it would be the best place where I could find the help I urgently need.

The problem:

In a computer game, Wurm, I have a neighbor that is from Japan. And for whatever reason I do not know she doesn't talk to me, there seems to have something happened out of my control that makes her mad at me.

I urgently need to resolve this.

Don't laugh, please. Gaming is meanwhile, for many people, even more important then the old television. And since it is an active engagement (in MMO's at least), requesting social skills and inter-lingual abilities, it also has an educational value. My wife and me are doing it to sharpen our English skills (we're no native speakers), and for the fun, for sure.

So now we have a social problem in this game. Our "counterpart" is Japanese, and any tries to establish a communication have failed yet. We have managed to talk (EMail) to a friend of her, but Google Translate (and others) have proven not to be able to do the job. They spit out unreadable garbage in the case of English - Japanese and vice verse, and often even tell offensive meanings.

This is why I came here now. Are there people here that would like to help me in my desperate tries to re-establish a working connection to this Japanese player? I don't talk Japanese at all. I'm German, and I have work enough to post in English ...

The situation is such that any mistake more might be disastrous. This way I explicitly call for native Japanese speakers, or for people that really well understand Japanese people, and their mindset.

It's not about a fight, it's about mediating/ translating. Between me, a German, and a Japanese player. My intention is to rebuild communication, to find out what made her this angry, to do what's ever possible to satisfy her, and maybe then, together, have a better time in this game.

I'd drop this here, as a challenge. There's no financial interest in it. Will somebody of you accept the job to mediate/ translate? It might be serious work, be warned. But it might earn you friends, too - me. And my Japanese counterpart, maybe.

I'd kindly ask now if somebody would be ready to help in this. I'm still trying to establish a communication channel to said player.

I appreciate your opinions. Can I expect help here, or am I this much outta reach that Id better go elsewhere?

Have a good time!

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by JGonz

Hi,

I just registered here after a long search. Thought it would be the best place where I could find the help I urgently need.

The problem:

In a computer game, Wurm, I have a neighbor that is from Japan. And for whatever reason I do not know she doesn't talk to me, there seems to have something happened out of my control that makes her mad at me.

I urgently need to resolve this.

Don't laugh, please. Gaming is meanwhile, for many people, even more important then the old television. And since it is an active engagement (in MMO's at least), requesting social skills and inter-lingual abilities, it also has an educational value. My wife and me are doing it to sharpen our English skills (we're no native speakers), and for the fun, for sure.

So now we have a social problem in this game. Our "counterpart" is Japanese, and any tries to establish a communication have failed yet. We have managed to talk (EMail) to a friend of her, but Google Translate (and others) have proven not to be able to do the job. They spit out unreadable garbage in the case of English - Japanese and vice verse, and often even tell offensive meanings.

This is why I came here now. Are there people here that would like to help me in my desperate tries to re-establish a working connection to this Japanese player? I don't talk Japanese at all. I'm German, and I have work enough to post in English ...

The situation is such that any mistake more might be disastrous. This way I explicitly call for native Japanese speakers, or for people that really well understand Japanese people, and their mindset.

It's not about a fight, it's about mediating/ translating. Between me, a German, and a Japanese player. My intention is to rebuild communication, to find out what made her this angry, to do what's ever possible to satisfy her, and maybe then, together, have a better time in this game.

I'd drop this here, as a challenge. There's no financial interest in it. Will somebody of you accept the job to mediate/ translate? It might be serious work, be warned. But it might earn you friends, too - me. And my Japanese counterpart, maybe.

I'd kindly ask now if somebody would be ready to help in this. I'm still trying to establish a communication channel to said player.

I appreciate your opinions. Can I expect help here, or am I this much outta reach that Id better go elsewhere?

Have a good time!

If you keep your needed translations short, I could occasionally help (I am a full-time lawyer, though, so I'm not free all the time). Why don't you post the first thing you want to say?

[JGonz]

Hi,

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

If you keep your needed translations short, I could occasionally help (I am a full-time lawyer, though, so I'm not free all the time.

Thanks a lot for this, it's more then I ever hoped :) I have a script at hand that I'd like to pass to her (interpreted), and I'll be working hard on it now to shorten it as much as possible.

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

Why don't you post the first thing you want to say?

It's a bit complicated. The text now is 3.4Kb, much too long to ask for a free translation, IMHO.
And I need to open a channel first to pass that text to her, at all. Before such a channel of communication is open, all efforts would be in vain.

My intention was to check the area, to find out if there'd be someone willing & able to help me, here. I'm most pleasant surprised about your quick replay!

I'll do my best to open a communication channel to said player now, and I'll come back in a few more hours (I might take a nap in between).

Lemme emphasize that your quick response has made me quite happy. Guess I found the right place for my problem.

Cya laters, have a good time!

[TBox]

I'm curious. Is she harassing you somehow? I'm sorry but the rule on the internet is generally, "Don't even reply." If you don't need something from her and she doesn't need something from you, it may be best to just walk away.

If you *do* need something from her, it would help in opening a channel to know what's going on.

[JGonz]

Hi,

Originally Posted by TBox

I'm curious. Is she harassing you somehow?

No, not at all. She just refuses to talk to me.

Originally Posted by TBox

If you *do* need something from her, it would help in opening a channel to know what's going on.

This is the case. It's about the biggest community-made project ever made in this game, countless people have worked on it for months now. It's close to be finished finally, and now there arises the problem that a tiny part of it would touch kind of "reserved land" of her (and a bit more of mine), where the game rules clearly state "It isn't yours, it's just reserved for further expansion." Further expansion isn't possible anymore because the land I bought (without knowing) blocks it, and I think it's the source of the problem.

From the rules we could just ignore her. But I don't want to hurt her. But I'm getting sick of this, slowly. Meanwhile I have used any channels available to me to try to start any kind of communication, without any response.

But without communication I cannot try to resolve this obvious misunderstanding, and have no chance to find a solution suiting both sides. I have to choose now to either hurt the community project (where, as mentioned, countless ppl have worked for months) or to hurt my stubborn Japanese neighbor.

I hate both options, believe me!

At the current situation I'm quite sure that only another Japanese player could help, but I failed to find one. My patience has come to its limits, I'm not ready to suffer this madness anymore. I have now the option to stand for the crippling of the work of many peoples over months, or to get into a situation with my neighbor where the GM's would have to decide. They'd decide in favor of the community project, this is sure. The rules are clear.

But I don't want to hurt her, really. But maybe I should. This goes to just too far. I don't want to get held hostage by a stupid, stubborn child, from wherever it might be.

Any translations here would need a channel to send it to. This doesn't exist at the moment. I'll try harder.

Anybody has a line that would make a spoiled brat from Japan thinking? I doubt that such would work, at least in my case - no chance.

So what I asked for might be in vain, and you can save you work. This is why I haven't posted the text yet.

I'm more then impressed by the help offered here, and cannot praise this enough. You are a great bunch of ppl!

Have a good time!

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by JGonz

Anybody has a line that would make a spoiled brat from Japan thinking?

You're the one who should be providing the line. We're tentatively offering translation, not authorship. We don't know what you want to say. "Hey, respond to me, you brat"? I think you need more than that!

[TBox]

How do you know she's still active if she doesn't communicate? Do you see her walking around? How have you tried to get in touch with her? Is there a mail system?

[JohnBraden]

Sometimes it's best to leave things be. It appears to be a common Japanese custome to not respond to someone to avoid any confrontation. She may be being polite by not responding or initiating any contact because she doesn't want to deal with the issue.

Perhaps this game isn't as important to her as it is to you. After all, it is a video game and, while some people get too involved in it, some don't have their lives revolve around them....