In-game Language Primers need to die out

Argent Dawn
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Recently I was made aware of a very useful Addon called ‘RP Prefix’ (it’s on Curseforge, sadly I can’t share links) which allows you to set a prefix to all of your chat messages in /say (for example [Low] or [Orcish]) without actually using the in-built language parser. I thought it could be useful to share the Addon with more people because I think using a tool like that solves a lot of problems I’ve noticed in the community when it comes to the use of different languages (other than Common/Orcish).

I think that nowadays with so much racial diversity available in WoW (Half-Elf customizations soon being unlocked, Worgen-Night Elves, High Elves, neutral Blood Elves, etc.) it is so important to be able to include more people into our public RP.

For example, I’ve started to roleplay a Worgen-Night Elf (one of the original Druid of the Pack Worgen) and despite his IC ability to understand Darnassian, from a gameplay perspective I cannot understand it. A lot of Night Elf roleplayers use the in-game Darnassian language tool yet my inability to understand the language from an OOC perspective makes me feel left out by the wider community - intentionally or not, it just sucks all motivation out of me to interact because I don’t want to be a bother or party pooper.

Let’s be real, it’s 2024, and I feel like these rather outdated in-built language parsers destroy immersion more rather than add to it, especially with examples like the in-built Pandaren language that isn’t even representative of the actual language the Pandaren speak or Vulpera who apparently only vocalise ‘yip yap yruff’ sounds. And that’s supposed to be immersive?

As an outsider who can’t read the language all I can read is those godawful language parsers shuffling together random preset words and syllables. It’s more noise than language. And, once again, even though my in-game race (like Worgen) is programmed not being able to understand the language (unless I’m a mage), that doesn’t mean my character cannot from a lore perspective.

I understand the sentiment that people might claim their character to know all kinds of languages, even exotic ones like Furbolg, but as of now, a Mage player could claim that anyways no matter what. :man_shrugging: Will there be people who will abuse that sort of system? Probably. There will always be That Guy who claims to know 100 languages IC, just like how there will be people who claim their twenty-something year old mage is an Archmage and more powerful than Khadgar or Jaina, but I still think there should be a cultural shift to inclusion rather than the opposite.

These are just my two cents based on personal experiences. That’s why I wanted to share the Addon, maybe more people don’t know about it.

What do you guys think? Should we shift to a more inclusive way of speaking in other languages IC by using Prefix addons, or should we stick to the language primers?

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You put forth really good points.
Thank you. I’ll grab the add-on later and get into the practice of using it. :blue_heart:

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I absolutely think the correct way to do it is using either Prefix addons or manually adding prefix such as [Darnassian] when speaking another language IC.

I’ve seen more than once the actual in-game languages being used as a sort of gatekeeping/clique thing, with people deliberately switching to it so others nearby won’t understand. (Which is perfectly fine to have a character do, but using the actual in-game language mechanic makes it blatant there is also an OOC motive).

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Maybe the addon creator can add something to select the language you understand so language you don’t comprehend can automatically filtered out and turned into something like ‘says something incomprehensible in Darnassian’.

Then you don’t have to worry too much about meta gaming and learning about things you shouldn’t be able to.

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I’ve never seen this happen in-game, but I wouldn’t put it past people. I’m more a lover of using prefixes for my characters understand languages that they wouldn’t be able to OOC.

It’s one of the reasons I miss Tongues being mainstream, but I think this Prefix addon is a good shout also - means even OOC people aren’t excluded.

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I’m a bit of a flip-flop on the issue. I can find it immersive to be unable to understand a language being spoken in roleplay that my character wouldn’t understand either, but it has absolutely been used as a means of excluding other players in various circles (night elf and blood elf circles in personal experience).

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I remember when KayrChat did the prefix functionality for me, alas the addon has not been updated in a long time. Glad to see there are other addons with the same functionality now!

Personally, as I’ve only RPed Night Elves, I haven’t really run into instances where I’d be listening to other languages and not understood them, as most use Common for other races. Not sure if other races even use their own languages as heavily as many Night Elf RPers do.

However, having RPed Night Elves, I know [Darnassian] is a plight to many Worgen RPers and thus I simply elect to write an emote about how Nerathion would be speaking Darnassian, or add the prefix manually. I have too many addons as is, really. Minor immersion issues aside, I think it’d be ultimately better for the RPers if this stance was widely adopted.

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Personally, I like the potential immersion more than I dislike how some people misuse it. I don’t see a reason to remove the feature.

Might look up the addon regardless, we’ll see.

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Counterpoint, I’ve seen more than once that a rather large amount of people is suddenly fluent in whatever language you are speaking, be it Darnassian, Draenei or Gnomish!

That said, its rather ridiculous that gnomes don’t speak dwarvish since dwarves and gnomes have shared a nation for hundreds, if not a thousand years.

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I’ve seen this happen too, but ultimately I think a character perhaps knowing a bit too many languages is far less of an actual issue compared to roleplay in general being less available, which non-prefix does help cause to some extent.

It is overall better in my opinion to use prefix as it opens up the more engagement from other players and characters.

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There´s also something that may have flown under the radar for some people (at least judging by how often I´ve encountered issues connected to it): When you´re in group with other people, you automatically understand what they´re saying, regardless of language they´re using. Even more, you don´t see the language´s name in brackets when they (or you) speak while in group.

The system is, simply put, broken. This addon looks like a cool thing that could help fixing it by giving people option to automatically put in the prefix without having to result into using the in-game language system.

Yes, people who know all languages can be obnoxious (although, I think RPers vastly underestimate how easy it is to learn multiple languages, especially if you´re someone who is in contact with those languages on daily basis), but as others said, it´s far less frustrating than suddenly being excluded from conversation your character should understand simply because antiquated Blizzard system is being utilized.

Although, this just shows superiority of mages, you filthy peasants are nothing.

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I do remember an addon or… two even doing what you describe, but alas the names eludes me.

They made it possible to speak demonic even, or add a certain style of speaking, which was fun to play around with! I had one of my characters drag his ‘R’ a lot.

And it was changed as I pressed enter, nothing else needed than writing normally.

If anyone knows the name or may point me in the direction… please let me know!

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But what is too many languages? I know 5 languages. I’m not fluent in all of them but I can certainly read 5 and speak half of them.

So I think it’s perfectly acceptable for a character to be decently fluent in 5 when you take into consideration they’re always exposed to those languages which speeds up learning them.

But we also have to take into consideration this is an American game and most Americans only know 1, maybe 2 languages so they probably think it’s fine a character only knows common/orcish + their racial language.

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(although, I think RPers vastly underestimate how easy it is to learn multiple languages, especially if you´re someone who is in contact with those languages on daily basis)

This I agree with, at least in cases where people tell you up front it’s not possible for your char to know X language from Horde and Alliance.

Never quite understood the logic of those who wish to gatekeep languages, as someone who have English as their second language since 2nd grade and understand two more by default. They are similar enough to my mother tongue and viewed as just a funnier version. Currently learning a new language which is vastly different but not impossible.

  • At least not for the races who have been apart of X faction since the beginning, pretty much.

Later in school you got the option to learn even more… and you can teach yourself on the side at any point in life.

It’s weird! It’s not logical whatsoever to be controlling of what a stranger can speak and not, not in game nor real life!

  • Interactions across nations, factions-… and in the case of world of war craft… universes/planes happens.

  • Does not mean you need to know them like a native speaker by the way, but … understanding is a huge part of it even if you may not be able to speak it smoothly.

Thank you Syelia for speaking well on the matter!

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I always found it more immersive as the player that people utilize the in-game language systems, even if it means I don’t understand what’s being discussed.

My characters’ are a different story and some make a ruckus for being excluded, but that’s just the character and I personally won’t be miffed if their requests are ignored.

I’m more interested in the Faction-based language barrier becoming an optional toggle in the game’s Social settings. At this point every Demon Hunter, Pandaren, Void/Blood Elf, every player that has learned Furbolg in Azure Span and soon every Earthen can communicate crossfaction.

Make Common the universal base language and move Orcish as the secondary for Mag’har and OG Orcs. Have a Social toggle where you can set the opposite faction’s language gibberish.

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I do understand your idea but I do badly wish Blizzard just permitted us to learn more languages. Myself, I use just written action when having to act on the part of speaking another language, though, my main character does not claim to know many, he’s still of trades, knowing Orcish and Darnassian.

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damn brother you’re old

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I regret Googling that.

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Well yeah, don’t google it, search it on addon websites! (I guess google wants to search for gay not kayr, so you get dating chat apps or smth, apparently.)

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Google went and “corrected” it to the Indian social media site ShareChat for me (a famous Indian)

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