An apology to IMT for last night.

[stoicism99]

I said it in the LS, but I want to reiterate that I apologize for what happened last night.

Hopefully this will help you understand why I was so irate.

http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/sho...553#post257553

Again, I apologize, but I am at a loss of what to do...

m(_._)m

[tazirai]

NP balth although this hasnt happened to me yet i really feel your pain since i hear it from my NA friends who actually play very good.

[Abriael]

My experience as a relative noob that stands somewhere "in the middle".
I'm not NA nor Japanese, i'm italian (and probably the only one on Ramuh, since the whole italian community is split between Fairy and Ragnarok), but i can type in english fairly well (at least enough to hold a normal conversation... thank goodness there's no voice chat though.. my old english teacher told me i had the pronunciation of a drunken scot... ), and try hard to avoid blatant typos, unfortunately with japanese i don't go beyond the usual Yoroshiku, Tadaima, Okaeri and so forth.
I studied Karate and Kendo for 14 years with a japanese sensei and worked on japanese anime since about 6-7 years ago, so i have a little knowledge of japanese culture and environment that can help just a bit (too bad i never had the time/chance to learn the language since my job comes after the translation).
My time zone (GMT+1) brings me to play both with Japanese and NA people, since my afternoon is japanese prime time and my late night is the NA one.
I entered this game about three weeks after the NA release, due to slooooow importers.
After this introduction about my background, i have to admit the first impact with japanese players have been quite frustrating, no response at all, or even people telling me "We don't like NA people" or so forth (that sounded terribly wrong to me, used to hear about the fabled Japanese politeness).

Then i tried to think deeper about the situation.
What would i think if my community, at first enclosed and "protected", almost free of foreigners would have been suddenly "invaded" by an army of people speaking a different language, bringing a different culture, swamping the mobs and destroying the economy?
Would i welcome them or would i be at least a little pissed at first?

I'm quite an history buff, so i went back in time a little, things like this happened twice in japanese fairly recent history, and once in my old little italy, and they were all really painful experiences so i had something to make a confrontation (i perfectly know the NA community is not here to "invade" or to "colonize" but this helped my reasoning, so bear with me, please).
Every large income of new population in an environment brings problems, in our case theese problems were called "noobs" and "rude people", i am NOT stating that all NA are noobs and rude, not at all, but between 1000 people of EVERY nationailty unfortunately there always is a fair amount of noobs and rude people, it's fairly normal
The japanese community was started one year before, so many of the noobs had already left the game after colliding with something they couldn't cope with or had just learnt not to be noob, while the rude people probably had already been isolated and had left the game due to boredom.
When the NA (and western in general) community arrived, it brought along it's natural load noobs and rude people that begun to literally test the existing japanese community patience.
Overcamping places that were meant to be camped by a certain number of parties (destroying everyone's exp), selling items at the AH at a greatly lowered price to gather as much money as possible in a limited time, begging for items/money/favors maybe many times even when that was denied the first time.
After analyzing all this i asked myself: IF i would have been part of the japanese existing community, how would i have felt?
The natural answer was: I would have been really pissed.

At this point i decided that as a newcomer i shouldn't take respect as granted (i strongly believe respect must be earned), so i begun to use every one of my limited tools to make the life of my fellow japanese players easier while dealing with me.
I started to learn how to use the auto translator efficently, i tried hard to learn at least the very basic sentences not included in the AT in romanji and auto-translated all my macros.
I begun to explore the world and to browse leveling guides to search for as many exping locations possible, to avoid getting in the way of others and more than everything, i tried to party with japanese players as much as possible, to learn from them and expecially to learn how not to be an hindrance to them.
And when i asked for help (yes i did and sometimes still do... but i help too thoose that are lower than me... i probably fought sandoria and windurst dragons about 40 times so far lol) i learnt not to force anyone, to say please and thanks, and even thanks anyways.
Now i feel they're beginning to accept me, they feel i try hard to adapt and not to be an hindrance and believe me. Being accepted is one of the most wonderful sensations in the world.
It gives a sese of accomplishment that can be rarely matched by anything else. My regret is still not being able to speak japanese (but before or later that will change) and thus not to be able to hold a normal conversayion with my fellow players.... But yet, every path begins somewhere in the dark, and i think i finally begun walking on the right one.

[stoicism99]

Abriel,

Your English is great, by the way~

And as a bit of a follow up, I am just wailing on the autotranslator when I run into resistance now, and usually it takes away the argument.

I'm more to the point now where I am less frustrated with it, save for the isolated incident like the one this thread was originally started for.

Please send a /t sometime (balth)!

[Abriael]

I will for sure ^_-

Aah you made it to 50, Omedetou ^_^
I'm so envious... but can't exp now... work calls.

[Jorins]

Wow, your english is considerably good. I always thought grammar and writing a language was more difficult than speaking. You had context, structure, depth and emotion in that post, not to mention nailing the subject on the head.

I got the same sort of reaction when I first started playing the game a month ago. That NA players are avoided at best and I can really understand why after thinking of it in the way you put. I'm attempting to learn as much on the forums, through guides, and during solo play so that I can be effective when grouping with JP players. I figure that if I show the other players that I'm doing my best and I'm in it for the interest of the party first, that JP players might not be so hesitant to PT.

[Abriael]

Actually while i see some people whining because they would like to have entirely NA servers (geeze...), i think that such a cosmopolite environment is one of the best things of FFXI. I always love to confront myself and my culture with people much different than me. It's nice when you're partying with a japanese that begins to talk (too bad he has to do it in english for now)about his life and ask about yours, and you realize how different it is from what you're used to. fascinating, to say the least.
Someone tells playing MMORPG restricts and alienates you from reality, but according to me it widens your horizons ( assumed that you don't neglect real life, obviously) in a way that very few other environments can provide. And FFXI is the best of all in this.