So this will be a long post about a seemingly minor issue. Hopefully readers don’t consider me anymore strange than before, after reading the long winded explanation I am posting here regarding my “issue”. It’s not really a bug, it’s a suggestion, but there is a factor of text censorship from the devs that I think is not working as intended - and it interferes with my ability to communicate in an easy way - just about every time I try to communicate with my guild/friends in the game. I’m posting in support, again, because this is a mechanic of the game that I don’t believe is working as intended. Ok here we go.
I just wanted to point out that there are kind of ridiculous random “words” being censored in English that kind of impact the use of other languages. Thanks to the seemingly total rejection of other languages from the game, even after release, many players need to use English letters to spell (best they can) words from their own language. This makes for some pretty weird letter configurations by our standards as native English speakers…
Yet this “word”, which I regularly type myself - is censored. It appears in the game chat and signs as “***”
I want to be clear that I IN NO WAY intend to offend anyone or hurt anyone here - I hope most everyone will read it and think “why is THAT word censored from the game?!” … Please don’t ban me, I think there is a larger issue here regarding further language support that should be addressed in this game at some point.
the “word” in question here for me is Tyt
Sorry if that is offensive once again, perhaps for reasons I am too ignorant to understand.
But seriously… Why?
Perhaps I should explain that, from the very early days of this game you have had a very active multi-lingual representative for your game from Russia. None other than @Okkelinor … He has been painstakingly translating all kinds of material for your game, even stuff from the community. Updates, Patch Notes, Forum Guides, Jiivita’s long winded videos, the man has put in some time for you guys. I am positive he has been instrumental in developing the small but dedicated Russian groups who play the game to this day. I’m pointing this out to show that you guys really do have, and HAVE had, people around with the drive to create and support Russian as an official language for your game.
Yet, you choose not to, and you censor words like this.
Тут на Русском is “Here” … In English it would look like “Toot”… yeah? anyone feel like that’s a lil silly? Maybe it should be censored as well? …Moving on.
Being that this “oo” sound is made from combination of two "o"s, I’m not sure how easy it is to understand for them. I don’t want to presume they don’t know English, after all, for about 10 years or more kids have been taught some English in Russian Grade Schools, yet I would rather have the ability to be clearly understood. Typing TYT when using all caps (like we do to read our signs) is at a glance understandable. In Chat as well, it is a 1 for 1 analog of a word they use dozens of times every day of their lives.
…ok it gets deeper. И is the letter in Russian that sounds like “ee” … eeeeee …But they can’t type И in Boundless (or in any other programs that don’t support their language), so they use “u” in English, since the foot of the u looks like и with a saggy front end… em okey.
“U” in English would be the other suggestion, TUT, but to them I believe they might read it as “Teet” which - again, is not clear.
So I would like some clarification from Developers about the intent of this system. If they feel that censoring these combinations is important to players of the game, or just for themselves, and why? Especially since in this case it most affirmatively is NOT some kind of “bad word” in English. All of this in the scope that the game seems to have elements of active moderation from administrators (which I love and support - more companies should be this hands-on with their online products) - so if there was a giant sign for a shop or something with some obvious allusion to another somehow more vulgar term - it could be handled case-by-case…
Finally I just want to field the idea yet again, of working to develop cyrillic support for the game. I honestly do believe it would help the game, that many players might even start playing. I recommend you guys seriously consider this, because of the fact that you already have GREAT resources here in your Community to assist you, who already DO assist you on a volunteer basis.
I could at very least give you a fat list of rude Russian words that you could censor, with confidence that they are actually offensive and bad words.
Show love for Okkelinor, he has a Boundless Discord in the Russian Language that does a wonderful job representing the game. Very warm and friendly place. Thanks Wonderstruck for your consideration!