Pigs will become sheep and whiskey root beer? Travian talks changing SotA for the global market

That is a very interesting discussion. Travian Games talks about how games have to adapt to the global market to adhere to laws and religion in some countries. This also seems to affect SotA.

You can hear about it in this video at about minute 10:

 

What is the story with RGs hair? No way his wife likes that.

 

Thank you Darkmoon for sharing the video.

 

His wife is definitely used to his idiosyncrasies

 

I wonder how this would work...

Removing alcohol and pigs completely from the game? Not a very good idea.

Changing it clientwise? This would lead to lots of confusion when one part of the community talks about whiskey and pigs and the other part can't see this.

Opening a separate server? This would mean the devs would break their promise of everyone playing on the same server...

A complicated situation...

 

Well, we've been asking for phasing for a long time, so this is a step. I think it would be fine for some players to see one thing and other to see something else, but if there is a concern there just don't have those players enter the same instance at the same time.

 

Makes no sense that tradeoff... we're insisting on having one server and everyone in the same world, yet we're going to split and phase them anyways.

How often I wanted to join a party and ended up in an instance where I was alone... had to come to the forums, find someone that was logged on to add them and then teleport to them so I can see the party that is going on.

I'm sorry but this does not cut it... and I don't know if you ever attended a LARP but since 20 years we know exactly how to plan a game that respects all beliefs and religions without splitting people.

It's not like we're explorers here... this road has been traveled so much it turned to concrete, and we're trying to take a microscope to find out how the hell that could happen. It's fused, you cannot split it open anymore if you do, you destroy the elements that would teach you how it coagulated in the first place.

A kid would understand me, why does noone seem to understand me here.

We're supposed to be mature and professional here, I'm just the original Avatar, get over it and start using my knowledge.

The Avatar in old britannia was never that super god-like character that everyone loved and adored, much the contrary, I don't have surrealistic expectations.

If the devs and our game community just KNEW who they are and the power they hold in their hands, then we could have unity. Alas because of the fall... everyone forgets.

If the devs begin to forget then we're in serious trouble, because it means the bad guys have won the meta-game and that sends a VERY bad message to the younger playerbase.

I know what it is to be rejected "just cause" a bad feeling about my "vibe" even if they know nothing about it. People complain that people judge this game "just cause" without even attempting to understand it.

Welcome to my world.

Enjoy.

 

There are some countries that would want to prohibit a game or product that allowed certain community content as well, so this is kind of tricky territory. I understand its the reality of marketing in other countries, its still kind of disappointing to me when content producers do this; because you end up treating an artistic product too much like a commodity.

(Btw, can't turn pigs into sheep, if sheep already exist and have their own different crafting products; can't turn whiskey into root beer, if root beer already exists).

 

Thanks for sharing @Lord_Darkmoon. My takeaway from watching this was that they were talking in hypothetical's (at least I hope). One of the features I have been greatly looking forward to is the ability to brew beer! I would be highly disappointed if this was removed, to be honest. I don't mind waiting for it, so long as it eventually makes it into the game.

 

...I think that ship may have already sailed out of Brittany Port

 

Phasing wouldn't exactly work in certain cases. Take alcoholic drinks for example. You could change all object occurrences of beer to fruit juice but NPCs still talk about or request beer in some minor quest lines. Easier to have an NPC city where alcohol is forbidden - the cultural why's would add to it's background and storyline.

Sensitivity to cultural mores is also a slippery slope. Would it extend to the often revealing clothing NPC women wear? At some point you just have to say this is a unique virtual world separate from RL to avoid unecessary complications. After all what is banned in one country can be seen as desirable or necessary in another.

 

Just like in RL, don't drink alcohol or eat pork if your belief system forbids it. Your beliefs don't eliminate alcohol or pork eating from the world. If we start down a road of making adjustments to suit special beliefs, there will be no end.

 

exactly

 

Removing alcohol and pigs. This is how you let ideologies and religion not further tolerance.

 

*downs a beer + eats a pork chop

 

It’s part of localization and they would do it client side for that market if they chose to enter it- replace the dialog and maybe some graphics with something else and the item name with something else.

It happens all the time with other countries - take for example Germany.

Don’t panic - keep calm and carry on - we non-Saudis will have piggies and booze and someday brewing.

 

How would you regulate this in a player driven economy? People will for example offer Whiskey in the chat to someone in a country where this is forbidden and then he wants to buy the Whiskey but instead gets root beer?

 

Ahm... after all we are talking about reality 1.0 influencing reality 2.8316...
So the entire idea is... not worth the wear and tear of my keyboard.

But i like doing some philosophy. So...
Wats next?
We remove swords and axes because of pacifists?
We remove eggs and butter because of vegans?
We remove cloth because of nudism?
Somehow Americas creationists have to get their rights...
And i am sure there is somebody out here who dislikes magic...

ok... this will become quiet interesting very fast.

Going for the lowest common denominator is leading to literally nothing.
Look at todays interpretation of democracy.

EDIT:
PS:
I do not believe in work.
- i want crafting to be removed -

 

I'm simply amazed that Castle Wolfenstein even made it through! Historical gotchas are the worst

 

While we're at making the game more global friendly I might advise against making anything rootbeer in the hopes of appealing to a global market since most people outside of the US tell me that rootbeer is disgusting because it's black licorice flavored Pepto. Now I can't block that out of my mind when drinking rootbeer. Talking to other people is why we can't have nice things...