Posting “cryptic” journal entries consisting of random sentences like “Light. Father.” does not make you look deep and thoughtful. It makes you look like a twat.

I have come to a deep realisation today. It came to me while reading this man’s DeviantART journal that people who aren’t  firm in their knowledge of English should abstain from being poetic. It’s just not right and you often get laughed at. Please don’t flame the poor guy, but  I hope you get a good chuckle out of lines like, “forget yourself and the lion(s)”

I need something controversial to discuss. How about kittens?

Guten Tag, boys and girls!

Now, I’ve seen the German update coming for quite some time after glancing at their corporate site. Though I speak German fluently, I want to let you know one thing: I will not play the German RS. I have a few reasons for doing this and I’ll list them:

- I can’t get used to the new “vocabulary” after playing for so long. If I say “buying restore pots”, I’m always going to say it and I prefer everyone else did.
- I do not feel that the language in-game carries over in the same style as it does in English. If I were fluent in Greek and given the chance to read a great work of art in that language, I’d prefer that over reading it in its original format rather than relying on the translation of another individual.
- I rather be “on the same page” as my friends when it comes to quests and such.

Now, I realise that there are other people who would be more comfortable in playing the game in German but I don’t see the vast masses begging for it. In fact, I have never met a German person on Runescape. I haven’t ever spoken German on Runescape.

Let’s say for a moment that Jagex had an idea behind their move to translate RS into German. Here are a few reasons why they might have done it:

- There are interested in marketing the game in Germany, Austria, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, and Switzerland.
- They feel that German might be a unifying language for Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Polish members since some of these members might have learned the language in school.
- Andrew and Paul Gower are sentimental over their long lost German uncle

If they were interested in marketing the game in the aforementioned countries, basic marketing tells you that it’s wiser to appeal to a growing minority if you want to capitalise on a product. Well, I can almost assuredly tell you that German-speaking RS-ers are not a quickly-growing minority by the fact that German fan sites are nearly nonexistent. There exist no German servers, nor any notable German-speaking clans. Runescape has a diverse pool of players, but Germany simply isn’t prevalent in this population.

There could also be the chance that Jagex assume that their Western European members may already know German and that they are making it easier for them by presenting the game in that language. I’ve talked to two players from the Netherlands, one player from Finland, and and have researched Swedish education, I have come to a conclusion that these children are more exposed to education in English as a second language than German. The two Dutch players I talked to knew a proficient amount of German, while the Finnish player didn’t know any. Despite being proficient in German, I do not think (please correct me if I’m wrong) that any player would go through the difficulty of switching languages on RS.

Fan sites predominantly display quest guides/game info into English, with a few translated in Dutch, Swedish, or French. Any player who was German would be out of luck if they didn’t speak any of these languages. Any other player who was playing the German version “for the fun of it” would have to adapt to reading guides in English and re-translating the information into the game. This is just cumbersome and I see the German version of RS becoming as temporarily popular as Keldagrim (not to mention almost all of the northern RS territories) upon release.

To put it all together, I feel that Jagex (once again) denies its fan-base. They choose an essentially useless language to provide support to a small percentage of users while leaving the majority in the dark when it comes to support queries and gameplay. This decision has no ground and Jagex has yet to explain its reasoning.

So, a water main broke up the street from where I live. We were forbidden to use the toilet and turn the tap on. Omfg. It sucked. I didn’t realise how much we need water

It finally came back on. I think it was off for over six hours. I’m really glad that things have finally worked out. I was worried that I’d have to, I don’t know, pee in a bush. Anyway, here’s Shane’s input on the topic:

OH LMAO, I need to edit this post to add in this:

Looks like a man with mascara on. The thing is.. it’s not like she donated this to a company-that-makes-wigs-for-cancer-children, she wants to sell it on Ebay. I guess she needs beer money.

I know I’m supposed to be like the cool kids and say “TO HELL WITH VALENTINE’S DAY”, but I really enjoy the chocolate. Especially if it’s dark chocolate. I should make something for everyone on RSBANDB..like..a “Will you be my Valentine, RSBANDB?” card. That’d be great, but I’m lazy and I just got done using Photoshop.

Speaking of which, I uploaded a NEW ultra-sexy deviation. I suggest you take a look. I’ve stopped posting links to my stuff on Graphics Central because I was getting really nitpicky comments on my stuff. I like receiving as much as the next person, but when someone who makes pastes Halo renders atop fractal background rips my stuff apart it sort of gets to me. Which isn’t to say I haven’t gotten great con-crit from Graphics Central. I just.. I don’t know. I feel like I have to be more defensive to some of the comments since they are borderline rude and I don’t like that. I really don’t like being constantly told that something “isn’t my best work”. I’ve done that way back in the past, and I realise now that it’s a very low comment to make. You can only learn to be better by trying new techniques, which don’t always get the same exact results as your past art.

Wow, okay, I dragged that paragraph out longer than needed. I do need your help with something though. I’m writing a little essay (for my blog) about historical connections that Jagex uses in RS. For example, Fremmy is sort of based off of Nordic tribes..things like that. If you can offer any help with your ideas, I’d love you to death. You’d get credited too. Thank youuu..

“…ein Recht hat, ein Urteil zu fällen, das allein Gott vorbehalten ist. Niemand weiß, welches geheime innere Reifen aus Leid entstehen kann. Jedes Leben ist kostbar”. - Sophie Scholl: Die Letzten Tage.

if you find the chance, see this film. It has subtitles (or you can download them). A lot of people, primarily Americans and Brits, don’t realise that there was resistance within Nazi Germany during WWII. This film chronicles the last days of one particular woman, Sophie Scholl. She, along with her brother and colleagues, were determined to to inspire their fellow citizens to oppose Hitler through use of leaflets.

When explaining this, some of you might think, “Big deal. She handed out anti-Nazi papers.” Things like this were unheard of in Germany at that time. The eloquence and inspirational words contained in these leaflets served as an eye-opener for the German people. Scholl had the courage to uphold her belief in freedom and equality of all humans even when she knew that she would pay the price. She, her brother, and one of their colleagues were executed in 1943 by guillotine. She could have kept quiet about her beliefs or exposed the names of those she worked with, but her devout upbringing taught her to seek out injustice everywhere.

One of the best films I’ve seen in a long time.