The language barrier

[Dreamer]

Hello,

I'm a Finn who has been playing German Highlander for a few months. So far, it's been pretty much the best format I've ever played, with a good mix of the best sides of being a good player (all the card analysis, deck tuning and so on) and the things that made Magic so fun in the beginning (discovery and things like killing people with squirrels).

It's not all rosy, though. Oh, I've got my complaints with the banned list (Why ban Painter and not Grindstone? You could probably also ease on the combo phobia a bit.), but those are largely insignificant to one overarching problem: Discussion.

I like discussing decks and the formats I play as a whole, but have a problem. I don't know German. Sure, there's the Finnish forums at vaihdetaan.kapsi.fi where you see pyyhttu, Nastaboi etc., and these international forums at magicplayer.org, but both are pretty quiet places at least as far as actual Highlander discussion goes. The german magicplayer.org forum seems to be more active than the two aforementioned ones combined, and I'd love to take part in the discussion but can't because of the language barrier.

German Highlander is the most played Highlander variant in Finland by a good margin, but Finns, on average, speak English much better than German. This basically splits the Finnish and German Highlander communities apart. If we had a single, shared international forum, we could have much more active discussion which in turn could get more and more players into the fold for the benefit of everyone.

I realize that I'm just a single person, but I believe the idea has merit. What do you people think about it?

[Vazdru]

Hi Dreamer,

don't worry! I can assure you that the German HL-community has been extremely quiet for quite a while too  There were 23 comments after recent bannings were announced ... and even less before 

Exchange of ideas is always welcome but don't expect too much. Magic is just a little part of our life and most guys do not want / rather are unable to spent more time on it ... like me.

I try to keep the site alive and I am always glad to see some new faces here. Imo this site is meanwhile the best HL site (maybe) in the whole world  even better than the German "main"-site. At least it offers more opportunities. We have guys form USA, Finland, Portugal, Czech and Sloval Republic, Denmark....that's more than I expected when I've started first [HLL]Season.

Vazdru

btw. I'm the one in the council who are struggling to get Painter back in exchange for Grindstone - but discussions not always beeing a pleasure 

[Dreamer]

That's just the thing: We have three relatively quiet forums and the magicplayer main site (again, in German). There's three relatively quiet trickles of information each of which only has a portion of the format's players. If we had a single, dedicated Highlander forum we could have all the players in the same place. People would have more threads to read and post to, resulting in a more lively forum, which again attracts more people who happen to check it out for one reason or another.

[Vazdru]

It's  more convenient and of course easier to write down your thoughts in native language. Even tough there are still much misunderstanding 

So in the end you're right - it is a matter of language barrier 

[GoblinPiledriver]

Hi,
so you want to build a new combined highlander site in english.
But the main problem remains the same, there will be still a german site, a finnish site and the new combined site(Or do you just want to delete the german forum).
The only thing that changes there will be a new web adress.

[Dreamer]

Not necessarily delete the German forum, per se, but move the magicplayer.org main site to English or something, etc, start promoting the fact that the format is played worldwise and try to bring people together here. This way the banned list discussions on the main site etc. would be in English and much more approachable to foreigners. It's a bit of a hassle to get the ball rolling, but I believe it would eventually result in a self-feeding phenomenon where activity attracts more and everyone ends up the better for it.

[Mythrandir]

Hey, welcome to our forums!
Indeed the biggest problem of this forum is its quietness, but i don't think it's all about language barrier, because most of the (active members... HLL players) speak perfectly understable english. I think it's a matter of time/Will (don't want o offend anyone).

For me the strangest thing is when a new expansion comes out almost "nobody" here talks about the new cards, new deck possobilities/improvements, which for me are quite exciting times (having a new  expansion) in the world of MTG.

As for creating a more international site, i think this is one is quite good (like Vazdru said, probably the best) and we just need more active members.

Just a thought for the german council: why not include 1 or 2 foreigners in the council? I know that it would be far more difficult to discuss the bannings/unbannings, but it would give Highlander a more international status. Including persons, specially those that participate a lot in their countries (i'm thinking of finland, here...), could be a step forward in more recognition.

Just my opinion.

[MarcMagic]

well IMO the german forum is even more quiet than this international one. if i look at HLL and game reviews from tournaments this forum is way more "active". in this forum u can discuss several problems and will get answers instead of pure flame.

i like this forum way more tbh and maybe the quality will improve in the future.

[Kassow-Rossing]

Hey I'm from Denmark and I wish to say a few words.

For starters I think it would be a GREAT idea to make Highlander rulings (bannings first of all) more international so they're not only based on the german real life tournaments going on south of us.

Secondly I think it's a good idea to include a few foreigners to the HL Council, but in the other hand I think (and hope) that it problem will solve itself by time. If the ban list is controlled from one center core and the metagame will adapt after it in Germany, then so will it in Denmark and other places over time. From a gaming point of view, changing the council won't benefit any one but from a broarder point of view, changing the council will perhaps increase the size of the format and promote the format worldwide. I certanli hope that this is what we all wish for

Finally I agree with Dreamer: I hope for a stronger environment online for people to share thoughts of new sets and deck ideas more than what I’ve seen so far. I hope you, in the HL Council, will make an effort to make this work. If it is in the rights of the HL Council, an idea could be (Not saying it’s the best option) to shut down all HL pages except for one official page and let that page have all the rules, the deck lists, the forum discussions etc..

My 200 words, Patrick Kassow, Denmark