69 réponses à ce sujet

[kevin1gamer]

dark-lauron wrote...

It doesn't change my feelings or hurt them in any way. It's a rare sight to see a Canadian flag for English language, and that's why I think it's actually cool. To be different. I think countries that practice the same language should do it too. For example Mexico, since, as far as I know, they speak Spanish. Same for Argentina (I just hope I am not terribly wrong, that's what I was lead to think at least).
Look, I am just wonderfully happy not to see my national flag somewhere there. It would be an insult to every single other small country out there.

Small?  Canada is huge!

[Ciller]

One might want to consider the fact that Canadians and northern Americans speak the least corrupted version of old english as well. The UK version of English has changed quite a bit in the last 400 years and is further from the orginal language then common english in Canada (northern english in America - the accent you hear from news casters typically).

In this case the Canadian flag is most appropriate and that is not considering that the home country of the game is Canada as well.

[Stanley Woo]

Seriously???



I don't see why people are making such a big deal about this. BioWare is a Canadian company, so we thought it'd be nice to put the Canadian flag up to denote the English language. It's not meant to represent where the language came from, or what official languages are spoken here, or to denigrate any other English-speaking country, or to make a political or social statement.



I mean, when my folks travel, they have the Canadian flag displayed on my luggage, even though my folks immigrated to Canada. They shouldn't be forced to display the Chinese flag on their luggage just because that's where they "originate." And my mother's from Hong Kong. Should she then display the Chinese flag or the British flag?



I think people are making mountains out of molehills here.

[beegkitty]

So wait - Stanley Woo is a BioWare representative? What wonderful customer facing skills you have! Perhaps you should take some classes on how to represent a company in a professional manner.



This is a horrible representation of BioWare if you ARE an employee.

[ZootCadillac]

I think it is simply a means of stating "click this flag for this country's native language" whatever that flag maybe.

The Union flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is not the flag of England but is most often used to represent an 'English' language choice. I suppose id you wanted to be pedantic you'd say it must be the flag of St George as that is the representative flag of England.

And if you wanted to be pedantic you'd have to say there can be no flag because English is a mixture of Danish and High German with whatever French was adopted after the 11th Century.



So I guess, it does not really matter as long as it presents the user with a choice that they fully understand, which is after all the point of representative icons.

[ZootCadillac]

beegkitty wrote...

So wait - Stanley Woo is a BioWare representative? What wonderful customer facing skills you have! Perhaps you should take some classes on how to represent a company in a professional manner.

This is a horrible representation of BioWare if you ARE an employee.

That's just ridiculous and a little uptight. Chill out.

[Amberyl Ravenclaw]

beegkitty wrote...

So wait - Stanley Woo is a BioWare representative? What wonderful customer facing skills you have! Perhaps you should take some classes on how to represent a company in a professional manner.

This is a horrible representation of BioWare if you ARE an employee.

Oh, come on. He's making a point, and I think a very well-argued one at that. Plus, having worked in customer service myself for a time, I can tell you that the customer isn't necessarily always king or right. Also, there are just times when you have to call a spade a spade, especially when they deserve it.

Modifié par Amberyl Ravenclaw, 13 novembre 2009 - 08:14 .

[Stanley Woo]

beegkitty wrote...

So wait - Stanley Woo is a BioWare representative? What wonderful customer facing skills you have! Perhaps you should take some classes on how to represent a company in a professional manner.

This is a horrible representation of BioWare if you ARE an employee.

In what way is it horrible to say that some people are exaggerating the importance of a tiny little Canadian flag? People are exaggerating the importance of it and I don't particularly care for it. I also detailed the reason we did it and rejected some of the other reasons given or implied in this very thread.

I prefer to speak bluntly and honestly (within the bounds of propriety and courtesy, of course), and I think most of our community would prefer that we do as well. If you, beegkitty, are suggesting that I "should take some classes" in things like denial, obfuscation, double-speak, and/or meaningless buzzwords, then please know that I already know how to do that. I simply prefer to speak openly and reserve the right to be my own sarcastic self if I feel people are making mountains out of molehills.

If you are still concerned about my behaviour, I encourage you to consider what it means for that little Canadian flag to be there indicating English. Is it confusing? Are we being insulting to another country by putting our flag there? Is there an international standard we are failing to meet? Who operates this board? What is this board for? And who is ultimately affected by this Canadian flag, negatively or positively? I hope you will come to the same conclusions I did, that some folks are taking this far too personally and seriously when all we wanted was to put our own flag in to indicate English. We also are proud of our country and what we have accomplished in Dragon Age, and this happens to be the Dragon Age community. If not, then there's really nothing more I can say to convince you.

[MisterShine]

You tell 'em Mr. Woo. The other companies can keep their customer service robots, I'd prefer to have a dialogue about things with an actual human being.

EDIT: This is actually a dig on BioWare's parent company EA. I've had 3conversations with their support staff and I'm fairly convinced none of them speak english, they just use 100% copy paste responses, or put everything through a google filter and then post the translation.

Though I'm pretty sure the original post was a joke, I can't see anyone possibly being offended or confused by the canadian flag ((We all have lies we tell ourselves to make it through the day, let me live in my bubble))

Modifié par MisterShine, 13 novembre 2009 - 10:13 .

[Sponozza0]

kevin1gamer wrote...

Seriously, why use the Canadian flag instead of the American flag? In fact, Canadians also speak French, so it contradicts itself. Here in the United States, we speak English, so our flag should be up.

Uh...

as has been mentioned, I wouldn't see the Canadian flag as representing French.  The fleur-de-lis (on the Quebec flag) on the other hand, would have me assuming French.

I live in the praries of Canada.  You're hard pressed to find someone that speaks French here, unless they are Meti.

http://en.wikipedia....guage_in_Canada

[Ninjaphrog]

Staggart wrote...

Considering this is the OT forum this thread is very OT.

Yes, I understand that a majority people of people in Canada speak English but why choose that flag for the language?   The flag should obviously be the UK flag considering that is where the language hailed from.  If not England than it should be the American flag considering it is the largest English speaking country on Earth with probably with around 250 million plus fluent speakers.  Not a slap on Canada because I believe it is a great place, but for a country where there is two national anthems, it seems wrong to use the Canadian flag for the English language.

USing this logic why not use the Canadian flag for the french language as well?  

Please pardon my bluntness but who the hell gives a **** ?

American, Canadian, British, or Australian flag...seriously does it matter? As long as it's not like the German flag next to "English" I'm happy.

Besides it's ALWAYS either the US or EN flags that symbolize english...give the Canadians a chance to feel special, it doesn't happen very often!

[aries1001]

Bioware is a Canadian company based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.



As for the Canadian flag, I like it. It does not hurt anyone, but just sits there marking that Canada is the homeland of Bioware.



As others have suggested most sites have a US or UK flag for English. Does it hurt anymore that Bioware uses the Canadian flag? No, it does not...



It's a little un-usual; maybe that's why I like it.

[Ninjaphrog]

Stanley Woo wrote...

beegkitty wrote...

So wait - Stanley Woo is a BioWare representative? What wonderful customer facing skills you have! Perhaps you should take some classes on how to represent a company in a professional manner.

This is a horrible representation of BioWare if you ARE an employee.

In what way is it horrible to say that some people are exaggerating the importance of a tiny little Canadian flag? People are exaggerating the importance of it and I don't particularly care for it. I also detailed the reason we did it and rejected some of the other reasons given or implied in this very thread.

I prefer to speak bluntly and honestly (within the bounds of propriety and courtesy, of course), and I think most of our community would prefer that we do as well. If you, beegkitty, are suggesting that I "should take some classes" in things like denial, obfuscation, double-speak, and/or meaningless buzzwords, then please know that I already know how to do that. I simply prefer to speak openly and reserve the right to be my own sarcastic self if I feel people are making mountains out of molehills.

If you are still concerned about my behaviour, I encourage you to consider what it means for that little Canadian flag to be there indicating English. Is it confusing? Are we being insulting to another country by putting our flag there? Is there an international standard we are failing to meet? Who operates this board? What is this board for? And who is ultimately affected by this Canadian flag, negatively or positively? I hope you will come to the same conclusions I did, that some folks are taking this far too personally and seriously when all we wanted was to put our own flag in to indicate English. We also are proud of our country and what we have accomplished in Dragon Age, and this happens to be the Dragon Age community. If not, then there's really nothing more I can say to convince you.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Ninjaphrog]

aries1001 wrote...


It's a little un-usual; maybe that's why I like it.

I know it's the reason I like it...

Look on any other forums...next to "English" its always the british or american flag...It's nice to see Canadians proving that they have as much right to represent the english language as the british do.

aaannnnddd NO ONE cares about Scotland...haha

[DigitalOrigami]

Never argue with the wootabaga....

[Staggart]

Didn't mean to ****** anyone off, but I was just making an observation of something that seemed very odd to me.

[Orogun01]

Blame Canada! Blame Canada!

[MrGOH]

FollowTheGourd wrote...

Mordaedil wrote...

What are you talkin' aboot?

MrGOH wrote...

It should be the English flag not the UK's, if you wanna be specific.

What exactly is an "English flag" then?

Not to make this thread more absurd, but there's a difference between England and the UK. And there is an English (as in of England) flag: http://en.wikipedia....Flag_of_England. I've sometimes seen that used as a generic English-language icon, but it's always just looked somewhat weird to me in that context.

Yup. The English flag. Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland are conquered provinces whose native languages are slowly dying.

To the poster who suggested that the difference between Canadian English and American English is as significant as the difference between the regional dialects of various European languages: it isn't. Canadians use British spellings on many of their words, use the metric system (more reliably than the British, in my experience) and have a few funny pronunciations. But the Canadian dialect is very close to a 'neutral' American dialect - most Americans would assume upon hearing a Canadian that s/he is from the American Midwest. At least until the word about comes up - they pronounce it in a way most Americans find hilarious and quaint, like they're saying 'a boot'.

Modifié par MrGOH, 14 novembre 2009 - 01:54 .

[DigitalOrigami]

That's 'cause most Americans say it like "a bat", which we find equally hilarious, btw.

[Stagmar]

My reaction when I saw the maple leaf for english was "cool my hometown dev is showing their national pride."

Modifié par Stagmar, 16 novembre 2009 - 01:10 .

[MrGOH]

DigitalOrigami wrote...

That's 'cause most Americans say it like "a bat", which we find equally hilarious, btw.

I dunno about 'a bat' - I say it like 'ab out'. You know, the normal way.

Modifié par MrGOH, 14 novembre 2009 - 02:34 .

[Inarai]

Sponozza0 wrote...

kevin1gamer wrote...

Seriously, why use the Canadian flag instead of the American flag? In fact, Canadians also speak French, so it contradicts itself. Here in the United States, we speak English, so our flag should be up.

Uh...

as has been mentioned, I wouldn't see the Canadian flag as representing French.  The fleur-de-lis (on the Quebec flag) on the other hand, would have me assuming French.

I live in the praries of Canada.  You're hard pressed to find someone that speaks French here, unless they are Meti.

Also, depending on which part you're in, you might be hard pressed to find a hill.  </saskatchewan joke>

Incidentally:  kevin1gamer, get over yourself.  People in all countries speak many different languages, especially in immigration centres like Canada or the US.  Now, it is true the country is officially bilingual, that really just means you have French on the packaging.  Regions WILL be dominant to one language or another.  A person in Quebec is expected to do business in French, for the most part, and equally, a person in Alberta is expected to do business in English.

But the Canadian flag could be put by both, yes, if and only if we're talking about Canadian French - quite different.

[mrofni]

Its good that they used the Canadian flag. It shows that not only a few countries can create good products. It is also good that more countries start to get in on the competition, it allows for more diverse backgrounds to be established in the gaming world. Having games always be created by a single country tends to only bring out games with social background of that country. More countries creating quality games means a more diverse gaming industry, which is more choices for the consumer.

[DigitalOrigami]

MrGOH wrote...

DigitalOrigami wrote...

That's 'cause most Americans say it like "a bat", which we find equally hilarious, btw.

I dunno about 'a bat' - I say it like 'ab out'. You know, the normal way.

Oh, the normal way. Like Canadians. I've never heard anybody other than a drunk Scotsman say "aboot" (it was one of the few things he said that I could understand), but I've heard plenty of Americans say "abat," including a fellow who insisted his name was Scat. Took me a while to figure out he meant "Scott" .... <_<

Modifié par DigitalOrigami, 14 novembre 2009 - 01:52 .

[Sslaxx]

Not happy with Woo's response, beegkitty? Well, you can always go above his head if you feel his behaviour is unprofessional. Nobody enjoys being carpeted by their boss. </sarcasm>

As for the flag... what flag does EA Canada (of which BioWare is a part) use to represent itself like this, if anything?

Modifié par Sslaxx, 14 novembre 2009 - 02:52 .