New Rank Titles

[Kiwijam]

Hi all,

Well, after eventually reading through all the above comments, I can say that I am definitely in favour of a change of rank-names.

- I can't think why other towns would be negative, as some say. If 11 other towns already have new names, then we're not exactly flaunting wealth at all. And as pointed out, 15000 taler is chicken feed for many towns.

- As for being seen as anti-German, I think the average German speaker realises that BSW is very German-centric. I'm not at all suggesting we have a right to replace their language or anything, in fact I quite enjoy the culture on here. And pretending to speak German while using a babelfish in the background is fun. As long as we respect the German-ness of this site (as I always see ETers doing).

- And in general, if anyone finds our rank-name, they will also find our city (ET) at the same place, ie the /info box or PlayerInfo screen, so we're not advertising ourselves as being "not-German" any more than we were before by being members of ET.

Of course, as TheBoomer says, we must be sensible, or we will lose people that are disgusted with the new names. This is not something that should be risked. I will only be happy with a straight translation from the German, or modified when appropriate. As Lepidus suggested. Any talk of animals, fruit, army ranks, business terms are fun, I agree, but not appropriate for a large town like ET. Let smaller towns try them, then people can choose to join if they wish.

- Most of all, I am sick of calling myself and others W14, K16.. "hey, grats on reaching W12". The ranking names mean nothing to most of us, and we just treat it as simply numbers, which is missing out on any feeling of metagame.


Finally, I'll don my "clerical" hat. I haven't noticed any other clerics in this discussion, but as senior Legat (although I don't know what a legat/legate is, so I say K16 - unless something odd's happening), I like the thoughts of Lepidus.
[I don't aspire to be a Inquisitor (who I associate with evil), Avatar, Archangel, Seraph (I'm a mere mortal) etc.]

But I don't want our monks to be K9, while the older monchs were K4 for example. Simliar for bishops etc.

So matching up the ranks (they may be slightly out of order for the RC church, but I'd much rather be accurate to the German ranknames). I've looked up to fill some of the gaps http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholicism

1: Newbie
2: Citizen
3: Novice
4: Monk / Nun
5: Brother / Sister
6: Chaplain
7: Vicar
8: Minister
9: Deacon / Deaconess
10: Prior / Prioress  
11: Abbott / Abbess  
12: Pastor
13: Curate
14: Priest / Priestess
15: Bishop
16: Patriarch
17: Archbishop
18: Papal Nuncio
19: Cardinal
20: Prefect
21: Pope

and similar translation for the W ranks (mainly from bliss and Lardarse):

1 Newbie
2 Citizen
3 Apprentice
4 Farmer
5 Associate
6 Squire
7 Craftsman (Craftswoman)
8 Merchant
9 Master (Mistress)
10 Patrician
11 Knight
12 Lord (Lady)
13 Baron (Baroness)
14 Count (Countess)
15 Marquess (Marchioness)
16 Duke (Duchess)
17 Archduke (Archduchess)
18 Prince (Princess)
19 Crown Prince (Crown Princess)
20 King (Queen)
21 Emperor (Empress)

[xandern]

Many of you know, and the rest will know after they read this, that I'm a strong proponent of democracy in Englishtown.

In the past we have had votes of things like names for game rooms and landscaping ideas.  This however is an issue that affects everyone in town directly.  So I submit that any decision must be widely supported.  We have over 300 people in town, this can't be decided by a small number of people.

As for the military ranks, I did put together a list, back in the november discussion.  At the time that seemed too political for my taste.

Boomer

If we are going to decide to wait with making any changes until a majority of our town will express support of a namechange, I think we might as well stop this discussion now... This might sound a bit negative, but if you look at how many people in our town seem to be really involved with what is going on, it is a not such a big number unfortunately... Out of the 300 citizens in our town, the immense number of 25 took the trouble of voting last month (8 %!!). Since voting is just typing 6 characters followed by a name, expecting the majority of our townfolk to post here what they would want is a bit unrealistic. I think most players join our town, since they like to play games and be able to communicate in English with their fellow players and there is no better place to do that than in EnglishTown. There is nothing wrong with that of-course, and we do quite well as a town, but I do think we should keep this in mind when we want to decide on things.

Considering EnglishTown is the main English community in Brettspielwelt, I think the best way to go for custom-names in our town is to go for the direct translations of the general German names. This would best reflect what our town is and can hardly offend anyone...

xandern

[TheBoomer]

I never said that we should wait for a majority.  What I said was that any decision should be widely supported.

I think voting for mayor is a bad example.  The reason is with only one declared candidate it's no wonder that turnout is low.  People view the vote for mayor as not important.
If we had people actually decide to run for mayor, I suspect that you'd see turnout much higher.  With only one candidate, people can rightly say, voting doesn't matter.

New titles will be different, people will see them every time they are on BSW.

Boomer

[Paradox99]

If we change rank titles then it ought to be to nobility titles corresponding to the current German titles, and the ones Kiwijam has listed above look very good.  For one thing, they are nice titles and don't offend anyone.

Secondly, if not them, it could be dozens of things.  Cats, magic, military, reptiles, business, fantasy creatures, mystery, horror, colors, undead, science fiction, movie stars, computer components, who knows.  No one thing pleasing all that many people.

Previously I prefered keeping the German titles until they confused me by changing  them.  Now I could go either way, almost.  But with ET so massive and growing, I do think we are a bit better off in being percieved as good guests if we keep our current ranks.  11 other towns may have changed their names, but they aren't in our situation.

[Lepidus]

Hi,

I would like to move a vote on the Kiwijam titles (English translation of the German titles).

I'd vote for adopting them.

Lepidus

[Nikita]

From the postings here I think it is quite clear that very few of our members will be against changing titles to an English translation of the current titles.

I like Kiwijam's suggestion.

[Karnak]

I prefer to keep the German titles, and I hate military titles.

Karnak

[queequeg]

From the postings here I think it is quite clear that very few of our members will be against changing titles to an English translation of the current titles.

I like Kiwijam's suggestion.

I'm with kiwijam and Nikita.

queequeg