Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) in "The Germans" episode of Fawlty Towers fashioned "(d)on't mention the war" to really mean "yes do, incessently" and "what is the buffoon going on about," depending upon your seat on that stage.
In a virtual world, where you parked your seat might also affect the client software you are using. For example, Eve-Online has started offering a German client for Germans to interact with the universe of Tranquility [FN1]. I have an English version. Neither version helps when it comes to communicating with each other: in the reaches of Eve-Online areas where German seems to be the first language, I am still at a loss for words.
None of this will help me make the fly-in from (e-)Boston to (e-)Keflavik this Sunday (see here) - my "Virtual Air Traffic Simulation Network" (VATSIM) simming skills are not up to it yet. Yet, the Germans I've encountered in Eve-Online might explain the odd sensation I had the other day looking into Microsoft Flight Simulator X...
In the Flight Simulator universe, modding aircraft (e.g. new models) and scenery (e.g. more detailed 3D textures/models for airfields) is as old as the hills. Yet the latest Microsoft Flight Simulator (version X) apparently allows developers to create a fuller range of simulated objects (see the SDK). For example, I read somewhere that one could create AI whales swimming off the coast of Nova Scotia.
This is a point that distinguishes a single player game from a multiplayer game client. In the single player game what I see is of no matter to you. Whereas, in the multiplayer game perhaps it might be. But not always.
If you are flying around in VATSIM and are able to see whales off Nova Scotia and your wing companion cannot, yes this is an inconsistency in the game world that separates you from him. However, since VATSIM is not about whale watching and it since it is also a world where one can participate with different versions of Flight Simulator with different sets of scenery installed, it is fair to guess that these differences don't matter. A cooperative player universe means that were there any gain from seeing those whales I couldn't use it against you.
This would be less true for other worlds where you and I may be in direct or indirect competition. Let's say you can mod up your client software in such a way that provides you with some advantage over me, is it unfair if I don't share it with you? If I were a hyper suspicious Eve-Online player I might want to have a look at that German client (humor).
I think I'll go whale watching instead.
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[FN1] See here:
REYKJAVIK, ICELAND - AUGUST 16, 2006 -- CCP, creator of MMOG EVE Online with 170,000
subscribers worldwide, will launch a German version of EVE Online at the Games Convention
in Leipzig, Germany, August 24-27, 2006. The German client will be the first localized
version of the EVE Online client on the Tranquility cluster. Visitors to the Games
Convention are welcomed to view the first showing of the German EVE Online client
in the CCP stand B05 in Hall 5 of the Leipziger Messe.
"We have been waiting for this moment for a long time to offer localized versions
of EVE Online, and this marks the beginning of a new chapter for EVE Online,"
said Nathan Richardsson, Senior Producer at CCP. "German is the first language
we offer besides English on our Tranquility cluster and we hope that the German
players will appreciate this new feature. A lot of work has been done to prepare
the EVE Online client for localization and we have plans to support other languages
in the very near future."....
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