What do you think...

[Solaje]

...about thinking in different languages over the pendant?

(Aplogies if this has already been suggested)

[Barius]

It's something that's been discussed before, but thinking is a pretty universal way to communicate was the conclusion. So languages wouldn't really make sense over ESP.

[Solaje]

Thanks Barius. I guess we can't really compare esp to real life thinking anyway. I know I think in English even while studying other languages, but then again, I'm not fluent in anything else.

[Barius]

It's a tricky mechanic. I'd say logically we can think in languages too, but there's arguments to be made for whether the language barrier is a mental one or a physical one, and it came down to being a physical one. You might think in one language, but the recipient(s) would understand it in their own.

[Fayne]

Yeah, basically the thoughts are processed by the reciever into something they understand. This is the reason I find people who use their character's accent over ESP extremely annoying, because it implies the recipients are all applying an accent to that thought in their own head, which yeah, that may make sense if they associate the color with a specific person, but if someone has no idea who that person is, why would they be doing that just to that thought specifically? I think some ESP etiquette would be nice to establish.

While I'm on the subject though, I did know a couple people who played characters who spoke very brokenly in Common, but when they spoke in their own language or over ESP, they were easy to understand. I love that, and it makes sense. Why does it make sense? Well, we have mechanics to support it, in the form of characters who have a Common skill of less than 100, can hardly communicate in Common, but still use the pendants and speak their native language just fine.

[Solaje]

Yeah, I wonder if a better description of the ESP network somewhere would help people. If my character had an accent, I might have used it over ESP not knowing it's a magical translator. It seems like there's a lot of lore and general knowledge that isn't well documented.

Some lore needs to be learned in character, obviously. Pretty minor stuff considering all re-balancing that's going on. Thanks for explaining pendants to me!

[jilliana]

As a person that speaks 2 languages and uses 3 and is working on learning more IRL, thinking in my mother tongue depends on circumstance. Obviously this varies from person to person.

I would actually love some kind of mechanic for thinking in different languages, though the only negative that I can think of would be that listening to someone speak some unknown language for more than a few moments on such a public place as gray ESp would get annoying.

As for the accents, I'm ok with them being used over ESp. Going back to my first point at the beginning of my post - I do this easily when I'm thinking IRL. If you were taught to say something a certain way, you're going to think that word as well.

[Fayne]

Yes, I agree with you that you will hear your own thoughts in that accent, and if you know more than one language, chances are you will think in all of those languages at one point or another. However, ESP isn't sending your exact thought to other people. I'm sure we all have those "voices" in our head, where we think things in different voices, including our own. If ESP sent exactly what we thought, then the color system wouldn't matter, since you would "hear" the voice of whoever was sending the thought. Since this isn't the case, it's safe to say that esp works like some kind of radio with built-in Google translate that actually works. Our thoughts get sent out as signals from our pendants to all others within range, and those pendants send the signal to the reciever's brain, where it interprets it into something it understands. So, if you have an accent and think in that accent, pretty much every thought that comes in over ESP would have that accent as well. I also imagine the thoughts are all interpretted in some kind of weird mix of all languages you know as well, or perhaps they get translated into whatever language your brain is most used to using. In fact, this theory also explains why the coloring system is so important. If the thoughts weren't tinged with a color, then they'd likely be nearly indistinguishable from your own thoughts, which could really drive a person mad. It also explains why you can't differentiate between two people who are both using Gray.