Should NSC introduce a language rule?

[doctormalisimo]

Ok, since English language songs dominate the contest, I think it's time we bring in a language rule, like Eurovision back in the good old days.

Proposal: Nations may only enter an entry in the native language of the player.

I believe this will foster a greater diversity within the contest and mean we'll get to hear exciting languages like Swedish and Spanish a lot - definitely underrepresented languages in NSC lore.

Please share your opinion, unless you don't think this is a good idea.

 

[takeru]

I would much rather we send the songs in our fictional nation’s national language. Don’t forget the whole point of this is a roleplay simulation. If it were up to me, I would get rid of these notions of “Earth” languages altogether. Besides, I’ve been looking for an excuse to send this banger in the Yaponesian dialect, and this rule would definitely increase its chances!

 

[My Star]

I agree wholeheartedly, I am slightly concerned about Nathans proposals above however? How would it be workable? What if nations start "conveniently" changing their dialects to send certain songs. More appropriate is a simple language rule, or a commitment to a given language. A potential idea would be another nation assigns you a dialect? Might lead to some interesting covers if you need to get to grasp with a new language!

 

[theditz83]

By all means, I am on board with more diversity in the contest, hence my attempt at introducing a more diverse range of genres and styles in the Moisantia entries going forward, but forcing a specific language on players could not only be potentially unfair but it could actively switch players off from taking part. I know that if I were to end up with a language or dialect that I knew very little songs in, I would try my hardest to research the best options, but the fact may remain that I just don't connect with the music that is put out in those languages.

Perhaps a rule that states that a player needs to send a minimum of one song every 5 editions in a language other than their native tongue or the language that their nation has used most frequently over their NSC history? Depending on the specifics, that's something I could support, but restricting players to using a set language only for the whole of their participation in the contest somewhat goes against the freedom that NSC affords to send virtually anything outwith the Eurovision sphere.

 

[Fearnavigatr]

While diversity is good, we don't want to restrict creative freedom for nations too much. How about every time a song wins, all entries of the same language are banned for the next twenty editions?

 

[tuorem]

As much as I would like the language rule to be back in Eurovision, I personally would not be in favour of it being implemented here because I think the absence of restriction of any kind musically-speaking (genre, length, language, release date) is precisely what sets NSC apart from the other games of the forum (and one of the main reasons why I joined actually).

While I agree that English language is unsurprisingly prevailing (sadly), obligating people to send entries in their native language would de facto prevent languages no one speaks in the roster from being featured. Not to mention imaginary ones. And not all music scenes are equal as far as language, it might be harder for some to find options they truly like depending on their preferred genres.

Somehow, it would mean a language would be a member's property, which is not quite fair imo.

As far as I am concerned, I had planned to follow my own rotation system language-wise, which would not be possible with such rule either. I am determined to showcase my own language, no doubt, but I would like to send other languages too. And by that, I don't mean English only.

I encourage our fellow members to bring more diversity in this regard though, as it is something I am mindful of myself.

 

[Alevender]

 

[Leydan]

Actually when I joined WL my intent was to only ever send Spanish language songs, because of the inspiration of my country and what I had built it's 'RP' on. This lasted a whole 1 edition of WLSC, however, as you can see with my entries I do tend to lean in that direction. Instead I think it's better to just not restrict people and let them choose freely, and instead roleplay the fact that the entries are in the countries native language. So for example, in Solentoya people speak Solish which is heavily based on Spanish but also Romance languages in general. With a Hae minority (because of story building made with an old WL country Handaen) which is Turkish based. I understand a lot of people don't care about any roleplay aspect of their country and use it as a means to send their entries but it's always one aspect I've loved about NSC (which you can all clearly see through my wiki page lol). Generally I just pretend most entries are in the native langauge of the country rather than real life languages.

 

[Ana Raquel]

On our way to a brazilian portuguese first win

 

[berlyda]

I agree wholeheartedly, I am slightly concerned about Nathans proposals above however? How would it be workable? What if nations start "conveniently" changing their dialects to send certain songs. More appropriate is a simple language rule, or a commitment to a given language. A potential idea would be another nation assigns you a dialect? Might lead to some interesting covers if you need to get to grasp with a new language!

Yes, I think this is the solution. We can use the pots system to divide the roster up into two groups of 30, and assign pairs based on a random ordering of each of these groups. Of course, the two nations in a pair must be from different pots, to avoid personal biases. Then each player assigns a language to the other nation in their pairing. That nation must then be committed to sending songs in their assigned language henceforth.

As the rules mod, I hereby certify this new rule, pending community approval.

 

[berlyda]

While diversity is good, we don't want to restrict creative freedom for nations too much. How about every time a song wins, all entries of the same language are banned for the next twenty editions?

Genius! Every 20 consecutive editions will be guaranteed to have 20 different languages under this rule! I will allow people to discuss this one a bit more, as I would not like to be overzealous in certifying two rules at once, but I believe this shall be an excellent addition also, when it inevitably passes.

 

[Leydan]

Ok i didn't catch the April fools in this at all. Although in my defence i don't psychologically start the the 1st till after I wake up in several hours x

 

[Lonter]

The idea of a language rule would just create more issues. Just like in the pre-1999, members from English speaking countries would have a probable advantage points wise, which would defeat the point in trying to ensure fairness and would probably ensure less diversity winner wise.

And what about countries that don't actually have no official language? Would they be kicked out of NSC? Worse, what about the people that migrated to other countries, are they supposed to have access to all of the native languages from both countries?

Naturally, the solution to this is to force everybody to send a song all in the same language and keep rotating that language. Have a Korean edition, a Spanish edition, French, Esperanto, diversity assured!

 

[Stargazer]

I am very concerned about the lack of Trollish representation in NSC and the music industry as a whole, so I would very much welcome this rule. I say we introduce a Language Randomizer Tombola every edition where each nation gets to draw a new random language they must send an entry in!

 

[Steffan]

This seems like a very interesting proposal. I do think we send too many songs in English (and most of the winners are in English as well), so implementing such a rule would certainly contribute to the diversity of the entries which is very important for me.

What I would suggest though is a slight variation on the rule. We should not be basing the language on any person's native language, but instead on the native language of the country he/she was in when they confirmed their entry each edition.

Now, in these trying COVID times, people don't travel as much so a person's entries would mostly be in 1 language. But imagine how great it would be once the travel restrictions are lifted. It would be a great conversation starter: if I saw Anna sending an entry in Croatian I would instantly know she visited Croatia and would be inclined to ask he how her trip went and exchange experiences. Also, when you travel you are exposed to a lot of the songs from the country you are visiting, feeling inspired by them you would be allowed to send one to NSC as well. Also, it would be boosting the international economy as well by incentivizing people to travel more.

Of course, with VPNs we would have to have some sort of proof someone is actually in whatever country when submitting an entry but I think that can be easily arranged, as we are all very fair players to begin with.

 

[HayashiM]

Why does this feel like an April's fools that's dangerously close to gaining actual traction?

Anyway, if there's this issue, it's with English. So I believe a gentle way of pushing for more diversity could've been a rule that everyone should send a non-English song at least once every 5 editions. That's nothing overly restrictive, many nations do conform to that already anyway, but it could still achieve something.

Assigning languages would just turn this into a slightly different worldvision, right?

 

[Edweis]

Can't wait for Pyreican to become the lingua franca

 

[theditz83]

Ok i didn't catch the April fools in this at all. Although in my defence i don't psychologically start the the 1st till after I wake up in several hours x

Omg me too. It wasn't until @Fearnavigatr posted about the 20 edition language ban that I twigged

 

[CypriotGirl]

I voted yes. It will intrigue me to send songs only in Oussoulandish.

Another proposal is that the song should be sung by the juror of each nation.

 

[theditz83]

I voted yes. It will intrigue me to send songs only in Oussoulandish.

I read that as Outlandish - living for FoFo being all outlandish