My favorite roleplaying game is Second Life, specifically, Second Life Gor. Yesterday I had a visitor to the sim I roleplay on who wants to roleplay but is having major problems with the language barrier. He is Chinese, and uses a free translation program available in Second Life called the Metanomics translators, but he says that the translator does not translate well enough for him and his buddies to enjoy roleplay. Understandable, when I responded to one of his questions with the single word “No” the translator produced three lines of Chinese characters.
I’ve successsfully roleplayed with German and Russian roleplayers via the Metanomics translator, but it’s just not working that well for Chinese.
I figure that the Straight Dope being the cosmopolitan place it is, some of you may have encountered these issues before, does anyone know of a better solution than the Metanomics translator for helping facilitate communication between Chinese and English roleplayers?