Language in Ikariam UK

  • Dear players,


    as you know, ikariam.org (aka Ikariam UK / EN) was originally put in place for British people, but within a short period of time it reached an international dimension: despite English being the official language, here you can find people coming from all around the world.


    Some time ago, some Ikariam communities closed, and we had a flux of players from those countries. So, on our servers there are now many "national" alliances, where e.g. people coming from Philippines or Pakistan or Iran can meet and continue playing Ikariam on a "local" basis. Anyway, language used could be an issue for people who don't know English, and want to play Ikariam.


    After some discussions about this matter, we decided to boost a little more our community, offering a space where non-English native speakers can interact using their own language: within the alliance. So, we have decided to review the rule about language in this way.

    • It is now possible to create specific non-English speaking alliances. On such alliances it is allowed to use your own language in circular, private IGMs, and in ingame forum.
    • Leader who wants to create a language-specific alliance must inform GOs via ticket system
    • Non-English speaking alliances must have officers able to speak English: when contacted by Staff, they must be able to reply.
    • Non-English speaking alliances must report on external page a clear sentence (in English) telling which language is used inside the alliance. E.g. “This alliance is mainly for [your language] speaking players”.
    • External alliance page must be written in English
    • Language used for communication between users on different alliances must be in English (even if both alliances are using internally the same language).
    • Insults and swearing are still not allowed at all, even in non-English language.
    • Messages sent in non-English language between people belonging to different alliances do not cause any ban (if not insulting and randomly sent). Anyway, reported user will be warned to always use the English language. (Clarified, 25th of.Oct.2020)

    Contact your GO via ticket system if you need further clarification.


    Please note: this rule was decided and put in place for EN/UK community only (British Ikariam. formerly ikariam.org). This means that other Ikariam communities can consider this behaviour as non applicable, or outside rules. So please, in case of doubt, contact Staff of other communities for further clarifications.


    (Originally posted on 13th of September 2012)

  • A little clarification about user names and village names

    Since this is a GB / EN community, we ask the players to choose user names and alliance names accordingly. In particular, user and alliance names must be found on e.g. high score list when typed by an English player who uses a "normal" keyboard without diacritics (accent, cedilla, tilde, umlaut, etc). That's why we used a conservative approach, limiting user/ally names to just plain Latin ASCII characters. Village names, instead, must be readable, even if non-Latin characters are used; so, diacritics and some decorative characters are allowed.

    Let me explain it with some examples.

    • "à", "ç" and "ñ" are Latin character with accents or diacritics (cedilla and tilde), and they are NOT allowed in user/ally names.
    • "µ", "α" and "β" are Greek letters, are NOT allowed in user/ally names
    • "dяєαмєя", "français", "télé", "Piraña", "µ-sečond", "βrødær" or "straße" are NOT allowed as user/ally names [non-Latin characters or Latin diphthongs or characters with diacritics] but allowed as village names [text is evident and clear]
    • "DreameR", "DrEaMeR", "DREAMER 666", "Tele", "Pirana", "Micro_Second" are always allowed [Latin character without diacritics].
    • "µ-Cosmos", "Blσσdy", "Piraña", "キ črìstàllò", "ĢĂmễ ŌΰεŔ", "ƚҚąЯƚдᄽ" are allowed in village names [Latin character with diacritics or non-Latin character used for "decorative" purposes or in replacement of Latin characters where meaning is clear];
    • "μυρσινη" "МиланВелики" "אליעזר" "عاشق البحر" "半濁点" are NOT allowed at all [non-Latin characters, unclear meaning for an English speaker]
    • "F_ckingB_stard" is not allowed at all [it is a clear insult that uses some "bad words", even if it is partially masked and written with Latin chars]

    For the sake of clarity, it is possible to search using plain text and find names having some accents and diacritics; anyway, it does NOT work for e.g. some Turkish and Polish/Czech diacritics: that's why we decided to use the conservative approach, and enforce this simple rule. Currently there are no plans to change it, and exceptions are not allowed.


    What happens if I am reported or I use a non-allowed user/ally name?
    We normally conduct regular checks (weekly, more or less), and we prefer to contact the player directly in-game, to quickly close the case and not ruin his game fun. For alliances, we notify the leader (or another officer if the leader is on vacation). In case of discussions or other troubles, we have to stop the player with a ban, and continue the discussion via Ticket System, until the user agrees with our request.


    Feel free to contact your GO via ticket system if you need further clarification.