This follows on Elmer’s post about cheating amongst Japanese players. Reading the post reminded me of something that happened in game. It involves tools and the question what constitutes a tool or cheating? Is there anything you can use outside of what Square Enix provides players that doesn’t violate the TOS?

Third-party tools are frowned upon by the majority of the Japanese community. Those that use them are branded cheaters and often fall into some segment of the “haijin/elitist” population. So it’s no surprise that when Windower was brought up as part of Talking Points, many people responded about it. For some players, it doesn’t matter if you don’t use any additional plug-ins or not. On the other hand, some English speaking players pointed out that without the use of third-party tools, it is impossible to input Japanese characters. A bit after the first round of Talking Points was over, I saw it being discussed on a couple Japanese boards. Many people commented on Windower and this “feature”. After all, there are always those people who wish more foreigners would try to speak in Japanese but it’s hard to push the issue if using Japanese characters would end up being a violation of the TOS. (I get asked this from time to time, so for the record: I have the English PC version, but I don’t use Windower. I mainly play on my American PS2 anyways. When I talk with people, I use romaji. This has caused all sorts of interesting misunderstandings that maybe I’ll talk about someday.)

So on to my story. I was chatting with a group of Japanese players. A younger player mentioned the use of tools to figure something out. The other people in the group immediately jumped on him, called him a tool user, and said if he didn’t stop using tools he couldn’t play with them anymore. The younger player began to freak out, apologized profusely, and promised never to use tools. However, within this same group of players, there are some that use specialized dictionaries but they don’t receive the same backlash. Then, in a party with completely different people, I saw someone use a dictionary again and nobody acted like it was wrong or strange. It doesn’t seem that using these dictionaries is considered cheating or a violation of the TOS (by the players).

There are probably some people who are wondering what I’m talking about. To explain what the dictionaries are, we need to review a little bit about Japanese input methods and how they work.

The ability to type in basic Japanese characters (hiragana and katakana) and convert them into the proper kanji is actually an amazing computing accomplishment. After all, there are new words that enter the language over time and there are also many homonyms in the language.

For example, きしゃ (kisha) could be:

記者　(a reporter)
貴社 (an honorific word for “your company”)
汽車 (a steam train)
帰社 (returning to your company office)

When you want to type one of those words, you start by typing きしゃ and then, using Microsoft’s IME (input method editor) as an example, hit the space bar or a 変換 (henkan “conversion”) key on a Japanese keyboard. Doing so pops up a list of possible words you might be looking for. More common entries are often placed at the top of the conversion list. The list I made for きしゃ is in the order they appeared on the list.

Many systems also include a “learning” feature. If I was a train enthusiast and often wrote about steam trains, 汽車 might move to the top. Also, as there are kanji with similar meanings but different usages, some IMEs offer advice on the best kanji to use. The system is very complex and many people didn’t think it would be possible to do. Sadly enough, one of the first people who came up with a working system didn’t receive credit and had to sue over it.

The ability to convert words is only as strong as the dictionary file you use with the system. (You can think of the dictionary file as a giant list of possible conversion options.) For example, the word for Black Mage in Japanese (黒魔道士 kuromadoushi) is not your typical Japanese word. If you try to convert くろまどうし (the hiragana equivalent), your IME tries to search the dictionary file and comes up with its best guess. In this case, my computer likes 黒ま動詞 which makes no sense. It found the word for black (くろ) and the word for verb (どうし) and put them together. When I want to type out 黒魔道士 I have to type and convert each kanji individually which takes a lot of time. If you were playing FFXI, this could get really annoying. This applies to all the special words used in the game for places, jobs, abilities, etc. A normal Japanese dictionary file doesn’t contain those words.

It is possible to add words to your dictionary. People do this all the time. Perhaps you add your company name or the name of some product you’ve developed. People who chat a lot might add a wide range of pre-made faces and expressions. One of my LS mates gets tired of the dictionary files he uses, so every so often he’ll find a new set. His latest set seems quite girlish but it fits since he’s a Mithra. In summary, when Japanese players use all those various cute expressions, they aren’t typing them out by hand. They are already built into their dictionary.

To help Japanese players, SE has made a specific dictionary file that can be added to your standard Japanese dictionary file. The information is automatically included as part of the system for PS2 or Xbox 360 players. However, PC users have to take some extra steps as the whole IME system is separate from the game software. The dictionary file is available online and contains all those words players need to communicate smoothly with each other in Japanese.

So far, this all sounds like a good thing. You need new words, you add a new dictionary. However, your conversion doesn’t need to be limited to one word.

For example, you could set up your dictionary file so that if you type ごめん (gomen “I’m sorry”), one of your conversion options would be something like ・゜・Sorry 。 ・゜゜(´□｀。) ゜゜・. The computer only knows “if I see X, pull up string Y”. This is why you can get all those cute pre-set expressions.

What if you wanted to take this even further though?

There is a Japanese FFXI site I often visit called eLeMeN. They provide links to FFXI related news around the web as well as any other gaming related news FFXI players might be interested in. It is about as close to a premier site as you can get in Japan. The person who manages it has received invites to a variety of Square Enix functions, including press invites to Tokyo Game Show.

There is basic game information on the site. However, the most useful parts are the news updates and the links page, oddly marked Linx. The links page has hundreds of links to FFXI related sites in Japanese and English. The icon page Elmer posted about a few days ago is on there as well as a few other similar sites. There are many many blogs. There are sites for people who just take tons of screenshots. It is a pretty comprehensive list all sorted into categories.

One category is software (tools and other things). There are separate programs you can download to examine logs (although you would need something to record those logs with in the first place). One mini program tells you how to you can get from place A to place B step by step. For quests with multiple steps, you could download a quest manager that allows you to check off each step of a quest or mission as you finish it. There are also your typical Vana’diel clocks as well.



Underneath that is the dictionary section.

You can find a link to the official add-on dictionary offered by SE. There are several other smaller dictionary sets as well. One in particular though is quite comprehensive and is the one I saw in game.

Want to know the stats of a piece of armor? Type in the name of the armor and convert. Viola!

Need the recipe for your favorite muffins? Type in the name of the food and convert. The recipe is now on your screen.

The website for this particular dictionary has examples of some of the things you can do.

This picture shows a crafting example. Asking for crafting information on mittens gets you the recipe. Or, type in the craft you are interested in along with the level, and it will give a suggestion on something you could craft.

This picture shows an example of food effect information. (Mushroom Stew)

Granted, the dictionary doesn’t provide anything you can’t find by going to an FFXI wiki. Prior to Windower and Windowed Mode, one complaint some PC users made was that PS2 users could play the game while having a PC at their side for information. (This is why I like playing with my PS2 instead of my PC despite the crummy graphics and low resolution. Also why many Japanese players still buy and use guidebooks despite having the information available online.) Having the information available, whether it is to look up camp sites or a crafting recipe, is extremely handy. The dictionary makes it all available in game though. And it is only available for use by people who can access the IME system while playing the game.

So here is the question: You are allowed to add custom dictionaries but how far are you allowed to take it? Is using a specialized dictionary like this a violation of the TOS?