Language Issues
Jul. 28th, 2012 07:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
4thofelevenOne of the curious things about Star Trek Online is how many Germans seem to play it. You can’t go half a sector without seeing a ship from the ‘Deutsche Flotte’ or with a name like ‘USS Swabia’ or somesuch. I’ve also seen a few Czech and Hungarian fleets (guild equivalent) – it gives the impression at times that the game’s an alternate timeline where the Habsburg Empire never fell and the Central Powers expanded into space. It’s an amusing image.
One German-language fleet name has made me wince somewhat, though. Was in a game the other day alongside a pair of ships that were listed as part of the Something-or-other ‘Sonderkommandos’ fleet. Now, I know Sonderkommando literally just means ‘special unit’, but to me, the term is linked pretty strongly to Nazi death camps and the SS. Does anyone know if the term’s just as tainted in modern German? I want to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I’d rather not play alongside Nazis if I can help it...
One German-language fleet name has made me wince somewhat, though. Was in a game the other day alongside a pair of ships that were listed as part of the Something-or-other ‘Sonderkommandos’ fleet. Now, I know Sonderkommando literally just means ‘special unit’, but to me, the term is linked pretty strongly to Nazi death camps and the SS. Does anyone know if the term’s just as tainted in modern German? I want to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I’d rather not play alongside Nazis if I can help it...