I normally have big problems with accents, as I'll start typing in my normal language as soon as my mind wanders. Several of my characters with odd vocal nuiances have lost them due to this.
Aside from contractions and colloquialisms, I don't do accents. Mostly cos I'm useless at it and i don't do strongly accented characters.
You are good at it, get on with it. 
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
Personally, I don't like accents.
They're a pain to read and understand.
Sure, I understand them most of the time, but it takes me twice as long to get what is said.
@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity
If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.
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Sure, I understand them most of the time, but it takes me twice as long to get what is said.
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You mean, like in real life? 
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
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Sure, I understand them most of the time, but it takes me twice as long to get what is said.
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You mean, like in real life?
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Now that you mention it...
with text it's probably faster 
@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity
If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.
I have slightly bad hearing because of an ear infection when I was younger, so I'm constantly asking people to repeat themselves. Add an accent to this, and I tend to be asking because I assume I haven't heard it. Then the meaning filters into my brain as I decipher the accent.
With written, at least I know beforehand it'll take time to work out.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
I do have an accent but unfortunately since i talk "correctly" this hasn't really come across yet in my characters.. except maybe for a few random sayings and words. Shame my head doesn't think in doric.
As that player, I wouldn't mind a little help with my accent.
If anyone knows what words people from Rus find hard pronouncing as well?
Go out and buy XXX (the original, not the dumb sequel). Listen to the main villain for several hours.
Eef you are not tolking like a Russian by the end of it, something ees wrong.
Trouble is, the Russian accent is a bit of a combination of French and German. The Russian Court was heavily influenced by the French Court through a lot of its history.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
Can't I watch Goldeneye instead?
A nice feature for COH RP would be being aloud to choose some of your own fonts too which could help get the idea across your character is speaking with an accent.
Like the old Asterix Comics.
Personally, I almost never read speech bubbles. I prefer reading the chat window, since emotes appear better there, and you can go back and read something you've missed.
Accents I think, work better on humourous characters than on serious ones. Maybe change a few small things in spelling, add some slang and all, but remember you're not performing a part, you're playing a game, and other people have to be able to understand what you're saying, or they'll get bored and ignore you.
One thing I've found helpful when playing characters who's first language isn't English, is to insert the occasional word of their native language into their speech. Nothing complex, just the odd phrase here and there... It's especially useful when the character is taken by surprise or something!
For example. I have a french character, several things he's seen lately have caused him to exlaim "Good Lord!" in french, so I typed "Bon Seigneur!" instead. Now, possibly that's not the correct phrase a French person would use (I've forgotten most of the French I learned in school), but it lends the desired effect...
So, for convincing Russian, try finding an online translator that will give you translations in the English alphabet rather than the Cryllic one, or get a phrase book! You don't need it, but it can help a lot towards being more convincing!
I also had a Japanese toon but rarely play her. Others have played and do play Japanese toons too, and we all use some Japanese words and phrases... Though no one ever noticed her swearing!
EDIT: Thinking about it, "Mon Dieu!" would probably be more accurate.. Silly me!
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
I need to find a English to Russian translator online or a phrase book.
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Others have played and do play Japanese toons too, and we all use some Japanese words and phrases
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While, admittedly, none of my toons are Japanese, some speak it (Crow spent quite a time in Japan while looking for his sword, for example). I never use Japanese phrases, however, since I can't speak the language (beyond a couple of words) and would spell it wrong if I did.
Not an accent thing, but we (i.e. the GG mob) tend to use the convention of prefacing non-english speech with "<language>", e.g. "<French>Greetings and how are you?". Doing that in French is terribly authentic, but not everyone understands French. Worse, the person you're saying it to may not understand French. While I don't have an issue with people RPing in any way they wish, in an environment like GG, on a server designated for English, my opinion is to stick to English for the vast majority of the time.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
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While I don't have an issue with people RPing in any way they wish, in an environment like GG, on a server designated for English, my opinion is to stick to English for the vast majority of the time.
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Oh I do! I just think throwing the odd phrase in here and there, such as at times when the character is surprised, add a little authenticity... Understanding isn't required, most times someone will say "Pardon?" anyway and get a translation... 
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Inago tends to say various things in japanese, rather than english. I've come to recognize those for most occasions, but just to get back at him, I have my character speak to him in dutch for the same occasion 
@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity
If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.
Wasn't getting at anyone. OTOH, we used to have people having whole conversations in Japanese (particularly) which was, frankly, annoying, intimidating, and about as open as a vault door with a jammed time-lock.
Technically, I don't understand Japanese and so have no right to know what's being said. However, since my character may understand Japanese, it's only polite to handle such conversations in a common language. Afterall, I personally am incapable of teleporting, but my toon can.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
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Wasn't getting at anyone.
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Neither was I, I was just bringing up a situation, which I view as a IC joke
Sorry if it came across as such
@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity
If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.
Im not sure if a text based game is best suited for accents, unless you make it clear that you are typing in an accent then people may just think you cannot spell :P
Perhaps just adding descriptives that point out your chars accents (either in emotes or your character info screen)?
It's kind of obvious with some heroes who have traits or an appearence that remind you of something more foreign.
I just find having an accent fun to have.
Most of my toons have accents (well, technically they all do, everyone does, but you know what I mean). I make a note in the bio to indicate they have a Welsh accent, or a cultured English accent, or whatever. Rarely do I try to do much about making the text look like the accent sounds. I don't even throw in the few words of Welsh I can muster for War Crow. (Face it, in modern America, if he said anything in Welsh the NSA would be hunting him as an Islamic terrorist. )
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
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(Face it, in modern America, if he said anything in Welsh the NSA would be hunting him as an Islamic terrorist. )
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No.. I'm pretty sure they'd just go after him cause he's Welsh...
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
You could have a point.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
spelling russian words not using the cryllic alphabet can be slightly erratic.
I had a small discussion over the spelling of "crazy" in yiddish. I hae it spelt Meshuga, some spell it with two G's and alot of people recognise it better as Meshuganah (or simular spelling)
when i was learning russian in school I was just writing it down as it was pronounced for english alphabet, although i suspect there's a recognisedway to translate from one alphabet to anouther.
By far the simplist way is (as stated above) to type <language> before your message, then we know what we can hear is the characters can understand the language and ignore it if we don't.
ooo just you guy wait till i can get my hands on that bind for typing in other alphabets *grin*
This has come to me mainly through incidents last night...
Fisrtly I was complimented for my use of typed accents. Which was nice.
There was also a player present playing a Russian, but the accent, as it was typed, appeared some times French, sometimes German. And it struck me that although a Russian accent is an easy one to do vocally, it's so much harder to type.
Really I'm just looking for people's views on if trying to emulate an accent in text is worthwhile doing. And also how certain accents might be approached.
As the Scotbots might approach enlivening you to add to this: "CmOAN! Git yir finger oot an mak wi' the typin, pal! Whit yiz a' waitin fir?"