Language - Question for Firaxis...

[Earthling7]

Re: Re: Language - Question for Firaxis...

Originally posted by Locutus

I couldn't agree more, it's just plain stupid! I want my games either in English or in Twents

Talk to me in Twents, pleeze...

[Vrank Prins]

I've once encountered a Dutch civsite who invited other dutch to come up with translations of texts concerning CIV-II.

Maybe it's an idea for FIRAXIS to open the possibility to add other (than the "official" ones*) language patches to the game. (* when I bought CIV-II I could choose between an anglo, french and german "spoken" game, why not be able to add other languages).

I would love it if I could play the game dutch- (my fathertongue) or frisian- (my mothertongue) or plattdütsch- (lower german, a beautiful "unofficial" language from the northwest of Germany) "spoken". (German and Dutch are close related to oneanother, as are Frisian and English).

[Vrank Prins]

Re: Re: Re: Language - Question for Firaxis...

Originally posted by Earthling7
Talk to me in Twents, pleeze...

allinnig as ieje met goat brommers kiek'n

[Adagio]

Just a plain simple question:

What can a game company gain from releasing the game in different languages, but only take ONE language on each game copy?

I just can't see that any company (except when they are making childrens games) could gain anything from doing that, the minimum there could be is 2 languages on a CD, the original and the translatet!!!

[Vrank Prins]

Originally posted by ADG
What can a game company gain from releasing the game in different languages, but only take ONE language on each game copy?

What about marketing reasons. In Europa there are more people speaking german (germany, belgium, luxemburg, switzerland, austria, poland, about 108 million) than english (UK + Ireland, about 70 million) and french (france, belgium, luxemburg and zwitserland about 65 million).

Originally posted by ADG I just can't see that any company (except when they are making childrens games) could gain anything from doing that, the minimum there could be is 2 languages on a CD, the original and the translatet!!!

What if you could help to make a good translation of the game you love and be able to add a your native languagepatch to the game ?? I would go for that !! When I started playing CIV-II years ago, I sometimes needed the german text to understand what the english text was about. Besides, I deleted all the french textfiles from the game once I had the game installed on my harddisk.

[Earthling7]

Originally posted by ADG
the minimum there could be is 2 languages on a CD, the original and the translatet!!!

second that

[Earthling7]

Oh, and another thing. I am not a native English speaker, but as no games are ever released in Icelandic, I had no choice. What happened? I learned a lot from playing. When I got CivI, I didn't even know what a Granary was, but I do now

English is the language of the world, and if you don't speak it, you should learn.

[Vrank Prins]

Originally posted by Earthling7
English is the language of the world, and if you don't speak it, you should learn.

And you think that's obvious, you take that for granted. I don't !!!.

[XarXo]

Languages...

Well, the language theme is always a disaccording point , for example, Catalan is spoken by 10/11 milions and SwedISH by 5/6, but surely you'll find tons of more stuff in SwedISH than in Catalan . What we can make? PRAY!!!

[Gramphos]

Re: Languages...

Originally posted by XarXo
Well, the language theme is always a disaccording point , for example, Catalan is spoken by 10/11 milions and Sweden by 5/6, but surely you'll find tons of more stuff in Sweden than in Catalan . What we can make? PRAY!!!

It is Swedish.

And 9 million people live in Sweden, but some don't speak Swedish, but some Finns do, so more then 6 million speak Swedish.
And Sweden has most computers per person (I think)
Also many Swedes play games, anyway I like games in English if they aren't originally made in Swedish, as all games are badly translated.

[XarXo]

Re: Re: Languages...

Originally posted by Gramphos

It is Swedish.

And 9 million people live in Sweden, but some don't speak Swedish, but some Finns do, so more then 6 million speak Swedish.
And Sweden has most computers per person (I think)
Also many Swedes play games, anyway I like games in English if they aren't originally made in Swedish, as all games are badly translated.

Sorry!! I forgot the -ISH

About the computers... Well, I believe that in the catalan-zone speaker about a 30% of the houses have one, in Sweden surely is bigger ...

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by Asmodean
In Denmark, at least, if you want the English version, you will have to buy quickly after the game is released. Translated versions normally appear a few weeks after release date. That was the case with Europa Universalis. Sadly, once the translated version becomes available, it is next to impossible to obtain the English version.

The same happens in Italy, usually. After two/three weeks you will end with:
a) the game is not enough selled - no translation will appear, you can find english copies as long as the shop rebate and sales them all

b) the game sell quite well, but not enough to cover translation of voice - you can have a translation of the manual only or, if the game make it easy, of the game text and subtitle. Sometime the mix is deadly (you can't understand how the words used in manual match with in game text left english

c) the game sell well enough, or original distibution contract state you have a full translation task assigned, so you'll have a full translated (sometimes very roughly - i.e. Civ II italian version) game, but often you'll left out on the cold with patches (see SMAC patches 4.0 in italian).

That's the only reason to hurry in buying Civ III here in Italy, IMHO... get an english copy to have all the patches as soon as possible

[Earthling7]

Iceland has more computers than Sweden, per capita of course. It's the most computerised country in the world.

I've seen Windows98 in Icelandic. That was a drama...

[Gramphos]

Originally posted by Earthling7
Iceland has more computers than Sweden, per capita of course. It's the most computerised country in the world.

I've seen Windows98 in Icelandic. That was a drama...

Aha, but they aren't that many. Swedish is a bigger Computer language.

[Vrank Prins]

A few posts higher up here I've talked about a dutch CIV-site which invited people to come up with dutch translations for a dutch language patch. And yes, some of the translations I've read were dramatic, pretty poor dutch in style (grammar, semantics, linguistical things etc.) and appeal.

The german translations I know from CIV-II was really good eloquent german. My guess is that it was a german who did that job, one who's good at understanding anglo and writing in her/his own language.

The translation of textfiles of the game could be done in somesort of "project-organisation-way", where a group of, say, apolytonions who speak the same language tackle the job with eachother. You ought to appoint one who does the coordination when you embark on such an affair. There should also be one who does the final editing. The language needs to be streamlined, appealing, and the terminology being used must be univocal.