Localized versions

[alva]

And if they'd translate any game to Flemish or some other dialect, I bet they wouldn't sell two copies if they pressed a double CD

But they wouldn't be half as bad as that irritating dutch intonation
"Nou Kees,..." --->( alva presses exit and uninstals game)

[lord of the mark]

I have 1602 AD, and i see no particular problems with the localization. Some of the back-up files and stuff is in German, but that doesnt impact gameplay (in fact i cant remember why i even looked at that) Only frustration is that most of the fansites, scenarios etc are in German - but thats not a localization issue - and i suppose if i loved the game enough it would be an incentive to learn German (Ya, allen sein basen ist uhren?)

[lord of the mark]

not really a localization issue, but one of the most amusing issues of this type for me is Caeaser III - all of the voiceover have British accents (naturally, a British game) and they generally have "class appropriate" accents - IE cockney for the market ladies and other underlings, South east Standard for the emperor, etc. Cockney may mean "urban working class" to an english player - to an American it sounds like Eliza Doolittle is walking around the streets of Rome.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Cruddy
I voted, banana, because I didn't really understand the question. The patching problems with PTW are related to copy protection, not the actual translation.

This thread was not about any patching problems, a localization could issue, but about if you like games being translated into your own language or not... I don't know about other countries, but games translated into danish sounds so childish... and I'm talking about childish in the age of 6-7

[alva]

All of us not liking the localised versions are from countries that don't dub television programs either. We are just not used to it, ask a french person what he thinks of it, or even a german one.

[Adagio]

I understand that... but why does the companies keep translating games into those languages then?

Several games has lost lots of buyers, just because they didn't release an english version of the game in the country... It only wastes them money...

[Adagio]

Just before the release of The Settlers IV, I made a thread (on the Settlers IV forum) about this issue... The thread became really big, and in the end, it was the Americans who voted for the localization of games, while Europeans voted against...

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by ADG
Just before the release of The Settlers IV, I made a thread (on the Settlers IV forum) about this issue... The thread became really big, and in the end, it was the Americans who voted for the localization of games, while Europeans voted against...

kinda makes sense, given relative foreign language abilities For non-english speakers the main question is english language games, and of course English is very widely spoken (especially by posters to english language websites ) For Americans the question is - do I work on my almost non-existent German for games like 1602, on Japanese for CPRGS? etc.

My best European language is French - any games in French?

[Adagio]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
kinda makes sense, given relative foreign language abilities For non-english speakers the main question is english language games, and of course English is very widely spoken (especially by posters to english language websites ) For Americans the question is - do I work on my almost non-existent German for games like 1602, on Japanese for CPRGS? etc.

Yeah, like I said before: I doubt Americans know many other languages than english, so for Americans the answer would be "Yes" of course

[Felch]

Originally posted by Locutus
I bet they wouldn't sell two copies if they pressed a double CD

How well does Eminem translate?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by ADG


Yeah, like I said before: I doubt Americans know many other languages than english, so for Americans the answer would be "Yes" of course

Americans certainly are less skilled in foreign languages than Europeans, though in the past my impression was Brits were even worse (maybe thats changed). And the most commonly studied foreign language in the US by far is Spanish, and not many games in Spanish. After that French, also not many games (that i know of). A fair number of Americans know German (ex Army guys especially) but the base of game buyers who dont justifies excellent translations of say 1602 AD.

[Alex]

I could say that games which are not localized usually don't sell here in Brazil. I know of a person who did not buy Civ3 because it was in English, and not in Portuguese (as Civ2 was).

But (and this cannot be overlooked) strategy games and RPGs -- games which make use of large portions of text -- are somewhat of a niche market around here; most gamers in Brazil are very young and prefer first-person shooters and/or sports games, which are very light in terms of text.

Sure, the big hits are usually localized (The Sims, Age of Mythology and SimCity 4 come to mind), but that is far from being the rule. And when you consider games like Counter-Strike, Unreal Tournament and Tomb Raider, you see that there is no need for localization, actually.

[Cruddy]

Originally posted by ADG


This thread was not about any patching problems, a localization could issue, but about if you like games being translated into your own language or not... I don't know about other countries, but games translated into danish sounds so childish... and I'm talking about childish in the age of 6-7

It just struck me that a lot of people were annoyed about no PTW 1.21 patch for non-US localaised versions, that is EVERYBODY outside of the US, and were responding negatively in the poll because of this.

Like I said, this problem isn't down to the localisation but the copy protection. I thought a lot of PTW people were getting annoyed at localised products because of the delay and voting accordingly, but strictly speaking that wasn't a localisation issue.

As someone who speaks only English (fumbles around in French and gets blank looks in Dutch & German) I honestly haven't seen any games in other languages. I guess this poll wasn't really aimed at me.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Cruddy
As someone who speaks only English (fumbles around in French and gets blank looks in Dutch & German) I honestly haven't seen any games in other languages. I guess this poll wasn't really aimed at me.

I guess I should have called the American option "I come from some english speaking country" instead...

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by ADG


I guess I should have called the American option "I come from some english speaking country" instead...

Well anglo-Canadians at least generally speak French. I think only the brits are as monolingual as we Americans, if not more so.

Since my best European language is French, i must ask - are there any intereting games in French?