Makoto

Oct 11 2006, 06:05 AM | Post #1

Unregistered



Recently, with the interface changes and the upgrades to the system (yes, I'm sure many of you have already been quite vocal on the look of the new emote page), Jagex has also announced that they are translating their game into German. This was leaked some time ago if you cared to go to their main/corporate site, which said something rather obscure about their planned upgrades to develop RuneScape in different languages.

I pose a question to you all, right now. Do you think that translating an English based game into any other language is a good idea?

There are some very strong points for this, and I list them below:

• RuneScape will be expanded into the German markets.
• RuneScape players that already speak German can easily swap between the two versions.
• People that have never seen the German language can take it for a "test run" with familiar NPCs and pick up the language. In this manner, it's similar to watching Anime/Manga in full Japanese with subtitles.

There are also some very strong points against this:

• Initially, RuneScape was an English game, so in order to play the game, you would have to learn English.
• Most of the world revolves around the (British) English dialect. If you don't know it, you're up a creek.
• Players from RuneScape that had no experience with English whatsoever came into the game and learned all they need to know.
• What would the forums look like...? I shudder at the thought.

Discuss.

|

MaxTheDragon

Oct 11 2006, 08:18 AM | Post #2

Unregistered



This is an interesting subject to discuss.

The first thing I would say is that it's a good development. Translating a game to different languages is like making your site work with more browsers. It improves accessability. More people will be encouraged to play, which is of course beneficial to Jagex.

However! There are some bad sides:

- You need more foreign mods (player mods) to monitor foreign language. Can be solved easily by adding more mods but it's still a bad side.

- RuneScape will lose a very important educational aspect. Before I started playing RuneScape, I only had a bit of experience in the English language, obtained from primary school. I learned 90% of my current English language skills, from RuneScape. In high school, I almost never had to study when tests were coming up. I always had a high grade. Different language games encourage users to pick their mother language, which means that they won't learn to speak English, from playing RuneScape, anymore.

- In The Netherlands, Dutch games tend to have a somewhat childish aspect. Children can't speak English quite well, and so they are Dutch games for them to play. The vast majority of the older people prefer English as the game language. If RuneScape was going to be Dutch, I wouldn't play it.

- People will likely stick to friends who speak the same language. This is bad for internationalisation. I consider being able to meet, chat and work with people from all over the world, an important part of my life.

So I don't really like the idea. :|

QUOTE

What would the forums look like...? I shudder at the thought.

/me shudders too... XD

This post has been edited by MaxTheDragon: Oct 11 2006, 08:20 AM

|

ffbf

Oct 11 2006, 10:49 AM | Post #3

Unregistered

QUOTE(MaxTheDragon @ Oct 11 2006, 05:18 AM) [snapback]75542[/snapback]

This is an interesting subject to discuss.

The first thing I would say is that it's a good development. Translating a game to different languages is like making your site work with more browsers. It improves accessability. More people will be encouraged to play, which is of course beneficial to Jagex.

However! There are some bad sides:

- You need more foreign mods (player mods) to monitor foreign language. Can be solved easily by adding more mods but it's still a bad side.

- RuneScape will lose a very important educational aspect. Before I started playing RuneScape, I only had a bit of experience in the English language, obtained from primary school. I learned 90% of my current English language skills, from RuneScape. In high school, I almost never had to study when tests were coming up. I always had a high grade. Different language games encourage users to pick their mother language, which means that they won't learn to speak English, from playing RuneScape, anymore.


- People will likely stick to friends who speak the same language. This is bad for internationalisation. I consider being able to meet, chat and work with people from all over the world, an important part of my life.

So I don't really like the idea. :|
/me shudders too... XD

I agree with this points, plus

- some can be jealous thinking " why german and not my main language?"
- we will need a lot of new servers

I think this is the fan sites job, i bet almost all languages have a fan site translating the runescape features.

By the way, forums would be a mess :-P

|

Mysticallity

Oct 11 2006, 04:38 PM | Post #4

Unregistered



The addition of languages is corporately beneficial. Customers will certainly be attracted. It is still a lot of work to translate and to hire multi-lingual staff though. So whether Jagex will benefit from this move will depend on how it turns out.

I don't think it is wise to judge on the effect of the language itself, at this point; there's too little information. For all we know, there could be an option to toggle language change throughout your interface or there could be servers dedicated to these other languages. Either way, yes. People will choose their mother language to play, giving less motivations to learn English. However, it will also give a chance for those who want to learn other languages, to do so. Experience is important in learning languages and RS could be the answer. Even those who are poor in learning other languages could pick up a phrase or two with subtitles.

The forums? I suppose they could make a seperate forum for other languages. They will certainly need more multi-lingual people to moderate the game and the forums. Another benefit of having seperate forums is that people who know the language would be able to take advantage of the lack of buyers/sellers.

In any case, it's not as if Jagex will go forward with this. Targets are merely targets after all. Nobody cares if you set a target and you decide to drop it.

|

Arguous

Oct 11 2006, 04:56 PM | Post #5

Unregistered



I'd be curious if they found a way to integrate something like babblefish into their forums. Perhaps that's the direction they would try to go.

Forums could be translated, albeit poorly, into the individuals native language. One of the most limiting factors on that however is the habits of most players to use shortcuts in the language.

Text messaging also makes those kinds of shortcuts popular. However, if you do not know how the words sound in their native language, the shortcuts don't make sense. Any language translators would have a very difficult time keeping up with all the shortcuts.

This post has been edited by Arguous: Oct 11 2006, 04:56 PM

|

Baakalor

Oct 11 2006, 11:46 PM | Post #6

Unregistered



I would have to come down on the side of, "It's a poor idea."

My reason has to do with one simple fact: JAGeX is determined to keep a language filter in the game. If they try to re-work the filter for different languages, they will soon find themselves stuck trying to identify both proper and slang languages and will no doubt end up offending people.

I am not talking strictly about the language that the players use, I'm also talking about the language used in the game itself. There are many things in the game that we, as English speakers, understand as a joke, mild humor, or a play on words. Those things don't always translate properly.

If they try to make the game multilingual, they will invariably end up with multiple versions of the game rather than one, single, unified game.

I think it would be like the Chevy Nova that was so popular in the States. They took it to Brazil but nobody would buy it. Why not? Because in Brazil, No Va translates as No Go.

|

Makoto

Oct 11 2006, 11:53 PM | Post #7

Unregistered



Baakalor brings up a valid point. A lot of the slang that I've tried to translate via Babelfish or another method always comes out really, really, REALLY bad. It's depressing in a way.

As for my initial standpoint (I doubt I made it clear in the first post), I am indeed not for a multi-lingual RuneScape. It would only cause more confusion, frustration and serious upheaval with their filter (do you KNOW how many words we use in common talk are filtered in German?!).

RuneScape was made in English. Those that want to play should learn. It can potentially benefit them if they sought to do business overseas, and it would facilitate more knowledge; if someone over in the United States knows another language addition to their own, they can earn up to $9K per language (I believe).

|

Dxgr8ter

Oct 12 2006, 01:17 AM | Post #8

Unregistered



Lots of MMORPG's have their games translated into other languages.

Many of their original languages are in fact not English. They simply have separate server's for the different languages. If the German one was to operate off a different main page don't see any problem with it.

|

Deathbyape

Oct 13 2006, 03:35 AM | Post #9

Unregistered



Keep it in English :\ More people know English than any other language in the world(Note I said 'more people know' not 'more people speak as a first language, thats Mandarin Chinese I believe'). If they go to German they will need to do Dutch, French, Spanish, hell maybe even that African one where they whistle. Have fun figuring that out. It would get too confusing after awhile. Bottomline: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. With the rate Runescape is growing, I'd defiently say Runescape isn't "broke".

|

« Next Oldest | RuneScape Chat | Next Newest »