Translations planned?
CollateralDamage
Join Date: 2002-07-15 Member: 949Members
Join Date: 2002-07-15 Member: 949Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Mods are international</div>After seeing Flayra's new tooltips, it came to my mind that NS might be too complex to grasp if you don't speak English very well. And I'm afraid there are many HL mod players who don't.
Localizing the whole game (while certainly useful) is obviously too much work, but are there at least plans to have the manual translated into some European languages? (German and French come to mind first).
Would be a shame if many players are left behind clueless due to the language barrier.
Localizing the whole game (while certainly useful) is obviously too much work, but are there at least plans to have the manual translated into some European languages? (German and French come to mind first).
Would be a shame if many players are left behind clueless due to the language barrier.
Comments
Joke aside, yes, more people <i>should</i> learn English. However, many players are young. Or they just don't want to. Or both. Translating the manual will save us all much confusion.
Perhaps I'm just selfish and want as few clueless people as possible on my (German) servers. <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->
Games in the past forced you to learn English. Games today are lots of simpler and all those fps games doesn`t require any english skill at all.
So really, if someone starts to complain that they can`t understand those few lines of english in the manual, I say that quit whining and take a dictionary and learn ,learn and learn.
Amen
That being said, if there are any biligual people out there that want to convert the manual - I'm sure it will be fine (once NS is released). I seriously doubt however this would grant a playtesting spot - just felt like I should get that point across first ..
I dont think any playtesters or the dev team speak any other languages then English, so I doubt they would try to do it ...
<!--EDIT|Silver Fox|July 29 2002,04:18-->
If someone always keeps translating manuals or games, they will never learn the language.
*************************************************
The bandage was wound around the wound.
The farm was used to produce produce.
The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
We must polish the Polish furniture.
He could lead if he would get the lead out.
The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
They were too close to the door to close it.
The buck does funny things when the does are present.
A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
After a number of injections my jaw got number.
Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
***I stole all this from <a href="http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Literacy/reading.asp" target="_blank">here</a>*****
There are some non-english speaking playtesters who have volunteered to translate NS, however I don't think there will be any translations for the first release.
If someone always keeps translating manuals or games, they will never learn the language.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->f3rret is right: English is not an easy language to learn. I have heard it being described as 'a melting pot of almost fifty languages around the world' (though I think the person was exaggerating when he said that). It's lots of quirks and oddities (as f3rret pointed out).
And I don't think that people should be forced to learn English... that seems to me to be rather unfair. English is far from a perfect language. People shouldn't be made to learn it.
As for the manual, maybe some major stuff might be translated, I'm thinking about critical stuff that has to be understood to play the game probably.
It is not needed, but maybe a nice thing, I would say if some PT or Forum Member likes to do then why not? But it is definetly not something the dev team shall put on the stuff-to-do list.
@SmokeMasta: Sure everybody should learn to speak, write and read English, as it is just the most spoken language on earth. But don't slam down the idea of a translation for people who don't speak English very well and/or maybe just started learning English.
Yes I speak English quite fluently and I'm German, but I know people who don't speak English perfectly and for many people it is easier to read a text in your own language then in a foreign.
As I said, no must-be, but a neat-feature one.
Its an inside joke we have.
You learn the basics at school, play some games and watch movies and boom! You can talk english.
I can only speak a little bit of german and swedish, because I don`t play swedish games nor watch german movies. You don`t learn much in school.
I challenge thee! Say one guy that has played english games(all kinds of games, not just FPS) for like 10 years, but cannot speak english at all
This is a high-priority for us, but I doubt it'll get in for v1.0. This is something we can and will do soon after. If anyone has great writing skills (demonstrable in English), and would like to create a version of NS for another language, please stick around. I'll probably make a "translators wanted" post sometime after the first release. Please don't message me before then. :)
Cyanide, you have a point. I don't see a problem when people can choose to see in-game text in their language. However, when you have to communicate with them, it gets difficult. That's obviously no concern for Americans, but I often play DoD on French or Finnish servers (because their ping is so good <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo--> ) and don't understand a word there. It hardly matters in DoD, but playing NS that way could prove impossible. Looks like we need a real-time auto-translator for v10.0. <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->
English actually isn't the World's Most Spoken Language, far from it infact Mandarin is spoken by over twice as many people as English.
<a href="http://www.krysstal.com/spoken.html" target="_blank">The 20 Most Spoken Languages in the World</a>
So if anything the manual should be translated into Mandarin.
Not everybody should speak English, but if you want to get about easily on the internet than it certainly would help.
So, I guess we should all learn Mandarin Chinese then, eh? <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->
Zawath, where are you from? If you're from the USA, then that <b>might</b> be the reason you see english everywhere.
And like I said, most of the English I have learned from different kinds of games.
Just because ppl are not british or americans doesnt mean they cant speak english. <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->
<a href="http://www.krysstal.com/spoken.html" target="_blank">The 20 Most Spoken Languages in the World</a>
So if anything the manual should be translated into Mandarin.
Not everybody should speak English, but if you want to get about easily on the internet than it certainly would help.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
But most of those ppl would be in China and not many Chinese have computers i belive. Of coarse with the huge population even 10% would be semi-significant on a world scale.
Oh and I speak crappy French so if all the other ppl who can speak French get knocked off then I could put something together that'd confuse em all.
And English is the international language of commerce and the air (and a bunch of other things but i only know those specificly) , which basicly means all pilots do all their communication in english