German and French Soon to join Vana'diel

[Etra]

Re: German and French Soon to join Vana'diel

Why not spanish? If they really wanted to pull in more players, spanish is what they want.

Apparently translating all the content in FFXI is like trying to translate about 3 or 4 bibles.

Do you want to translate that many bibles?

Edit: By the way, I played with a Mexican guy back during the "age of importers." He was the best RDM I've ever met to date. Oh, and there are lots of South Americans who do play online games. Some parts of South America really aren't as bad as the stereotypes make them out to be.

[Auron517]

Re: German and French Soon to join Vana'diel

I agree there should be a Spanish version of this game, why SE would not add one is beyond me. You'd actually be suprised how many Hispanics play FFXI, I would know, seeing as I'm in a Spanish speaking linkshell.

And Maju, I don't know where you're getting your theory from, but you'll find that the new EU players that come into FFXI that don't speak English in the minority. In Europe, the majority of people speak two or three different lanuages, English being the most common, seeing as it is a trade language abroad.

I think you've got it backwards, America is the only place where I can think where people refuse to speak a language different than their own.

[Oogami]

Re: German and French Soon to join Vana'diel

There is really only one "Chinese speaking country" (unless you're considering Taiwan to be a separate country), and that is China (of which Hong Kong and Macau are already a part of.)

There are 1.3 billion people in China and approx. 1.5 million of them are are registered with WoW. I don't think "low per capita income level" is the reason for SE not translating it into Chinese, although the WoW players do pay less to play the game in China. I would say that it is competition. China is more about mass market, and it already has a huge MMORPG industry, that people outside the country do not get to see. There are literally hundreds of Chinese MMORPG in China. There is also recent news about SOE pulling EQ II out of China (those who still want to play will be using US servers).

I am not sure if WoW is translated into Chinese, but it does not seem like it.

[Maju]

Re: German and French Soon to join Vana'diel

I agree there should be a Spanish version of this game, why SE would not add one is beyond me. You'd actually be suprised how many Hispanics play FFXI, I would know, seeing as I'm in a Spanish speaking linkshell.

And Maju, I don't know where you're getting your theory from, but you'll find that the new EU players that come into FFXI that don't speak English in the minority. In Europe, the majority of people speak two or three different lanuages, English being the most common, seeing as it is a trade language abroad.

I think you've got it backwards, America is the only place where I can think where people refuse to speak a language different than their own.

The majorities of German and French gamers have always tried to isolate themselves from other people in online games. I still remember how the Germans permanently hijacked the Europe chat room in B.net. I also know that the French and the Germans have their own versions of WoW with their own official sites and forums. A handful of them imported the UK version and joined the English speaking community, but obviously most of them did not. Blizzard made a mistake with WoW when they didn't create Spanish and Russian versions also because a few servers quickly became really problematic. The majority of the players on Spainbreaker were Spanish and few of them spoke English. Eventually most English speakers migrated away when they were given the option. The Russians did the same on Aggrammar I believe (not sure of the server).

I know Americans are horrible at languages as well. However, luckily for them they're native English speakers so it's usually not a problem in an international community like FFXI.

Maju, I really hope that was sarcasm. Because...wow.

It was sarcasm with a glimpse of truth in it.

[Feba]

Re: German and French Soon to join Vana'diel

the economy isn't really an issue. There's plenty of poor people in korea, yet L2 is still going strong.


Don't doubt the ability of poor people to throw their lives away too ;P

[nazlfrag]

Re: German and French Soon to join Vana'diel

Well this will definately expand the userbase. I have limited french skills and have met many french players ingame. It's fun to brush up on my old language skills, and will be a breeze now with auto translate to help me out.

On the choice of languages, most europeans know a second and third language. The most popular second languages are French, German and English. The similarity of French and German to other European languages makes them much more accesible than English. Almost everyone in Europe will be able to understand and play one of these versions. French is also understood in many parts of the world from colonial times, from Africa through Asia. If they were doing a South American release, Spanish would be an obvious choice, but Europe was the target, and they have made it so the majority of Europeans can play it. Bravo Square!

[Etra]

Re: German and French Soon to join Vana'diel

...I don't think "low per capita income level" is the reason for SE not translating it into Chinese...

The reason is because of the new gaming law they have over there. What is it? Only 3 hours or something allowed on online games a day? I don't full remember, but it's something insane.

WoW adapted its Chinese ver. to meet the needs of that, or so I hear. However, this law would heavily conflict with FFXI, as it can take a whole day to find PTs. As well as do many other things in-game.

Here's a link to more of the law: http://www.interfax.cn/showfeature.a...MOC-POLICY-MII

Edit: The one part of that makes me laugh..."Chinese gamers on average spend 10.9 hours a week playing online games." And they're angry about that? I can play that in one day...Hell, I've played Ragnarok Online for 17 hours straight when I was 15. :/

But yeah. Just thought I'd mention that.

[Maju]

Re: German and French Soon to join Vana'diel

the economy isn't really an issue. There's plenty of poor people in korea, yet L2 is still going strong.


Don't doubt the ability of poor people to throw their lives away too ;P

South Korea isn't really that poor anymore:

GDP - per capita (PPP):
$20,400 (2005 est.)


Let's take a look at Thailand, which is also a major MMORPG country:

GDP - per capita (PPP):
$8,300 (2005 est.)


Then we have Germany, a highly developed western country:

GDP - per capita (PPP):
$30,400 (2005 est.)

[Standablaze]

Re: German and French Soon to join Vana'diel

I know a fair amount of europeans, from germans to french to spanish to polish and etc. From what I've seen, french and germans are a lot more common than spanish.

Chances are SE will release a spanish edition at another time. All three are major european languages. But lets remember most europeans can understand English to some degree from compulsory education and how its stressed as an important economic and business language; the reason why people learn it. If you look at other online games, from diablo 2 (europe server) to counterstrike, the vast majority of players where either swedish, german, or french, but most spoke English well enough to play obviously. English is just taught more frequently in europe than other european languages are taught in english speaking countries like britain and ireland. I was taught french in school but can't remember it, whereas most germans and french where taught english in school and it was easier for them to be exposed to the language on a daily basis than it was for me to be exposed to the french language.

We europeans have a good primetime in between the japanese and north american players but not enough of our own to play with :p

Also, I remember reading somewhere (this forum maybe, i forget) that the most likely reason the game isnt as big in china is because of the amount of Japanese players. And as we know, Chinese, Japanese and Koreans are not the best of friends, in comparison to Europe and America.