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This game has a bad localization strategy

antoniodavidmv
Hello everyone

First of all, I don't mean to offend anyone or any culture, I only want to explain what I think about the strategic decision of translate this game into french and german only.

I believe this game would be bigger if they have translated into Spanish (2nd language most spoken) They are just ignoring one of the biggest gamers community in the world. Also, german translation decision is senseless (80 million speakers) and german people generally is better at English than spanish speakers (I'm spanish, I know that well). Before you say, yes, I tried unnoficial text translation mods, and it's rubbish (google translator do that better).

That's my point of view, If this game has Spanish, Portuguese and Russian language, maybe the two actual servers won't be enough in order to afford those new communitys.
Believe, It's very frustrating to do questing in a MMORPG and don't follow the history lane at 100%.

Regards.

Edited by antoniodavidmv on January 28, 2019 5:19PM
  • Delpi
    Delpi
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    Because French and German countries have laws fot this, and the publishers have to translate their games if they want to sell in those contries. That's why.
    "I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee..."
  • HansProlo
    HansProlo
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    There are more than 80 million german speaking people, its around 95 in germany, austria and suisse alone, not counting south tyrol and people living in foreign countries.

    That said, i always play on the english client, because all the guides refer to english names and i hate the voiced translation in german. It always sounds „cute“ as for children. And the skill translation also sucks, they are sometimes just laughable.

    It costs a lot of money to translate and voice that big game. And where to begin and where to stop? Indian, chinese, korean, japanese, arabic, hebraic, portugies....
  • ssorgatem
    ssorgatem
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    "Brazilian"

    Lol.

    That's not a language.


    But I agree that the choice of locales is a bit odd.

    I mean, even if they just want to officially support Europe and North America (in which case, German makes more sense, it's the most spoken language in Europe, after all), you still have Mexico on the Na side, which alone is almost 150% of the worldwide German-speaking population.
    Add Spain to that (50% of German) and, without counting other American countries other than Mexico, you already have twice as many potential customers as with German.

    It's also more of an odditiy since Skyrim was localized to Spanish too, and most big games are too (I can't think of any that isn't right now).

    Still, I prefer it this way. Most Spaniards I've found on EU are just plain obnoxious. I'm thankful they are rare.
  • boggo
    boggo
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    Delpi wrote: »
    Because French and German countries have laws fot this, and the publishers have to translate their games if they want to sell in those contries. That's why.

    Not true at all.

    My guess is that ZOS did some research on where people (are able/willing to) spend the most money in a game. That‘s how they went with German and French.

    Going by the logic of OP, the game should first of all be translated into Mandarin. Most spoken language in the world.
    Edited by boggo on January 26, 2019 10:56AM
  • FakeFox
    FakeFox
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    I guess they decided to go for German because Germany, Austria and Swiss have a rather big video game culture that is interested in MMOs and has a lot of money. Of course they could have just tried to sell us the English version, but we are used to absolutely everything getting translated to German so this might would have heavily hurt sales.
    Edited by FakeFox on January 26, 2019 11:01AM
    EU/PC (GER) - Healermain since 2014 - 50305 Achievement Points - Youtube (PvE Healing Guides, Builds & Gameplay)
  • Faulgor
    Faulgor
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    Because Germany has the largest Elder Scrolls community outside the US.
    Alandrol Sul: He's making another Numidium?!?
    Vivec: Worse, buddy. They're buying it.
  • Itzmichi
    Itzmichi
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    I so can't relate to that, I'm German and to be honest the translation is great crap giving you ear and sometimes even eye cancer, switched to English client ages ago. Just step up your English game, it's free and to be honest it's not like you need a diplom degree level of English to understand the story/conversations in ESO.
    Here, have a chill pill 💊!
  • Elsonso
    Elsonso
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    It costs a lot of money to do a localization. Not only does everything have to be translated, and then checked in the game to make sure that it does not run over the bounds of a UI element, but the translations have to sound correct when spoken, and they need to hire actors to say all of those spoken lines.

    Personally, I was surprised they went with English, German, French, and later, Japanese. I would have expected Spanish in there. I think it was decided to go where the money was, rather than by number of people speaking it. English, German, and French catches the bulk of people in North America and Europe likely to spend money on the game.

    I have no idea whether adding Japanese paid off for them, or not. For a while, I was seeing them in the game with account naming conventions so they could find each other. I don't recall seeing that as much. I don't know whether that convention was abandoned, wasn't really a convention at all, they stopped playing, or a mix of those.
    Edited by Elsonso on January 26, 2019 12:06PM
    XBox EU/NA:@ElsonsoJannus
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  • MLGProPlayer
    MLGProPlayer
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    boggo wrote: »
    Delpi wrote: »
    Because French and German countries have laws fot this, and the publishers have to translate their games if they want to sell in those contries. That's why.

    Not true at all.

    My guess is that ZOS did some research on where people (are able/willing to) spend the most money in a game. That‘s how they went with German and French.

    Going by the logic of OP, the game should first of all be translated into Mandarin. Most spoken language in the world.

    Is this game even sold in China? Games with skeletons are banned in China, and this game has lots of skeletons.
  • antoniodavidmv
    ssorgatem wrote: »
    "Brazilian"

    Lol.

    That's not a language.


    But I agree that the choice of locales is a bit odd.

    I mean, even if they just want to officially support Europe and North America (in which case, German makes more sense, it's the most spoken language in Europe, after all), you still have Mexico on the Na side, which alone is almost 150% of the worldwide German-speaking population.
    Add Spain to that (50% of German) and, without counting other American countries other than Mexico, you already have twice as many potential customers as with German.

    It's also more of an odditiy since Skyrim was localized to Spanish too, and most big games are too (I can't think of any that isn't right now).

    Still, I prefer it this way. Most Spaniards I've found on EU are just plain obnoxious. I'm thankful they are rare.

    Portuguese* My mind betrayed me thinking about Brazilian community. "Spaniard are obnoxious" not xenophobic at all. You as selfish player prefer this, but so many people would enjoy this game if this is translated into another extended language (one with a large community player)
  • antoniodavidmv
    Faulgor wrote: »
    Because Germany has the largest Elder Scrolls community outside the US.

    Well, I doubt it. Spanish community is massive (Spain, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Colombia...) Okay, they alone are not bigger than Germany, but altogether yes.
  • antoniodavidmv
    boggo wrote: »
    Delpi wrote: »
    Because French and German countries have laws fot this, and the publishers have to translate their games if they want to sell in those contries. That's why.

    Not true at all.

    My guess is that ZOS did some research on where people (are able/willing to) spend the most money in a game. That‘s how they went with German and French.

    Going by the logic of OP, the game should first of all be translated into Mandarin. Most spoken language in the world.

    To be honest, German speakers understand English better than Spanish speakers (have better education system). Ignoring a language which has 400 millions native speakers is an huge mistake from my point of view.
  • Loves_guars
    Loves_guars
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    Although I grew up playing many games in english and learning the language that way, I agree that adding a spanish translation would be beneficial. This game in particular needs professional translation for the dialogues.

    It surprises me the amount of spanish talking people that I encounter randomely in PC NA server. The Steam rating has a lot of negative votes because the game lacks spanish translation. Normally I'd say "try to learn english, use addons", but I can see a (only text) translation being highly advantageous.
  • Dark_Lord_Kuro
    Dark_Lord_Kuro
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    boggo wrote: »
    Delpi wrote: »
    Because French and German countries have laws fot this, and the publishers have to translate their games if they want to sell in those contries. That's why.

    Not true at all.

    My guess is that ZOS did some research on where people (are able/willing to) spend the most money in a game. That‘s how they went with German and French.

    Going by the logic of OP, the game should first of all be translated into Mandarin. Most spoken language in the world.

    I can confirm to you that in the province of quebec in canada there is a law called law 101stating tha everyting must be avaiable in french
    If someone want to sell something they need to have a french version avaiable if they want to publish the english version

    I cant speak for France or Germany though
  • Alinhbo_Tyaka
    Alinhbo_Tyaka
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    Having designed and developed products that had national language support I always thought German with its compound words would a problem for European languages. What I surprisingly found was Spanish was the problem due to the length of text needed to say much shorter English sentences. I probably spent the same amount of time working with translators getting Spanish to fit in the display fields as I did the five other languages besides English we supported. In a game like EOS where there is spoken word that has to match the length of animations I could see where Spanish might be a problem. I suspect some of the selectable text boxes might run into problems as well.
  • Red_Feather
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    I wish everyone spoke the same language sometimes.
  • Alinhbo_Tyaka
    Alinhbo_Tyaka
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    I wish everyone spoke the same language sometimes.

    Yeah. Even we English speakers can't agree on the same one. :D
  • Chicharron
    Chicharron
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    Hello everyone

    First of all, I don't mean to offend anyone or any culture, I only want to explain what I think about the strategic decision of translate this game into french and german only.

    I believe this game would be bigger if they have translated into Spanish (2nd language most spoken) They are just ignoring one of the biggest gamers community in the world. Also, german translation decision is senseless (80 million speakers) and german people generally is better at English than spanish speakers (I'm spanish, I know that well). Before you say, yes, I tried unnoficial text translation mods, and it's rubbish (google translator do that better).

    That's my point of view, If this game has Spanish, Brazilian and Russian language, maybe the two actual servers won't be enough in order to afford those new communitys.
    Believe, It's very frustrating to do questing in a MMORPG and don't follow the history lane at 100%.

    Regards.

    brazilian...

    It is not about whether it is the second most spoken language, some countries have laws.

    And that is not one of the decisive factors, what is the point of translating the game to BRAZILIAN if only a very small percentage will play it?

    How many of them are going to pay ESO+? Are you going to buy Crown Crates?

    Translate ESO to BRAZILIAN means to hire moderators who speak BRAZILIAN, technical support that speak BRAZILIAN, i do not think it's very profitable.

    World of Tanks is a perfect example, for years Latin America players asked for a translated game and servers in Latin America, now that they finally have it, barely reach the 1000 players connected in prime time, How many of them pay premium account? how many buy premium tanks?

    Some days the server is offline and it is rumored that they will close it.
    Edited by Chicharron on January 26, 2019 7:58PM
  • MLGProPlayer
    MLGProPlayer
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    boggo wrote: »
    Delpi wrote: »
    Because French and German countries have laws fot this, and the publishers have to translate their games if they want to sell in those contries. That's why.

    Not true at all.

    My guess is that ZOS did some research on where people (are able/willing to) spend the most money in a game. That‘s how they went with German and French.

    Going by the logic of OP, the game should first of all be translated into Mandarin. Most spoken language in the world.

    To be honest, German speakers understand English better than Spanish speakers (have better education system). Ignoring a language which has 400 millions native speakers is an huge mistake from my point of view.

    They understand English better because German and English are from the same language family. It has nothing to do with education system (Spain has an excellent education system). It's the same reason a Spanish speaker will have an easier time learning French or Italian than an English or German speaker.
    Edited by MLGProPlayer on January 27, 2019 1:35AM
  • antoniodavidmv
    Having designed and developed products that had national language support I always thought German with its compound words would a problem for European languages. What I surprisingly found was Spanish was the problem due to the length of text needed to say much shorter English sentences. I probably spent the same amount of time working with translators getting Spanish to fit in the display fields as I did the five other languages besides English we supported. In a game like EOS where there is spoken word that has to match the length of animations I could see where Spanish might be a problem. I suspect some of the selectable text boxes might run into problems as well.

    Not at all, there are unnoficial spanish mod and the texts are well fited. The problem is that it seems to be a google translator work instead of a professional translator one.
  • antoniodavidmv
    Chicharron wrote: »
    Hello everyone

    First of all, I don't mean to offend anyone or any culture, I only want to explain what I think about the strategic decision of translate this game into french and german only.

    I believe this game would be bigger if they have translated into Spanish (2nd language most spoken) They are just ignoring one of the biggest gamers community in the world. Also, german translation decision is senseless (80 million speakers) and german people generally is better at English than spanish speakers (I'm spanish, I know that well). Before you say, yes, I tried unnoficial text translation mods, and it's rubbish (google translator do that better).

    That's my point of view, If this game has Spanish, Brazilian and Russian language, maybe the two actual servers won't be enough in order to afford those new communitys.
    Believe, It's very frustrating to do questing in a MMORPG and don't follow the history lane at 100%.

    Regards.

    brazilian...

    It is not about whether it is the second most spoken language, some countries have laws.

    And that is not one of the decisive factors, what is the point of translating the game to BRAZILIAN if only a very small percentage will play it?

    How many of them are going to pay ESO+? Are you going to buy Crown Crates?

    Translate ESO to BRAZILIAN means to hire moderators who speak BRAZILIAN, technical support that speak BRAZILIAN, i do not think it's very profitable.

    World of Tanks is a perfect example, for years Latin America players asked for a translated game and servers in Latin America, now that they finally have it, barely reach the 1000 players connected in prime time, How many of them pay premium account? how many buy premium tanks?

    Some days the server is offline and it is rumored that they will close it.

    First of all, I DO KNOW PORTUGUESE IS THE LANGUAGE SPOKEN BY BRAZILIANS, it was a damn mind freeze when I wrote that and I just don't know how to edit the damn post to correct it (you can edit replys but no the main text) .
    Second, I don't give a *** about world of tanks, it has no story telling like a RPG like TESO has. I don't care if a law order them to translate X language, I'm saying that was a bad strategy for them not to do it (even if doesn't exist a law that compulse them), it's not the same.
    And the perfect example is World of Warcraft. It's pay to play ("Eso+" compulsory), and still has a big comunity, and crowded spanish servers.
    Edited by antoniodavidmv on January 28, 2019 11:39AM
  • Davor
    Davor
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    I believe this game would be bigger if they have translated into Spanish (2nd language most spoken)

    I thought English was the second most spoken language in the world. Are you saying they moved down to third? I know Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world. Didn't know English went down.
    Not my quote but I love this saying

    "I would pay It for support. But since they choosed we are just numbers and not customers, i dont mind if game and zos goes to oblivion"
  • Davor
    Davor
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    but so many people would enjoy this game if this is translated into another extended language (one with a large community player)

    I wish the game was translated to English. After all, Elswyr should be free since it's DLC, but the English Zenimax uses means something else. :p
    Not my quote but I love this saying

    "I would pay It for support. But since they choosed we are just numbers and not customers, i dont mind if game and zos goes to oblivion"
  • Davor
    Davor
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    [q I just don't know how to edit the damn post to correct it (you can edit replys but no the main text) .

    To edit a Main Post, you need to go to the Title of the post, and you will see a gear beside it on the right. Click on that and you can edit the main post. :)
    Not my quote but I love this saying

    "I would pay It for support. But since they choosed we are just numbers and not customers, i dont mind if game and zos goes to oblivion"
  • Hotel6
    Hotel6
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    i would always prefer english tbh even though it's not my mother language. just like I like watching anime in japanese rather than english ( ofc the voice acting is better but stil...)
  • Edaphon
    Edaphon
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    First of all, I DO KNOW PORTUGUESE IS THE LANGUAGE SPOKEN BY BRAZILIANS, it was a damn mind freeze when I wrote that and I just don't know how to edit the damn post to correct it (you can edit replys but no the main text) .

    The option to edit it is next to the title.

  • ElliottXO
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    You have to remember that ESO was launched on edclusively PC.

    USA, GB, Germany and France share a strong PC culture and I'm not sure whether this also applies to the Spanish speaking countries.

    Also the question how many of those 400 million Spanish natives have enough purchasing power for a gaming PC and a subscription at that time?

    That being said yeah they should offer Spanish, but as a company I would probably only translate the text and not the voices. A lot cheaper I suppose.
  • anitajoneb17_ESO
    anitajoneb17_ESO
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    First of all, I DO KNOW PORTUGUESE IS THE LANGUAGE SPOKEN BY BRAZILIANS, it was a damn mind freeze when I wrote that and I just don't know how to edit the damn post to correct it (you can edit replys but no the main text)

    You CAN edit the first post of a thread you created, but the wheel is in a different place than for simple replies. From the top of my head, it's somewhere on the top left of the message or of the thread.

  • anitajoneb17_ESO
    anitajoneb17_ESO
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    Davor wrote: »

    I thought English was the second most spoken language in the world. Are you saying they moved down to third? I know Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world. Didn't know English went down.

    It all depends on definition and methodology. Some rankings include only native speakers, some include total speakers, some simply add official language of any given country and multiply by population, etc. Some work by the notion of "primary language", and so on.
    Depending on those varying criteria, Chinese, English, Spanish, Hindi will be ranked differently - although it seems that those 4 languages will more or less always belong to the top 5.
    Edited by anitajoneb17_ESO on January 28, 2019 12:36PM
  • Anhedonie
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    They did translations for their target audience. I don't think there is enough spanish, brazilian or russian players for them to spend money on translations.
    Not to mention that some people might be quite toxic (russian dota players come to mind).
    Profanity filter is a crime against the freedom of speech. Also gags.
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