Guild Wars 2

Good morning Arenanet team.
For guidance of the team regarding my question about subtitles in Portuguese, I am making this post.
Currently in the game, we find a very significant number of Brazilian players in Guild Wars 2. and with the possibility of free game increased some of that number, because those who experience the game like the proposal a lot, the story is incredible.
But with all this there are players who do not feel motivated to continue precisely because they do not understand the game, I say in the history question, because the basic information the players saw how they can translate and they are learning, but this would become more stimulating to the players, therefore The Brazilian public loves a good story, if accessible I believe it would expand even more the public and the game in HOT focus.
I would like to know if possible even if it is in the long term, we have subtitles in Portuguese

I thought the game was voice also in portuguese.. huh

I play guild wars 2 to 3 years … I really like the game and would really be more comfortable if at least the subtitles were in Portuguese, I already brought several friends to guild wars 2, but many of them had the English language as a difficulty. I count on the good sense of the net arena to bring more players to the guild wars 2, sorry for my english by google

I play a short time but I enjoyed it very much and I would like to understand more of the story of the game without losing so much time in the translation because I have little time to play. But the game is amazing, very good.

It’s unlikely that ArenaNet will support any more languages. There’s likely not enough people to outweigh the cost and officially marketing it would require additional voice actors and QA. Unofficially however, they could easily support fan subbing.

I would like the game to be in Portuguese so that it would be easier to do things and not everybody who play knows English how it would help a lot of Brazilian players

Voice acting can be quite expensive if u want to get many languages on your game, i think the best aproach would be subtitles, adding once in a while a few languages if that is justified.

Healix.5819:

It’s unlikely that ArenaNet will support any more languages. There’s likely not enough people to outweigh the cost and officially marketing it would require additional voice actors and QA. Unofficially however, they could easily support fan subbing.

believe this thread asks for specifically subtitle so…

Even subtitles aren’t going to happen. Accurate translation is expensive and adds to the cost of the game and slows down development. For example, LS3 Episode 6 won’t ship until it’s been translated to each of the game’s supported languages — adding a new one to the list means waiting for one more team to finish up (sure, that work will be concurrent with the other translations, but this creates additional bottlenecks).

Translating isn’t an exact science and it’s harder for fantasy and technical language. “Rock Star” is a great title (and pun) in English — how do you translate it into other languages?

All of that has to be weighed against how many new players the subtitles will attract. There are already Portuguese-native speakers who buy the game with its current set of supported languages — how many who don’t (also) speak English (or Spanish or German or French) will spend US$30 (today) or US$50 (for an expac)? That number has to be huge to justify the extra trouble.

Finally, if ANet does add another language, I’m not sure that Portuguese would be first on the list: there are a lot more potential players who speak Russian, Arabic, or varies dialects of the Indian subcontinent.

tl;dr It’s very unlikely that ANet will add language support for another language, unless someone can figure out how that (alone) will sell a lot more copies of the game.

Thank you for being so pessimistic.

Come on, the Latin American population is 422 million, with 208 million of Brazilians who speak the Portuguese language. After so many years GW2 could yes put in game translation of the text. Simple like that.

Cya

List of the most spoken languages in the world:

1) Mandarin = 1,3 billion
2) English = 730 million
3) Hindi = 725 million
4) Spanish = 500 million
5) Arabic = 480 million
6) French = 365 million
7) Russian = 280 million
8) Portuguese = 250 million
9) Bengali = 220 million
10) Indonesian = 175 million

??) German = 98 million….

In GW2 have translate for German Language, and it not in 10th top…

Thanks for the comments, remembering that the topic of this subject was suggestion of the own team, answering some questions of other players.

Profeus.9034:

In GW2 have translate for German Language, and it not in 10th top…

Exactly. Because it’s not just about how many people speak the language. It’s about how many people speak the language + don’t speak one of the existing languages well enough to play + are likely to purchase the game. There’s no question that lots of humans speak Portuguese; there’s apparently some question that enough of them will purchase the GW2 to make it worth the extra initial expense and to increase the cost of each game update.

If this were solely about how many people speak a language, Portuguese still wouldn’t be the first choice.

I really like the game. I’d love it if it could be translated into every language that has a lot of MMO players. At the same time, I recognize that no business can try to appeal to everyone — ANet has to carefully choose which languages to support.

Maybe instead of ANet doing this, someone could make an translator app puts the translated dialog into chat.

Indeed is realy necessary on these days to have to do the subitles for the portuguese.
My friend start playing GW2 but he can’t understand the language and usualy he only play when i play, but i work and study and i dont have much time to play with him .
If the arenanet do the translation it will be much better to the people who has that kind of trouble.
i fully agree and beg you to do it

I agree that they should add Portuguese to the game, I know some people who only play a game if it is translated.

Really, learn English. It’s the essence to understand each other and the world. You are left out by so many things and that’s a huge problem: People think in their own culture, their own tropes and can’t break out their behaviour and reach a general intercultural understanding.

If you never leave your comfort zone you devolve. English is the language of the world and the internet. Hence learn English, I can’t press this more.

I’ve been a fan of GW2 and I’ve been playing since 2013.
And what caught my attention was the story and how it is told.
The vast majority of current MMORPGs do not have a good storyline and become a lifelong struggle for better armor and weapons.
I like games with history, because that’s what life plays.
We have a reason to make armor and weapons.
We are participants of something greater.
Scarlet, Modremoth, Primordius. They are all leading us in one direction.
That is the essence of the game.
Dgs, PvE, PvP, get bored with time, if we do not have a bigger plot.
Without history the game is a sum of tasks that only distract.

I accompany the Lore to join the pieces and better understand the game.
And I think a translation into Portuguese, just the texts, would help a lot to understand the stories better and where we are in it.
We could help with this translation to reduce ArenaNet costs.
Or as they have already spoken, an application that translates the texts.
It’s a fact that Net Arena and GW2 have revolutionized MMORPG games.
With its new mechanics and gameplay.
Who knows, it can innovate even more, inserting the player even more within history.
Attracting and creating a new type of player.
And there is public for this, just waiting for something of the kind to happen.
GW2 and ArenaNet could take the first step.

Arenanet do it for us to show who you value Brazilian players

“Treze.1975 Arenanet do it for us to show who you value Brazilian players”

Make your words mine.

https://www.facebook.com/gustavo.nader.39
Dubbing Diretor of Blizzard Games in Brazil

My opinion… (A HUGE WALL HERE)

We are not even a united community, so the current players (public) do not need any translation. But … if ANET wants to have a bigger audience for our region, then yes, they should think about.

“we find a very significant number of Brazilian players in Guild Wars 2.”
Totaly false, if i wrong.. show numbers.

“Arenanet do it for us to show who you value Brazilian players”
Inversion of values here. Sorry guys but wtf???? We need like PROOFS and things like that.. what brazilian community did or tried to do for GW2?

Yes i’m from Brazil.

Figoli.5910:

My opinion… (A HUGE WALL HERE)

We are not even a united community, so the current players (public) do not need any translation. But … if ANET wants to have a bigger audience for our region, then yes, they should think about.

“we find a very significant number of Brazilian players in Guild Wars 2.”
Totaly false, if i wrong.. show numbers.

“Arenanet do it for us to show who you value Brazilian players”
Inversion of values here. Sorry guys but wtf???? We need like PROOFS and things like that.. what brazilian community did or tried to do for GW2?

Yes i’m from Brazil.

Brazil has no representation in guildwars2 ??
Taking into account that the access of the domain www.guildwars2.com has in fifth place Canada with 3.72% I imagine that Brazil is among the top 10 with 2.31% … this is not to have representation?

Nothing personal I even played with you a few days, this is just my opinion confronting yours in relation to Brazilians.

Ps.: The data mentioned here is about access to the domain www.guildwars2.com and not the access of the game server.

Cya

Profeus

Of course lots of people in Brazil (and Portugal) play, just as lots of folks play in Russian-speaking countries.

The question is: if ANet were to spend the considerable costs to translate the existing content to Portuguese and the additional costs of translating each update’s new and changed content… how many new players are going to buy GW2?

(Plus ANet would get flack if they didn’t also translate into other widely-spoken languages, such as Russian.)

Aeolus.3615:

Voice acting can be quite expensive if u want to get many languages on your game

You wouldn’t have to dub the voices (!), just translating the text and subtitles would be sufficient for many who struggle with English.

Ashantara.8731:

Aeolus.3615:

Voice acting can be quite expensive if u want to get many languages on your game

You wouldn’t have to dub the voices (!), just translating the text and subtitles would be sufficient for many who struggle with English.

That’s true. However, “just translating” isn’t cheap and there’s a lot of text in the game. (And there are issues with the translations of the currently supported languages.)

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

However, “just translating” isn’t cheap and there’s a lot of text in the game. (And there are issues with the translations of the currently supported languages.)

Yes, I am aware of that. I was just saying that dubbing isn’t necessary. Fortunately, I am fluent in English and can enjoy the game in its original language. I did indeed shake my head over some of the German translations I caught playing with other people. Latest example: “Rock Star”, which was translated into “Meister der Steine” (which means “Master of Stones”).

Good morning players.
I thank everyone for their opinions.
As I mentioned before the idea is to have only subtitles, there is no need for dubbing because we know that this generates a high cost, we of the Brazilian community even put ourselves in helping the translations only to leave the experience more comfortable, since many Brazilians have Interest in the game rather subtitles would be an asset to them.
Thanks again.

First, I don’t know why being a united community or not has anything to do with a translation??

Now, to the topic: as a brazilian myself, I really think the game should be translated. I mean, I can’t speak of other lusophony countries, but at least on Brazil, I can safely say that like 1% speak english fluently, and that IS something that needs to be taken into consideration. Brazilian people are a huge community in gaming in general. Even if we don’t have enough brazilians in GW2 at this moment (which I don’t think we don’t) it could attract more, just look at how much some games have grown since they put a server in here. Portuguese is an important language, which is one of the reasons games like League of Legends (which does have a very big player base) made a portuguese translation before also important languages such as russian and japanese.

I do think a subbed translation would be great and would attract a lot of players to the game.

I no longer know how many friends I called to play GW2. Everyone liked the idea of the game, but none of them played because it was not translated into Portuguese. I am aware that translate the whole game will cost a lot, but at least with the Portuguese legend I believe that more people would be playing GW2.

Healix.5819:

Unofficially however, they could easily support fan subbing.

That would be interesting to include. In addition to having something for languages not currently included it would be great for dialects and when you are learning a language.

Well, you could get your community together, create a Wiki, and translate every written piece of content in the game. Might take awhile, though. Something to work on whilst waiting for ArenaNet to add more languages.

Good luck.

I liked the idea

It would be really cool if we could have the game translated, either with the help of the community or at the initiative of the arena.net itself. It would certainly further excite existing players and new ones that are to come yet.

It will be nice If the game get a translation (and I’ll love if it get dubbing too, but only subtitles is good).

I was looking in the official game wiki a possibility of starting a translation, but apparently arena.net only officially supports the wikis with an in game already translated. (That’s why we have the es, dr and fr too). An unnoficial Wiki will be just another fan site. But If we could get some suport the things can change.

Btw there’s a discussion about other languages Wiki right here https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Talk:List_of_non-English_wikis#Question:_How_to_add_new_laguages_to_the_official_wiki.3F

The brass community has only increased within guild wars 2, with the addition of the subtitles this number would increase more.

leitelucas.1573:

It will be nice If the game get a translation (and I’ll love if it get dubbing too, but only subtitles is good).

I was looking in the official game wiki a possibility of starting a translation, but apparently arena.net only officially supports the wikis with an in game already translated. (That’s why we have the es, dr and fr too). An unnoficial Wiki will be just another fan site. But If we could get some suport the things can change.

Btw there’s a discussion about other languages Wiki right here https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Talk:List_of_non-English_wikis#Question:_How_to_add_new_laguages_to_the_official_wiki.3F

According to that link, it looks like there was a Brazilian Wiki, but was shut down due to lack of community interest. That’s a shame.

It would be cool if we could have subtitles to make the game more accessible to the community of Portuguese speaking countries.
Att. Lord of Mordor.

The gaming industry never gave much credit to portuguese translations, we were never the target public.

Brazil has grown as one of the biggest gaming consumers and yet it is not given us viability for something as essential as a translation, we remain invisible to the gaming industry, like that huge white elephant in the room that everyone wants to avoid.

I think it’s not about the brazilian community or GW2 at all.

We grew up playing games on english because we do not have another option at all, we pay a hell lot more to play a game in Brazil (not only talking about the game but also about the internet) and we still allow ourselves to play games in foreign languages, brazilians don’t even bother themselves anymore, it turn out to be easier and quicker to learn english than having a translated game. As consumers, we all expect quality from what we buy, and for Brazil it was never offered, we just do not know what quality is, because we never had it! Only recently that the gaming industry began to invest in translations, began to see Brazil as an emerging country and a potential market.

About the representation of Brazil in GW2, in fact, we do have numbers, there is no need to prove it, is quite evident, but we are divided, and we must think about it, perhaps, it is only a consequence of a game that does not offer portuguese language for his brazillian players, it decentralizes the community, it’s like a tower of babel (silly, but I think it is a valid reference).

So, I support portuguese localization. I am a proud brazilian citizen and would like to see my language and my country have more credibility in the gaming industry and, as a big fan of ArenaNet, which is such a professional company, it would be lovely to see it being supportive with that idea.

A game is not just to create software or to sell it to anyone who wants to play, do not forget that it is a waste to let many people (ignorant of English) ignore something as captivating as the GW2 Lore. How many times have I seen people who do not know why they are facing a dragon? Players should understand the meaning behind the names and goals to understand the game.

Translate delay content or increase cost? maybe but do not forget that nothing costs so much as to make a game well done, and I think the gw2 already do it and do it very well, without you noticing how laborious this work is or why Anet chose these current languages.

Basically, 90% of the last AAA games have been dubbed into Portuguese or at least translated. Brazilians are not the the most numerous gamers in the world, but this did not prevented them from increasing their participation when GW2 became free to play (even if they do not speak English, Spanish or any other contemplated).

If you think it is not worth translating for Brazilians, it is because you undervalue / underestimate the Brazilians who play and those who can play gw2. How valuable would a translation be for Anet? I do not know. How valuable would a translation be for Brazilians? Invaluable.

Thanks friends for the initiative and thanks Anet for the game.

I don’t think ArenaNet undervalues Brazilians or any other group that would enjoy the game translated. The problem would be if every group that wanted translation’s desires were fulfilled, there would be no game to translate. I.e., all resources would be spent in that area. I think the studio has to be pretty darn positive that the resources spent will be more than recouped. Otherwise, they act as a charity, and lacking donors, that would spell studio closure.

That idea would be amazing!
Alot of Brazilian Players cannot speak or understand English at all, the translation or localization of the game would be so awesome and important for the community!
Actually I had friends that tried GW2 and gave up because they could not understand teh game or what they were doing.
Please ANET look at us Brazilians because we look at you with alot of Love and Admiration!

Regardless of resources spent in translating the game, or at least supporting an unnoficial translation, ANet should see it as an investment, and not useless spending. From a brazillian point of view, it is know that even though english is becoming increasingly more common in the country, the vast majority of the population here has little to no education in a second language, unfortunately. Targetting such a big volume of players and making the game more accessible to a big portion of the community could encourage a big flow of new playes, hence new payers. With a new expansion on the way, alongside HoT, LS, gemstore, etc., the potential income from these new players could be more than enough to cover the spendings with translations (considering that we are talking about Brazil, a country with a huge population on an advanced digital inclusion proccess).
I think that discussing this and studying the scenario is very important, and if numbers prove that it is not that viable, going for a subtitle only translation is a great option and a good start, and even if that doesn’t happen, at least giving the brazillian community a green light for an unnoficial user translation initiative could possibly pave the way for other groups seeking accessibility, as we currently are.

ANet doesn’t see it as “useless.” They do see it as “an investment.” That’s different from it being the best use of their available resources. There’s already plenty of numbers that suggest that, even if it’s hard for people outside the industry to see it.

There’s no doubt that there’s a sort of chicken & egg effect: without a translation, it’s harder to attract players whose primary|only language is e.g. Portuguese. And without such players, it’s hard to justify spending money on translations. However, there’s all sorts of precedent for sticking to a few languages rather than trying to release a game everywhere.

https://newzoo.com/insights/rankings/top-100-countries-by-game-revenues/

Profeus.9034:

https://newzoo.com/insights/rankings/top-100-countries-by-game-revenues/

For those not wanting to follow the link, the top five are China, USA, Japan, Germany, UK, and Korea. Brazil is #13; Portugal ranks 36.

Unfortunately, the company doesn’t include their detailed methodology, so it’s hard to know how well the presentation applies to MMOs or RPGs. If we assume that the revenue numbers can be compared apples-to-apples (which is probably false: Korean gamers seems to prefer a different sort of game than those in the US)…

• North America revenues total 30138 million dollars.
• Brazil revenues are 1338 million, about 4.4%
• Japan is 12545 million, about 41%

So all things being equal, if ANet was going to translate into another language for the potential revenue, Japanese would be a far, far better first choice.

I know that the translation(subtitles) may be difficult and all, and I understand the arguments of why it may not be a viable thing, but I like the idea and it would ultimately bring more Portuguese speakers to the game.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Profeus.9034:

https://newzoo.com/insights/rankings/top-100-countries-by-game-revenues/

So all things being equal, if ANet was going to translate into another language for the potential revenue, Japanese would be a far, far better first choice.

The translations are not/would be excluding, even there is the possibility of the two languages receive translation, the question is: Why not?

Outts.4963:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Profeus.9034:

https://newzoo.com/insights/rankings/top-100-countries-by-game-revenues/

So all things being equal, if ANet was going to translate into another language for the potential revenue, Japanese would be a far, far better first choice.

The translations are not/would be excluding, even there is the possibility of the two languages receive translation, the question is: Why not?

Because it’s enormously expensive and it slows down development. To change a simple item description, such as “this item is only used for collections” to “this item may be safely sold after unlocking the collection” currently requires translations into five more languages from the original English. Adding two more means hiring another set of people to translate and fixing text bugs or adding skills means waiting for them to finish their work queue.

If it were free to translate, of course they would do it. Since it costs time & resources, there has to be a good business reason. The evidence suggests that this is among many good ideas for which the costs outweigh the benefits.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Outts.4963:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Profeus.9034:

https://newzoo.com/insights/rankings/top-100-countries-by-game-revenues/

So all things being equal, if ANet was going to translate into another language for the potential revenue, Japanese would be a far, far better first choice.

The translations are not/would be excluding, even there is the possibility of the two languages receive translation, the question is: Why not?

Because it’s enormously expensive and it slows down development. To change a simple item description, such as “this item is only used for collections” to “this item may be safely sold after unlocking the collection” currently requires translations into five more languages from the original English. Adding two more means hiring another set of people to translate and fixing text bugs or adding skills means waiting for them to finish their work queue.

If it were free to translate, of course they would do it. Since it costs time & resources, there has to be a good business reason. The evidence suggests that this is among many good ideas for which the costs outweigh the benefits.

I agree but… a translation would be “enormously expensive and it slows down development” but the subtitles would not have that absurd impact you describe. And it has very positive feedback from the community, after all, who does not like to have their community valued?