Guild Wars 2

add more languages with new expansion thx

still additional costs. K, thx, bai.

Bork Bork Bork (or whatever that was in GW1), please.

Strine!

Rytlock: “Crikey! Logan ya bludger! Wotdidja run off for after that sheila? Why didja leave yer mates!?”

No need with extra langauges the big ones are already supported

zenleto.6179:

Strine!

Rytlock: “Crikey! Logan ya bludger! Wotdidja run off for after that sheila? Why didja leave yer mates!?”

I’m Aussie and please oh please can we have this?

fabry.8350:

add more languages with new expansion thx

They’ve said a couple of times they don’t have plans to do so. Official translations turn out to be very expensive (especially for games, which use specialized jargon), extensive QA, and require ongoing support — even if everything in the game today was translated for free, the game would still require translators for all the changes and new items yet to come.

And that’s without considering any sound files, which require voice actors.

So unless the game ends up having a lot people who won’t play in English, Spanish, French, German, or (in China) Chinese, I think it’s very unlikely we’d see more languages.

(The one exception is Bork Bork Bork, since anyone with a sense of humor can probably translate for that.)

NCSOFT only has the four languages for their products in NA/EU, unless the game is being handled by a 3rd party. Then it’s up to that 3rd party to handle the translation. Just like it’s up to the branch of NCSOFT here in NA is charge of the NA/EU translations of AION and Lineage II and soon Blade & Soul.

yes yes of course guild wars 1 with a lot of subititles and audio (and they were without money). After the success of Guild Wars 1 they don’t have money? ahah

a lot of people would do it for free and they can’t translate a kitteng game gg. (year 2015) hold ur expansion arenanet u deserve to fail

fabry.8350:

a lot of people would do it for free and they can’t translate a kitteng game gg. (year 2015) hold ur expansion arenanet u deserve to fail

What’s wrong with just playing in English? Clearly you can type/read English.

u talk like this only beacuse u are english. I understand enlish but i don’t want stay 3 minute for transalate every single kittenty words

fabry.8350:

u talk like this only beacuse u are english. I understand enlish but i don’t want stay 3 minute for transalate every single kittenty words

Actually no, I’m Dutch. While I can understand listening may be more of a problem, all cut scenes have written text with them.

fabry.8350:

a lot of people would do it for free and they can’t translate a kitteng game gg. (year 2015) hold ur expansion arenanet u deserve to fail

Maybe you should send ANet the list with the names and addresses of all those
people.

I miss Bork Bork Bork from GW1- it was quite common for my friends and I to use this language for an extended period of time.

But it would still be very time consuming (and thus expensive) to translate even just Bork Bork Bork into the game.

It would be even more expensive to add real languages in, such as Italian, Russian, Polish, Portuguese etc. This would require the service of several translators AND a team to moderate the forums for these languages. There would also have to be a devoted CS team that would operate in these languages. These people need to be paid an hourly rate for as long as the game lasts, so it’s no a cheap and easy one-time addition.

When it comes down to it, you have to remember that A-net and NCsoft are businesses. They’re only going to add things that ultimately are profitable. I doubt that there would be enough users for these other languages for it to pay itself off and then profit.

What could be possible would be if these unsupported languages were translated by fans. Obviously, A-net can’t just chuck fan-made stuff into the game, but perhaps the translations could appear as an overlay or mod? As long as the mod isn’t affecting/improving player performance than it should be allowed by A-net (just like the graphic mods that are going around).

Fabry- I can understand your problem. Learning English is kind of inevitable when you’re playing an English language MMO though. I’d recommend writing up frequently forgotten/used words on post-it noted and stick them to the side of your screen or wall. With each word you remember, things will get slightly easier and before you know it you won’t have any problems at all.

Melanie.1240:

fabry.8350:

u talk like this only beacuse u are english. I understand enlish but i don’t want stay 3 minute for transalate every single kittenty words

Actually no, I’m Dutch. While I can understand listening may be more of a problem, all cut scenes have written text with them.

Not all of them. I keep coming across (and submitting bug reports for) ones that don’t. Fortunately they do seem to get fixed sooner or later.

I’m pretty sure some people would jump at the chance to do this work for free. And then give up after two weeks because that’s a full-time job and just not feasible when you have to work another job to actually make money.

So, nope, a free translation is bound to fail.

The only “big” language I can think of that’s currently missing is Russian. Other than that, there are huge overlaps with the ones we do have in terms of native language and first foreign language – i.e. while the game isn’t available in Hindi, as I understand it, English is taught at many schools in India and thus a viable option. Same for most European countries who didn’t get an official translation for their native language.
It’s unreasonable to demand every single language be available, so you generally pick the most popular ones and/or the ones most popular with your target audience.

@fabry: Spanish has roughly 500 million speakers, and German also still has over 100 million speakers around the world. Those languages are rightly considered “big ones”.

Well in terms of number of PC gamers of that language and not general population. I think Russian is viable but certain issues like high piracy rates discourages game companies from directly supporting it. Of course this ignores the population of native Russian speakers outside of Russia.

When I read the topic title, I thought he was referring to RP languages. xD

fabry.8350:

u talk like this only beacuse u are english. I understand enlish but i don’t want stay 3 minute for transalate every single kittenty words

I am not “English”. I just made use of very, very, very basic education – which actually came down to playing computer games in English cause our English teachers sucked. I am sure you can manage. If not, well… intellect stuff… and so on.

Algreg.3629:

I am sure you can manage. If not, well… intellect stuff… and so on.

While I agree OP’s English seems to be at a level where he can probably manage the game in English, that doesn’t mean people who can’t speak English have a lower intellect.

When GW2 released, I was actually surprised by the limited amount of languages it supported. It’s a decision they made years ago and I doubt they’ll support any new languages for GW2 in the future, though.

drowze.3709:

Algreg.3629:

I am sure you can manage. If not, well… intellect stuff… and so on.

While I agree OP’s English seems to be at a level where he can probably manage the game in English, that doesn’t mean people who can’t speak English have a lower intellect.

When GW2 released, I was actually surprised by the limited amount of languages it supported. It’s a decision they made years ago and I doubt they’ll support any new languages for GW2 in the future, though.

Limited you say what major language is there left except russian as stated in the thread

English is the current Lingua Franca so no doubts there. I’m betting the other language support exists because it makes sense in the markets where GW1 was most successful or where they want GW2 to be successful. Has little to do with the most commonly spoken languages, otherwise we would see Spanish, Hindi and Arabic … but we don’t.

The cost to implement other languages would be massive, for very little gain I think. Seems Anet already knows this.

drowze.3709:

Algreg.3629:

I am sure you can manage. If not, well… intellect stuff… and so on.

While I agree OP’s English seems to be at a level where he can probably manage the game in English, that doesn’t mean people who can’t speak English have a lower intellect.

When GW2 released, I was actually surprised by the limited amount of languages it supported. It’s a decision they made years ago and I doubt they’ll support any new languages for GW2 in the future, though.

No, not being able to speak English does not reveal a lower intellect. Not being able to adapt to an environment easily accessible and predominant in pop culture… more so.

Obtena.7952:

English is the current Lingua Franca so no doubts there. I’m betting the other language support exists because it makes sense in the markets where GW1 was most successful or where they want GW2 to be successful. Has little to do with the most commonly spoken languages, otherwise we would see Spanish, Hindi and Arabic … but we don’t.

I think it’s definitely a matter of which languages are the most widely spoken in places where GW2 is sold. Admittedly the game is actually available world-wide, but they only have EU and NA servers and the HoT retailer list only includes countries in North America, Europe and Brazil.

English, Spanish and French covers North America. Add German to the list and you’ve got most of Europe basically covered because it seems like everyone who isn’t a native speaker learns at least one of those languages in school. (Admittedly not necessarily enough to actually use it, unless you want to talk about the contents of your pencil case, and no that’s not a euphemism, but enough that it’s a start and they can learn more if they want to.)

So really the first choice if they were going to add another language should be Portuguese to cover Brazil….and I think other South American countries that don’t speak Spanish. (And obviously Portugal, but see the above comment about Europe.)

(Of course the game is available in Chinese too, but only on the Chinese servers which are entirely separate.)

Danikat.8537:

English, Spanish and French covers North America. Add German to the list and you’ve got most of Europe basically covered because it seems like everyone who isn’t a native speaker learns at least one of those languages in school. (Admittedly not necessarily enough to actually use it, unless you want to talk about the contents of your pencil case, and no that’s not a euphemism, but enough that it’s a start and they can learn more if they want to.)

Pretty much this. Plus a lot of languages in Europe are very closely related so if it isn’t the exact language they speak, they’d be able to pick parts of it out, or enough to actually play and understand the basics of the game.

Related but kinda off-topic: after learning German for 4 years at school and casually learning it for another 5, I still get excited when I can understand what is being said in-game without having to translate or watch subtitles/speech bubbles, and I’m a native English speaker.

To those asking for a free translation by fans: No. This never turns out well. First of all, Guild Wars 2 is huge. It likely has tens of thousands of lines of text. Secondly, what usually happens with fan translations is that you’ll get a handful of people who think they can translate properly, but are untrained. They’ll miss stuff, they’ll make more mistakes than professionals would, and the end result is more often than not quite poor. Especially if there are multiple people bickering about how to translate every little detail.

I work with a lot of trained translators and interpreters. I know what it takes to just start out in that field. I also have a general idea of how much they earn. No professional would translate this much for free, and no amateur should try.

or you simply learn English in school

Melanie.1240:

fabry.8350:

a lot of people would do it for free and they can’t translate a kitteng game gg. (year 2015) hold ur expansion arenanet u deserve to fail

What’s wrong with just playing in English? Clearly you can type/read English.

If English isn’t your native language, it’s harder to enjoy the game, unless you read, write, and speak it professionally. I know tons of people who know enough of a foreign language to hang out, chat, even see a movie and who would still find it easier to play in their native language.

In other words, it’s not as simple to non-native speakers as the quote above implies.

Danikat.8537:

Obtena.7952:

English is the current Lingua Franca so no doubts there. I’m betting the other language support exists because it makes sense in the markets where GW1 was most successful or where they want GW2 to be successful. Has little to do with the most commonly spoken languages, otherwise we would see Spanish, Hindi and Arabic … but we don’t.

I think it’s definitely a matter of which languages are the most widely spoken in places where GW2 is sold.

How does this explain why we don’t see Spanish and yet have French? I think that Anet are a little more selective with their language choices based on regional success of GW1/2 because they actually have the market data to suggest what languages they should support, not based on how many people speak those languages where GW2 is available.

I think it also has to do with the idea that Anet already had made investments into specific languages in GW1. It’s simply a matter of using those assets in GW2 as well. I would find it really hard to see how Anet simply implements the most popular languages in places where GW2 is sold, It might be available, but we have little idea if that makes it popular in those places to justify the cost of implementing in that languages

Obtena.7952:

Danikat.8537:

Obtena.7952:

English is the current Lingua Franca so no doubts there. I’m betting the other language support exists because it makes sense in the markets where GW1 was most successful or where they want GW2 to be successful. Has little to do with the most commonly spoken languages, otherwise we would see Spanish, Hindi and Arabic … but we don’t.

I think it’s definitely a matter of which languages are the most widely spoken in places where GW2 is sold.

How does this explain why we don’t see Spanish and yet have French? I think that Anet are a little more selective with their language choices based on regional success of GW1/2 because they actually have the market data to suggest what languages they should support, not based on how many people speak those languages where GW2 is available.

I think it also has to do with the idea that Anet already had made investments into specific languages in GW1. It’s simply a matter of using those assets in GW2 as well. I would find it really hard to see how Anet simply implements the most popular languages in places where GW2 is sold, It might be available, but we have little idea if that makes it popular in those places to justify the cost of implementing in that languages

We do have Spanish for GW2.

Seera.5916:

Obtena.7952:

Danikat.8537:

Obtena.7952:

English is the current Lingua Franca so no doubts there. I’m betting the other language support exists because it makes sense in the markets where GW1 was most successful or where they want GW2 to be successful. Has little to do with the most commonly spoken languages, otherwise we would see Spanish, Hindi and Arabic … but we don’t.

I think it’s definitely a matter of which languages are the most widely spoken in places where GW2 is sold.

How does this explain why we don’t see Spanish and yet have French? I think that Anet are a little more selective with their language choices based on regional success of GW1/2 because they actually have the market data to suggest what languages they should support, not based on how many people speak those languages where GW2 is available.

I think it also has to do with the idea that Anet already had made investments into specific languages in GW1. It’s simply a matter of using those assets in GW2 as well. I would find it really hard to see how Anet simply implements the most popular languages in places where GW2 is sold, It might be available, but we have little idea if that makes it popular in those places to justify the cost of implementing in that languages

We do have Spanish for GW2.

Text language yes, audio no.

Like I said, it boils down to language by PC gamer population, not overall.

German, Spanish, French and English covers a fair chunk of the EU because it is highly likely, do to the polyglot nature of Europeans, that one of those would be understandable if your primary language isn’t one of them.

English, Spanish and French covers the Western Hemisphere except for Brazil. And while being surrounded by Spanish speaking countries just like Portugal, Spanish is likely understood.

So the question is now what is the next largest native language of PC gamers across NA/EU? Then is it large enough to warrant the cost of doing a translation, even skipping the voice overs?

Miss Lana.5276:

Plus a lot of languages in Europe are very closely related so if it isn’t the exact language they speak, they’d be able to pick parts of it out, or enough to actually play and understand the basics of the game.

Miss Lana.5276:

very closely related

Miss Lana.5276:

able to pick parts of it out or understand

I’m not sure how to react to this. You’re thinking of the Scandinavian countries perhaps?

This has been stated many times before. It comes down to a simple buisness decision. They cover the major languages based by player numbers.

I doubt they haven’t considered it. Wouldn’t be surprised if they came to the conclusion that it wasn’t worth the effort and resources.

And just out of interest, which languages are we even talking about?

Henry.5713:

And just out of interest, which languages are we even talking about?

Russian, polish, swedish, danish, norwegian, finnish, dutch, italian, greek, portuguese ..

just as a few to start with

Beldin.5498:

Henry.5713:

And just out of interest, which languages are we even talking about?

Russian, polish, swedish, danish, norwegian, finnish, dutch, italian, greek, portuguese ..

just as a few to start with

Aside from Russian, Portuguese and maybe Polish, those really aren’t majority languages.