20 replies to this topic

[Rejarial Galatan]

Ok, as I was reading some threads something hit me, and ive not seen a thread about this anywhere. Will this game have something like an auto-translator where if you speak say japanese only and find yourself in an all german speaking game for what ever reason, will there be a way to communicate? same can be asked of any cross-language teams.

[Listless Nomad]

I doubt it. That would be incredibly complex to do reliably, and I don't think any other game has one. I think you either suck it up or leave if that situation occurs.

[Rejarial Galatan]

Final Fantasy XI has a working global auto-translator that does common phrases. I think that is something that could be done. The thing is tho, you as a player must key up the auto-trans and put in the phrase you want and then it translates, then you send it.

Edited by Rejarial Galatan, 06 May 2012 - 06:43 PM.

[The Cheese]

It would be easier to have a list of quick-commands or phrases. Every player picks a primary language as a game setting. Then the Japanese person would pick the line that they want to send, then the message is sent to the other players in the language they've chosen.

No actual translating being done, just a phrase match system.

[Rejarial Galatan]

Similar to the Auto-trans IF it translates what the japanese player in your example tries to tell me. Like: Move over there to Nav Alpha, a <MECH> is heading that way! <MECH> means a mech name, atlas, awesome etc. and the thing shows me in english and not in kanji ya know?

[The Cheese]

Basically, but I'm thinking even more simplified. No one wants to spend 15 seconds hunting around a list while they're being shot at.

I think a way to ping the map 'a-la starcraft' would be the way to go as far as clarifying your intent. You ping it, the other members of your team can look at where you pinged to see what you're on about.

For example, there might be a quick-phrase for "Incoming hostile". You choose that and send it to the other players on your team, and it's sent to them in their chosen language. You then ping the map to show where you spotted the enemy.

[Rejarial Galatan]

The ping thing sounds also WoW, but they are both blizzard, so, guess thats why! could work that way, could work

[Carl Wrede]

Learn english (this from a non-native english speaker)! Translations does not work in combat.

[Rejarial Galatan]

I will say it: make every person on planet earth who will play mech warrior learn english as a requirement to play and watch this game die before it gets off the drop ship.

[LordDeathStrike]

Rejarial Galatan, on 06 May 2012 - 06:32 PM, said:

Ok, as I was reading some threads something hit me, and ive not seen a thread about this anywhere. Will this game have something like an auto-translator where if you speak say japanese only and find yourself in an all german speaking game for what ever reason, will there be a way to communicate? same can be asked of any cross-language teams.

meh just use english, its what 90+% of the world does already!

Rejarial Galatan, on 06 May 2012 - 08:02 PM, said:

I will say it: make every person on planet earth who will play mech warrior learn english as a requirement to play and watch this game die before it gets off the drop ship.

almost everyone already does, those that dont can make units/teams of people to play with that can talk to each other. battle tech fans number in the 10s of millions so im sure we will have a healthy population from all corners of the globe (i bet theres even a few on antartica nerding it up with the penguins)

[Rejarial Galatan]

I had to learn a bit of japanese to save myself time on Final Fantasy XI since it seemed the japanese groups I got in spoke/read 0 english. While yes, the business world DOES use english it seems as SOP, the gaming world, not so much so.

does not help that english is one of the most conveluted languages to learn. I think only chinese <mandarin and cantonese> are harder than english.

[El Loco]

Try German...I have quite a few friends and colleagues who had to learn a bit German while staying here, many of them didn't get past "Guten Tag". EDIT: English is one of only a few languages that are easy to learn regardless of what your mother tongue is.

Anyway: My experience is, that most people will actually invest time to learn the "slang" of the game they're playing. I.e., they'll learn the different occasions for pinging and the most common abbreviations and in game vocabulary. If you don't speak English, you can always ask if there's someone speaking your language, and if there isn't you can leave the game before it starts. I don't see a good enough reason to invest large amounts of time and resources for a translation device.

Edited by El Loco, 06 May 2012 - 11:37 PM.

[Cifu]

Carl Wrede, on 06 May 2012 - 07:50 PM, said:

Learn english (this from a non-native english speaker)! Translations does not work in combat.

And still, in an EU server, most PvP games had the language barrier effect. And the MWO is far not the easly understandable working mechanism example. Players need to be understand how the Mechlab works, how the character development work, etc.

Yea, i'm with you with the learning thing, but need to be understand the situation too...

Edited by Cifu, 07 May 2012 - 12:10 AM.

[Victor Morson]

Your best bet to play with a foreign unit is to get a translator .. player.

For example, we played some MWLL 1-life drops with ELH, a Russian unit (that's also in ELH). Fortunately, they had a couple members that could speak English and let us know exactly what we needed to do in any given situation. It's not ideal, but it can work with a well organized team like those guys.

[Cifu]

El Loco, on 06 May 2012 - 11:35 PM, said:

English is one of only a few languages that are easy to learn regardless of what your mother tongue is.

Actually i believe the "easy to learn" is a bit misconception. Yes, easy to get a level, when an another (more or less) english speaking people understand you, but a native English speaking people (or someone, who learn it in higher level) endure a pain, when hear (or read) you in that level.

I got many note about my english grammar errors from such peoples.

[El Loco]

I'd like to compare English with the programming language Perl in terms of the learning curve. You can make progress fast and reach a level where you can communicate with other people (write a programm that fulfills your needs). And that's what it is about in our modern day world. In a world, where most people are not native English speakers you will always be in the majority and never should feel ashamed of not being perfect in the language. Being ashamed of ones lack in skill is what I find the most common reason to not write or speak English. Which is stupid, because you will never improve your language skills if you don't practice them.

The game should cover a couple of languages for installation and gui of course. And I'm sure the devs thought of this already.

[XTRMNTR2K]

El Loco, on 07 May 2012 - 12:34 AM, said:

Being ashamed of ones lack in skill is what I find the most common reason to not write or speak English. Which is stupid, because you will never improve your language skills if you don't practice them.

THIS. SO MUCH THIS.

Whenever I read someone's post on a forum saying "sorry for my bad english I'm German" I want to reach through the screen and punch that person in the face. Repeatedly. They make it sound like it's an uncurable disease or something.

One can never be able to do everything, but those things you don't know can be learned - if you want.

And that's coming from someone whose highschool english teacher made him hate speaking english so much his skills actually degraded for a while.

Edited by XTRMNTR2K, 07 May 2012 - 01:13 AM.

[Aelos03]

I know how frustrating is see people talk on non english languages and when i talk to them they ignore me, i know it feel and i don't do that to others Thank good there is skype/ts...

[Tearalum]

I think everyone should try to speak english in-game. Even if you can't do it fluently people will understand you.
And there will, most likely, be a quick-command feature so it's easy to learn those phrases. If not, then how is a lance leader or commander going to be able to direct his troops if they speak five different languages and there are to be no common denominator, such as english?

[Cifu]

Tearalum, on 07 May 2012 - 01:34 AM, said:

I think everyone should try to speak english in-game. Even if you can't do it fluently people will understand you.
And there will, most likely, be a quick-command feature so it's easy to learn those phrases. If not, then how is a lance leader or commander going to be able to direct his troops if they speak five different languages and there are to be no common denominator, such as english?

I have to point out again: many people won't really have notable english knowledge. The "Help!", "Attack!", "Left/Right", etc. knowledge is perhaps enough to control the tactical situation in the battlefield, but to understand a perk / skill what do exactly is a different thing. That's why needed translated menu's, description's, etc.