Why English

[quils3]

A simple quesion realy. Why is the general language chosen to be English?

[shanejfilomena]

When a game is being developed, typically only 1 language is used by the development team. In
some cases, the developers will also build translations for some other major languages, however
this is not common for several reasons...
* It complicates the development of the game
* It costs time and money to do the translation, both of which are limited
* Often the costs outway the benefit, as games in alternate languages don't sell well

There are several groups on the internet that address this issue by providing translations for
games. However, it can often be hindered because the languages are hard to find,or use a
proprietary file format. What this means is that translations are slow, and a programmer needs
to be involved to translate the files back and forward.

However...if you think you want to take this on as a project ( and have alot of time and energy ) to protect Domina's Plans for Pilgrims :
you could try this :

Code: Select all

 NOTEPAD,  or NOTEPAD++ can be used by anyone who wants to change the language in a game,
such as changing the names of enemy teams, and renaming players, weapons,  Machines, Ships.

Languages are not my Specialty... ( some available French words are Not French ENOUGH for some Players I know)
If you were to do this: concentrate on the player's displayed texts: not the control codes : " General X awards you the medal of Silly."
And keep it to a Language you KNOW well enough to catch errors.
Then present your text work to the Great Ones in the Transcendence Universe. ( do not be shocked if they shoot you down: they shoot me down all the time)

[Atarlost]

A simple quesion realy. Why is the general language chosen to be English?

Because the designer/writer/programmer lives in an English speaking country and speaks English as his primary language.

Because English has the largest gamer population reached of any single language.

Because any specific people George wanted to show his work to in early development would have been either people known to him through the online communities for Rogue and Star Control, both English language games with English language communities, or through his English speaking brick and mortar community in an English speaking nation.

Because most programming languages are English based.

Because Lord Byron and Ada Lovelace and Alan Turing were English and the transistor and microchip were invented in English speaking America.

Because the sun never set on the British Empire. Until it did, but by then American cultural imperialism was ready to take up the slack.

Because, presumably, of some underlying historical and geographical reasons that I don't have space to explore here even if I understood them.

[erik dela cruz]

If you want it in Filipino I'd gladly translate it for you. Hehehe.

[shanejfilomena]

Ouchy.....sounds like somebody got a lot of Lottery scam mails this morning....

Back to the question: if the displayed texts are translated: they would have to be reviewed and triple checked ( it could take months before it was approved for download, IF they have the time for it : the central Command of the game is not paid )

However: other languages in the game universe are not "international standard" and if ever approved , do not get your hopes up for a large amount of downloads.

[Aury]

No, it really is sort of a silly question if you've had enough exposure to, well, any of the gaming world.
Games are almost always either developed in A) English or B) The language of the developer/developer's country. And you only get away with B if you are going for a small audience anyways OR you are planning on releasing your game in Japan.

There are exceptions, but they are exceedingly rare.

George speaks English & lives in the United States. Thus A and B return the same value, and thus its entirely logical that English is the language that it would be developed in.

[shanejfilomena]

Sooo, In conclusion......while I tried to be tactful and encouraging.......you guys can just say " shot down"
you don't have keep going Admiral Decker on the subject

[Aury]

My post was a response to your comment, not the OP.

[george moromisato]

This will get tricky once Part II comes out.

In Human Space it is just barely possible to suspend disbelief that everyone speaks English (even the Teratons). [If someone held a gun to my head and asked me to predict the most common languages of the 2400s, I would pick English and Mandarin--not necessarily in that order.]

But once you go out into the Galaxy and meet the Ancient Races, we will need some contrived explanation for how you can communicate with them.

My current plan is to require the player to obtain an AI that can translate from the languages of the Ancient Races to English.

[RPC]

So a universal translator? That sounds like an ample opportunity to create a mission for it. (or even a mission framework, if we're lucky.)
Yeah, I was wondering why the Ares weren't speaking some crazy martian dialect in Heretic, or even speaking in a sound wavelength I can hear. (maybe genetic engineering gave the Ares bat-ears with echolocation... lol )

[onyhow]

George, did the other ancient races use similar language or something as the Iocrym? Since if they are, then the communications that the scientists developed at the first contact should help...(I think the Iocrym Archive explain things to you in English IS strange though...except if the Iocrym Translators are already on board or something...)

[sdw195]

but the Iocrym learned English. we didnt learn there language from what the code says

[Atarlost]

Because there are only a handful of them interacting with humans and (tens or hundreds of) billions of English speaking humans.

[erik dela cruz]

This will get tricky once Part II comes out.

In Human Space it is just barely possible to suspend disbelief that everyone speaks English (even the Teratons). [If someone held a gun to my head and asked me to predict the most common languages of the 2400s, I would pick English and Mandarin--not necessarily in that order.]

But once you go out into the Galaxy and meet the Ancient Races, we will need some contrived explanation for how you can communicate with them.

My current plan is to require the player to obtain an AI that can translate from the languages of the Ancient Races to English.

When, when, when, when will it come out? I'm so excited already! I bet there are more cooler stuff in it, ya?

[Aury]

Sometimes after 1.1, is all I can say X3 (I mean, I really don't know when, just sometime after 1.1)