Civilization for polyglots - crazy idea

krzysiek · September 18, 2001, 07:53

The idea is simple.
Each civilization representative will talk to you in his/her native language.
French in French, English and Americans in English, Germans in German, Greeks in Greece, Romans in Latin.
Most of us will have problems during conversation with Chinese, Babylonians, Indians, Egyptians, Persians, Aztecs, Japanese, Zulus ...
Moreover if you start playing with (for example) Greeks (almost) all text/speech will be in Greek.

I think it's funny.
Firaxis could do one release for all the world (no localizations).

What do you think?

Provost Harrison · September 18, 2001, 07:54

Hmmmm...erm, lemme think about this one

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NO!

Master Marcus · September 18, 2001, 08:02

It could have been great if they had the budget to do so...Voiceovers in native language, yes, but the player can choose subtitles of a most-talked language ( English, Spanol, Francais, etc...)

krzysiek · September 18, 2001, 08:05

Sure, this feature could be an option (turn on/off).
I guess that majority will play in English.

Sabre2th · September 18, 2001, 08:06

Ummm....

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No

If there were subtitles, it might be cool, but it's not realistic to ask for this in a game.

Sabre2th · September 18, 2001, 08:08

Quote:

Originally posted by krzysiek
Sure, this feature could be an option (turn on/off).
I guess that majority will play in English.

Not realistic, especially if it's only an option. Adding all the voices and text would take forever. Haven't we waited long enough for civ3?

Gramphos · September 18, 2001, 10:57

People have been able to communicate with each other in time, without different languages, and the languages has developed apart, there is always people that know more then one language. That means whatever language one speak in you should understand it, and therefor all civs should use the same language.

Tventano · September 18, 2001, 12:02

It was partly in Alien Crossfire, you first had to learn Progenitor Psych before you could communicate with the Aliens.

Perhaps this is the purpose of the Tower of Babel wonder, after building it nobody can understand each other, till the invention of Esperanto.

Or third option, till the Renaisance they communicate in Latin, after that french and after 1945 in english.

In fact I would like to hear some other languages than just english. Movies which use the language of the country the people belong to have more athmosphere. I think it always stupid to see a WWII movie there also the germans speak english, or the same movie on german television there also the british speak german.

For all the needed languages nationals are living in the States, so it should not be more difficult to let the leaders speak in there own language than to use only english language actors.

Inverse Icarus · September 18, 2001, 12:04

yea. thats just what i need.

German Emissary: UNSER GROßER FüHRER, OTTO VON BISMARK, MöCHTE ALLE ZERSTöREN SIE SOLDATEN, IHRE FRAUEN RAUBEN UND IHRE JUNGE ESSEN!

Me: Yes, i would like to trade coal for iron.

KoalaBear33 · September 18, 2001, 12:11

Do we get subtitles like in foreign films?

KoalaBear33

Col Bigspear · September 18, 2001, 12:11

Quote:

Originally posted by UberKruX
yea. thats just what i need.

German Emissary: UNSER GROßER FüHRER, OTTO VON BISMARK, MöCHTE ALLE ZERSTöREN SIE SOLDATEN, IHRE FRAUEN RAUBEN UND IHRE JUNGE ESSEN!

Me: Yes, i would like to trade coal for iron.

Ps. If you don't speak German go to Freetranslation.com to get the gist

Inverse Icarus · September 18, 2001, 12:13

i'll write what i was trying to say... translators dont do it justice.

German Emissary: our great king , OTTO VON BISMARK, wants to destroy your soldiers, rape your women, and eat your young.

Me: Yes, i would like to trade coal for iron.

Sabre2th · September 18, 2001, 12:18

Quote:

Originally posted by UberKruX
i'll write what i was trying to say... translators dont do it justice.

German Emissary: our great king , OTTO VON BISMARK, wants to destroy your soldiers, rape your women, and eat your young.

Me: Yes, i would like to trade coal for iron.

Col Bigspear · September 18, 2001, 12:26

I know, translator screens certain things so it changes it quite a bit. But itdid enough to show it was not a trade offer

.
Thx for posting the correct translation

Your.Master · September 18, 2001, 17:07

I'm so proud. I translated UberKrux's thingy almost entirely using my English, French, and slight 7-word knowledge of German, including Jugen, Soldaten, and anything in Indiana Jones (which my mother ALWAYS corrects the subtitles of)!

Master Marcus · September 18, 2001, 17:39

Quote:

Originally posted by KoalaBear33
Do we get subtitles like in foreign films?

KoalaBear33

Ah! In a video game, it's still better within a window than on a letterbox DVD format ( lower black bar for the vast majority owning a standard TV ). However the DVD is the example to follow regarding languages coding, but a costly one and I agree with those saying that the time effort to do so for a game company is unrealistic of course. De toute façon beaucoup de mes amis francophones, comme moi, jouent en version originale anglaise.

JellyDonut · September 18, 2001, 17:42

Quote:

Originally posted by UberKruX
yea. thats just what i need.

German Emissary: UNSER GROßER FüHRER, OTTO VON BISMARK, MöCHTE ALLE ZERSTöREN SIE SOLDATEN, IHRE FRAUEN RAUBEN UND IHRE JUNGE ESSEN!

Me: Yes, i would like to trade coal for iron.

BTW, should be GROSSER not GROßER. The ß turns into "SS" when capitalized.

From the zompist.com phrasebook:

Quote:

Impressed as I am with the New Wave in cinematography, I must say that this particular film seemed both pretentious and unsatisfying, and that the director's imagery, though compelling, is no substitute for a true cinematic message.
Mais c'est de la merde, ce navet.
A esto le llamo yo estiércol cinematográfico.
Der Film ist Scheiße.

On topic, however, if it weren't an option, I'd be restricted to the British, Germans, French, and Russians. I'd like to be able to play the Chinese without learning all their weird symbols or the Indians without learning the Devanaagari alphabet.

And what would the Americans be? Probably English, but technically America has no official language.

Virtually nobody would play the Babylonians, Aztecs, Romans, or Egyptians as those languages have all died out. Nor the Persians or the Zulus, because there aren't that many computers in those parts of the world.

jsw363 · September 18, 2001, 21:28

I'm all about the Romans. Veni, Vidi, Vici

Imran Siddiqui · September 18, 2001, 23:15

You know, this could be interesting.

Have them SPEAK in their native tounge, but have the written translation in English (subtitles I guess

) on the screen!

aaglo · September 18, 2001, 23:46

Haben Sie Müsli?
Ja, jag spelar fotboll i Talkulla IF.
Will you join me, and attack the Babylonians?
La quenta, por favor!
Voulez vous couché avec moi?

very interesting.... The idea is inviting. That wouldn't add to the gameplay, but surely would increase the realism. And vocabulary

Pggar · September 19, 2001, 05:46

Quote:

Originally posted by Col Bigspear
I know, translator screens certain things so it changes it quite a bit. But itdid enough to show it was not a trade offer

.
Thx for posting the correct translation

Translation from freetranslation.com:

OUR LARGER leader, OTTO OF BISMARK, would like ALL DESTROYING YOU SOLDIERS, YOUR MS. ROBBERY AND YOUR BOYS MEAL!

I couldn't tell what kind of weird offer that was, but i realized it was not a trade one.

Interesting idea krzysiek, but it would take too long to do it.

tea41 · September 19, 2001, 06:15

Quote:

Originally posted by Pggar

Translation from freetranslation.com:

OUR LARGER leader, OTTO OF BISMARK, would like ALL DESTROYING YOU SOLDIERS, YOUR MS. ROBBERY AND YOUR BOYS MEAL!

I couldn't tell what kind of weird offer that was, but i realized it was not a trade one.

Interesting idea krzysiek, but it would take too long to do it.

Here's what Babelfish says:

"OUR GROssER FueHRER, PETROL OF UNTIL MARK, MoeCHTE ALL ZERSToeREN IT SOLDIER, HER WIVES ROBBING AND ITS BOY MEAL!"

It obviously has problems with special characters (dipthongs?) and proper names!

Trifna · September 19, 2001, 08:59

Unrealistic.

Costly.

Would take some time.

No one will play it since we can't use such a game that we don't understand. Except maybe only once, to see how it's like. I'd take a Latin/English dictionary in such a case.

Conclusion: Not a lot of advantages to compensates the fact of simply making fun of seeing it in different languages

hetairoi22 · September 19, 2001, 09:27

I agree with Trifna (and many others it seems).

It's simply to costly and would take too much time...

But could've been cool though!!

Andrew_Jay · September 19, 2001, 09:52

While having a multitude of languages in the game would be hard to do, and costly, it could (dare I keep up the argument any longer?

) contribute to gameplay as well.
At first, other civs would use their own language, BUT, as time goes on and certain civs gain greater power and dominance over the others, perhaps the other civs that haven't kept up could start using antother civilisations language during diplomacy. It would be an interesting and somewhat subtle way of seeing how dominant your civilisation or someone elses is.
But then again, that would just be too much trouble to put in, but I just wanted to say that it could actually be useful, rather than a little distraction so you could have a little chuckle at how strange some of the languages sound

Akron · September 19, 2001, 09:56

Quote:

Originally posted by Pggar
OUR LARGER leader, OTTO OF BISMARK, would like ALL DESTROYING YOU SOLDIERS, YOUR MS. ROBBERY AND YOUR BOYS MEAL!

Using native languages would be cool but would take too long. I want my civ now!

Marquis de Sodaq · September 19, 2001, 11:04

Hmmm... How do you manage voice tracks for the Carthaginians, Persians, and Egyptians? Cool idea, tho. However, any bilinguals who have watched subtitled movies know how well that system works!

cyril25376 · September 19, 2001, 11:26

I don't like this idea. I don't want to be forced to learn chinese for two years and more, only to be able to understand the chinese leader

DarkCloud · September 19, 2001, 19:26

Actually I like this idea, if you can choose to have subtitles on for certain rulers- it could teach people languages.

dainbramaged13 · September 19, 2001, 19:56

next after sidgolf - SidLANGUAGE - in this exciting journey into the mind of a leader, sid and his team (actually sid had no knowledge this was ever being made in the first place, he just sits around and drinks coffe playing golf and simcity all day) have created the masterpiece of learning and fun!! learn all different languages as you speak to repetitive animations of misrepresentations of historical leaders who say the exact same thing every time you meet them! Then listen to depressing advisors who always tell you youre doing the wrong thing in a language you cant understand! Buy it today, and you'll be entitled to spend another $40 bucks on each of the 6 expansion packs, each adding a language and one feature that should have been in the game in the first place.

sorry firaxis, couldn't resist