Language In Videogames

[InfiniteGeko]

I sometimes change the language for fun because I realize that the voice acting for other languages that I recognize is really bad. Sometimes Spanish voice overs make rugged characters sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I also find that some Japanese voice overs tend to change the personality of the characters because of the different pitch range in tonality. They're amusing at times but there also times where I'm amazed because characters have not lost the essence of what makes them through translation.

[AExAVF]

I have played video games in English, and while the spoken dialogue is correct, the subtitles are inaccurate.  An example in fact is from the tri-Ace/Square Enix game Radiata Stories.  The subtitle reads as follows:  "The Lion of the West, otherwise know as Gawain." While the spoken dialogue appears to be correct, the subtitles have errors.  Sometimes the errors are due to the oversight of the localization and translation companies.  The translators go through the game and translate the texts from Nihongo to English, and after translation is complete, it goes on to the localization department for grammar checks and quality control. 

[JessiFox]

I've never played any video games in languages other than English...to me it just seems like it would be more frustrating than amusing, but it's interesting to think about how different characters come across depending on the language and such.

[petrushka]

I've never changed a game's language to anything other than English, but my brother HAS bought a Japanese original before thinking it was the English released, haha!

I hadn't begun learning the language yet though so it was such a bad experience to have so much anticipation, only for you not to understand anything happening. It's a video game though so at least there are visual cues. But understanding is still better in the long run.

[jbepp]

I usually play video games in English, but sometimes I feel like practicing my French and change it to French. French dubs tend to be pretty good so I've never regretted playing the French version of a video game.

[InfiniteGeko]

I usually play video games in English, but sometimes I feel like practicing my French and change it to French. French dubs tend to be pretty good so I've never regretted playing the French version of a video game.

I have played video games in English, and while the spoken dialogue is correct, the subtitles are inaccurate.  An example in fact is from the tri-Ace/Square Enix game Radiata Stories.  The subtitle reads as follows:  "The Lion of the West, otherwise know as Gawain." While the spoken dialogue appears to be correct, the subtitles have errors.  Sometimes the errors are due to the oversight of the localization and translation companies.  The translators go through the game and translate the texts from Nihongo to English, and after translation is complete, it goes on to the localization department for grammar checks and quality control. 

I do that sometimes. Since I'm studying Game Art & Design my main goal is to cater to every language possible. I'd like to work with games that have deep stories, but what's the point if the game can't convey the message clearly in another language? What AExAVF mentioned is extremely relevant to translation. Having a Caribbean Spanish as my native language I find it stressful to hear these strange accents from South America and/or Central America with slang words I've never heard in my entire life. I end up losing track of half of the story because the one important turning point in the story contained a very vague slang word that the majority of Spanish speakers don't understand. This isn't the case in every story but Battlefield 4 had this problem when I changed the game's language to Spanish and see how well they worked on the translation. I regretted doing that.

[Rosa]

Based on the fact that I am more fluent in English language I wouldn't consider playing videogames in any other language. I just think it wouldn't make sense having to be trying to interpret as I go along and that would also extend game time.

[Dora M]

I never play video games, so I can't really comment on this topic. But I have been using different types of foreign language software on my computer. One is in French, and another two are in Spanish. I have to say that I have gained quite a lot of new vocabulary and expressions from these programs.

[DivaDee]

Though I have done that from time to time I still prefer the native tounge of what I'm listening to, becuase even though it's kinda refreshing to hear through another countries interpretation of them, I prefer their native tounge cause it's how the game was made their are too many translation errors when it comes down to real languages so I leave it the way it is (vs made up languages that is left up to the creator on how to make the language sound and translate into other languages). So in the end they may work hard, but in the end they have to be careful or else they're going to make the language barrier even bigger... Or more confusing...

[czarina84]

I've never done this with video games, but it's the same with television shows and movies.  It's very fun to watch something in a foreign language.  I like to hear the change of intensity with Spanish.  I haven't been able to watch in any other language; the only non-English language that comes with Netflix is Spanish. 

[Chris_A]

I mostly play my video games in English. The exception would be, when I play a game made by a German developer. Most of the time, the English translation is fine, but games made in Germany for German users usually sound and feel better when played in their native tongue.

[EsperantoOnline]

I also play games in english most of the time. When I was a kid I remember I had an advantage over some of my classmates when taking spelling tests because I paid close attention to every word mentioned in every game. As a big fan of RPG's learning new vocabulary was natural because these games are quite lengthy and have lots of dialogue. 

Now, the most interesting language related excercise was putting the game on spanish and learning new words and the way the voice actors talked. Yet there was this funny part where a translation from Spain seemed as if the characters were using lots of swear words. What I learned afterwards was that a word in spanish can either be a common everyday word or a swear word depending on the country you use it. Just as an example "coger" in Spain is to grab something while in some latin american countries it means to have sex. I remember seeing this for the first time while playing Metal Gear Solid for the Playstation. 

[Wanda Kaishin]

I have a different method. I study languages instead of playing video games.

[Mameha]

I have a different method. I study languages instead of playing video games.

Ahahahah, that's a good method!

 

Anyway i play sometimes online videogames, and i have to speak english with the other players, or maybe sometimes happen that i play a videogame for pc (offline) and it doesn't exist in my language, so i am forced to play it in english. I think that all these ways are really good to learn a language. In fact i only studied english in high school (i really liked languages since then) but i think that i trained a lot with videogames! Obviously not spending all the day on it and studying seriously would be nice, but in the free time it can help

[anna3101]

I absolutely love all kinds of games, and although I mostly prefer to play in English (as it's often the original language of the game), sometimes I switch to other languages to learn some new words. You get a lot of new vocabulary, and it's fun