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Total conversion to English?

Verfasst: 11. Oktober 2010 09:34
von Blue Bird
According to Wikipedia,
200 million speak German
500 million - 1.8 billion speak English


The website is strictly German.
  • Deters first time viewers from the site because they can't read it. They'll probably leave and realize there is no English website that has any information on the game at all. After that, they'll just drop the game completely from their radar.
  • The British Flag which usually means that the website will be readable after clicking it, changes the site into a little bit English but still mostly German (especially News Articles/Polls/Headers)
The forums primary language is set to German.
  • To the average first time viewer, many may be unable to locate the Register button. Others may recognize it and push it but won't be able to read the agreement or the two choices they have. If they persevere and pick the right button they might be able to locate the Language drop-down list and change it to English. But I think most people will have given up by then. Afterall...
  • ...there is only one small "English Section" (that would have AT2 info in it) which rarely sees activity.
Not everybody knows how to use the Google Translate Extension (or other translators).
  • This can be a bit of a debate. Based on what I've seen, for every 1 tech-savvy person, probably roughly 3 average everyday casual gamer/light internet use/email checker's are roaming around... if you get my drift.
  • The translator isn't exactly the best. And although I haven't tried it, I would imagine replying in English or using the translator in reverse in a German sub-forum probably doesn't work all too well.
Wouldn't it be better if we could reach at least the majority of the world, to grow a fan base, to gain ideas from more people, and to sell more copies of Airline Tycoon 2, thereby making this sequel and the franchise a huge success?

Perhaps according to some I may have come on too strong with my points. But is it not the time to convert everything over to English? Or is this the German home to AT2 which seems to be housing the game devs for the time being? Based on the PM everybody just got in the past 24hrs, how does the English section collaborate with the German section when the English section is asked to post in a German sub-forum? "und bringt so Eure Ideen ins Spiel ein!"

PS: The only time I saw any copy of Airline Tycoon in stores was in some bargain bin 2-3 years after the game had been made... unfortunately I was younger back then, in high school, had no job, and had no money to buy it. Even then, I stumbled across the game before then and had already downloaded it.

Re: Total conversion to English?

Verfasst: 11. Oktober 2010 09:41
von Benjamin@b-alive
Well our primary language is and will be german;
Dont think that will change in the near future :(

Nonetheless we have not forgotten our non-german fans and are working hard to translate all the relevant news and idea gathering posts into english so that everyone can take part in the discussion.

I'm sorry for your inconvinience :S

Re: Total conversion to English?

Verfasst: 11. Oktober 2010 16:08
von Nopott
Hi!

We´re really sorry for that! Our main problem is that we don´t have a translator and our team hasn´t so much time to translate every News and every content from our Fansite.

I´ll try to find a translator for the fansite, so we will see if somebody would do it for free.

Greets

Re: Total conversion to English?

Verfasst: 13. Oktober 2010 01:48
von Blue Bird
Well, if the gap can't be filled then at least it's good to see a bridge is being built over the gap. :)

Visas, whether you are working on AT2 or just some nice guy that came along, nevertheless, much appreciated for the translated topics :thumbup:.

Re: Total conversion to English?

Verfasst: 13. Oktober 2010 09:35
von Nightmare
Blue Bird hat geschrieben:According to Wikipedia,
200 million speak German
500 million - 1.8 billion speak English
O_o....
Mandarin
Total speakers 885 million (first language speakers)
Total Speakers: 1,365,053,177

Spanish
First language 329 million to 400 million.
500 million as first or second language


and now? :müde:

Re: Total conversion to English?

Verfasst: 13. Oktober 2010 17:59
von Visas
Aww, please keep this in a friendly tone :(

Mandarin is mainly spoken in China and some in 20 other countries. There are 845mio L1/native speakers
Spanish is mainly spoken in Spain and some in 44 other countries. There are 329mio L1/native speakers
English is mainly spoken in the United Kingdom and some in 112 other countries. There are 328mio L1/native speakers.
As you can see if you are to compare the count of L1 speakers you would have to assume that the most important language has to be Mandarin, but if you analyze the numbers and statistics available, (e.g. http://www.ethnologue.com) you can come up with the initial conclusion Blue Bird intended.
Keep in mind that Asia is host to more than 33% percent of the world’s population, which are more than 2.3 billion People. 1.3 billion are Chinese of whom some 800 million are speaking mandarin. The other L1 speakers are to be found in Taiwan and such. The ca. 120 Million (I haven`t found this figure anywhere else than in the German wiki, so it could be wrong all together :? ) L2 speaker now have to be divided trough 20 different countries, mainly Asian countries. So as you can see you wouldn`t be able to communicate with as many people in as many countries as you could if you were to write in English or Spanish.
I could now elaborate this for Spanish and English too but I think it is fairly clear what point I am trying to make. If comparing the importance of one language, always put your comparison in context. Mandarin is probably the most important language if you want to open a cinema in China but if you want to communicate with an as broad as possible fan base in as many countries as possible your number one choice is still the English language. So to not make this any longer than it already is I am going to stop myself now :S .


@ Bluebird:
Well then off you go and write down some ideas you have :D

Re: Total conversion to English?

Verfasst: 7. April 2011 16:14
von KeanoManu
Nopott hat geschrieben:Hi!

We´re really sorry for that! Our main problem is that we don´t have a translator and our team hasn´t so much time to translate every News and every content from our Fansite.

I´ll try to find a translator for the fansite, so we will see if somebody would do it for free.

Greets
I understand that it's not a priority to translate everything into English at this stage.

But can you confirm that the game will be available in English at release?