Translations chat window

[eldoth_terevan]

The translators are questionable at best and you really need someone (preferably yourself) to know what you are actually saying if you use the translated text. Even then, you could still have multiple possible translations of a given word or sentence depending on regional dialectical factors, that's one of the reasons a good translator is paid a lot of money to do their job. And the trouble with the subject is why the game is meant to be in English. Sorry if I went off topic, I have not been able to be in game for a loong time and I am getting kinda zoinked...

[Ceriy]

Nikodemus grab my idea (as usual, reading his forum posts).

It was implicit that:
- users must know English grammar
- users must know a basic vocabulary

And it's implicit, also, that whole sentences can't be translated perfectly.
And it's implicit, also, that user who don't speak english everyday can't write always good (I mean correct) english sentences.

My idea is an help (to permit non english language users) to write english without having a vaste dictionary in mind. As example, if I'm mining and I want to say: "Whoa, I'm exhausted", but I don't know  the english word "exhausted", I have to search in an external dictionary (and this cause my game to be windowed, having a program wich translate words and so on... or worste, in a dictiornary book). If I can know that translation (of the word "exhausted") directly in PS, it better for me and for who listen.

This idea will cause, in my opinion:
- Better (non english) user feeling
- Better player communication, OOC and IC (PS is based on communication, right?)

Also, non english users have a chance to enlarge their dictionaries.

...

Being in globalized world, english is a standard communication language. The game is planned to be english, because if not, it couldn't reach anyone!

Effectively, english is a language with easy grammar, but this is not a reason to say "Learn english, fool"... don't flame me because this, but because most of english users don't learn alternative languages, and most users speak english natively, these users can think that only english users can enjoy PS; and this is totally wrong, because PS is started from an italian guy(s), and without him/they, all PS users couldn't enjoy PS. I don't want define who thinks to be superior because its english capabilities...

I want a integrated tool wich HELPS communication, and don't substitute my brain (as someone said  ).

[Idoru]

I want a integrated tool wich HELPS communication, and don't substitute my brain (as someone said  ).

How I see it is that is the problem. That may be what you want but users who dont have such a knowledge of english as you have will come into the game and put words into the translator and then string them  together as they would be ordered in their native language. I can almost guarantee that this will happen and result in people stood at Harnquists saying abolute nonsense and getting annoyed that no one is talking sense (as far as their translations are concerned) back to them.

[MyLifeForMe]

Well... I am quite sure anyone who is going to play this game has at least the basic knowledge... Except a few who needed about 2 weeks to "understand" the basics of the game because what they read in the tutorial is for them just random letters put in random places... And... Most of the languages(at least those with latin/germanic roots, that means msot of the European languages) have a very similar order of words. That means, even if they would do this "putting just the words into the translator and writing them in the order of their nativ language" communication was still possible...

Well, I like the idea, but the problems is... You can't have a translator for all languages so you have to select a few because you can't have a translator for all. And even if you choose the most important(let me think... French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish,[maybe Japanese or Chinese but they usually got all a good education...], maybe an Afircan language) makes about 7 languages...

And if you want to have a translator, it needs to be programmed/suited to work in-game and the admins need to get a translator(I doubt anyone will let them use their translator FREE for a game...) or they need to programm it on their own.... Forget the self-programming...

[eldoth_terevan]

Language translations are not easy though. There are many companies and industries devoted to doing such things, and there has never been one that has found a one-size-fits-all solution to the problem of translation. Developing this could easily take longer and more resources than the game itself. It is not meant to be a "you must learn English" type of directive from the developers, it is just what makes the most sense going forward. Please notice I said "the most sense", not "the best and perfect way". The perfect situation would be to have something that auto-translates one language to another taking into account all possible dialects, variations, inclusion of uncommon or obscure words, from any language to any other language. It is not a simple propisition. Not every word in every language has an English word, and vice-versa, and there are about a thousand other problems with doing this. That is why translators, good ones, are highly-paid people with real job security. I am not saying don't do this or stop thinking about it, I just think that this project, at this point in it's history, does not have the resources to provide something like this in game.