" The language should not be a barrier at all. From what I've heard on several boards
and
experienced myself in my gaming community, those that want games material in their
own
language are a minority. My mother tongue is dutch but I prefer my gaming material
in english.
Why ? Two simple reasons".
I don't know what the Belgian reality in gaming is, but I'm sure that French Spanish and Italian
realities are different. Translations are needed and English is used only by a minority of the overall
market. Sure, if you go to a convention you have the perception that English speaking gamers are a
big majority and that translations are not needed, but if you go to a store in these countries and ask to
the retailer, the situation is different: I'm one, trust me. If not, why translating the books?
"To me english is as much THE gaming language as it is for instance for computing.
It's in
english that most games are originaly developed and therefore it's in english that most
material
is available. And I've simply had to deal with way too many BAD translations (in:
gaming,
computing, novels, ...) that I simply prefer material in its original language ! (think for
instance
the problems created by having to translate rules for RPG's, subtelties in translation
could
eventualy lead to a completely different game !)".
As I stated earlier, in my country and in most of the bigger ones translations are needed for tapping
a larger market. If you want to sell only English langiage products, you confine yourself in a niche
market. This is true for RPGs, novels, compuer games, mnovies and so on. Perhaps in Belgium
English usage is much more widespread...
"The second reason is as simple: us inhabitants of the european community have
always
needed to be able to express ourselves in several languages (added to that: the
country I live in
is bi-lingual dutch-french, maybe you guessed: Belgium) so english is spoken and
understood
by most people with basic schooling. This gives us a practical tool: In my gaming
group we
simply use dutch for OUT-game conversation and english for IN-game conversation.
(or any
other language appropriate to the game/character)".
Ah. Oh. Gulp! Not here, I'm sure. If this attitude is widespread, then Belgium IS different!
"As a side note: I remember the days that Magic was printed in several languages:
WOTC had
very quickly declared the english version of the cards as the only tournament legal
version ! And
I've already heard talk of certain rules loopholes created by the french translation of
the PHB".
It was declared the only legal version in INTERNATIONAL tournaments (for example, European
Championship) because, for example, if an Italian and a German meet in a tournament, they MUST
be able to understand the cards of the opponent! But here in Italy, for example, cards of all languages
are tournament legal, assumed you have a copy 1) in Italian 2) in English to help foreign players. And
if you see sales figures in the biggest European countries (no offense intended to Belgium!), you will
see that translated Magic cards are much more popular than English ones (barring UK of course 8-]).
Again, why spending good money for translating them if nobody wants them translated in the first
istance?
"So to summarize my 2 bits: the majority of gamers in europe (that I know of) prefer
english
quality material over (bad) translated material".
Market realities are different. If you don't believe me, whrn in holiday in Italy, France, Spain or
germany make a tip to some game store and look around...