do non-english native speakers preefer translations or games in english?

[sarkwalvein]

in my experience they actually get mad when you give a too high value...

True. Weird, but true.

 

[3DSDude_]

Well, if a game is available in my native language (which is not english) then I'll play it in my own language. I didn't find any problems with the general quality of the translations/adaptations, expecially if done by Nintendo.

But I don't mind playing games in english, if that's the only way I have to play and enjoy them

 

[Sliter]

i was making a joke referencing that some wild brazilian would appear and start a rant about how games are expensive there because taxes

why? I get them for free /joke/
well i'ts a problem we have here but not only taxes.. something we call FDP too, that make a game that, with taxes, have the tripe of value of the fair price ...
For example, the fair price for new 3DS (new games, not n3ds), is around 150 Reais (this including the taxes and everything), but pre orders of pokemon sun and moon? with FDP its like 230 Reais each...
is crazy that some people try to sell used oot3D by 500 Reais... I really hope no one buy from these FDP :/ but thereare stupid people with much money to waste...

 

[koim]

Usually translated, but highly dependant on the quality of the translation.
Back in the late 90's translation could be horrendous.
I NEVER made it past the very first line of Vandal Hearts in french. Immediately switched to english.
Suikoden II was pretty sloppy. Let just say that amateurs would have done a MUCH better job.
Final fantasy VII had some moments as well. "a a dà é payé"

 

[migles]

why? I get them for free /joke/
well i'ts a problem we have here but not only taxes.. something we call FDP too, that make a game that, with taxes, have the tripe of value of the fair price ...
For example, the fair price for new 3DS (new games, not n3ds), is around 150 Reais (this including the taxes and everything), but pre orders of pokemon sun and moon? with FDP its like 230 Reais each...
is crazy that some people try to sell used oot3D by 500 Reais... I really hope no one buy from these FDP :/ but thereare stupid people with much money to waste...

here it is! i knew it!
ok ok, i admit i almost pushed it, but i knew there would be a post about brazilian game prices

Final fantasy VII had somme moments as well. "a a dà é payé"

could you explain what that means?

 

[DaRk_ViVi]

I've grown up in a time where games weren't much translated in Italian (my language) so I usually played them in English (except Pokemon Red which I've played in Spanish because the Italian version was sold out for months).
Nowadays I prefer to play them in my language, if available. This is not a lazy thing or anything, just the fact that most of the official translations in Italian are done properly without grammar errors and/or useless adaptations (except where needed).

However I'd rather watch the dubbed stuff (games, tv shows) in the original language (being it english or japanese) as I don't really like the voice adaptation.
So my vote goes for:
- Text/Subtitles: Italian
- Voice: Original language

 

[vinipeix]

You know, it is cool to have a game in your native language.
But I got used to play games in english and I even learnt the language from them (I'm far from being fluent but I can maintain a conversation very well).

I really don't mind as long I can understand what is going on.

 

[XavyrrVaati]

I can't read Japanese, so I almost always play with ENG text. (exception would be first half of FE:if since there wasn't a fan translation yet)

For audio, it depends. I dislike poor localization, so unless it's done right, I'll pretty much always pick the original audio. It's all about my perceived quality. Ex. I think Danganronpa's dubs are terrible and they make me cringe, however I heard the JP audio first so that may be a factor. FE:if/Fates I think has a pretty bad localization, from changed personalities, and poor voice acting (imo). If I flinch from the sound, then I don't want it. Ironically, I played Fire Emblem Awakening with English VO. I think partially because I heard it first, and that it doesn't save your language settings (gg). I also thought it was a very high quality dub. It didn't seem fake or forced when I heard it.

TL;DR It depends on several factors: Is the localization and/or dub good? Which sounds better to me (usually first heard tends to be my preference, I get attached to voices I think.)? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

EDIT: Oh wait this is addressed to non native English speakers. OOPS :'P

 

[Sliter]

here it is! i knew it!
ok ok, i admit i almost pushed it, but i knew there would be a post about brazilian game prices

I was just answering you the reason we complain so much :B I wasn't complaing lol don't be a FDP you too XD

 

[ketal]

Not only games. Everything that's not in my native language.

 

[Jack Daniels]

depends on the game, if the game is designed for really young children like sesame street i do prefer them translated to local language, however when the game is designed for teens and up i'd like them to be english. this for it is a reason for these children to learn english. so kindergartens ABC should be dutch in my case, but final fantasy should be english. maybe subtitles in dutch should be allowed do i prfer the whole game to be in english for my kids. this is the main reason i used to learn english myself, and also the main reason todays kids have more troubles learning the language here in the netherlands.

 

[koim]

could you explain what that means?

If only I knew !
FFVII french translation had some missups, like long "............." strings, some silly giberrish here and there, a few untranslated english sentences...

 

[Procyon]

I prefer games in English yes.
Any other language in games is for scrubs.

In English, as well with Movies...

 

[ForeverEternal]

I prefer them in their original language.

Like my anime and korra

 

[Sakitoshi]

Depends...
My native language is Spanish, but latam Spanish (Chilean to be even more precise) and there are mannerisms that are used differently, to put an example in my country "coche" is used exclusively for baby carriage but in all the other countries "coche" is used for cars, that and more common things like in Spain they use the old way of talking to refer to people they use "vosotros" which is the equivalent of plural "thou" in English while in latam Spanish we use "ustedes" which is plural "you".
Aside from that some game translations are quite good and try to maintain a neutral language or simply use 2 translations, one for Spain and the other for latam countries. What really makes me change the console language to English is when a game is dubbed in Spain Spanish or if they alter names, and example of that is in the Square Enix games for example in Kingdom Hearts instead of calling the fire spells something similar to fire, fira and firaga they took the lazy and boring path of calling it piro, piro+ and piro++ .
Latam Spanish dubs tend to be good, I enjoyed the work done in inFamous 2 and Second Son so no worries there.

 

[Cyan]

I see the majority prefer english.
I prefer english too, but it really depends the game genre.

If there are text only : English !
If it's spoken only : French (I'm not that good in english audio, enven less when it involved some weird or accentuated accents)
if mixed : it depends if the game is text base or action based.
- you have the time to read: English
or
- action base, like tomb raider and games talking at the same time you do action and you can't "read" or you'll make a game over : French

The issue is that lip sync is usually done for english only. Looking at Tomb raider en french is awful.
Some games, we don't have the choice (oxenfree is English only, and has a lot of active talking, sometime no subtitles..)it's hard to follow but it was just enough for me to understand it.

It also depends how well the dub or sub is done.
Like said, FF7 French is very very bad. but you didn't had the choice back when it was released on PS1. hopefully now it's easier to play it in English.
If there's a choice, I choose the Original dub version and english text.
english word's choice sounds ALWAYS better than my native language for gaming terms. Some people could argue it's because I'm not "as fluent" in english, and if I were I wouldn't like it either. But I don't care, I prefer english in games, so that's a good thing I'm not fluent.

 

[sarkwalvein]

english word's choice sounds ALWAYS better than my native language for gaming terms. Some people could argue it's because I'm not "as fluent" in english, and if I were I wouldn't like it either. But I don't care, I prefer english in games, so that's a good thing I'm not fluent.

I don't think so.
I can say I'm not as fluent in English as in Spanish, but I prefer games in English anyway.
And I'm not as fluent in German as in English. Still prefer games in English (or even in Spanish for that case) than in German.
Dubs sound too dumb (and fail lipsync doesn't help), and even the translated text normally sounds kind of dumb (poor translations I suppose)

 

[Taleweaver]

I'll go with original language (which is roughly 100% of the time), provided there are English subs. I can but think of one game that had Dutch subtitles (the android version of duet insists on it), and I didn't like it much either.

as a non american, non aussie, non english etc.. i had the pain of don't be able to understand games and being forced to learn english with games...

...and because of that, our language skills are now better than ever. I remember an English friend who was jealous of me being fluent in two languages (and decent in French on top of that), whereas he could only speak English. I, for one, considers it a blessing that games weren't translated much back then. Same goes for movies that are mostly subtitled rather than dubbed.

I prefer everything in english. I actually have come to dislike my own language somewhat. Especially the way numbers works in dutch is incredibly stupid. In dutch you'd say "OneThirty" to mean "Thirtyone" English way just makes way more sense as you say it in the order of how you write it.

doesn't the frenches got some rule like that "two forties" or something like that?

Sorry to interrupt, but as Belgians, we have both French and Dutch as languages. dimmidice was talking about Dutch, in which large numbers are indeed pretty illogical*. There is certainly a rule to it, but that doesn't make it easier to deal with.
French is more consistent in that regard, though for some reason they fucked up 70-99 (71 is basically sixty-eleven, 80 is four-twenty and 90 combines the latter two, so 93 is actually four-twenty-thirteen ).






*I often have to communicate numbers over the phone. I always tell them digit by digit

 

[FAST6191]

Being a native speaker I can not add so much. Though I might wish to investigate the relationship between non game French dubs, which are held in country and by what I have seen too to be pretty good as these things go, and acceptance of things there, obviously contrasting with where they are less than stellar.

That said some might be interested in reading the articles on http://www.loekalization.com/
We usually link that up for game related translation discussion but it feels relevant here. Guy is a professional game translator for things from English or Japanese to Dutch and has written some good stuff related to it all.

 

[Justinde75]

The thing with German translations is that they get alot of things wrong, and they don't make much sense most of the time. I usually prefer English in my games, so its closer to the way the original writer intended it to be