[FFXI] Japanese language support for non-Japanese region clients

[Kalinene]

I know this is an old thread, but this is an important issue for me! I used to have the Japanese FFXI client back in the day for this very reason because romaji is very frustrating to read and communicate with. It was a really amazing experience being able to speak with players in Japan.

I'm glad to hear that Japanese input has been introduced to FFXIV. Why can't FFXI do the same now? It would be really great to finally have a way to talk with Japanese players and not simply rely on the auto-translate feature or romaji.

日本語を勉強している外国人多いです。ゲームの中に、ちゃんとした日本語を入力させてください。
There are lots of people from other countries learning and studying Japanese. Please allow us to input proper Japanese in game, too. ^^

[Alhanelem]

It's not going to happen. I want it too, but it just won't happen. SE would have to pay licensing fees for every NA user to have access to the game's integrated IME- and it wouldn't be worth the cost when you consider the number of people likely to be capable of using it. This is why the coding for it still exists in the windows version, but it's disabled internally.

Still SONY paid for all PS3 consoles to have ATOK enabled on it's XMB, regardless of where it is being sold at ...

This only applies to the PS3 system software though- other software still has to license it.

[Midorikaze]

心を開いておいてください。

True that we are but a small niche group of individuals who are expanding our knowledge of a different language and would like to communicate a bit more freely with our non-English speaking fellow players. Auto-Translate though decent, doesn't cover quite everything I would like to say. Even the ability to copy-paste would satisfy me anyways, like there is in XIV. The ability to input characters from another language or special characters in general should go BOTH ways (I'm looking at you, musical notes, stars and piggy snout smileys); I don't see a need to not allow it or disable it. So sad that a language barrier exists simply because no matter what - in the end it all comes down to money and what is practical or not...licensing fees, legalities, copyrights, red tape. Call it what you will...

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$~

:\

[Kalinene]

It's not going to happen. I want it too, but it just won't happen. SE would have to pay licensing fees for every NA user to have access to the game's integrated IME- and it wouldn't be worth the cost when you consider the number of people likely to be capable of using it. This is why the coding for it still exists in the windows version, but it's disabled internally.

This only applies to the PS3 system software though- other software still has to license it.

With regards to this...

I for one would even be willing to PAY a small fee to have access to full input abilities. They could introduce it as a one-time upgrade fee (aka you get your account "flagged" for foreign language input) or they could tack it on to the monthly fee.

So, I feel like cost isn't the only reason that they don't want to allow it. Either way, it's a shame. I hope they will eventually find a cheap way to implement it.

[Raksha]

Didn't realize this was an old ass thread until I saw Rog on the first page.

I kinda miss that guy (;_;)

[Midorikaze]

"Sorry, we can't do that...licensing fees <mumble mumble>"

How much would it cost to enable the IME that's already installed in my client, just 'disabled'(therefore a patch shouldn't be required, it's all in there already)?

If people were given a choice of whether to enable it or not, royalties/licensing would be kept to a minimum (I guess). It might just be a reasonable amount for those who would like it. I'm curious. Let's hear a number.

Seriously. For one person, one PC, one client. How much? Just wondering.

o.o

[wildsprite]

It's not going to happen. I want it too, but it just won't happen. SE would have to pay licensing fees for every NA user to have access to the game's integrated IME- and it wouldn't be worth the cost when you consider the number of people likely to be capable of using it. This is why the coding for it still exists in the windows version, but it's disabled internally.

just where do you get this licensing fee garbage from? they have IME on linux, there is no licensing fee unless they are paying another company to do it.

[Alhanelem]

just where do you get this licensing fee garbage from? they have IME on linux, there is no licensing fee unless they are paying another company to do it.

Every OS has an IME, not just linux. the specific IME software SE is using is not part of any OS, and most certainly is subject to licensing fees. It's not garbage, and they are paying another company to do it. It is a proprietary IME that they had to obtain to use on the PS2. It is built into FFXI and was carried with it to the PC version, but it is disabled internally because SE didn't want to pay the licesnsing fees for every NA user to be able to use it.

Money is the only reason for any of this. They don't do it because it would cost them more money to let us play, and from their point of view, it would be a senseless cost since very few North American or European players are fluent in Japanese.

Now, regarding the PS2 version, it uses ATOK, which is a copyrighted piece of software (JustSystems, an Japanese word processor developer company owns it) and indeed they would have to pay JustSystems royalties for it.

[oliveira]

Windows version uses MS-IME so the real reason the NA FFXI for Windows cannot use IME is Windows 98.

Any IME capable Windows program will fail to launch in non Japanese Windows 9x due to missing KERNEL imports related to MS-IME.

Since FFXIV had no reason to support Windows 98, it does support changing language to Japanese. And IME works just fine with it, regardless.

[Alhanelem]

'tis true, but the PS2 version also plays into this, and they use a proprietary IME on the PS2, as described above.