The Removal of French and German Language Options

[Dragoy]

So it was, that I had been greeted by this today, during my early wanderings:


Dear valued FINAL FANTASY XI player,

We have an announcement regarding an important change for FINAL FANTASY XI in-game text support. At present, players are able to choose between Japanese, English, French, and German language options, but due to the decreasing numbers of French and German language players, we have had to make a difficult but necessary decision on the support for these two languages. As such, we will be removing the French and German language options from FINAL FANTASY XI after the July 2014 version update, but will continue to support Japanese and English. Of course, French and German-speaking players will be able to continue playing using their current characters and settings in an English language environment. (Note that some macros may need to be modified.)

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our francohpone and germanophone players for their fantastic long-time dedication to FINAL FANTASY Xl, and will continue to provide French and German speaking customer support services.

Although it greatly saddens us that we will no longer be able to offer in-game text for these two languages, English localisation support will continue, and we hope that you will continue to experience exciting adventures in the world of Vana’diel.

Akihiko Matsui, FFXI producer

I'm sure the amount of players who rely to these language options is not extremely high, hence their cease of implementing it, but I personally know more than one. If they are unable to get past the barrier to use the game-client set in the English language, it will probably mean they will stop playing.

That will also mean that there's a high chance of me doing the same, for they have been the main reason for me to continue paying.

Unfortunate tidings indeed... It's not long from since I was wondering about when this game goes Japanese-only, but I wager there must be a journey or few yet to that. Time is swift in its movements, however, so it may just as well be here sooner than later.


Are you affected?

[Vit]

I'm French, i have been playing this game about 8 years if i'm right it's has been so long that i don't even remember when i started. I think it was in 2006. At the beginning i set the game in French because i could barely speak anything in English beside some kind of stuff like "what's your name? How are you?" ppl even used to call me RMT but never mind at that time i didn't even understood what does RMT means... anyway after several months i switched to English because my friend Chouk was always spelling ffxi names in English and i had to use the auto translate to figure out what it was. I can't say it was bad finally i could start to communicate more in English and play with other people, i also liked to read the text from the cs or quest in English of course i couldn't understand everything but what i can say is that nowday i think i can express myself it was a great experience to play in English, i can understand that it might be very annoying when you really can't speak or understand any English at all but it's a good start for French community to practice their English. I think i studied English 8 years in France i never understood anything (lacks of native english speaker teacher in France also don't make the language so attractive). To finish with i learned much more in game than anywhere else...so if i had to say something to French people i would say don't give up on trying this game in English it might be a great challenge.

[Dragoy]

Vit,


Thanks! That is a good message to send indeed.

I learned English from games myself, games such as Ultima V on the Commodore 64, in which I couldn't much understand things. Eventually I started connecting meanings into things and it would develop from there.

While my friends have learned a lot during their play-time with me, they're not exactly youngsters any longer, and it takes a lot of time to learn the language for them. Not that I'm saying it's ever too late, but only time will tell how this will unfold. ^^

I will also miss the ability to turn my client into French or German for when I feel like it, but what's done is done.

Hopefully whatever funds may be saved by this decision may improve the service elsewhere, though I somewhat doubt it.

[Alhanelem]

It is sad (and also sad that a couple people are probably out of a job); That said, I would be hopeful that this reduces patch turnaround since it the text doesn't need to be handled by as many people. So there may be some small positives to come out of this at least.

I've known a few french players over the years (and one German) but all of them used the English client anyway, so this won't affect them.

[Dazusu]

The French and German translations in the client were horrible anyway.

[Raydeus]

I may be wrong, but wasn't German and French support added only because it was a requirement to sell the game in the EU and not because it was something that had a high demand for? I'm pretty sure there was way more demand for Spanish translations back in the day and yet that was never implemented since it probably still wasn't worth the cost.

Either way, while English is IMO one of the ugliest languages there is no one can deny it's indeed the most convenient language to know in the internet era. So the way I see it Original language (in this case Japanese) + English should be the norm as we move forward with online gaming.

[lllen]

I was just thinking over the years I have met a lot of people from all over, most used the English text when typing and we would help them, but then they would get on Skype...that is when they really started learning English. I was fun and interesting. But I have rarely if ever seen French or German being shouted, occasionally some Spanish (usually a joke line, or hello) yet I know people from countries who speak another language all seem to default to English.

[Mirage]

Just let it go, germans and frenchmen. Kind regards, someone with english as a secondary language.

P.S. SE, just stop with the multi-language releases for European games all together. I'd rather just have the english translation you already made for americans the same day as the americans get it, instead of having to wait for half a dozen other localizations to be completed before I can get the game here in europe.

[BlueLove]

Well I have to say something here.
I'm one of the German players here in Game in I'm doing the only known active german wikipedia still.

As many say that germans has seccond language english thats right. But it's difficult to understand everything in the game right. Most of us understand english but only on low level. We're learning it at the age of 10. But most are no experts on it. We understand most things that will help us trough the day.
Playing a Game in english is not the same as playing it in own language. The games looses much of its spirit when they stop the support. Many ppl saying they'll quit cause of not enough understanding. This is an epic game... I want to understand everything right.
Well we're starting anew with the wikipdia if the day will come... but ours and years of work will be lost. It's horrible for me...
http://ffxi.sevengamer.de/wiki/Hauptseite

[Mirage]

I'm norwegian and I also started learning English at around ten years old. Games not being available in norwegian at all when I was a kid is one of the reasons why I am good at english and understand it at a high level now. I do believe I am able to fully enjoy this game even though it is not available in my own native language.

Think of it as an opportunity for indirect learning that actually is really useful outside of the game.

[Demonjustin]

Surprised no one made an unofficially supported translation for something like spanish who could do the same for this. I don't know of one at least, and it wouldn't be allowed I'm sure, but if someone knows of one that could really help too.

[BlueLove]

I agree it's a learning task, but I'm no speaking for myself I'm speaking for all the gamers that we'll loose cause of it. Not everyone has enough breath to take it along..

[Ihnako]

I see it as an opportunity for the german and french community to open up their minds and start enjoing the game as an international game.

I'm german and I started the game a month after US release.
I never knew the game other than english (except for a short insight in the jp-client).

I meet a lot of People from different countries and I could encourage some to play the game in english since they will understand others better and they will improve their language skills.

Hopefully we won't loose so many people and those who'll stay will be enjoing the game even more.

[Mirage]

SE has probably crunched the numbers for this anyway. They might have data over how many germans are playing it in german, and how many are playing it in english, and also how many germans are playing it in total, then weighing all that up against what it costs to keep the german version up to date.

I doubt they would do it if it lost them money.

[BlueLove]

Don't get me wrong I've played that game for over 2 Years before the release came, and had fun. But I even had much more fun when the German release got on start. It felt more like home. This is what I can say.

[Diag]

they have translated so much already, it stands in no relation to the content which will follow.. they should keep the already translated text and can add the new one in english even if the change in languages maybe will look ugly sometimes.. we speak different languages, why not the npcs :p i´ve learned a lot trough playing english solo rpgs/visual novels (by reading, not talking, so thats a different matter ^^) but my english is still not good enough to understand every single word. and i enjoy ffxi mainly because of its story-related content, but there a so many items and other specified (mmo) words which are not common to use for someone who´s native language is not english. i think i´ll probably unterstand most part of the game, but not all of it to fully enjoy it :/ i can understand the decision to stop the localisation of new content, but please let the option open to stay with the already translated textfiles :/ maybe some spells etc. are not well-translated, i rrrreally love the translation most part of the game <3 in the german forum some people already said they will stop playing and i think it will be some more than that :/