Should SE make a language spoken census?

[Welsper59]

Considering the number of times I've seen Spanish speaking players try to post on the forums, I wish SE would branch out more and include more Spanish language support both in game and on the forums.

It costs money. Many folks may not think that's a big deal, but it is. You have to hire people who have some degree of credibility to do the job of moderating and be fluent in multiple languages, where there is a minimum of English and/or Japanese and the language in question. A year of Spanish in high school isn't gonna cut it, despite what some special folks may want to believe.

Before you can even hire someone, you need to go through the channels/departments to create the position (not hard given it already exists for other languages), find someone qualified to advertise said position in the other language (as well as possibly write it up in your own), then advertise the job, and all of this also costs money. You then have to go through the typical interview process to find someone who not only qualifies but would be a good addition to the team. You don't want some stuck up d-bag to start causing problems. All of this takes time and money. For as simple as hiring might be for a small private entity, it's typically a totally different beast with an internationally large one.

Then there's the need to figure out where the line is drawn. Just because there might be a small amount of players who speak a certain language, doesn't mean they must branch out and support it. There's a reason why in the case of the forums, we have separated communities based on language. Someone posting in a language other than English, on the English forums, will have their thread deleted/locked/moved, depending on what it is. The same happens if someone posted on the Japanese forums in a language other than Japanese. Likewise for the French and German forums. It's just a way to keep things structured and organized, typical protocol and nothing personal.

A language like Spanish, for as widespread as it may be, is hardly even a thing in Japan. Heck, most of them may never even see a native speaker of any foreign language outside of English in their entire lives. When you look at their target demographic, Spanish-exclusive speakers are not a significant concern of theirs lol. Unless the company and their subject service or product is being marketed to a specific group of people, they are not obligated cater to outside audiences.

It would be nice to see every form of division be catered to, but that's just not realistic lol.

[shao32]

They have Spanish translators for what? Because after a lot of people asking for a spanish translation, till now, Square Enix didn't care about Spanish translation. Even games like Star Ocean V and Kingdom Hears 3D wasn't translated. Knowing that Spanish is the third language after Chinese and English most spoken in the world I don't understand this.

They make costa del sol is perfectly writteng XD.
Now for real i think i see another spanish words over there but well if they don't translate the game at least have our section of the forum for the ppl how need help is fine.

[Sakuraluna]

snip.

I get that it costs money. As I said, I have seen enough players attempt to post in Spanish here on the English forum that I have to wonder if there is enough of a Spanish community here for it to be considered. Spanish posts seem to be a somewhat regular occurrence.

[Welsper59]

They make costa del sol is perfectly writteng XD.
Now for real i think i see another spanish words over there but well if they don't translate the game at least have our section of the forum for the ppl how need help is fine.

That's a difficult thing to really run with. You open the flood gates and unless someone on-staff knows the language, you could very well have something that does not belong. Imagine if someone posted some propaganda that summed up to demanding the murder of world leaders lol. Plus, you tend to annoy the people who don't know the language, when you have two barriers collide.

Imagine coming to a forum of your language but mixed with others as well, and all you were to ever see is pages of threads in Hawaiian with maybe a bit of English (or any other language you may understand) sprinkled around. Said understandable threads may end up being some close ended "Look at this picture!" type of post too, rather than a well thought out topic. You're probably not going to bother lol.

I get that it costs money. As I said, I have seen enough players attempt to post in Spanish here on the English forum that I have to wonder if there is enough of a Spanish community here for it to be considered. Spanish posts seem to be a somewhat regular occurrence.

It's just one of those unfortunate limitations that people have to simply deal with. Spanish speakers are in the same place as any other language that is not supported. The need for a support of a language is based on the demographic only being able to speak that language. A rather significant amount of people who can speak Spanish, can probably speak one of the other supported languages decently, if not fluently in the locations that this game is being sold for. For those who can't, there are many others in the same multilingual boat.

It'd be like if I didn't understand Japanese but decided to play PSO2 (maybe legitimately if I lived in Japan). Sega is not obligated to support English speakers needs simply because I'm not their target demographic and supported language, even if I were to spend real money on the game. It may be supported, I don't know the technicality on PSO2, but just run with me on that lol. That sort of thing is entirely on the consumer when they participate in something that isn't intended for them.

[Warlyx]

translating a game to another language means u need to "support" that new language, Sever(s), GM , tech ect....and isnt optional , once u have a mmorpg in X language u need a whole team to keep it.

But dont lost hope , lots of games didnt have spanish language at release (WoW, Aion ect)

btw im from Spain

[Antonio_Xul]

This is why a census or survey should be made to see what languages are spoken within the game. I've ran into many Brazilian players talking Portuguese which was something I never expected, but there they are. A survey should be made to see what languages to support.

One thing I learned recently is that the United States has the 2nd largest group of Spanish speakers in the world behind only Mexico and surpassing Spain & Colombia. That's a huge market opportunity right there they are missing out on. With Mexico & Spain alone would be good enough reason to add Spanish, but you got Latin America and Spanish Speaking U. S. citizens, too.

[raela]

Yeah, I get that things don't come free, and moderation is a valid concern.. but they could fund French/German but not Spanish? Besides, do moderators actually read through all topics, or just those reported? If it's low volume, you'd think one mod would be enough.

[Antonio_Xul]

Yeah, I get that things don't come free, and moderation is a valid concern.. but they could fund French/German but not Spanish? Besides, do moderators actually read through all topics, or just those reported? If it's low volume, you'd think one mod would be enough.

For sure they don't read all threads since there is a French post in the English Fate area, but it's still there for the longest.

[Welsper59]

This is why a census or survey should be made to see what languages are spoken within the game. I've ran into many Brazilian players talking Portuguese which was something I never expected, but there they are. A survey should be made to see what languages to support.

One thing I learned recently is that the United States has the 2nd largest group of Spanish speakers in the world behind only Mexico and surpassing Spain & Colombia. That's a huge market opportunity right there they are missing out on. With Mexico & Spain alone would be good enough reason to add Spanish, but you got Latin America and Spanish Speaking U. S. citizens, too.

That's generally not how this sort of thing works. A survey is only good to let you know who can speak what, but it doesn't let you know if that's all you can speak, nor does it encompass enough value to determine the whole. Suggestions and such for a want of X language will take time to come to fruition, if it ever does, since justification for funding and getting said funds takes time and A LOT of convincing. Unlike the west, Japan does not come into contact with Spanish much, if ever in their lives lol. Hell, where I live, the only exposure to Spanish is what I see on TV/movies, online, and what little broken gibberish friends back in high school learned. Given where the games are being sold too, it's not the primary language.

In the areas that things are marketed, a common language is determined for a business and its local patrons. For example, I live in Hawaii, one of the more culturally diverse locations in the US. The common language on the mainland is no different than it is here, English. Businesses here need to cater to that, for that reason, and that's really the minimum.

If the businesses target demographic happens to involve a lot of people that can only speak a different language, they may consider supporting that language. Not a whole lot of people speak exclusively Hawaiian here, and no English. Likewise, a lot of locals do not speak exclusively Tagalog and no English. While the folks who do not speak the common language are certainly a fair amount of the population, they're likely not the businesses target demographic if it's not supported (at the time).

Transition that over to a video game like FFXIV. I'd wager that the majority of people who play this game, speak the common language for the country that this game is sold in. Of course, you're going to get the exceptions to that, but that's a rather small amount of people to the entire population of the game who do speak whatever the common language is for the location. As huge as you might think the market opportunity might be, it really isn't because of this fact that a lot of folks are at least bilingual when it comes to being on this game and speaking a language that isn't supported. At least within a business sense, for as unfortunate as it may be that every language in the world is not supported, this is generally why.

[Mirili]

I've ran into many Brazilian players talking Portuguese which was something I never expected, but there they are.

That is their official language.