language

Games as Language

6:30AM Maggie Greene | L.B. Jeffries has a nice essay up on the idea of ‘games as languages’ — a combination of coercing players to take certain actions and encouraging certain responses, creating a dialogue of sorts. As Jeffries says, “It’s not exactly talking to another person…but it’s not just rolling dice or pressing shoot either.” As games get more complex, so does the ‘language’ aspect — choices are expressive elements, and the more choices one has, the more opportunities for unique combinations. Even the simplest of games involves communication — ‘go here, do that.’ With the influx of more diverse and user-created building blocks, it seems reasonable that the ‘languages’ would begin to emerge more clearly: More »

Cunning Linguists: Crafting In-Game Languages

6:30AM Maggie Greene | The issue of created languages is hardy new (cf Esperanto), but I’ve not seen a lengthy discussion of created languages in games — the challenges and pitfalls of designing a working, intuitive, and integrated linguistic system that’s really a part of a game is an interesting issue. James Portnow spoke with Richard Garriott, lead designer of Ultima, about the keys to creating an intuitive in-game language that isn’t too intrusive. Portnow further muses on the ‘language’ of games, and how created languages can inform our design of other aspects of the user interface: More »

Learning English? Korean? Starcraft Can Help

12:20AM Luke Plunkett | Taking my own abortive attempts at learning Japanese and German as examples, learning English must suck. An elastic sentence structure, copious use of slang, it must be a nightmare. Especially if you’re from a country that doesn’t use the roman alphabet. Like Korea! Lucky for Koreans, then, they’ve got Starcraft to learn from. This book, “Starcraft English”, takes stock phrases from the game like “Ghost reporting…” and “You got my attention”, then uses them to give Koreans a basic English lesson. Should come in handy when travelling, and they – for whatever reason – need to ask “WANNA TURN UP THE HEAT?” Master English with the power of Starcraft English [Siliconera] More »

Dissecting the Language of MMOs

8:00AM Kotaku US Edition | EarthTimes.org is currently hosting an interesting article looking at the language of online games and specifically MMOs. For the long time player the article may seem a bit simplistic, but for the uninitiated, especially the non-gamers, it includes some basic useful information. It seems a bit of an odd choice for an article that is directed at non-gamers but at least it doesn’t talk down to the reader or make them feel like “this crazy gaming world is something that you’ll never understand.” So, if you’re new to the MMO scene or looking to bone up on your terminology so as not to sound like a complete noob on your first adventures in WoW, check out this article. In no time you’ll know exactly what “4/6 lfm tank and dd” means and why you should care. ‘4/6 lfm tank and dd’ – The jargon of online gaming [EarthTimes] More »

“W00t” Is Merriam-Webster’s Word Of The Year (*groan*)

4:41PM Luke Plunkett | Merriam-Webster are wordsmiths of the highest order. So much so they put out a dictionary every once in a while. You may know this. What you may not know is that they recently held an online poll, asking for the “word that best sums up 2007″. That word would be their “Word of the Year”. This year’s winner? W00t, which was described by MW as “a hybrid of letters and numbers used by gamers as an exclamation of happiness”. If w00t best sums up 2007, 2007 must be destroyed. Right away. Online Gamers: Something To “W00t” About [CBS] More »

Uncharted Calls Spanish Readers “Huge Nerds”

12:00AM Brian Ashcraft | Hey Spanish speaking gamers! Uncharted developer Naughty Dog has some words for you. In-game, there’s this Easter Egg message: “Si usted está leyendo esta piedra sepulcral usted es un nerd enorme. Consiga por favour una vida y consiga una novia.” Reader Jimfear does the translating: If you are reading this grave, you’re a huge nerd. Please get a life and a girlfriend. That’s right, because no way would native Spanish speakers play Uncharted! Only nerds who study Spanish! Riiight. Some jokes work and some don’t. We’ll file this away as one that doesn’t. Not that offensive and a nice jab at those who wonder around games and look at stuff. Spanish stuff. More »

Translating Bionic Commando

4:00AM Brian Ashcraft | It’s a gamble. A big, big gamble. Capcom is trusting one of its most requested sequels to a first time producer. Not only that, a first time non-Japanese producer working out of Capcom’s Osaka headquarters. If that wasn’t risky enough, this first timer is overseeing a development team based outside Japan. In the stodgy and safe Japanese business environment this kind of gamble is more of an unheard of anomaly. A risky as hell one at that. “This may or may not work out,” American-born producer Ben Judd says of his Bionic Commando sequel. Judd is frank, straightforward and knows there are a lot of expectations placed on him not only by fans, but by his company and the guy who created Mega Man. Almost twenty years ago, Super Joe (AKA “Ladd Spencer”) and his bionic arm swung over enemies the Badds. The game was one of those big-in-America-not-in-Japan kind of things, and Capcom sat on the property for a decade plus, releasing every kind of sequels save for one that Western gamers really wanted: Bionic Commando 2. Enter Ben Judd. More »

Naruto’s Turning Japanese

8:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Ubisoft promised. Ubisoft delivered. The Japanese language track for Naruto: Rise of the Ninja popped up on Xbox LIVE late last week. The English version doesn’t feature all the original dub actors, meaning that the character has different voices between cut scenes and in-game audio. The Japanese track is apparently consistent. What’s more, Ubisoft is making this language track available free of charge, filling us with warm fuzzy feelings. Hugs all around! Japanese Audio [Siliconera] More »

Call of Duty 4 Busts Out Funny Arabic Mistakes

9:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Sure, we’ve seen our share of funny in-game English. But what about other languages? Just because we can look at other cultures failed attempts at the English language, does that mean Western developers are free from foreign language fuck ups? Nope. Reader Hatem points to the Arabic in Call of Duty 4. Arabic is read right to left, but many of the in-game Arabic signs have been mirrored right to left so they come out backwards, funny and strange to native speakers. As Hatem points out, almost all the letters in Arabic connect. More often than not, the in-game signs feature Arabic letters that don’t connect, changing meaning. Explains Hatem: at first glance an arab reading person would think : WTF?? … turns out they read “ضربة قاضية” which means “K.O aka Knock Out” , but here’s where it got fucked up , arabic is one of those languages where almost all letters connect, but that didn’t happen in this texture heh , and they made the mistake of writing it from left to right