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GDC - Localisation in SWTOR
DarthMaulUK
Member Posts: 296
At GDC’s Localization Summit, Gordon Walton and Ian Mitchell shared lessons learned localizing BioWare’s RPGs and experiences gained by working on its in-development Star Wars MMO. Up until recently when he switched to Playdom, Gordon Walton was one of the studio directors of BioWare Austin, where The Old Republic is being developed and has been under localization during its development.
“Localization is essential. Are we still talking about this?” asked Walton. “The chart on costs of making a game are going up and worldwide competition is increasing… At a hypercompetitive rate.” Meanwhile, “the most expensive games are where we’re seeing a down trend in the market,” he said. “In the end, if we don’t make money with games, people won’t give us more money to make more games.”
You can find more on this story over at Gamasutra
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Comments
When the talk is on the importance of the 'tools'; it makes someone like me very happy. ^_^
While financially it might be high, you can't fault a company trying to bring their game to as many gamers as possible.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
This is interesting:
"He noted that its games require a big time investment from players, and "you don't sit down and spend 60 hours playing a game that grates on you in terms of the VO or the text."
I really think this is a gigantic issue. It doesn't matter how great/rich/nuanced the VO is, will players sit through it or will they want to just get on with the game?
I must say, in SRPGs I do tend to stop and listen to VOs but only if I want; in MMORPGs, I want to get on to the parts of the game that I control and set the pace. I wonder how many people are like me?
The more I see what bioware is doing right now, the more I think EA has messed with their heads. Don't get me wrong they were the best. Were being the point, now they seem to in love with the stories they are telling to actually make games. The recent shift in DA2 story style, along with the restrictions in races/classes in SWToR all for the sake of story is a sign of this. I feel like I want to grab the guys at Bioware by the collar of their shirts and tell them; listen bub if I want to watch a movie I will. I don't mind the voice over idea, or that you are working so hard to make stuff for me to play. I thank you for it.
I mind that you want to tie my hands, paraphrase my word choices, and force me to sound like generic person x. Because all males of this race class combo sound like this. Which means if I am grouped with another human male trooper then we sound alike. Apparently we all took elocution lessons at the same school.
At some point every writer, GM, and even parent has to go, okay I have to ease up and let the little people make their own choices. As gamers we want that. If they give players enough choice in ToR it will be considered a success as fans of walking and talking will eat it up for hours on end. Making choices just to see how they play out. If they give very little choice it will fail because all roads lead to rome.
This is a very nice summary of the potential case against the VO/Linear MMO in principle. Whether it holds water in practice we'll only know when TOR is launched.
Bioware has always been 'story first' RPG type developer.
Most BW games have had binary (good/bad or paragon/renegade or light/dark or open/close fist) choices so I'm not seeing this increase in 'limitation of choice'. And I've played their games since BG days.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Eh... while having 3-4 voices to choose from when you pick a class is nice, you can't deny that it would seriously increase cost.
That's the reason.
The best solution would be if you have a voice modulation application that'd transform a voice into a different sounding one without it sounding funny or freakish. Then you could have one voice actor, and still have the choice of 3-10 different voices.
However, from what I understand technology isn't that far yet.
Regarding OP: I heard that spanish isn't included, is that true? Sounds strange if german and french would be included but not spanish, which is spoken by far more people.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
I agree on all parts except the Spanish language one. I hope you don't actually think that the "Spanish" spoken by the people of Spain is the same as the "Spanish" spoken in Latin America? The dialects are actually so different that the two cultures have a very difficult time communicating. At least that is what I have been told by several very well educated Spaniards and Mexicans alike. On the flip side it is not unusual for the citizens of the various European countries to know several languages and by including French and German, they vastly improve their player base without the potential anger caused by the language dialect barriers.
Of course, it could be nothing more than a money saving measure too.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
Wow, on the same day:
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/03/01/gdc-2011-arenanets-adam-vance-talks-localization-for-guild-war/
EA messed with theire heads what a load of rubbish , I think your credibility just nose dived. Bioware have had a consistent approach from day one.
The current choice and content they are providing here is unparalleled.
Full Storyline quests for every class from level 1 to Max level (Solo/Group)
World Quests(SOlo/Group)
World Arc Quests (Solo/Group/Raid)
Flashpoints(Group/Raid)
Battlegrounds(Group/Raid/PvP-Factional)
World PvP discusssed
And if you dont want to use the ingame voice turn the volume down and create you own story with Vent and Friends, the choices all exists. Just a shame Bioware have stuck to their guns 100+ % .
It's nice to see the hate crew self implode; I love the lets take a mechanic and suggest something that breaks it.... Get a life and play the game options for playstyle exist in all category areas if you don't like the choice and theres a lot. Then you are a lost cause bye bye.
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Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
I think you have a point to an extent here. While the ONE thing I truly despise about this game is that they gave the player characters voices, the saving grace of that is that they gave the characters *choices*. I think many people think they are "tying their hands" when going about questing, but on the contrary, they are actually giving you choice in every aspect of your journey.
Most quests in other games you only have one choice to make, take the quest -- whether its group quests, raids or what have you, your options are very limited ----, or don't take the quest. All other leveling options are there in SWTOR - the grinding, PvP, other alternative systems the progress like flying your starship or hunting for materials so you can craft, but for questing, I honestly don't feel it could be done any better than how they are doing it.