I'm Offering support for any translation of the mod.

[o_bokko]

Most countries are taught and capable of comprehending english, this is not such a big concern! The documentation and such should be translated but most if not all of the game lingo should be left intact. Classes, weapons etc. should keep their english names or it will just create confusion. Also it wouldn't sound right, I'm sure other non-english speaking people will agree with me on this.
Not saying it shouldn't be made customisable, just don't have it that way by default.

[o_ivaqual]

Originally Posted by bokko

game lingo should be left intact

Absolutely, this is vital if you want two different language speaking persons to comprehend each other. I know that if I had to translate for the FF team (*blinks*) I would try to keep as many words from the original version as I can.

[o_someoldguy]

I will offer to translate it for the English speaking baby-boom generation into correctly spelled words and well-formed sentences from the internet-geek-aol-script-kiddy-shorthand-TLA-h4x0r-l337 version.

[o_ohcanep]

^ I agree with this. Manuals and that kind of stuff should be translated for as many languanges as needed. In any case in-game things like classes, objectives etc. would be better left in english. I have never understood the logic behind dubbing tv shows except for shows aimed for children who admittedly can't understand several foreign languanges (for non-english speakers this is usually english). I for one like to hear big-Arnold say "I'll be back" rather than "Mä tuun takasin." It just wouldn't be the same. General terminology in pretty much every multiplayer game should be relatively easy to learn if you've been at all interested in english. Yes it might be difficult for some but hey the whole internet is quite english-ish.

ps. I got mysteriously logged out while writing this, is there a timeout limit or what?

[o_someoldguy]

Originally Posted by Ohcanep

ps. I got mysteriously logged out while writing this, is there a timeout limit or what?

Do you have a background or scheduled job that cleans up your cookies/temp files/cache/etc?

[o_dammage]

Originally Posted by SomeOldGuy

I will offer to translate it for the English speaking baby-boom generation into correctly spelled words and well-formed sentences from the internet-geek-aol-script-kiddy-shorthand-TLA-h4x0r-l337 version.

I already see it coming:

ya <3 has b33r sn4tch3d

[o_sh4x]

I can do both french and french canadian versions since I'm from Quebec and my wife is euro lol...

[o_geokill----->]

I can do Spanglish (mixture of Spanish and english)

"Oye Bato El Enemigo tiene tu Flag"

[o_spiderman]

ae miliardo tbm so brasileiro ^^
seria legal vc traduzir
vc joga tfc? ;O

wee nobody understood me ;D

[o_frenchtoast]

le enemy sont have tu flag

[o_carnifex]

I could do English to Dutch or even English to German if needed ^^

[o_miliardo]

Originally Posted by bokko

Most countries are taught and capable of comprehending english, this is not such a big concern! The documentation and such should be translated but most if not all of the game lingo should be left intact. Classes, weapons etc. should keep their english names or it will just create confusion. Also it wouldn't sound right, I'm sure other non-english speaking people will agree with me on this.
Not saying it shouldn't be made customisable, just don't have it that way by default.

I will translate the documentation in no time when it's out, about the ingame lingo, i really dont know, the steam have a great support for foreign languages, when switched the language, even the ingame menu have alterations. Anyway, i think the translatian a important stuff since, only 22% of the Brazilians speak english or chinese (the 2 most important languages).

Games with full-translated documentations have a higher range of public, and... less noobs dont knowing where the hell is the grenade button!

Say NO to Iran invasion guys! Bye.

[mervaka]

je suis avoile en la carton

[o_ivaqual]

There is a cyclical problem : the size of the community will decide wether people will need to cross countries and language barriers to play ; and in return the experience one will have outside his language borders, if he needs to cross them to find people to play with, is decisive in him not uninstalling because of frustration, hence potentially adding to or reducing the size of a community.

It's a no brainer that, as I said, if there are enough players in their country to begin with then people won't need to cross borders and languages to have a decent experience.
On the other hand, the language barrier, if too opaque, can strangle what could have potentially been a bigger community because new players can't understand what is going on while trying to (learn to) play since they live in countries where there simply aren't enough connationals to form reasonably populated servers 24/7. Europeans that still play TFC (and obviously a variety of other games) know exactly what I am talking about.

The sheer complexity and variety of the TF gameplay only complicates things. It all depends on your grasp of the involved tongues, but simultaneously crossing a language barrier and learning to play something as complex as TF (dozens of weapons, grenades, game types, etc..) constitutes a downright impossibility for many people.
The existence of a training course greatly relieves the issue but far from resolves it, as the ins and outs of multiplayer gaming can only be learned from experience. Furthermore, the teamplay component in TF obviously necessitates a minimal level of consensus and communication to function properly, etc.. you probably see where I am going with this.

For example, a possible part to the solution could be some sort of "interlinguistical lingo convention chart" that defines commonly used terms, that translators will refer to and try to follow whenever possible and applicable. Also, when the learning period is over, the player will be much better able to adapt automatically to the big picture (a demo is needed to blow up something, we need a sentry there, etc..) and communication, while certainly remaining essential to the cohesion of the team, will be a lot less paramount. A system where points are attributed to players that contribute to a team (healing teammates, etc..) also gives members of the team more independency from external information to decide what's good to do.

Normally, a translation has to have natural and understandable semantics, which goes by itself, but the need to also merge with it the necessary tools for who will use the translation to communicate with all the sides of the language spectrum complicates the deal a fair share.

[o_rp]

האויב לקח את הדגל!

Doubt any of you even have the fonts to read it... :P

[Circuitous]

I do I do! Just, not the knowledge.

H /demOmAn(Demoman, Demo) iz Vzd t blO TiNz up.