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Foundry Story Content in english, but from foreign speakers?
raugar
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 118 Bounty Hunter
hi everyone.
i'm curious about something. i love creating USG. i did it in past games already and i think i'm at least not to bad, especially when it comes to story writing. but i'm german, so my english i flawed. i'm wondering how disturbing it is for native english speakers to play content, that may have an interesting story, but the text is clearly written by a foreign speaker, includes grammar mistakes and stuff.
would you downrate it just because of the language?
would you play it at all?
would you continue playing if it was a multi-project/quest storyline?
would it be very annoying to read a story with grammar mistakes in it?
i'm curious about something. i love creating USG. i did it in past games already and i think i'm at least not to bad, especially when it comes to story writing. but i'm german, so my english i flawed. i'm wondering how disturbing it is for native english speakers to play content, that may have an interesting story, but the text is clearly written by a foreign speaker, includes grammar mistakes and stuff.
would you downrate it just because of the language?
would you play it at all?
would you continue playing if it was a multi-project/quest storyline?
would it be very annoying to read a story with grammar mistakes in it?
Post edited by raugar on
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Comments
But, yes, I personally find it hard to focus on a story that my mind isn't putting together properly due to spelling or grammar problems. I may try it, but as a writer, I cringe when I see a lot of grammar mistakes. But, what may end up happening is I may send messages to the people who made the story, giving them feedback on what could be changed. That is just me.
If you would be happy to accept critical and constructive feedback once your quest goes live, then I would be glad to provide spelling and grammar corrections to you. I'm sure there would be a lot of others willing to do so too.
As for if language makes different, I believe it is rest of the content. If it is language, you will find enough volunteers who can help you improve it.
I will answer your questions in order Herr Raugar.
1. Never! I would not be so low as to downgrade *good* content because of this. Today, we live in a world more connected to one another than ever before, so more than a bit of tolerance for linguistics is called for.
2. I would, indeed. Artistic genius knows no language, no nationality, and is present worldwide. I'll take good UGC from wherever I find it, no matter wherever it was made.
3. If it is capable of holding my attention as a player, then a campaign done by a non-native English speaker would rate just as highly in my book as a native English speaker. I *might* contact the author of such works with some feedback as to wording, but downgrade, or refuse to play? No...
4. The only way it would be annoying to me would be if it could not be understood at all, in which case, I would simply exit the content without rating it one way or the other.
To take them as they come:
1) It depends, but generally if a story is poorly translated into another language, the author's intent and the story itself cannot be properly portrayed. Though the Author could be a great plot writer, the story could come off as much less than what it could be. If I don't know this, then I would rate it lower than I would otherwise.
2) I'll probably play it anyway, especially if its mostly about the action/puzzle solving or what have you.
3) Depends on the above.
4) Yes it can be, especially the same mistakes repeated often.
As a post above mine said, we're more connected in this world than ever before. What this really means to me is that writers that want to contribute in another language have a responsibility to have their work looked over and edited by a native speaker of that language. As we see in this thread there are people who are happy to volunteer for such work.
Even in our own native languages, it's always a good idea to have another person check over our work. No matter how skilled you are. From there give it to a native speaker who one would hope is going to do more than just check it over, but work with you to make sure everything is conveyed properly.
We're storytellers, and language is paramount to story telling. If it's important enough to do, then making the most of available resources is what we should really be doing.
While The Foundry does not *currently* support such collaboration, by all appearances, should it be able to in time, I would be willing to do the same thing again, as good, and interesting content should not fail because of simple things...
Also, one more thing. If you make your campaign as you have written the post above - I don't think anyone will ever notice.
I certainly wouldn't... Excellent English there.
I'd downrate anything that looks like a lack of effort went into it's creation, including something with major grammatical errors throughout. This is simply because many English speakers also use poor grammar. I'd play something that has a compelling story regardless, though that might be harder to achieve if I have to stop and try to make sense of what characters are saying. That being said, your English isn't that bad. I have seen far worse, and by people that were raised speaking English. I can make sense of everything you wrote in your post and it only contains minor stuff that I wouldn't downrate a foundry mission for.
I also am not a native English speaker, and intend to create quests with the Foundry. However, basic grammar mistakes are easy to avoid - just run all your text through a spell checker outside of the game. You can still mix up words that are written correctly, like were/where/we're - our/are - there/they're/their - but I actually think non-native speakers are less inclined to do so as we have learned the language by reading/writing it first, speaking/listening second.
I do, however, have a comment about your post - and that applies to German as much as English, doubly so, in fact: You never capitalised your words properly in your post. Or at all, to be perfectly honest. There is not a single upper case letter in your entire post, and you, as a German, should know better! :P
My suggestions:
1. Plan your text out beforehand, outside of the game, and use a spell-checker to clean up the most basic mistakes. You should also double check the most common mistakes people make (examples given above) just in case.
2. Use proper capitalisation, especially at the start of every sentence, and for names.
3. KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) - Don't try to write like Shakespeare unless you have a degree in English or something, use basic language.
4. Avoid modern slang/expressions ("Cool, dude. Let's hang out in the dungeon and stuff.") and don't make every dwarf talk like a stereotypical moron dwarf (even though Salvatore does it to some extent).
The Persistent World I worked on in NWN1 was run by a Swedish man and he would always complain that he thought his english was horrible and felt that everybody could tell. I promise you that like him, your english is better than you think. Like him I don't think anybody would be able to tell english isn't your native tongue or at the very least they won't grab the pitchforks for minor mistakes which will happen even if you are born and raised speaking english.
It's not that I resent seeing English content from someone who isn't fluent in English, but I'd also welcome content in other languages. I am fluent in French, I am half-decent in Spanish, I wouldn't prohibit myself from playing something in another language.
I wager dialog trees in German, I could navigate with some help with Google translate!
So why cater to us English dorks? I mean English is a clumsy language anyway!
Check out SHADOW on YouTube!
Sad though, that unless it's in English, it can't get any credit. Also sad, that the primary focus is to be popular rather than good. Let's face it the moment you gear down to a second or third language, is the moment you are sacrificing some of your creative expression.
I'd to think what would happen if Fitzgerald or Orwell had to write in French!
I mean I get it, the focus of many people will be to become a top rated/popular module to get tips...but given this is primarily a creative tool, I'd hope some authors will ignore that and just produce the best and most interesting stories they can, with all of their creative strength.
Of course, we all approach these things in our own unique way, I do respect that!
I can tell you from experience with UCG, the most highly rated/popular modules were not the best. They were often fun, but the more you found authors that catered to your own style, the better the content was. So I hope some of us don't focus exclusively on "getting big", but rather more on, "what would I like to see made in this game?"
Those two things aren't always the same thing.
Check out SHADOW on YouTube!
To reach wider audience. I don't know if it a coincidence, but the quality content I like usually always comes from people who speak a language I don't. Maybe it is green grass syndrome or something ...
I wood defo play ur content for realz.
No seriously any good story I will play as long as its at least roughly translated.
because UCG in any other langue than english tends to not have a big audience, simply because in most f2p mmos, the servers are international. and the international language is english. UCG in a native language other than english would only make sense, if you had server that has this language as it's main language. could i do a more complex and deep story in my native language? most likly, but what use would that have if only 10 players would play it then ^^. if you do the effort to create a really good UCG, with a good story, script and so on, that is quite a lot of work. and of course as an author you want your work to be enjoyed by as many people as possible.