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Adding an Auto-Translate function

lan451lan451 Member Posts: 3,386 Arc User
I've seen this brought up a handful of times over the years here on the STO forums. However with the recent announcement that STO is looking to expand into more languages as mentioned in the latest Massively article, I feel that it's time to revisit this.

Bringing in new players from around the world to enjoy Trek is great stuff. However as STO (or any MMO really) expands into other languages, communication issues between the playerbase ultimately arise. We can already see this in game right now as players vent their frustrations about this every now and then. I have to admit that even I get somewhat frustrated when I can't communicate properly when teamed up with players speaking other languages. Rather than separate players out based on language, I would propose bringing us closer together with an Auto-Translate function.

An Auto-Translate function is an in game system integrated into the chat UI that allows words or phrases to be translated into other languages. The translated words that are shown on each persons screen would be based on the client localization that each user has chosen. So if you run the client in English, you would see translated words in English. If you run the client in German, you would see the translated words in German.

Now, I played FFXI for many years using a system like this. Back then it only supported two languages, English and Japanese. I think it was expanded later on, but I can't remember. For those of you unfamiliar with that system, here is a link explaining it in full detail:

http://ffxi.gamerescape.com/wiki/Auto_Translate

Using that system I was able to play quite well with several Japanese friends that I made over the years there. It wasn't a perfect system by any means but it was adequate enough to be able to do everything from normal adventuring, to the hardcore endgame, to just sitting around and shooting the breeze with some friends. Being able to communicate with other players in different languages, even on a limited basis, was fantastic. FFXIV: A Realm Reborn will be using this same function when it releases (or re-releases?) soon.

It seems that other companies are starting to take notice on Auto-Translate functions as well. One that recently caught my eye is called "Game of War". I wasn't too interested in the game itself, but the fact that it's utilizing an Auto-Trans is what grabbed my attention.
Giving players a reason to group up can be challenging enough, but it can be even tougher to get them to communicate. I?ve seen very few other MMOs try to climb over the language barrier, with the result usually being a set of stock phrases to cover the bare minimum. Game of War goes far beyond that, translating chat in real-time between a number of different languages, including English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. But according to Leydon, this feature started as another tool to help players collaborate in-game.

?We don?t have any interest in being a translation company, but we do have an interest in building the world?s largest online games, and this was just a stumbling block that we decided to make an attempt to try and solve.?

It?s a system that?s also evolved over time, and now handles gaming slang as well. ?We learned that French players use ?SLT? as a short form of ?Salut?. We didn?t know that going in.? Multilingual players can also help improve the mechanism by translating unknown slang, and get rewarded with in-game items for doing so.

http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32784

Now I don't expect STO to be able to have a system quite that complex. That game was built from the ground up with that system in mind. However my reason for posting that here is to illustrate that other companies are beginning to see the value in such a system. I think that a system along the lines of FFXI would be just fine.

This would undoubtedly be a major undertaking but I think it would be one that would be worth it in the end. So as STO expands, I think it's time for the dev/localization teams to consider building something like this. Besides, how cool would it be to have some semblance of a Universal Translator to make things a bit more Trek?
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Comments

  • lan451lan451 Member Posts: 3,386 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    Anyone else out there who would find some use in something like this? Surely I can't be the only one.
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  • cgta1967cgta1967 Member Posts: 86 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    meh...copy and paste into google translate takes a whole one second if the message seems that important.

    and most of the time if I see something written in a different language...I just guess to what it said and reply accordingly.

    no big deal...it's just a game....with a whole lotta random players.
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  • lan451lan451 Member Posts: 3,386 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    cgta1967 wrote: »
    meh...copy and paste into google translate takes a whole one second if the message seems that important.

    and most of the time if I see something written in a different language...I just guess to what it said and reply accordingly.

    no big deal...it's just a game....with a whole lotta random players.

    Bolded for emphasis. That's kind of the point here. It's a game filled with a whole lot of random players. Random players who speak other languages that I'd like to be able to talk to (even in a limited capacity) when I'm grouped up with them through the queue system. Once they start expanding the localized clients into other languages, the amount of those players is only going to increase.

    Google translate can be a great tool, but having it up all the time and copy/pasting things back and forth to give commands or ask for help during battle often doesn't work. For example let's say I'm running an ESTF and want to call for backup on the left side of the map. With the Auto-Trans I could type "{Help!} {Left} {side}" very quickly. With Google translate I'd have to type that out over there, translate it, and then copy/paste it back over to the game. In that time I could be killed and the objective failed since I was busy having to deal with copy/pasting stuff in mid battle. An Auto-Trans would make basic communication quick and easy in battle situations.
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  • misterde3misterde3 Member Posts: 4,195 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    There was a longer debate about this a couple months back.
    We tested it on the forums by taking an English text, translating it into various languages with tools and then translating it back.
    The results were amusing but not helpful.
    Problem is that some words have more than one meaning in a given language and as a result the translation software would need to be actually INTELLIGENT to pick the right one.
    Simple example: the French word "chat" means "male cat" so when transalting from French to English you want to chat with someone but you ask him whether you can play with his cat or something similar stupid.
    Last time around it took us a while to find out why we siddenly had cats in our translated discussion.:)

    Sorry, but until translation software catches up with RL this is not a good idea.:(

    However I might have a counterproposal how simplified communication might still be achieved. Please read this proposal:

    http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=11776221&postcount=102
  • alfamegaalfamega Member Posts: 268 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    forget it. simple substitute translation is stupid like hell. too many word have different meanings in every language. and a context sensitive translation engine would require artificial intelligence nearly as complex as a human brain.
    i speak 3 languages fluently and still having problem to translate stuff. its not only the problem of words having different meanings, but also different folks have different ways of thinking. something completely logical in one language sounds totally stupid, ugly and senseless in another one.
  • lan451lan451 Member Posts: 3,386 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    I think my suggestion is being misunderstood. I'm not advocating a full blown translation function like Google translate or Bing (even though fooling around with the Klingon trans is hilarious lol) which absolutely have translation issues, but instead one more like the FFXI translator. Check out the first link I posted in the OP to get a better idea. It's more along the lines of a dictionary of words and phrases specifically pertaining to the game.

    These aren't handled by an AI trying to figure out what you are saying, but are instead added into the database by the localization team. Since the clients are already being translated into several languages, many words and phrases can simply be moved over to the Auto-Trans database. A few phrases might need to be translated manually, but they don't need to be done all at once. The list of translated words and phrases in the first link in my OP were added over the period of around 10 years. The localization teams added them as they went along with updates and expansions and the like as well as requests from the playerbase.

    I'm also going to have to disagree with "simple substitute translation is stupid like hell" based on the fact that I've used this simple translation function to great success for over 5 years. The best example I have is one time I was in an exp party (in that game we had to grind in groups in order to level up) with 4 Japanese players. They spoke almost no English and I speak next to no Japanese. However we were able to play together for over 13 hours using the Auto-Trans. We set up skill rotations, the mobs we were going to fight, the locations we were going to fight at, the whole deal. At one point they wanted to change locations and the strategy we were using, so they let me know using several phrases from the Auto-Trans and off we went. No problems.

    Full blown translation software might be quite a ways off, but this method isn't. It's been successfully used since 2003 in an MMO setting. This is what I'm advocating being used in game especially as STO branches out into more and more languages. We're only going to see players get more and more frustrated when teamed up with others who they can't understand and communicate with. That thread the other day about the Germans and wanting to segregate everyone into queues based on client localization is really what set this off for me. It's only going to increase from here on out and that's why I think this is needed.
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