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Quebec Cracks Down On Translated Videogames
Thanks to VE3D for their story revealing that the Quebec government is cracking down on videogames without complete French-language packaging, meaning that game stores in Quebec are having to return or amend significant portions of their stock. The article says that "...the likes of Electronic Arts, Sony and Microsoft have been following this law for sometime, but everyone else has ignored it", and a game store worker on the Gaming-Age forums indicates stores "...can't sell anything that doesn't have a French cover", so this new enforcement means that "...the cover that says 'Only on Xbox' must read 'Seulement sur Xbox'."
Call me a jingoist if you want, but French Canadians piss me off. Learn english for christ's sake!
Yoda of Borg am I! Assimilated shall you be! Futile resistance is, hmm?
Donnez-moi un certain bebe chaud d'amour de horney!!!
Neck_of_the_Woods
#/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
Typical of the French. Even French Canadian...anyone of even remotely French stock is an ARROGANT PRICK!!!! fpPPPP
And the french wonder why they are called arrogant.
It makes me wonder what the reasons behind this are.
It boggles my mind how something like this can pass as laws... oh wait, on this side of the border we have DMCA...
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
The Canadians have silly regulations.
More obvious news later today. Stay tuned.
~foooo
Pigeon, un Quebecen (oui et non?), faites-moi savoir que des jeux qui ne comportent pas des sections de Francais-langue en manuels de langue anglaise sont tires des etageres de magasin aussi bien que les jeux qui ne sont pas disponibles en anglais si une version francaise est disponible.
Le pigeon a fourni cette traduction de loi:
Ce sont les sections de la loi 101 au sujet du logiciel:
N'importe quelle inscription sur un produit, sur son contenu ou sur son empaquetage, sur un document ou un objet accompagnant le produit comprenant le manuel d'instruction, certificats de garantie doit etre ecrite en francais.
[ cet article ] inclut egalement, examinant l'article 91, qu'aucune inscription ecrite dans une autre langue ne peut regner au-dessus de l'inscription ecrite en francais.
Le manuel d'instruction et la documentation se sont relies a un ordinateur vendu dans un magasin doivent en francais, la meme chose pour le logiciel.
N'importe quel logiciel, y compris le logiciel d'exploitation ou les utilites, qui est installe ou pas, doit etre disponible en francais, a moins qu'il n'y ait aucune version francaise qui existe.
Sont interdits sur le marche du Quebec les jouets et les jeux, [... ], que le fonctionnement exige un vocabulaire autre que le Francais a moins que ce le jouet ou le jeu ne soit pas disponible en francais en conditions comme favorable.
Les fines pour les magasins qui n'obeiront pas la loi est de 250$ au Canadien 7000$ selon le cas.
Il a continue pour dire que les gouts des arts electroniques, du Sony et du Microsoft avaient suivi cette loi pendant quelque temps, mais chacun l'a ignoree autrement.
Ainsi, vraisemblablement, la loi maintenant est imposee causant la rupture pour des magasins, des clients et des editeurs.
Beaucoup de grace au pigeon de cela.
What the hell were these companies thinking foisting their illegible wares on the poor consumers of Quebec. Can you imagine the uproar if Sony refused to translate their Japanese game covers into English for we here in America? How would we know what to buy? Take THAT corporate scumbags.
Quebec, being in Canada, has an entire ocean and a huge chunk of North America between itself and France.
Hmm ne savent pas d'ou il a tire ceci mais a moins qu'ils vraiment aillent imposer ceci qui commence maintenant (je n'ont entendu parler d'aucune de ceci dans les nouvelles) ceci soit de vieilles nouvelles, eh. Les manuels traduits sont toujours crap illisible et je finis vers le haut de lire l'anglais de toute facon, eh. Si les degagements de jeux commencent a obtenir retardes autour ici pour cette raison me jurez que je vais postal, eh.
if the games aren't on the shelf obviously they wont sell.
this will force more company to actually complete the localization process. a good move as far as i'm concerned.
It's funny that the anglophones call the francophones arrogant for asking that products in the francophone markets be, well, francophone.
The bottom line is that it isn't just a good policy to translate the game and its packaging, it's a smart business move. The more people that can actually read and understand the packaging, potentially, counts as more people who might buy it.
justen
I have recently become a member of a couple of organisations dedicated to causes that I am interested in - Amnesty International, and an environmental group with a very realistic and practical approach to protecting the environment.
I was motivated to do so because of the influence of money in politics. I decided that, if business interests are going to use money to influence political outcomes and marginalise the power of my vote, I had better fight fire with fire and put some of my own money into the mix to fight for what I believe in. I therefore tried to select groups who will use the money to maximum effect whilst still maintaining the ideals I want to support.
Really, this is quite a depressing situation. I feel like I shouldn't have to pay to have my views expressed, but when there are oil companies and anti-abortion religious extremists and weapons manufacturers and drug companies all pouring money into buying political influence it is not going to do much good to refuse to participate on the basis of principle. Recently, however, I've started to belive that it's possible that the only way to beat those who seek to corrupt the political process to serve their own interests is to get down in the mud and fight them with their own tactics and weapons - money, and to a lesser extent media spin and hidden influence of public figures. I think it is possible to do this and still maintain the moral high ground, because the 'interest' I wish to protect and serve is not financial, nor will it benefit me more than anyone else.
It's a dangerous path to take, though. There are so many examples of people who were once idealistic, decided they had to be in the game in order to win it, and ended up caring about the insider dealing and their personal interests more than the ideals they originally sought to champion. They say "anyone who isn't a communist when they're 20 is a coward; anyone who's still a communist when their 40 is an idiot," but to me that is just a lame justification for the tendency people have to lose sight of their higher aims and ideals and focus entirely on their own circumstances. I think that it's the person who is 40 and who has lost all of their idealism who is the coward and the idiot, not the person with the courage to still believe in something better and to fight for it.
www.amnesty.org
CMDRTACO CHECK YOUR EMAIL!
Not like anyone wants to see stuck up Quebecans in our games anyhow, eh.
A while back here in Quebec, they went after movies. Some big movies were not released because all movies MUST come out in french at the same time.
I find all of this sad really. I go see french movies all the time. I never stamp my foot and demand it be in English.
They pass these laws because they are afraid English will win and absorb them. English will win no matter what they do. Silly laws or no.
I wonder if these french law makers have ever been to a China town? Do they seem absorbed to anyone?
"Canada sucks"
"US sucks more"
"We're Americans too"
"France sucks"
"Drug costs"
Have I missed anything?
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
All the rudeness, none of the scenery. /me ducks.
I dunno -- more Cajuns seems like a great idea! Maybe the Qubecois could be put to use shooting nutrias.
(Highlight of my class last night: Chinese student had to read optimization problem out loud, got to "Bobby Thibodeaux's barber shop..." and nearly choked trying to say "Thibodeaux". What, they didn't teach you about Cajun names in ESL class in Fujian?
"Pigeon, a Quebecen (oui et non?), let me know that games that don't feature French-language sections in English-language manuals are being pulled from shop shelves as well as games that aren't available in English if a French version is available." I have no clue what that means. Is it just me?
What ever happened to that Wilson chap?
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
Please, all you guys who are French-bashing on this article, please stop because its quite obvious that you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about and you sound like idiots. Go eat your Freedom Fries or what the fuck you call them now...
If it is in the companies best interest, it should be the company that does it to protect their interests. If it does not effect the companies bottom line, why should they be forced to do it? The government should not enforce it, free markets should.
However, I am not from Canada, so I really have no say in such a matter.
I think somethinggs wrong when france has way fewer language laws than quebec, where its only one of two official languages. Hell, a few years ago france made the language its airspace english. Meanwhile now you can't even sell video games in quebec that aren't in french boxes. When their motherland is less restrictive and more open than they are, and they're merely an offshoot, one wonders why bother. This all seems so silly and facsist
Va te fais fautre.
I can't imagine this is a big deal. Most videogames are terribly violent and the Frogs have shown time and time again that they are deathly afraid of war and getting hurt. Actually, I'm stunned to learn that Frenchies even play videogames other than Tetris, The Smurf's Go Sailing, and Barbie's Interactive Play Dress-Up Adventure.
It's always nice to have a group of people so close by that you can always dump on, because they are so damn annoying.
C'mon people, this isn't a surprise. Le Quebecoise are still smarting from the last election. They're doing everything to piss off Anglophones.
Move on, nothing to see here...
This has been a problem for a while now for merchants in Quebec, and there have been numerous stories. What gets me is that even if you only speak English, your signs and advertising still have to have French in it. Just silly.
"...today consumers have been conditioned to think of beer when they see a bullfrog..."
- Nous demandons le droite parler francais!
- But you already have the right to speak french.
- Tu ne peut pas me decevoir! Laisse-nous parler francais!
(It goes like this for a few decades.)
Zut alors!
I'm not going to defend the status quo in Quebec or the shaky relationship they have with the rest of Canada. Those struggles are up to the the Canadians to figure out.
HOWEVER, I will defend the right of the Quebecois government to uphold their laws and the laws of Canada. Those laws were put in place for a reason, a legitimate reason, and, being an American who lives in Detroit and travels to Canada (including Montreal) quite frequently, I think it is an imperfect, but workable, solution to the social and cultural issues Canada faces.
As for the software publishers:
Everyone else can translate their packages for the Canadian market. You can, too. It just isn't that hard of an undertaking. My suggestion is that the publishers take a hint from many of the DVDs sold in Canada: use reversible cover inserts in the keep cases. One side is Canadian English, one is Quebecois French.
Please.. don't say things about 'and you wonder why we don't like the french'.. The people of france don't like people from Quebec either. They are our equivalent of the Deliverance movie.
Anyways, on a real note, the law is FRENCH must be 2x larger writing than english on all signs (and I'm assuming video games cases)
The French Canadian frogs are such fucking idiots. From the prime idiot, cretin, as I call him, to these fucking French antics. The vocabulary in French sucks shit. It is like, lets know English, but use a language with less vocabulary to piss everyone off and make this more ambiguous and harder to say.
French frogs don't even have good wine and cheese like the real French.
They are below even having a greased up Yoda doll shoved up their asses.
The French frogs are basically shit. They have nothing. The losers get paid shit up there too. The socialist system is a huge burden on companies and innocent people, those who don't give a shit about subsidizing terrorists and just need to feed the family.
Now with this localized packaging, the game will cost more and the consumers may have less to pick from now.
French frogs are fucking idiots.
If any of you fuckheaded Canadian French pukes want to start up, go ahead, let me hear it, fuckers. Go ahead. I know your type. You self important asshole socialists. I know how you think. You fucks also let terrorist Arabs, terrorist Muslims in to your country and show them the way south. You wish your gay sado master was Jock Chirak, that's what I call him, you like it French take it in the ass motherfuckers.
The French frogs are losers, bathe less on average, have lower literacy rates, are lazy, stupid, and smell.
Game not available because the Frogs cleaned out the local gamestore for not complying with their language policies? Look no further than broadband my friend! PC, PS2, Xbox, and GBA games - all in English/Engrish. Be sure to tell the local Quebec politicos that they're losing money because of language bias. Meanwhile, in the US, businesses can sell stuff in whatever langauge they want.
Mon cafe est froid!
Have you lived in Montreal? I've lived there, and have good friends who were born and lived there 20+ years. We don't speak french. There's no need to. I mean, sure, I could learn and converse with the sam people I speak to now, but in a different language. But calling Montreal a Francophone market is ridiculous. Freedom to choose, not laws to coerce.
If it made business sense in such a competitive industry, EA/Sony/MS/Nintendo would be doing it anyways. But they don't. They do it, reluctantly, because the large companies do not want to be branded as not conforming to the laws (bad PR). Before the laws, I assure you that no large game publishers were losing sales in Quebec because of english packaging.
Le Quebec peut me manger. Etat bilingue stupide...
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
You know, if Sony et al. decided not to translate their game covers to English for U.S. release, you know what would happen? No one would buy them. Thus any respectable profit-driven company would quickly recify the situation.
Bingo, problem solved -- without adding more bureaucracy to the system. "Take THAT" indeed.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
Then just write the French translation onto the boxes, or better yet, print up a bunch of stickers and slap them on.
"Seulement sur XBoite".
Well, I know from people who can speak the languages, that there is a real significant difference between Quebecois French, and 'true' French. Such a big difference that many people raised speaking one of them cannot understand the other. In other words, dialects that vary enough they border on being different languages in some senses...
Now, these differences are a combination of pronunciation, slang, and legitimate vocabulary. My question is, are the two dialects, in their written forms, similar enough to get by with a single French translation for a video game? If not, then I really see the silly language laws biting them on the ass in Quebec, since their market is a tad small to justify a translation, and 'true' French translations possibly not being entirely 'legible...'
Anyone here know enough about the two dialects to comment on the differences between them, and whether a single translation would suffice?
This concept boggles my brain. I don't have any contempt for the government of Quebec, but the fact that there are at least 2.5 million people (assuming a majority of Quebec citizens support the law) who think that a law requiring media/art to speak a certain language is reasonable scares me a wee bit. Am I alone in this? This runs somewhat parallel to the vehemence I observe here in the states toward the proliferation of Spanish; some people talk of legislating it out of existence. Stuff like this makes it difficult for me to have faith in humanity. It also reminds me that the source of 99.999% of all our woes stem not from bad policy or legislation or other societal mechanisms which could be altered like any other piece of machinery, but from a vast majority of, IMHO, warped individuals.
He had it right. Your grammar is wrong. Putin.
However, so many video games have such shaky audio dialogue that there's really no point in keeping the original. Might as well dub the entire game.
Menus are no problems. Any idiot can figure out what "save" and "load" are in French.
The only problem I see with this law is games such as Daggerfall and Morrowind. Imagine translating *every* single line of text from these games from English to French! How many thousands of scraps of books are there in the game? This was a daunting task in English, let alone for a translator.
If these laws mean that games like Morrowind cannot be sold in Quebec, then these laws suck. It's a lot easier for a Quebecois youth to learn English to play a game than it is for me to learn Japanese to watch anime or Spanish to read _Don_Quixote_ (ah, the time in my youth!)
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
the anonymous *coward*.
Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d'encule de ta mere.
I like wiping my ass with silk, too.
If you want to experienc xenophobia and fascism, that's the place to go.
The problem is that this is a cynical anti-competitive law, designed to make it difficult for other countries to sell products into Quebec.
There clearly is a market for English-only products, or they wouldn't be on the shelves. The removal of these games harms the consumer who can't buy them and the games company who is losing a sale.
The only beneficiary of this restriction on free trade is the Quebec economy.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Quebec is one of the harder to understand parts of Canada because of the French bit.
Quebec's nationalists are of the opinion that their culture is eroding because of the diminishing prevalence of French. To them, the language essentially is the culture, and if their own citizens do not use the language, then they are culturally screwed. Aside from the language, the only thing that Quebec has to set it apart from the rest of Canada is a vague reputation of flagrantly indulging in social substance abuse (heavier incidence of smoking, drinking and drugs).
And so they try to preserve their culture through arbitrary legislation. And like the RIAA suing its users, it wont really accomplish too much in the long run. You cannot protect a culture by passing laws that punish those who do not participate in it. And you cannot protect a failing buisiness model by going to court to attack your customers.
For Quebec culture to mean something, it must have an audience to appreciate it. If it has no audience, then it has no purpose.
The proof in this is that every province in Canada that is not Quebec does not particularly care for their whining.
END COMMUNICATION
Because if I want to buy the English version of a game, I can hardly tell which box has the English version in it because both versions have boxes written in both languages (predominantly French)...
I've been had a couple of times
Mod him down for christ sake ! This is simply insulting and racist.
This has struck me as borderline insane for quite some time. In fact, it doesn't just apply to products, but even signs. If you put up a sign in Quebec, it has to be in French; and if it has both French and English, the French has to be at least twice the size of the English. It's pretty messed up, I mean, you don't see us getting mad 'cause the game boxes and signs in EB aren't in l33t.
It's sad when choosing an installation directory on your own qualifies you as an "advanced user."
I WAS a French Canadian, and I have left because I could speak english and pursue better opportunities. (...but that's besides the point...)
This is a superficial law. The Quebec laws require the PACKAGING to be bilingual. The handbook and instructions will be bilingual as well. However, the actual game itself (speech, sound, and subtitles) remains the same.
Have people ever noticed that you pay slightly higher prices in Quebec because of that? The extra revenue apparently goes into "language programs" such as these. Quebec did the same thing with the Hollywood movies. France is the same way with American culture.
An easy fix? Regional coding for Quebec / France only. I believe they already have this. If Quebec wants exceptions, then let themselves be seperated from the everyone else.
Oh, you want that leet new First Person Shooteur, little Laurant? I'm afraid you can't have it ShootEmUp Games doesn't translate their box into la belle langue. You'll just have to envy the American kids and the kids in British Columbia you chat with in IRC. Maybe you'll end up so warped you become the next "Star Wars Kid", playing with your "light-sabre" in a closet.
But I think there's a simple solution that will allow Laurant his game (and his dignity), while sticking a finger in the eye of the tight-assed Quecbec goverment.
I call the solution Frauxcais. It's the French equivilent to "Engrish".
The Japanese (and other Asian countries) produce "English" translations that seem almost to be parody -- but are sincere but inept attempts to translate into English, because they want to sell to the large English speaking market.
There's no large Francophone market (apparently, or else the companies would produce translations just for the market share), so we'll intentionally produce fractured, ambiguous, meaningless French, and slap it on bozes for export to Quebec:
- "Les salivates verts de vache violemment." ("The green cow salivates fiercely.")
- "Actuellement bientot le bouton au fondle." ("Presently soon the button to fondle")
- "Baton sur la lumiere artificielle lentement, pleasuring la boisson." ("Stick upon lamplight slowly, pleasuring beverage.")
We print these out on sticky address labels, plaster them on the game box, and, as the French say, viola!, violin!, chello!Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
It is not asking, it the guys with guns forcing you to do it.
not twice as large, just larger (signs must have predominant french)
francophones do account for 80% of the population in quebec after all
You can't program in C because all the keywords aren`t in french.
si{x==0)
{
travaillez
}
autrement
{
effectuez l'autre travail
}
Quebec Cracks Down On Non-translated Video Games
The rule is valid only on the manuals, not on the product themselves. There are ten of thousand of CDs and DVDs that DON'T HAVE french on them and are legal. The law only states that manuals should be in french.
The Law 101 is about the displays in commerces. It says that you must at least have a display in french twice as big at the english one. Whether you agree or not with this, this law doesn't have anything to do to a products cover.
That is one obvious solution. Simply ignore Quebec and sell you wares to the remaining 60% of North America that speaks English.
Of course, Quebec is the second most populous province of Canada, so you would certainly give up a large portion of the market. I would guess that the cost of translating the minimal amount of text to French (game package, manual) is more than offset by the profit generated by the Quebec market.
Game manufacturers obviously translate their games for other countries, so what is the big deal?
Why do they care that every sentence ends with "eh?"?
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
If Quebecois only by games with all-French packaging, then the game companies would be forced to supply them. The fact that people are actually buying products with mixed-language packaging would seem to indicate that the average citizen doesn't really care. I personally cannot comprehend why some people are so fanatical that they feel compelled to legislate what is best handled by simple economics.
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
WTF, look at you,
at least I'm not the one trying to convince myself I'm a man by smacktalking and using a 50 words dictionnary in which there are 25 synonyms of Dick.
Feverishly monitoring thread ?? What is it that you're doing then ?? you answer just as fast as I do.
I know I'm not being very adult to answer but I just hate when immature folks like you just bust in here and start bitching my country and culture.
Frickin' asshole, why don't you start by logging in and show some guts instead of hiding and being unable to weight the consequences of your own words.
Reply or not, I'm not going to reply after that, I've already crossed the line 3 times by playing your game.
If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel. - Will Kommen
I have had the misfortune of buying a french translation of the game "No one lives forever 2".
I only realized this after the purchase.
The character voices were very bad and this game is usually praised for funny and original dialogues.
Also, the multiplayer part of the game required the new version to play with. There was no french version of the patch and it didn't install if you didn't have the english version. I had to search through a lot of forum posts to find a way around this limitation. The end result was a bunch of different language text.
If I had known this, I would have just taken the original version.
Now, if I can't get my next game in it's original language the moment it shows itself in every other province/country/continent, I will Not hesitate to download a pirated version.
This is especially true for FPS because some of them have excellent single player campaigns but not too interesting online play. People play with others on the internet for a while to get their money's worth and then quit. If there is any sort of delay for the translated version to see the light of day, you won't get to play with anyone!
Normally, I don't post angry on /. but some of the posts in this thread are pissing me off. People who post trash like "Damn Quebecers!" and trash all Quebecois for a stupid law are either assholes, trolls or just stupid.
/.ers should know that the DMCA, the Patriot Act etc does not necessarily reflect them or their opinion personally. Most Quebecois could care less about the language laws. Francophones usually just boycott products that are not geared to them or make due if there's no alternative; Anglos living in Quebec are used to the French packaging.
/.ers would chime in saying people in that state were inbred arrogant moron loser hicks (regardless of what state it was) - and those /. would be either assholes, trolls or just stupid.
There are some incredibly stupid laws on the books in the US lately but it doesn't occur to anyone to blame the guy on the street.
This is analogous to warning labels on games in the US. If some state passed a law saying that games rated T or higher were illegal - sure some
Lay off the Quebecois, or at least go there and get to know a few before you start mouthing off about them being arrogant, stupid or whatever.
Is Quebec really 40% of North America? I find that very hard to believe, considering in 1999 Quebec was 25% of Canada's population alone.
Blah blah free markets.
Look, I'm as down with that as the next person, being an Economics student, but this is about people trying to protect their linguistic heritage, surrounded as they are by 300 million anglophones.
They're not forced to do it, they just can't sell their products unless they do it. They still have 300 million other customers (albeit a good 23million Canadians will still get evenly billingual packages).
What does this even have to do with free markets?
-- "Is this death or is this Ohio?"
Nuff said.
One more thing, LEARN HOW TO FRIGGIN DRIVE! Damn quebecians...
That's exactly why the law was passed, because without it, the engligh majority in north america would not bother with translating their product for quebec. 30-40 years ago, almost everithing was in english (a rich english minority ruled a working class french majority) and in some places in montreal (like at the Eatons store in downtown) you could not even get service in french. The law may be a bit rough on the foundamental freedoms, but i think it was justified (less freedom, but more cultural security i guess ;)
Obviously, they are afraid that if all the intelligent people learn proper English, they will ALL get the hell out, leaving only those too stupid to be bi-lingual? (And no, I'm not predjudiced against French speakers, it's my wife fourth language. And when our housemates kids come over, I put on DVDs in French, as that's their first language. I recommend Spirit, it's watchable without understanding the language, but the speech, captions, and even the music vocals are all done in English, French, and Spanish.)
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
By Quebec law, all criticisms of the language laws must feature a Frech translation FIRST, and in a type font AT LEAST TWICE AS LARGE as the English translation. Please comply with these regulations in future posts, or you WILL BE FINED.
Actually, Canada does not have free market capitalism, at least not in the sense that Americans know it. We lean heavily towards socialism, and generally we are content with it that way. And that does in fact mean that the government should enforce these sorts of things, that's part of what socialism is all about.
Personally I think it is nice to have a government you can hold accountable for the companies they regulate being able to abuse consumers, rather than being forced to blame it on free market economics and 'vote with your wallet' which is not always feasable. Not that it's perfect, or anything, but it does have some advantages.
Random and weird software I've written.
If it costs me $10,000 to translate the game and it only sells 100 copies, that is not good policy, it's stupidity. That's just like saying "All games should be ported to Linux, because then they would sell 1% more copies." Sometimes pleasing everyone just doesn't make economic sense.
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
I understand that Quebec wants to maintain its heritage, but outside of the city of Quebec, English is the main spoken language, right?
Wrong.
Are there many French Canadians left who aren't bi-lingual?
Many, possibly millions.
You can't take the sky from me...
What about games written in C++?
:\
Do they have to translate those too? I don't even know if French is Turing complete
This is true, but misses a big key point.
Oftentimes, especially for companies other than the EAs and Sonys of the world (read: the smaller companies, the ones being called out here), a certain company's game is published by one publisher in North America, and a completely different publisher in Europe.
So, yes, someone is out there creating a French translation of the packaging and documentation for a certain game, but that's the publisher in Europe, not your company. You don't have access to that. Your company and that company are not related in any way - they're not going to just give you their stuff.
So that leaves two options. Either create your own, completely separate translation, or don't do it. A third possibility might be "buying" the translation from the European publisher, but that means they have to be willing and interested in selling. Not to mention that many games come out in the US before Europe, so if you're wanting the European company's translation, you'll be waiting a while after the North American release before you can provide a release to the French Canadians.
Long term, publishing deals may need to be altered. Perhaps in order for a publisher to secure the European deal, they have to be willing to give their French translation to the North American publisher - but again, that means a potentially lengthy delay before a French release in North America.
try spanish & it's other vairants.
you sir, are full of crap
I think this highlights what everyone else already knows. Less intelligent people can not speak english. The syntax and organization is just to complex for their inferior minds.
I remember specifically Final Fantasy X's french manual.. Every item and character status condition was translated in french...
HAHAHA! It made my day.
(for the record, i'm francophone)
look at mister man look at you
you arent a man, so you dont need convincing, you are a fucking jerk. a person whose vacuous skull is a festering quagmire of feculent slime.
you are feverishly monitoring this thread, ass sweating in chair, gnawing at a hot dog, unblinking eye monitoring every word. im being god, that's what im gdoing.
you arent an adult you are a homosexual adolescent eunich. i feel you pain - PSYCHE! you have no country, the normal people in canada hate you, and your culture is a fake hack of someone else's HAHAHAHAHHAHA FUCKING AHAHAHAHA.
You are the asshole. You have no guts, no glory, your identity is JUST AS FUCKING ANONYMOUS as MINE YOU FUCKING RETARD. What the fuck does loggin in do? How everyone im "masteryoda5578" yeah, real identity. you fucking fat pigs live vicariously. give me your address, and ill come BEAT YOUR ASS>
you wont reply again? thats because YOU are a fucking PUSSY. and thats how it ends. A FUCKING PUSSY.
Quebec isn't the only place in North America where English is not the language ;)
http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares
We hate you French-speaking elitists. We hate you. We put the Americans WAY above you. At least they work hard and make lots of useful things. Quebec could fall off the earth and no one would notice.
Your comment history proves what you are.
You are an obsessed JERK who wants to FORCE me to speak French.
Then we, US, can invade and make them speak English and be done with this.
The game packages should read "Free Frog Inside". Its just a game you dumb pricks.
Mange moi cru.
...and the beer sucks too!
If bad puns were like deli meat, this would be the wurst
Here in Oklahoma I order my food in spanish. It was way worse in Texas. Soon the quebecois will be surrounded by spanglish. Hola, Je besoin de crap. Donde esta el banio. lol frspanglish.
Pigeon, Quebecen (yes and not?), let know to me that plays which do not comprise sections of French-language in handbooks of English language are cars of the racks of store as well as the plays which are not available in English if a French version is available.
The pigeon provided this translation of law:
They are the sections of law 101 about the software:
Any inscription on a product, its contents or its packing, a document or an object accompanying the product including/understanding the instruction manual, certificates of guarantee must be written in French
[ this article ] also includes, examining article 91, that no inscription written in another language can regner above the inscription written in French.
The instruction manual and documentation are connect has a computer sold in a store must in French, the same thing for the software.
Any software, including the utilites or operating software, which east installs or not, must be available in French, has less than there is no French version which exists.
Are prohibited on the market of Quebec the toys and plays, [... ], that operation requires a vocabulary other than the French has less than the this toy or the play is not available in French in conditions like favorable.
Fines for the stores which will not obeiront the law is 250$ with the Canadian 7000$ according to case's.
It has continuous for saying that the tastes of the Web arts, Sony and Microsoft had followed this law during some time, but each one A ignoree differently.
Thus, probably, the law now is imposee causing the rupture for stores, customers and editors.
Much of thanks to the pigeon of that.
Les Francais sont des merdes d'elitiste.
Le ho tout de ho de MOIS ou nous avons est cet accent stupide!
Mo ho ho all we have is this stupid accent!
I wonder if they translate games to Spanish for the Mexican market or release them in English?
Considering how much Spanish I see on packages in the U.S. alone, I would assume they do.
Texans [...] do not need to pass silly laws
42.11. Destruction of flag.
(a) A person commits an offense if the person intentionally or knowingly damages, defaces, mutilates, or burns the flag of the United States or the State of Texas.
[...]
(1) "Deviate sexual intercourse" means any contact between the genitals of one person and the mouth or anus of another person.
On the other hand, there is one recent product of Texas that I would happily send to Motreal if you would agree to keep him. Fancy GWB?
President Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut.
You can't take the sky from me...
I swear to god, if I have to hear one more thing about French anything, I'm going to kill someone.
- yet-stan, then its them pissing and moaning that their language is being pushed out by "Zee filthy Ameri-cuns!"
If its not them saying "we don't like zee word 'e-mails' and we will instead calling 'Le Croissant'" or them being pansy ass little bitches about the war in Afgani-why-the-fuck-haven't-we-fucking-nuked-them
FUCK YOU! I hope you fall down a flight of stairs, into some razor wire, and then get assfucked by some homosexual German Nazi, and piss blood for the rest of your life, you fucking frog.
DIE DIE DIE!
It is my sincere wish that French--as a language and a nationality--is someday made illegal in America. I want to be able to shoot anyone for saying "Croissant" or "Baguette" and not have anyone bitching about it. Fucking french motherfuckers.
Die you stuck up bitches. I hope you all contract some rare disease from all the fucking weird food you eat.
Shit that we keep as pets (frogs & snails) you are forced to eat, because your so poor. The only reason anyone goes to Paris is to get a french whore--who will do anything, because they are the scum of the earth. Fucking french frogs.
And for anyone else who thinks I'm alone, all I have to say is Weird Al is with me... And those who don't know what that means, your probably french, so go fuck one of your skinny, ugly, and stuck up frenchie-bitch and get AIDS and die.
DIE DIE DIE!
Disclaimer: the above post is 100% made up. you didn't read it. You didn't even see this. These aren't the droids you are looking for. Move along now people, there's nothing to see here!
If they want to play that game, then we simply stop exporting stuff to Quebec. It's not that big a market anyway...
The ironic part is they all speak and read english! You don't see Italy publishing Italian only websites if they wish to reach global populations.
Nothing pisses me off more then French websites with French only software and French programming comments! For fuck's sake, if you are going to GPL something at least do it in English! All the keywords and statements are in English, why not write your comments in English too!
Freaking elitist bullshit, nothing more! English is by far the most popular language on the planet for international trade and commerce. Deal with it...
Nope, literally, twice as large.
this is about people trying to protect their linguistic heritage, surrounded as they are by 300 million anglophones.
No, it's about a small number of people trying to force a large number of them to isolate themselves from the rest of the world's languages.
If the majority of Quebec's population wanted to speak pure French and nothing else, the government wouldn't have to do silly things like this, because English-labelled products wouldn't sell.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
As a canadian I must say, we too are annoyed by the damned french. We have to buy our dvds and games from the US if we dont want the crappy french packaging.
Whats really stupid, is that they want the package in french, but not the game itself.
I say, stop selling games altogether to quebec, thens ee if they still want their french labels
http://www.olf.gouv.qc.ca/english/charter/title1ch apter7.html
51. Every inscription on a product, on its container or on its wrapping, or on a document or object supplied with it, including the directions for use and the warranty certificates, must be drafted in French. This rule applies also to menus and wine lists.
The French inscription may be accompanied with a translation or translations, but no inscription in another language may be given greater prominence than that in French.
1977, c. 5, s. 51; 1997, c. 24, s. 24.
I'm an anglo (ie. a Canadian whose mother tongue is English) studying in Quebec, here to give you the skinny on Quebec's language laws:
(1) The language laws have wound up being something of a compromise. The idea is to maintain a sort of semipermeable membrane between Quebec and the rest of North America --- enough to let Quebec participate in N.A. culture, but not enough to assimilate it.
(2) The policy is expensive, but, all things considered, probably not a bad idea. Maintaining culture is actually a rather spendy undertaking; it's kind of like being a homeowner.
(3) Hey, maintaining non-MS source trees is expensive too -- and, from some points of view, just as fruitless. But if you had the legal authority to *force* Windows developers to port some of their cleverest software to Linux, wouldn't you use it?
(4) Some things don't have an objective 'dollarizable' value. Imagine that the U.S. is a tiny, sparsely-populated island off the coast of France. Would it be a 'market inefficency' to keep your kids out of black berets and goatees? (No, don't answer that.) The general point is: throwing up a coral-reef-type translation policy isn't simply a 'market inefficiency', but rather a choice; the money hasn't simply 'disappeared' into the entropy hole simply because it doesn't show up on your spreadsheet. It's worth it *to the Quebecois*.
(5) If Louisiana had had _le bon sens_ to do likewise, the U.S. would be richer by approximately one major ethnic group.
(6) There is also the issue of equalizing the socioeconomic status of anglophones and francophones. If the lingua franca is actually anglais, it makes it difficult to compete for jobs, etc. The language-packaging laws are just there to make sure that francophone kids in francophone towns don't have to watch a bunch of white kids from Vermont take their jobs.
Egalitarianism is another one of those expensive necessities of civil society which America has chosen to forego. (Where, exactly, do you put your poor again? Oh, that's right, prison.)
(7) Due to the strong filtering effect that the language laws have on American content, there is sufficient distance for an effective critique of it. That is, because we *watch* America, but are *not* America, we can think about it better than America can. It's the difference between finding yourself in a mob shouting, "We're number one!" and watching one on the television.
(8) With any luck, those francophone kids who have been deprived of their EverQuest might have to, gosh, pick up a book. Fortunately, francophones aren't dependent on translated americana for high-quality literature.
There will be a sticker with U.S. standard nutrition facts applied somewhere on the foreign language packaging.
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
you insensitive clod! ;)
http://www.club977.com/ - The 80's Channel!
Your source for commercial free 80's music!
It's a strange attitude for a country that colonized a good tenth of the world, with a language that's spoken around the globe even today. They're one of the big five, and even if France and Quebec were bombed off the face of the Earth right now, students would still be learning French a thousand years from now to read 18th and 19th century literature.
As long as there are many languages in the world (I'd love only one universal language, though) forcing everything to be in e.g., French, is the same as sticking your head in a bush. Here in Finland we get most of our software and games in English, but it hasn't stopped us from playing them. In fact, i dare to say that my English skills have gone up because of the English games I've been playing since I was a kid (and using English Linux and Windows). I'm actually pretty happy that not everything is in Finnish. Original English TV shows have only Finnish subtitles, so it's easy to learn English by watching the TV, too! Don't forget the educational value of foreign software.
Are all US tax forms available in Swahili?? Can you fill in the blanks in Finnish, and still have the form properly processed?
The language(s) that your government employs for it's tax, legal, etc. systems, are it's "official" languages.
Period.
-- Mike Greaves
In simple words: fuck thier linguistic heritage. Things die, thats how the world works. If it's truly that important, they'll preserve it themselves without protectionist laws. If you truly love something, set it free and all that.
I hate the french language. I'm ok with french people, don't get me wrong, the french have created a lot of very useful tools, but I hate the french language.
/ Spell /spanglish.htm
:)
That being said let me hint very deeply at why they should fear the french language dying. A good number(most) of the languages that I know of that have been regulated by the goverments to disallow melding with other langauges, and forcing it's people to use them, etc: have died out.
Seriously, I don't want to make any Franc mad or anything, because I'm not some silly american who thinks english is god. Our language is melding with spanish, german, and many asian languages. As are spanish, german, and many asian languages. French refuses to meld. Canada in my opinion would do better to drop french, the truth is, it's about as popular right now as Spanglish. You all remember Spanglish? The Ultimate langauge, that combined the ease of spanish and the multitude of words in english? It was supposed to be the language of the world? Yea, when was the last time you heard about it?
http://victorian.fortunecity.com/vangogh/555
well i'm sure someone will rant at me, but generally I feel if a language can't evolve, it will be left behind by the poeple that speak it. That is why most of Canada now prefers English.
Now, to get away from my logical rant:
I hate the french langauge because of all the god damned silent letters. I know that english is bad with this, but come on: sai, versailles. Yea, wtf?! Don't even get me started on the wierd ass computer terms!
I'm not surprised you don't know the English name. It is called the "notwithstanding clause" in English. If you're curious about this clause you can read more (in English).
No kidding. American should be the world wide language