How important to you is the English in a game?

[Pretentious Goblin]

Assuming you prefer to play games in English (whether you're a native speaker or not), how important is the language proficiency in the game to you? I've had quite a few games where I was turned away because the writer was clearly struggling with the language. There's a whole range to this, of course, from native speakers that can't help but riddle their script with typos and don't proofread, to EFL Russian devs who only have a vague understanding of the language, to MTL, to non-Anglophone devs who almost have it down pat, but you can still tell something is off (I got that impression from MIST). Are there games you might have been interested in if the English were up to a higher standard?

 

[Omae wa shinda]

A language i can understand, read , write and communicate
Though it is also best to learn other language especially japanese since most MTL fucked up right here and you might not able to understand entirely
I know some romaji and japanese "way" of how they "talk" because it almost a norm to me now since i already "used to it"

If the game seem new or interesting , i might consider to play it . If the game like (Fuck all NPC without problem ) then i might drop it or not playing it due to its simplicity by copying same game all over again .
If English was to higher standard to the game which meant by all typos / punctuation wrong is correct or Good English then it is a plus to me because i can clearly know what things it is about when developer trying convey their product.
High language proficiency is a must for the product but i guess it depend to what kind of customer you targeting at

 

[desmosome]

If the English is poor, the game is relegated to the fap game category. If it can't even accomplish that, it's deleted immediately barring some exceptions. Some devs who are not fluent in the language can somehow still manage to convey just enough character depth and craft a story with some substance. This is a very rare case. It's hard enough creating believable characters, a gripping plot, or an interesting setting with fluency in English.

I don't really mind some Engrish in fap games unless it's MTL tier garbage. Hell, I still enjoy Corruption b Mr. C lol.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

I don't really mind some Engrish in fap games unless it's MTL tier garbage. Hell, I still enjoy Corruption b Mr. C lol.

Oh yeah, that's my go-to example of games that people seem to love but the English just kills it for me.

 

[Deleted member 3145675]

Hi,
I draw the line of not worth my time when the only way to understand what the writer meant is to read the text out loud because it's phonetic english - like all hits its it's hit heat eat are the same unique word in which context only will give you the hint to determine the meaning of it eat hit.

that kinda kills any goodwill on my part.

 

[moskis22]

It depends on the game itself, on a good game i don't mind mistakes that on a average one would be annoying
Also, if it was my native language i would be more strict with grammar, but in english i don't mind
It could be even the opposite, very "advanced" vocabulary that i don't really understand could turn against it (i know i'm the guilty for that anyway)

 

[bobdickgus]

If I can parse it with little effort it is fine. But if the grammar is too far out and it takes significant effort I avoid it.

 

[Deleted member 3589402]

Go visit a high-class luxury sex worker, I'm sure you can find a few who use educated language and flawless British accent if that is your kink. ;-)

 

[Deleted member 3589402]

Check this out, maybe productive in this discussion:

 

[Umbra Nensei]

Depends on the game. If it's something that was clearly made for a quick jack-off, then not really. But if it makes attempts at dialogue or uses extensive texts as part of the story, then at the very least it should have correct grammar.
Personally I appreciate whenever the writer is willing to go an extra mile to give the text a bit of character.

 

[fitgirlbestgirl]

Writing is by far the most important aspect of a game to me. I can tolerate bad art, clunky systems, even bullshit sandbox grind, as long as the game has good writing and manages to pull me in. Correspondingly, if a game has bad writing, no amount of mindblowing renders or good game systems will save it for me. Obviously, good writing isn't just about correct grammar and not having typos, but that's a part of it. It also just cheapens the whole experience and makes me feel like the dev doesn't even care enough about his game to run spellcheck on it, so why should I care about it?

 

[Deleted member 3589402]

It also just cheapens the whole experience and makes me feel like the dev doesn't even care enough about his game to run spellcheck on it, so why should I care about it?

Because of pre-discursive processes, that turns you on?

 

[Deleted member 3589402]

Personally I appreciate whenever the writer is willing to go an extra mile to give the text a bit of character.

Yeah, it's cool if the characters is not only one-dimensional that's true. And that requires better writing.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

Writing is by far the most important aspect of a game to me. I can tolerate bad art, clunky systems, even bullshit sandbox grind, as long as the game has good writing and manages to pull me in. Correspondingly, if a game has bad writing, no amount of mindblowing renders or good game systems will save it for me. Obviously, good writing isn't just about correct grammar and not having typos, but that's a part of it. It also just cheapens the whole experience and makes me feel like the dev doesn't even care enough about his game to run spellcheck on it, so why should I care about it?

I agree, although I find some of my favorite devs are prone to typos and missing punctuation even though they can write really well, or at least play to my fetishes very well. I don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, I report the typos.

 

[khumak]

I don't mind a few minor mistakes, but they tend to pile up and break immersion. If half of the words are misspelled, the punctuation is either wrong or doesn't exist, and it doesn't sound like it was written by a native english speaker then I'm probably going to just give up and skip all of the dialog. I'll just skip straight to the sex scenes because I can't just experience what's going on by reading the dialog. I have to try and figure out what each thing I'm reading means because it doesn't make any sense.

 

[God3333]

I picked "I drop games with recurring grammatical errors"
Although, this isn't strictly true, for me it has to be very heavy spelling and or prose issues. I can get around i instead of I or something like that, but if the writing doesn't actually make sense, insta no go!

For me it's very important that the game has a good level of English. At the end of the day, I'm by no means great at punctuation or grammar, heck I've probably made several grammatical makes in writing this reply. I don't really care as much about things like that as long as it makes sense. If I'm pausing every second to think "What does this mean" or "Huh that doesn't make sense" then I'll likely drop the game.

I mean if it's Engrish, then it's a no go! Never ever!

 

[woody554]

nice to have, but it's far more important how you tell a story than where your punctuation is. correct grammar is the lowest level of writing and all but useless in any other context than writing a paper for your professor or a quarterly report for your company.

that said, you should know where your errors are, and use them deliberately to convey a tone. almost no people talk correctly in any real life situations, and things like punctuation in the orthographic sense don't exist in spoken word. but, if your charater is that company man writing a report or a strict teacher at school, it SHOULD show in the level of linguistic correctness they use.

for your dumbass horny teenager mc or the millionaire super soldier, they should absolutely never speak in correct grammar. or, if they do, you must provide a story for why they do it. like growing up in a boarding school, or being alien impants who got their clone brain uploaded with a hyper correct grammar during their creation. which also gives you the possibility to show how they slowly become more human-like by acquiring the incorrect and infinitely more normal way to talk.

but never ever have your mcs talking like a book unless you have a story to back it up.

 

[Carrera]

Myself exceedingly enjoyed action translated games. Those am usually fun and create my laugh till myself puke

 

[CaptainBipto]

"Assuming you prefer to play games in English (whether you're a native speaker or not), how important is the language proficiency in the game to you? "

I understand that English is hard and I know that that (<- see what I mean) damn language begged, borrowed, and stole words and grammar from half the planet and mashed it all together, so my tolerance for poor/MTL English is pretty high. Since I am a native English speaker and I really don't speak any other language, anyone that can speak English even halfway decently gets a thumbs up/high five from me.

I have played my share of MTL'd and badly translated games that were pretty horrid translations, but I could usually decipher what the intent was and it never bothered me much, other than the fact that it took me longer to 'interpret' the engrish. A good translation is always appreciated, but as long as the translation hasn't butchered the conversion all to hell, I don't mind.

 

[Rafster]

As long it's understable, It's fine for me. For me there are other factors that ruin a game faster, like boring mechanics for example. And since english is not my native tongue... I can't be too picky.

The game must be a disaster for me to drop it, and some MTL games unfortunately has done that.