I should like to talk about two things that bother me about many porn games

[GrabberWalkie]

I'll get right to the point here. The first thing that bothers me is the grammar and all things related to it. Now, I get it, English is not everyone's native language (it's not mine, that's for sure), and many games aren't even written in English to begin with and are translated by the community. Yet some proper spell-checking wouldn't hurt, especially when there is so much software - free or paid - available on the internet these days just for such things. I know that everyone hates Grammar Nazis, but they are people too, and good grammar is important for properly conveying one's message. It's also a real turn-off when you're playing a text-based game and the steaming sex narratives fall short because of some really trivial grammar issues.
The other thing I want to talk about is more minor. To this day, I've played around fifty porn video-games in total (maybe more, who's counting?), but only found goths present in just a few. This is not the problem in itself though, the problem is that when goth characters are present and romanceable, there's always some kind of monologue by the PC, or a sub-plot involving the goth character looking "normal" in order to be considered properly attractive. I've seen this in WVM with Rayne, where the PC considers her more attractive when she's not rocking her goth look, and I've seen this again in Bad Teacher, although here the PC has mixed feelings about it. I understand that not everyone likes the goth look, or the whole 'gloom and doom' persona that most goths exhibit, but it just annoys me that when goths are added to the game, they're only added so they can be "fixed" to look "normal".

 

[Sparky~]

Well grammar is not everyone's strong side, even for native speakers. It's quite hard for someone to check for an error that they don't even know exists. Of course a short, well written text looks way better than a super long paragraph with a lot of mistakes, but as someone whose first language isn't English, I gotta say it's not easy to do even with the proper tools.

About your second point... Well that's marketing in a nutshell. Most devs will always do what people like, so they can reach the biggest audience possible.

 

[GrabberWalkie]

Well grammar is not everyone's strong side, even for native speakers. It's quite hard for someone to check for an error that they don't even know exists. Of course a short, well written text looks way better than a super long paragraph with a lot of mistakes, but as someone whose first language isn't English, I gotta say it's not easy to do even with the proper tools.

About your second point... Well that's marketing in a nutshell. Most devs will always do what people like, so they can reach the biggest audience possible.

I have to disagree though. Nowadays most text-editors have an automatic spell-checker that underlines or even corrects misspellings. Heck, even internet browsers do! Not trying to pick a fight with you of course, just saying that it's a weak excuse. Of course, if we're talking about coherent sentences with proper tense usage, that's a different topic, although some programs (WinWord comes to mind) help even with that, to a degree.

Huh, strange, I haven't seen people request to "fix goths" anywhere. On that note, why bother including goth characters (AKA "diversity"), if you're just gonna make them vanilla in the end? It doesn't make sense, and something tells me the target audience for this particular fetish (if one can call it that) is just as small as the number of people against it, if not slightly bigger.

 

[blueoktavia]

About your second point... Well that's marketing in a nutshell. Most devs will always do what people like, so they can reach the biggest audience possible.

This is a problem I see with a lot of games nowadays. They try to cram a bunch of character archetypes/fetishes into a game just to tick all the boxe. Unfortunately this usually results in copy and paste characters with dull personalities. Honestly I'd just prefer a few written characters than dozens of blank dolls.

 

[tanstaafl]

Well grammar is not everyone's strong side, even for native speakers. It's quite hard for someone to check for an error that they don't even know exists. Of course a short, well written text looks way better than a super long paragraph with a lot of mistakes, but as someone whose first language isn't English, I gotta say it's not easy to do even with the proper tools.

I would go so far as to say that if a person doesn't have the knowledge to know their grammar is atrocious, they shouldn't be writing the script at all. Kudos to people who decide to make a game, I admire the dedication it takes. But don't expect people who play the game to not react negatively to certain things.

Huh, strange, I haven't seen people request to "fix goths" anywhere. On that note, why bother including goth characters (AKA "diversity"), if you're just gonna make them vanilla in the end? It doesn't make sense, and something tells me the target audience for this particular fetish (if one can call it that) is just as small as the number of people against it, if not slightly bigger.

This probably stems from the belief that most goths are damaged in some way. An unsettling amount of people believe that if a person chooses to explore being a goth it's because they have been hurt at some point, or have some unsettled issues in their lives. They believe that if you "fix" those issues for a person they will suddenly stop being goth.

It's stupid, but there you go.

 

[Deleted member 2466386]

But hey sometimes bad translation carries out the game though, especially those short comedy games.

 

[Sparky~]

But hey sometimes bad translation carries out the game though, especially those short comedy games.

That's... very true.

I've been asked to translate some Spanish games into English, and the grammar/spelling was just terrible. Now imagine a non-native person trying to translate that. It would be very hard to understand complicated slang or context mistakes.

 

[Sphere42]

Not sure whether it even qualifies as grammar or just spelling but atrocious errors seem to be becoming way more common all over the place even from self-proclaimed Americans/US citizens. The one I truly cannot understand is writing "it's" in place of "its" which is more work (annoying on most touch keyboards too), an extra character in case that matters and completely demolishes the entire structure of the sentence. Occasionally I even see forum posts misusing such homophones in both directions so it can't be a dumb autocomplete/text-to-speech default either, nor someone who exclusively learned through speaking and just picked one spelling.

Another very specific gripe I have is how commonly the word "rape" is used in translations of Japanese works even though the scene otherwise appears to be consensual. A lot of stuff is genuinely rapey so I honestly have no idea whether even "reliable" translators constantly mess it up or the original authors misused the term to begin with. More than a handful of generic "high school lovers' first sex" manga feature the girl uttering a phrase like "please rape me <3" which just doesn't make sense.

This probably stems from the belief that most goths are damaged in some way. An unsettling amount of people believe that if a person chooses to explore being a goth it's because they have been hurt at some point, or have some unsettled issues in their lives. They believe that if you "fix" those issues for a person they will suddenly stop being goth.

The way many fictional characters are written that is true in-universe though. You'll rarely if ever see multiple individual characters within the same niche look or stereotype so it's not "all goths have issues" but "this is a visibly damaged character with physical attributes to match their inner world" (because why bother writing a decent character if you can just give her a "slut" tattoo instead amirite?)

It tends to be pretty obvious once multiple "fringe" characters exist and for some reason the gloomy nihilist, the fun-loving whore gyaru and the psychotic violent punk/skinhead are best friends while hating and terrorising literally everyone else.

 

[Machinist]

Don't agree very much with the first point (I can take a few errors) and agree very much with the second.
We need more goth games.

 

[tanstaafl]

The way many fictional characters are written that is true in-universe though. You'll rarely if ever see multiple individual characters within the same niche look or stereotype so it's not "all goths have issues" but "this is a visibly damaged character with physical attributes to match their inner world" (because why bother writing a decent character if you can just give her a "slut" tattoo instead amirite?)

It tends to be pretty obvious once multiple "fringe" characters exist and for some reason the gloomy nihilist, the fun-loving whore gyaru and the psychotic violent punk/skinhead are best friends while hating and terrorising literally everyone else.

Agreed. The problem is it's inaccurate and, for those of us who like goths, disappointing to boot. Oh look, she's a cute blonde girl now...yay?

 

[desmosome]

yup, we need more gothic chicks

 

[polycentric]

Grammar...

I don't have a problem when people write the way that a character would speak in casual conversation and create speech mannerisms for characters to give them their own personalities. People in the real world tend to use a shared lingo when talking to someone that they know and that speech can be difficult for outsiders to understand; writers need to reflect that to a small degree to prevent characters from sounding robotic.

There are games, such as 'My New Family' and 'Lust Affect' that have slightly wonky English and this actually makes the game more fun or adds a certain charm. Games that were written in Polish or Russian, when auto-translated into English, are funnier than hell and I actually look for these games just to amused by the dialog.

But then there are the games that were written in languages where the order of clauses differ from English ("your dinner, eat it") and the writer(s) refuse to take this into account or allow a translator to fix it.

For example:

I thought I would give game proof-reading a try, partially to give back to the community and partly to gauge the effort should I ever want to create a game (spoiler: it's hard and I'll never have enough time to make a game). I found a project, offered my assistance, and...wow...the script was almost unreadable: clause order issues, words used out-of-context, virtually no capitalization...the works. These problems were compounded by the use of a third-person narrator, written as a quasi-character, that would jump into the dialog to tell characters (including the MC) what other characters were thinking.

All of this made for an unwieldy mess and, when I reached out to the developer to ask what language the script was written in and how it was translated, the developer went off on me. "I wrote this in English by myself [sic] did not use google [sic] i know how to do this [sic]". I provided a couple of sample edits, and several online edits (with links to allow him to verify my points) and he dismissed them out of hand writing that my edits "changed" his "meanings" and "broke manys"...so that was pretty much, as the say, that.

The game in this story is available here; the English grammar is still terrible, people routinely complain and the developer won't change it...for reasons. There's a lesson to be learned in this story but I'm damned if I know exactly what it is...

...except perhaps that most devs are too proud of their own writing to allow it to be critiqued. Or something...

 

[tanstaafl]

The game in this story is available here; the English grammar is still terrible, people routinely complain and the developer won't change it...for reasons. There's a lesson to be learned in this story but I'm damned if I know exactly what it is...

My curiosity is overwhelming right now. I need to know which game this is...

 

[GrabberWalkie]

Don't agree very much with the first point (I can take a few errors)

'A few errors' are fine, nobody's perfect, but often times it's far more than that.

 

[blueoktavia]

View attachment 789240

yup, we need more gothic chicks

Honestly can't tell if that's a sex doll or an actual human.

 

[SkyRebel]

Honestly can't tell if that's a sex doll or an actual human.

How dare you!
Dolls lives matter!

 

[ImperialD]

*drags my couch over and says have a seat or lay down .. and tell me about your issues *....

they are just that porn games ... they are not real life .. like alot of people might think they are .. they are just fantasies .. meaning they are made up ... so with that in mind .. step 2 different people from around this big world we live in make these games for our pleasure ... some spell ok and some need help ...
and on occasion i need alot of help especially when i drink to much ... but thats another story .....
so .... what exactly is it you hate about them ?? ..... one second i gotta sharpen my pencil ..... ok ... what the hell was we talking about again ?? urgh screw it ...

 

[BobKels0]

As long as I understand what the characters have to say, I don't really care about the grammar, if it's not machine translation quality...
Maybe because English isn't my first langage, in my native language, mistakes will melt my eyes!

What bother me, a lot, is the annoying white flashing screen when someone orgasms. I usually play at late hours, the room is pretty in the dark, and my eyes burns everytime.

 

[tanstaafl]

they are just that porn games ... they are not real life .. like alot of people might think they are .. they are just fantasies .. meaning they are made up ...

Kind of a nonsequitur in regards to this post, but judging from comments on manga, hentai, anime, and this forum, a lot of people don't really make a distinction. Most disturbing are those rare comments that almost indicate that some people believe you can actually rape a girl so hard she likes it.

 

[rayminator]

translated/spell-checking software are not perfect

Us humans are not perfect either we will make mistakes so we have to live with it

so if you see any spelling or grammar mistakes let that person know about it

I have been telling MangaGamer about their spelling/grammar mistakes all the time but they don't give a rat-ass all they care about is money

some people are in it for the money and some people are not. Those are not will listen and correct those mistakes.