As I have seen, Armor Games is a hit around the world but many have limited language skills in English and that is sad because we are truly a global gaming community. A game is a game and doesn't need language skills but if someone wants to comment on a forum, they should be able to do it in their own language.
There are people in our community that are willing to monitor and translate if necessary, any foreign language thread. I would think that we should at least start with French, German (ha ha ha British...Just kidding... Dutch, Nordic languages and Russian. According to my information, there is already a Japanese thread on Armor Games outside your site which of course does not help you in the ad revenue situation!
It would be nice if Armor Games can change their coding such that other characters can be displayed other than normal english letters in UTF-8. This can be done by allow the use of the Alt key - possibly by changing the charset to something that will allow foreign letters.
My challenge thus is this, post to this thread in your own language. I can understand a few languages but the internet is full of translation programs (lame at best but effective) and get Armor Games into the multilingual mode - first ever in the gaming world.
There are people in our community that are willing to monitor and translate if necessary, any foreign language thread.
This is where I see the problem... I appreciate that people are willing to keep an eye on it. But ultimately, the moderators need to be able to have the chance to monitor anything that is written on the site. If it is in a different language, we can't enforce the site rules. So for that sake, AG would insist that threads be in English. Because we need to be able to monitor and moderate all threads.
Some 'kids' (no offence there, some are) simply do not write/speak/read other languages than the one they get from their parents and in school. And since not all countries give their students the benefit of learning other languages then the national one, it is still a rather large (if not huge) problem for Armor Games to deal with...
True, Esperanto would be a viable solution to the problem, but then again... how many people (yes mods and admins too :P ) would WANT to learn it next to their already busy life-scedule?! I for one, wouldn't want to learn it, but that's probably because I feel lucky that I can manage myself in 5 different languages... lucky me! :S
If there were other mods to be installed by AG, they should really have a look at what country they are from, or at least what languages they speak/write... that way the problem can be handled a little better! But it won't be solved with that...
True, Esperanto would be a viable solution to the problem, but then again
I laughed for some reason at this... And it makes me wonder if Cenny does speak Esperanto too.
I for one, wouldn't want to learn it, but that's probably because I feel lucky that I can manage myself in 5 different languages... lucky me! :S
Darn you, I only know 3 1/2 (If you can count one African song as 1/2).
If there were other mods to be installed by AG, they should really have a look at what country they are from, or at least what languages they speak/write... that way the problem can be handled a little better!
I laughed for some reason at this... And it makes me wonder if Cenny does speak Esperanto too.
He probably doesn't, he just mentioned it in the discussion... I actually have a nephew that speaks Esperanto, but it seems like a really tuff language to learn if you don't speak any other languages. And when you do, you probably make a lot of mistakes with words from other languages as well...
Darn you, I only know 3 1/2 (If you can count one African song as 1/2).
I speak/write Dutch (duh), English, French, German and a little Spanish, not counting my own dialect from the region (but we - the inhabitants- think it is one!) so I feel pretty lucky with that! But an african song? LOL Tell me which one, now I'm curious! =)
But yes, not solved...
Exactly, not solved! Therefor I still suggest me previously optioned idea of being a language consultant on Armor Games for the Dutch community here! But Carlie still feels different about it...
And it makes me wonder if Cenny does speak Esperanto too.
Mi scias perfekte bone tradukistojn, almenau. Ankorau lernanta kune kun la aliaj lingvoj Mi fitraktos estonte.
If there were other mods to be installed by AG, they should really have a look at what country they are from, or at least what languages they speak/write... that way the problem can be handled a little better! But it won't be solved with that...
We strive to have only English on the site. Even if we had mods or persons that could certain languages, it will still be too much of a problem to have more than one language, which is why we try to make people use English instead of anything else. We all need to be able to take care of a situation, especially if it is an urgent one.
Mi scias perfekte bone tradukistojn, almenau. Ankorau lernanta kune kun la aliaj lingvoj Mi fitraktos estonte.
I actually really don't know if this is Esperanto, but if it is... I stand corrected and answered in my question/statement! XD
We strive to have only English on the site. Even if we had mods or persons that could certain languages, it will still be too much of a problem to have more than one language, which is why we try to make people use English instead of anything else. We all need to be able to take care of a situation, especially if it is an urgent one.
I know you do and believe me, I respect and applaud that, but it still presents the problem for younger users that come on AG and don't speak good English or even speak it at all! See, I don't want Armor Games to change it's signature into one of many languages, I simply offered to implement so-called 'Language Consultants' for those troubled users that have questions but don't know how to ask them in English... this way they could ask a 'LC' the question in their own language and be helped with it. See what I mean?
And yes, I do know that it would mean a lot of extra work for me if I would offer my services to Armor Games, but I think it's worth it if I can help Dutch users with their questions in their native language.
I would still be pushing them to keep speaking/writing English on Armor Games as the main (and only used) language!
Generally they do sign the rules saying they understood and will follow the rules when they make a user. If you don't understand what you sign, and you break the rules, you are ferked. 13 years old and without the ability to at least understand that you are signing this and taking the legal responsibility of getting an account.... Waaaay too much deleting spam > <.... Anyway, I am just saying (or sayong, as I decided to write) that while it might be an idea for bilingual users to help such users, it is not really AG's responsibility to become the teacher of those kids, thus we should not assign people for something like this.
I know, it is not relevant to the topic as the poetry is translated and there to share the poetry. It is not threads in an entirely different language.
I get the impression that it's somewhat misunderstood somewhere and we're talking on two different, but slightly similar, topics... :S
>>>The following is not written in rage or ment to be offending, I simply want to explain something.<<<
All responses I get from mods and admins refer to the fact, that Armor Games should not become a gaming website that can be used in different languages. With this I think you mean a choice the new user can make on what language his text should be shown, the choice Hotmail has for instance. Either you are talking about that or you mean that there will not be a row of flags on top of the screen with different languages people visiting Armor Games can choose from, like international websites have for different countries...
Just to make sure: I don't mean any of these two options above...
The option I am talking about is simply the offer to have a certain user of Armor Games, either -an administrator, -a moderator or -a regular Armor Games user, that people with problems can go to and present the problem to by asking it in their own language if they are not cunning enough to ask it in English. Nothing more, nothing less... This 'Language Consultant' (as I like to call it) is someone who will help them with their problem and will always, no exceptions made, uphold the English standard by letting these users know that English is the only language used (spoken and written) on Armor Games.
Do you see the slight differences I am talking about?
No, not really, since that is what I refer to. User w/ problem > LC > Mod > LC > User w/ problem > LC > Mod > Action. instead of User w/problem > Mod > Action. I know it might seem a bit unfair, but usually language barriers leads to having further questions being asked. Even if it is cut down, there would still need to be the LC in the middle, and as I see it, it would lead to a waste of time when something could have been understood and acted upon the instance it was noticed. As I said, I see no problem in users helping other users, but it is not AG's responsibility if people are unable to communicate or understand English, thus these Language Consultants would never be official as it is right now. There is often, if not always trouble when it comes to users using other languages. We have had swear words in other languages censored because it was used against mods, who were unable to understand. Thus everything should be English. Help out all you want, but it doesn't seem like you could get an official title.
