Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

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Cainntear
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Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Postby Cainntear » Tue Jun 14, 2016 7:40 pm

tastyonions wrote:
mercutio wrote:Ideally we need a list differentiating as for example listening to audio in native language and reading subtitles in l2 in my view won't achieve anything
I learned some good French expressions this way, actually. It all depends on how well you pay attention.

Which is all well and good, but the list would be more useful if it made the distinction and we could choose based on our personal goals and the information available.
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WalkingAlone13
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Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Postby WalkingAlone13 » Fri Jul 01, 2016 5:06 pm

Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon come out late November (2016) and will have the same seven languages as those already listed, however for the first time you will also have a choice of Simplified Chinese as well as traditional Chinese. So in total you have a choice of nine languages now. I thought I'd mention it just in case anyone would be interested.

Languages;
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Spanish
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese

These will be for the Nintendo 3DS.
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Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Postby Serpent » Mon Nov 07, 2016 9:54 pm

Serpent wrote:
Teango wrote:@Serpent
I imagine Criminal Case is super addictive, and it's great to see it's available in so many languages too (especially Turkish and Indonesian) :) Is it all text-based?

Text as opposed to audio? Yes.
It's basically a visual game with crime scenes, laboratory, forensic kit etc. At the crime scenes you find objects, listed in the language you chose. When you first explore a scene, some objects are considered clues and you examine them with a forensic kit and/or take to the laboratory. You also speak with suspects and eventually arrest one. There's quite a lot of dialogue involved, apart from when you come back to the crime scenes to earn stars (then the only L2 is for single word* physical objects... the kind of vocab that I used to struggle with!)
*compounds also count, of course. sunglasses, computer chair, whatever.

Thought I'd share a screenshot of the Criminal Case gameplay. I've posted some on the old forum before but the link has expired. The scenes are very detailed, and as you can see, when you hover an object, you get a preview of it. (To encourage you to play more, it takes a few seconds before it shows up - you can buy the "instant magnifier booster" for in-game coins, which you earn all the time while playing. There's absolutely no need to buy any paid features).
The game is now also available in Russian :D Also, the cases can be played more than once for additional features, and obviously you can play in a different language. Most of the gameplay can also be repeated if you want to look something up.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
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Teango
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Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Postby Teango » Tue Nov 08, 2016 12:28 am

Sorry guys, it's been a while since I last read through all the new posts in this thread...

Just to help clarify things, I initially set up this thread to gather and share ideas for interesting and fun computer games in a variety of languages and on any platform or device. As we didn't already have a special place on the forum that was specifically dedicated to this area of language learning and practice (or at least I missed it at the time), and as I know so many of our members play computer games, I thought it would be helpful to start a new thread back in August 2015.

Personally for me, I'm looking for interactive and challenging multimedia games that are rich in both target language text (e.g., subtitles, cutscenes, surroundings) and quality accompanying audio. I often find that time just flies by when I'm playing an adventure game in another language that simultaneously presents both types of media; before I know it, I will have already spent countless hours immersed in fun comprehensible input and levelled up a bit more in that language (although it's sadly been a while since I've had the time to spare and enjoy this type of learning lately). I also enjoy watching other gamers chatting during "Let's Play" videos, as it can be a rich source of contemporary colloquial dialogue.

I agree with members like Cainntear and mercutio, however, that our list should ideally differentiate between operating systems, platforms, and devices, as well as whether each entry supports text, audio, or a combination of both in its respected target language. So far I've spent a considerable amount of time manually adding or editing each suggestion in our burgeoning list, and then replicating these entries throughout other language categories (along with who contributed each suggestion, what other languages the game might be available in, and links or notes on gameplay where available in each member's post).

As an initial labour of love, the list is far from perfect, and most probably chock-full of errors, as well as in need of a major design overhaul (we're a little limited with the forum interface in this respect). So I'm open to suggestions on how to format our list for the better, and I'll try my best to take your ideas on board, but keep in mind that it takes more time than it looks on the surface to keep everything up-to-date, and I'm overwhelmingly busy right now (hence my earlier hiatus). Indeed, if anyone would like to sift through what we've collected together up to this point, and present it in a more useful, informative, and readily editable layout, that would help me out tremendously (just PM me your proposed list, and if it looks good, I'll be happy to add it to the front page). :)

So far in total, I've updated our summary list 35 times, adding separate categories for at least 20 languages (ranging from Croatian to Turkish). I've also tried to add everyone's contributions as the posts come in, but apologies if I missed any of your suggestions in the process or simply haven't got around to it just yet. Our list has consequently grown in size considerably over the past 14-15 months, which is really great news overall, and I hope it has started to prove useful to members who may be unsure where to begin or where to look next when searching for computer games in other languages. For those interested in engaging interactive multimedia, computer games may be or develop into another great potential tool in our growing 21st century toolbox for second language learning, affording us another avenue to practise, contextualise and consolidate what we learn or already know, and I'd like to offer a big thank you once again to everyone who has contributed here to date - keep up the good work guys!
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Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Postby Alphathon » Tue Nov 08, 2016 2:31 am

I haven't really got any suggestions for how to better format it. Ideally I'd say it'd be better to use a table (say system/format on the x-axis and language on the y-axis) but unfortunately there are too many variables to do that in any kind of a practical way (at least that I can think of). It would also be quite difficult to maintain and would somewhat restrict the addition of more elaborate detail.

What I would say is it might be better if you used standard ISO 639-1 codes rather than your bespoke abbreviations. For example, German would be [de] rather than [Ge]. Given that this is a language forum people are likely to be familiar with them, at least for the languages they know/study, so wouldn't have to check the legend.
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Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Postby Serpent » Tue Nov 08, 2016 4:06 am

With the caveat that I'm much more experienced in using markup (HTML etc) than programming...

I basically see two main options. And of course we'd be willing to host the list on the main site BUT this forum is our main priority, as you all understand.

The options are:
1. Creating a database. It's definitely possible, from what I know not that complex for an experienced programmer, but time-consuming. AFAIU it can be uploaded and updated via github, and I *think* it can be done by anyone who is willing to offer some webspace.
Hosting it is probably less complicated than creating it, but still difficult:
1.1. I don't think there are any free sites for hosting a database?
1.2.1. I'm afraid that hosting it on our server would lead to more database errors (overload), which is definitely not okay. I can't think of any other potential problem but maybe I've overlooked something. And I've NOT discussed this with other mods. Rdearman and emk still have the final say, of course.
1.2.2. I suppose we could store an offline database, downloadable to be viewed in something like Microsoft Access or Excel. Maybe a backup.
1.3. A forum member who already has a site/blog can host a database. Of course this would have to be a long-term member, and note that not every hosting plan will allow this. (Such a page could attract more visitors if you for example blog about gaming :))

2. Storing the info as an HTML or wikia page
This is more simple but of course also limits the sortability of the table (if we use one). Wikia is easier to update but also easy to mess up if someone tries to edit it. Sorting by language is probably going to be more difficult.
2.1. If the main thing is the text length, we can totally host it as a static guest post like those we already have. Or we can finally start a wikia.
2.2. Of course there's also the main wikia.
2.3. Third party sites can store this kind of content, for example justpaste.it or similar sites. It's best if the content can be backed up as a file (HTML or Word).

Clarifications definitely welcome :)
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Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Postby Adrianslont » Tue Nov 08, 2016 4:26 am

Teango, I am not knowledgable enough to help with a technical solution but if it's doable and someone has the time, I think it would be great to have the info laid out according to operating system, audio or not etc.

I would like to thank you for the great work you have done to date. Champion effort!
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Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Postby Serpent » Tue Nov 08, 2016 4:49 am

As for the format, I do think some kind of table is the best.
For the platform, imo it's the best to have additional fields/column for windows, android, ios etc. Each cell would contain something like "yes", "-" (or no), "limited" or a specific version if required.
For the language... if we want this to be a sortable feature, then uhhhh. In wikia this probably requires creating a row for each game/language combo, and pasting the platform info (unless it differs by language, of course).
One more possibility would be to start with the games available in the biggest number of languages. Cells can be easily combined in simple tables, see example here. The whole row can be replaced with a text like "the following games are available in English, Spanish, French blablabla". and using the language column for any additional languages. Then the list would be gradually shortened until we're down to "these games are available in English and one other language" and "these games are available only in one language" (including those only available in English).

I would also replace the "suggested by" with just a "Notes" field/column that would contain the link(s) to forum posts.
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Alphathon
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Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Postby Alphathon » Tue Nov 08, 2016 1:57 pm

Huh, I was just thinking about this in terms of reformatting the forum post; I didn't even consider other options. Hosting issues notwithstanding I believe that storing it in a MySQL database or similar would be a good solution, if only on the backend (it needn't be publicly accessible). The frontend of it could simply be a dynamic webpage (hosted on the static site) in that only relevant games are displayed, so if you, for example, check off English and French for languages and Windows and Android for platform only those would show up. Other formats and languages could still be displayed for relevant titles. For example, I envisage a table something like this (although obviously formatted more nicely):


TitlePlatformsLanguagesAudio/textNotes
Baldur's GateWindows, Mac OS, Linuxen, fr, it, de, es, plsuggested by Soclydeza and Yuurei
Crusader Kings IIWindows, Mac OS, Linuxen, fr, de, es, pl; ru*
*unofficial
Text onlyLanguage can be switched in-game between English, French, German and Spanish.
Polish is selectable from the Steam properties menu.
Russian is available as a fan translation mod.
suggested by Zireael and Alphathon
Gothic seriesWindows;
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 (Arcania: Gothic 4)
desuggested by eginhard
Ticking French in this scenario would remove Gothic from the list, while ticking PlayStation 4 would remove Crusader Kings II and Baldur's Gate
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German/Deutsch
Der kleine Hobbit: 6 / 19
Star Trek - Das nächste Jahrhundert: 25 / 178
Scottish Gaelic/Gàidhlig
Scottish Gaelic in Twelve Weeks: 9 / 12
Speaking Our Language, Series 2: 7 / 18
Dutch/Nederlands
Duolingo: 37 / 64

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Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Postby Henkkles » Tue Nov 08, 2016 2:48 pm

Is there any way to disregard text only games? I'm exclusively interested in games with lots of spoken recorded dialogue, like Dragon Age: Origins (which has lots of language options) and Bethesda titles.

Also in the OP seeing German abbreviated as "GE" is super odd, it's always DE, DEU or GER but I've never seen GE before. I kept thinking that it was Georgian.
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