Question to non-Anglosaxons - what language version games do you play?

[Martinus]

Maybe this is because of the historically poor quality of Polish game translations (and the fact that Polish is notoriously difficult to translate into, when you do not translate whole sentences but individual words, as in Polish adjectives have different feminine, masculine and neutral forms for example), but I always games in the original English language. This is why I am constantly being puzzled by e.g. complaints of people on Paradox forums, about the quality of German, French or Spanish translations of Paradox games.

So my question to people from non-English-speaking countries is - what language version do you play - English or (when available) your native language version?

[Syt]

English, unless the original game is in German (Anno series, Sacred, Gothic, Patrician . . . ).

Not sure of the general quality of German translations these days, though from what I've seen Bioware seems to do them very professionally but the German voices for CoD4-MW were atrocious. Bad action movie dubbing at its worst. In the past Longest Journey had a very well known dubbing cast, and the old LucasArts adventures had an ingenious translation staff - though I still prefer the English originals in those cases. But there were also MANY horrible translations.

[Martinus]

Yeah, don't get me started on voice dubbing. It seems that in Poland there is a very small number of voice actors who are used interchangeably for cartoons/computer games, so it makes Dragon Age sound like Winnie the Pooh. 

[Syt]

Germany has a high standard of dubbing (well, as high as you can in such an annoying practice), and popular actors usually have their "usual" voice in (almost) all their movies, and quite a few of those voices "bleed over" into video games. The trend these days is to use voices that sound close to the original, whereas in the past voices could often be "matched to the character" which may or may not work better than the original voice. E.g. Robert De Niro has a very distinct German dubbing voice that is nothing like his real voice (but supposedly fits his gruff looks better) . . . but it got handpicked by Martin Scorsese for Taxi Driver. These days, people hear the voice and think, "Robert De Niro".

However, it can create potential problems - e.g. Stallone and Schwarzenegger have the same dubbing voice. Not sure how they handled their scenes together in Expandables (haven't seen the movie in German).

[Maladict]

English only. Same with books and movies, always take the original version if you can understand it.

[Grey Fox]

English. To their credit french versions have gotten much better over the years but I am annoyed by all the Franceisation of it.

[Vricklund]

English. Swedish is not a common gaming language but I can't see myself choosing my native tongue over english even if the game had a flawless translation.

All swedes has a love for english. If it's english it's good, if it's german it's often technical, if it's french it's probably about wine or cheese.

Most books I read are in english, the films in the cinema and shows on tv are in english, most of what I read on the net is in english, even the fliers on my car says FINAL SALE not SLUTREA. At my old job english and swedish was spoken in a sort of mix.

The added perk to using an english version of a game is of course if you need help. Like at my former job the jargon is in english. How would I know what a CB or a DoW is?

[Syt]

SLUTREA

[Pedrito]

English, since my early days of gaming. Usually italian translations are decently done, but I still prefer the original.

When Planescape: Torment was released, I played it in english, then I was involved in a collaborative attempt to create an homebrew italian translation of it, but I don't know how the project ended.

L.

[Valmy]

English. To their credit french versions have gotten much better over the years but I am annoyed by all the Franceisation of it.

Latin American people are always whining about how the Hispanic (as in Spain and Portugal) dialects  are used.  I am not  sure what a difference this makes for Brazilians but the differences between the Spanish spoken over here and that spoken in Spain is pretty profound it seems.

[viper37]

Maybe this is because of the historically poor quality of Polish game translations (and the fact that Polish is notoriously difficult to translate into, when you do not translate whole sentences but individual words, as in Polish adjectives have different feminine, masculine and neutral forms for example), but I always games in the original English language. This is why I am constantly being puzzled by e.g. complaints of people on Paradox forums, about the quality of German, French or Spanish translations of Paradox games.

So my question to people from non-English-speaking countries is - what language version do you play - English or (when available) your native language version?

English games.  Aside some web browser games, all games are made in english, even those made in Quebec, and later translated, often in France and not in Quebec, so that's as much a foreign language to me as American english.

[viper37]

Yeah, don't get me started on voice dubbing. It seems that in Poland there is a very small number of voice actors who are used interchangeably for cartoons/computer games, so it makes Dragon Age sound like Winnie the Pooh. 

I can not remember how Winnie the Pooh sounds.  If you do, you are either very young, or you should move on to more adult shows

[The Brain]

English of course. There were some attempts at Swedish versions of computer games in the mid-90s. They sucked ass and the business ditched the idea.

[Solmyr]

There aren't any Finnish translations so English. Finns use subtitles for most movies, even.

[Josquius]

I wouldn't get too upset about bad dubbing. Its only fairly recently that English dubbing has tended towards the tolerable.

Interesting on the upset over other side of the atlantic versions of your language. Overly Americanised dubs piss me off too. Really wish there was more of a British dubbing industry out there. Sounds more natural.
Also annoying is the way games often take months to be released in Britain after having been released in the UK....and they change nothing during that time, leaving American spelling and terminology intact.