Spanish language-specific chat channel in-game and Discord, please.

[Slingshooter]

This is the perfect scenario for AI to do some decent translations since SSG probably don't intend to hire spanish translators anyway. Just instruct it on how it should handle names so you get Bilbo Bolsón and not Baggins, for instance.

 

[Dar]

In order not to create similar thread for other languages, I would suggest using this to ask the devs to create additional opportunities for people to communicate in their languages (Spanish, Russian, Chinese, maybe others), if the OP does not mind. A new discord server has recently opened. I see that it is configured to support only the official languages of the game. This is so outdated. It would be possible to create different language channels, and it would not be difficult to find at least one person to moderate these channels among our huge multinational community.
A game doesn't necessarily need to have an official localization in a specific language to have support for these language channels...

 

[Marancil]

We have added Portuguese at the request of some players from Brazil, but it needs to be said that we monitor this and if the interest wanes, well we might close it. For now it seems active though.

What I mean is that we have tried adding more language channels to our Discord, which is not the "official" one, but linked in my signature.

However, the interest fell short after a while. Discord is hard to navigate as it is without adding extra channels, so we prune and re organize from time to time to reflect tendencies and trends over time. Or at lest we try to.

 

[Anamura]

This is the perfect scenario for AI to do some decent translations since SSG probably don't intend to hire spanish translators anyway. Just instruct it on how it should handle names so you get Bilbo Bolsón and not Baggins, for instance.

I'm playing other MMO these days and I'm pretty sure the translation is either AI or fan based, because it has so many languages to choose that it's unreal they got a translator for everything. But yeah, this game is not even remotely as big as Lotro. Translating Lotro would be a massive task...

 

[Pike]

Translating Lotro would be a massive task...

Oh heck yeah, it would be massive. I'm just thinking of all the obscure terms and names of places this game has. Contrary to popular belief, there is no way that "Well, all you have to do is so and so, and there it is!" applies here.

Is it possible? I would say yes, but it would require a ton of work, or else it would have been done already.

 

[Slingshooter]

- there is no way that "Well, all you have to do is so and so, and there it is!" applies here.

- it would require a ton of work, or else it would have been done already.

- yes it does apply here
- it would not require a ton of work, it's just not prioritized at all. Have you ever seen any mention in a roadmap or update Q&A about localization? It's not an immediate cash grab and they need funds, so most updates are just more paid content.

 

[TaruGaming]

This is the perfect scenario for AI to do some decent translations since SSG probably don't intend to hire spanish translators anyway. Just instruct it on how it should handle names so you get Bilbo Bolsón and not Baggins, for instance.

This is a BIG BAD IDEA. We cannot demand respect for our language and, at the same time, let a machine do the job poorly, denigrating our language with terrible vocabulary and incoherent phrases. Absolutely NOT.

 

[maartena]

I really don't mind people speaking other languages..... I just know that that message isn't targeted to me, and I can just ignore it.

But.... I think they should keep the official language in-game channels to the three currently supported languages.

People can join/create up to 8 custom chat channels, and anyone who wants to speak Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Greek, Polish, Italian or Pig Latin can just create such a channel and spread the word. You can also all create kinships using any language and recruit people. This already happens on servers like Evernight and Laurelin, where people have created custom channels for all sorts of languages or regions. I know there is a portuguese channel on Arkenstone as for some reason there are a large enough group of Brazilians there.

So, keep official support to English, French and German.
All other languages: Create a custom channel for your language and spread the word.

 

[TaruGaming]

All other languages: Create a custom channel for your language and spread the word.

That's the problem, the rest of the users/languages don't have the ability to "spread the word" due to lack of support. We can't ask each user for their ID card to know which channel to add them to. Hence the request to take into account Spanish (in our case) or other languages with a large population. If we cannot recruit in our language on the World channel because it bothers the rest, it helps even less, because not everyone knows English. It would be a bit absurd to recruit Spaniards in English (a language they do not know) when we do it so that they can communicate with their colleagues. Nobody has asked to allow people to speak another language on World, just to have a specific channel for our language so as NOT to bother the rest. If you want to join the official channel, that's fine, if you don't, there's your World channel.

 

[Dar]

I would like to add to the above that not everyone knows the command to join custom user chat. Moreover, the player may not fully know the exact name of the channel he is looking for. All this information needs to be distributed somewhere and somehow. The easiest way is for volunteers to write a message every day in the general World chat like "hey look, we have a Spanish/Russian/Chinese channel here, you can join using this command"... Who will do this?... no one.
And the presence of default World channels with a language mark in the filter will greatly simplify navigation for any new/old player.

 

[Dar]

Since the SSG stopped moderating in-game chats, I don't see any problem at all in spending a minute and adding a few world channels to a line of code. Let people communicate there. It's so convenient!

 

[maartena]

That's the problem, the rest of the users/languages don't have the ability to "spread the word" due to lack of support.

Of course you have. You can just use the regular /world channels to advertise the channel. People get into Discords by word of mouth as well, and I am not talking the official Discord. There is no language restriction to /world, and I doubt many people will be upset by a channel information message in Spanish or another language, or advertisement for a kinship in Spanish.

My concern is "how far do we go?".

Spanish is likely the fourth or fifth language of players after English, French and German.... but where do we end? 4th language? 5th language? 6th? 9th? 15th? How many world channels should there be? SSG has to draw some sort of line. They of course can easily do the math by counting up the countries where people connect from, but what is a good line?

And what if it turns out that for some reason..... Spanish actually IS NOT the fourth nor fifth language, but it is something like Dutch and Russian? The Netherlands is a smaller country but has a LOT of players and even quite a few Dutch kins, there is even one on Arkenstone on the US side! Russian we all know about, they moved a whole Russian server into Brandywine, and subsequently a lot of those moved to Arkenstone as well.

Point is..... SOME language speakers are going to get upset that THEY didn't get their official channel. And that is why I would say implement three different world channels for the three officially supported languages, and the other 7000 languages in the world..... can make their own channels and spread the word.

 

[Bone]

Point is..... SOME language speakers are going to get upset that THEY didn't get their official channel. And that is why I would say implement three different world channels for the three officially supported languages, and the other 7000 languages in the world..... can make their own channels and spread the word.

I’m offended by LOTRO not having a channel to speak Klingon.

 

[scamina]

I read some posts and it surprises me a lot. What's the problem with adding a few chat channels? What's the problem with players being able to communicate in their native language without disturbing anyone else? but the worst of all... is it so difficult to add a damn channel on the discord called spanish? What do we get from the developer? silence, silence, a lot of silence.

 

[Digitalhype]

I read some posts and it surprises me a lot. What's the problem with adding a few chat channels? What's the problem with players being able to communicate in their native language without disturbing anyone else? but the worst of all... is it so difficult to add a damn channel on the discord called spanish? What do we get from the developer? silence, silence, a lot of silence.

I suspect it could be about enforcing the CoC (Code of Conduct). While they don't actively moderate in-game, they do investigate logs based on user reports. They might not have people on-staff or under contract who are fluent in those languages and able to effectively review. There could be legal implications for this that prevent using translation software.

 

[zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz]

There's no excuse for not adding Spanish, especially to the "official" Discord. I've requested it multiple times and it still isn't an option. Excluding an entire community of Spanish speaking players is abhorrent.

 

[maartena]

There's no excuse for not adding Spanish, especially to the "official" Discord. I've requested it multiple times and it still isn't an option. Excluding an entire community of Spanish speaking players is abhorrent.

Nobody is excluding you. You knew 18 years ago (or whenever you started playing this game) that there were some languages supported, and Spanish wasn't one of them. If you had found that "abhorrent" then, you would not have even started playing.

Anyways, @Cordovan gave the answer today in his +Cord of the Rings stream: It is not going to happen.

Feel free to start your own Spanish speaking Discord though, and spread the word about it.

 

[zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz]

Nobody is excluding you. You knew 18 years ago (or whenever you started playing this game) that there were some languages supported, and Spanish wasn't one of them. If you had found that "abhorrent" then, you would not have even started playing.

Anyways, @Cordovan gave the answer today in his +Cord of the Rings stream: It is not going to happen.

Feel free to start your own Spanish speaking Discord though, and spread the word about it.

Ya, I'm not surprised they won't add it, just disappointed. Adding a Discord channel to support the large diverse community is such an easy ask. Afterall, they can't add it to the in-game store, which is all they care about anymore. Hopefully the Amazon LOTR MMO finally puts this game to rest. We haven't had developers who care since Turbine was around.

 

[maartena]

Hopefully the Amazon LOTR MMO finally puts this game to rest.

It won't. But in the mean time, if this is how you feel about LOTRO, why are you still playing, and why would you even want to talk about a game in Spanish that you want "to be put to rest" by another company?

If that is how you feel, why even bother joining the Discord? Or is this simply a "I didn't get my way, and therefore I want you to rot" type comment?

 

[maartena]

I read some posts and it surprises me a lot. What's the problem with adding a few chat channels? What's the problem with players being able to communicate in their native language without disturbing anyone else? but the worst of all... is it so difficult to add a damn channel on the discord called spanish? What do we get from the developer? silence, silence, a lot of silence.

I don't think anyone has a problem that people communicate in their own language. Language channels already exist on various servers, kinships dedicated to a language exist on almost ALL servers, and there are plenty of Discords out there that cater to certain languages.

No one is preventing you to setup a Spanish LOTRO Discord Server, and I am pretty sure @Cordovan will NOT mind if you advertise said Discord in the official one so people can find it.

The reason that they won't add it to the official discord is likely because they do not have any way to moderate it, and as the owner of the Discord they want to insure that certain rules are in place.

Without knowing what is said, it could cause things like "why is talking about bans and buying gold allowed in the Spanish channel, but not allowed in the English one?" - Well..... it is obviously not allowed in ANY of the channels, but without moderation in that language they just don't know what is going on. That is why they likely aren't allowing it.

And if you add ONE language..... the next set of languages that are well spoken will want their own channel as well, and before you know it Cordovan will have lost control of the official Discord.

It takes five minutes to setup a Discord these days (at least the start of one), so if anyone wants to setup a Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch or Polish one..... they can do so, and invite all their countrymen and/or region folks into it.

People are butthurt about something like this so easily, when the solution is also easy: Do it yourself.