What if the game was *originally* made in another language ? A language you don't understand - would you play a game in Spanish, Russian or German languages, too ? To exprience "the original artistic work" ?
Problem is : Developers don't do works in their own languages anymore.
Gothidc was developed in English, not German, if I recall correctly. Genuine German adventure games are usually developed in English in the first place - not in their developers' language. (And, of course, teams become more and more international, too.)
How do you decide if a game still contains its "original artistic work" (or here : "original language") if it is translated into another language even during the development process ?
People able of speaking English have is so much easier. Because most of the games are made in English and then - if so - translated back into the original developers' language.
I once did something like that : I once wrote a Star Wars Fan Fiction story in English language first - and then I had to translate it back !
The greatest problem I see is with language transporting concepts. The language, I fear, at least partially defines the way of thinking that is used by speakers of this language. You can see this with certain words which just cannot be properly translated into another language. The English language has several words for ghostly appearances, for exammple : Ghost, spectre, wraith … The German language has only 1 : Geist. Meaning that German listeners/readers just won't be able to catch any subtlety carried by the different English-language words. everything's "Geist" to them - and "Geist" has other meanings as well : "Spirit", for example. "Zeitgeist" is "the spirit of the time", and "spirit" can also mean "spirit" like in alcoholic beverages, allowing a word-game which is only available to Germans.
If a game is developed in English language first by let's say German developers - and then translated back into German - if carried out well, no problem. If not - fumblement extraordinaire !
Which implies, by the way, that with a game even made in English language in the first place, one cannot be sure whether there was something lost within he translation process into the English language, too.
And those who are not capable of understanding the English language might wonder. And perhaps even receive bad replies by those who cannot understand their points of view because they've been playing the game in English language anyway.
Right on both points. Thank you.
Germans do use credit cards to some extend nowadays - but it's just not common.
What's common are direct bank transfers, or, nowadays, paying with Sparkassen-Cards.
If there was a kind of Kickstarter thing here in Germany, everyone would be required to use bank transfers. Or maybe Paypal. Much less credit cards. But mostly bank transfers.
And the international community would perhaps feel like kind of shut out because of this, except when they use IBAN.
- experience the whole problems of translations yourself …