Dear Bethesda - give us an English Syncro!

[Syrenion]

I know that this is the 100th post about the same topic, but I don't care and it's Thursday evening, very late, I'm angry and I've got nothing else to do. So I decided to adress you, Bethesda - although I'm sure you won't listen.

Dear Bethesda,

First of all: I'm okay with not seeing any Nazi symbols. I'd even be ok with the game not referencing Nazis at all in the dialogue. Granted, it makes absolutely no bloody sense to omit the fact that indeed, it's Nazis you're shooting here when the whole thing is taking place in Germany. Apart from that: every idiot knows it's Nazis - because you can actually buy the International / European / Whatever (PS4) version in which you shoot/stab/stomp/etc. Nazis, or watch the English trailer in which it's about Nazi Germany or just ask any friend from another country you've got on steam or just read one of the dozens of articles about the next installment in a series that's all about SHOOTING NAZIS WITH MYSTICAL SUPER POWERS.

My point here is: there's absolutely no sense in changing the dialogue in such a way that anything one could associate with the word "Nazi" is cut from it, because a) everybody knows it's Nazis (Regime.... hmmm what could it be? It takes place in Germany, around the 1940s... hmmm... certainly not Nazis) and b) German law ONLY requires you to remove the swastika (and some other minor symbols) - a simple proof for this fact is the existence of Sniper Elite V2 in my game library (I live in Germany): (although a crappy game) it very clearly references Nazis and the only difference between the English and the Germany approved version is the fact that the latter has no swastikas (which is a completely fine compromise).

So there we go - we have a horrible giblets-simulator called Sniper Elite with a perfect compromise version for Germany, and we have a perfect shooter called Wolfenstein: New Order with a horrible trash version for Germany.

Again, I would be totally OK with my German version only having fantasy symbols instead of swastikas and yeah, if it makes you feel safe remove those corpses in the KZ scene (although again, thanks to very thorough history lessons everbody in Germany knows what happened there and removing those corpses is kind of silly - there are by far more shocking pictures / photos taken by actual witnesses). And, as stated before, I would also be ok with you removing any reference to Nazi Germany at all. I can even understand that: you are afraid of the German USK rating system and justifiably so. They are ♥♥♥♥♥. And Videogames haven't reached the status "art" in Germany yet. So yeah, I can totally see that, in order to not miss out on a significant number of sales, you would want a totally safe version to hopefully pass the world's most annoying rating system (although I guess Australia and other countries have similarly idiotic censoring systems).

HOWEVER, what is totally unacceptable, is locking us into a German language version. I can't describe how incredibly stupid that is. To begin with, every German kid has English in school and therefore is able to speak it to some degree. Then there are thousands of people here who love playing the original version, as much as we love seeing movies in their original language. As a matter of fact, I learned English by playing video games - how awesome is that? Learning while not feeling like learning. This is one of THE arguments FOR the importance of video games. Why on earth would you take that possibilty from us? Oh I know - the answer to this, and the question "Why can't we have nice things?", as always, is: because of money!

Let's break it down here, shall we? So, you had two text versions of the game: one for the original version and one for the censored version without references to Nazi Germany (it's really nothing else - it's freaking censoreship!). Fair enough - so far so good. However, why the heck did you not just use the same English (speaking) voice actors to record specific lines in two English versions - how much more would that have cost you? You then would have had to just translate the whole thing into German subtitles and everyone would have been happy. After all, Dark Souls does this very thing and it's popular as hell. No one would NOT buy the game just because there is no German voice over. Now here comes the thing I really don't get: hiring an entire studio just to get a German voice over is infinitely more expensive than just having the original voice actors record a few more lines. What's more: most of the people agree that the German voice over of almost any game or movie is by far inferior to the original version (which is true for almost anything which has a original version and a localised version, no matter what languages). And even more: as is testified by a lot people here on the forums, you lose a lot of customers by excluding the "original" language version. It was a dumb thing to do no matter how you look at it.

Lastly I would like to explain to you why we would love to have the original language version:

Firstly, language is atmosphere building like architecture, colour, clothes, music, animation etc. etc. By giving us an American / multinational / multi-ethnic team of Nazi killers with German language you break the immersion so bad I struggle to find words for describing the badness of it. It's incredibly dumb - especially in a war scenario: who would be so stupid as to use the language of the enemey side to discuss war tactics or other vital information?

Secondly, especially as a German native speaker with excellent knowledge of the English language, there's hardly anyhting more interesting to watch or play than a game or movie about Americans / British fighting the German Nazis. It's so freakin awesome if you speak both languages and understand both sides, while both sides in the scenario in most cases don't really understand each other. "Ich ergebe mich, nicht schießen!" might sound like "F*ck you, now you're dead!" to the English speaker while, as a matter of fact, it's almost the exact opposite. This adds an additional layer of depth and complexity to the whole situation that you can hardly achieve with any other means. That's why for me, a series like "Band of Brothers" or the film "Private Ryan" is brillantly fascinating because I have an insight the characters in the respective medium don't have.

Thirdly (and this ties back a bit to paragraph "firstly"), I associate German with German culture, German people, German everyday life. If I hear "dann haben wir das Regime bei den Eiern" in your fabulous German version I automatically associate some very ordinary people in an ordinary everyday situation discussing something mundane and boring. Because "bei den Eiern haben" is so boringly everyday and typical for GERMAN (not English!) coloquial everyday conversation, that it simply doesn't belong into the mouth of a Non-German character, who, lore-wise, would really not want to be (and in fact, simply ISN'T) an everyday German person in the scenario the game portrays. No matter how accurately you try to translate, there's always a lot of meaning getting lost and a lot of phrases or words can't be translated. That's why the word "Schadenfreude" has been imported into English, for example. There is no usable English equivalent to it.

To conclude, I would like to say this: Language is incredibly important. Language matters. I would have loved to play this game since judging from all the reviews it's an excellent shooter and there's so much fun to be had in blasting Nazis / Regime soldiers. However, your laziness has caused me to pass on this game, since I can't play it in the original language version. Because, let's face it: you were lazy! I know the German law / rating system is stupid, but there are ways around or through it (see Sniper Elite V2, Dead Space, etc.) IF ONLY YOU CARED TO TRY HARD ENOUGH! It's funny - you were concerned enough to not miss out on the German market but not concerned enough to provide us with a decent product. Well done, really.

You could have at least struck a deal with Valve to let us play the imported version on Steam, because THAT'S PERFECTLY LEGAL! (which also reveals your laziness - you didn't even bother to properly research German law, which allows for e.g. UK versions to be imported but not re-sold) Especially since it easily works with the PS4 version, for example. That's doulbe standards. And I'm not going to buy a shooter for a console that doesn't support mouse and keyboard to play said game. Because that's even dumber. Playing shooters with a controller... you've got to be kidding me.

So, please, give us a solution to this mess. You'll have a lot more customers and happy fans for it!

Regards,

Syrenion, a could-be-customer.

PS: And complain all you want about me making just another thread about the same topic: this is how you change things! By not shutting up until something happens!

[DviceT5]

Dear user thx for your try but we from BADhesda "really" dont care about our german customers.
Have fun with your Bratwurst Edition with Kindergarden flags symbolic and have a happy Christmas.

[darkii]

Damn, I really was looking forward to playing, tried to change the language - but this post robbed me of all my illusions....
Also, Syrenion, I couldn't agree more, I won't be playing it because I know that I'd be disgusted by the german voice-over.
It's just so wrong, mainly, as you pointed out, because of the problems with translating stuff, either you manage to keep the meaning of a sentence or phrase or it's translated litteraly.
Either way, people that can only get their hands on the translation, loose...
Sad thing I already wasted money by buying it, but at least I learned my lession.

[Volkira]

As a native English speaker living in Germany you cut your own throat by not allowing me any possibility to buy your game.
Instead another developer got my money.One that doesn't discriminate against me.
That's right you have discriminated against anyone that isn't a native German speaker living in Germany by not providing alternate languages as most games have since the 1980's.

Remember the EU has strict laws against discriminating against minority groups.I as a non German I am being discriminated against by your lack of understanding that Europe has no borders and many non nationals live and work in Germany.

[kii from hell]

Glad that you took the time to write that down - I'll second all of it.
And yes, somebody needs to think of all the native english speakers in germany. The age of digital distribution should make it easier, not harder, to obtain your preferred langauge.

[Kissaki]

Yeah, these publisher release policies are utter ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
To the publisher, it means more work with no improvement. For customers, it means misinformation, missing features, annoyance - sometimes not being able to play - and in the end, not buying.

I definitely will not buy a game I can not play in English.
And I also will not buy games that got content removed.

[Syrenion]

Originally posted by Volkira:

As a native English speaker living in Germany you cut your own throat by not allowing me any possibility to buy your game.
Instead another developer got my money.One that doesn't discriminate against me.
That's right you have discriminated against anyone that isn't a native German speaker living in Germany by not providing alternate languages as most games have since the 1980's.

Remember the EU has strict laws against discriminating against minority groups.I as a non German I am being discriminated against by your lack of understanding that Europe has no borders and many non nationals live and work in Germany.

Man, I really didn't think of that, too. Thanks for adding this! :)

[.mcalien]

I wrote several mails to Bethesda, telling them that I am a long term customer and fan, owned almost all their games (which is true, I even have some Icehockey Simulator for the Amiga 500), but that I will not buy W:TNO and why that is. I have told them that I understand the problem with the symbols in Germany, but that I can't understand why the synchro needed to be german only and have asked why they need to do that.

And I never even got a generic copy/paste email as answer. Bethesda just don't give a crap. They really don't.

[Mr. Edel]

I got in a fight on twitter with that marketing puppet. The answer was: "Nobody wants to go to jail because of that"

Blahblahblah I even told him I don't care about swastikas but he wouldn't listen... :(

[FancyShwanzy]

is it really that hard to understand its legal to import any game sold in eu and play it in germany?
Bethesda, check the law, grow a pair and let us activate and play the uncut version! No one is going to jail, you get our money, we get our non-crippled game experience, everyones happy...