Steam's language priority for interface and subtitles should be improved!

[Dino-Killer 912]

I use the Chinese language as an example to explain this:

When a game supports Chinese subtitles but does not support the Chinese interface, it will be recognised by Steam as "this product does not have support for your local language" and a bold warning will be displayed in red on its store page. For example, this game does support Chinese subtitles (actually translated most text including dialogue captions, mission instructions and prop descriptions) but not support the Chinese interface (just untranslated title menu), its store page are still showing striking warning to all Chinese users. And if Chinese users select Simplified or Traditional Chinese Only when searching, then the game will not appear in their search results. But the fact is that this game basically supports Chinese language, and Chinese players are able to play without obstacles.

On the contrary, when a game only supports the Chinese interface but does not support Chinese subtitles, such as this game, it means that most of the content of this game is not localized. However, in this case, the store neither recognise it as "no support for your local language" nor show the red warning, why? Isn't it unfortunately reversed? It will likely cause (and it has caused) some Chinese users to find out that the game localizes only the title menu after purchasing.

Therefore, why hasn't such an unreasonable mechanism been corrected?

[Nx Machina]

Speak to the developers of said games or any games.

The options available to a user are dependant on what the developer chooses to include or exclude.

[Dino-Killer 912]

Originally posted by Kusa:

Speak to the developers of said games or any games.

The options available to a user are dependant on what the developer chooses to include or exclude.

Surely the developers' effort would be the most important and meaningful. But since Valve is working hard on Steam's search system, I guess doing such a little favor which might help developers a lot is not something too much for Valve.

[Nx Machina]

Originally posted by Dino-Killer 912:

Originally posted by Kusa:

Speak to the developers of said games or any games.

The options available to a user are dependant on what the developer chooses to include or exclude.

Surely the developers' effort would be the most important and meaningful. But since Valve is working hard on Steam's search system, I guess doing such a little favor which might help developers a lot is not something too much for Valve.

All information on the store page for a game is from the game developer therefore Steam search system is only as good as the information provided by the developers. Why then is this a Steam issue?

[Dino-Killer 912]

Originally posted by Kusa:

All information on the store page for a game is from the game developer therefore Steam search system is only as good as the information provided by the developers. Why then is this a Steam issue?

The issue for Steam is,

Don't label a game as NOT supporting your local language when the game supports only subtitles;
or
Don't label a game as supporting your local language when the game supports only interfaces.

Is it clear?

[Nx Machina]

Originally posted by Dino-Killer 912:

Originally posted by Kusa:

All information on the store page for a game is from the game developer therefore Steam search system is only as good as the information provided by the developers. Why then is this a Steam issue?

The issue for Steam is,

Don't label a game as NOT supporting your local language when the game supports only subtitles;
or
Don't label a game as supporting your local language when the game supports only interfaces.

Is it clear?

Steam does NOT provide the information on the store pages, the developers do.

[Dino-Killer 912]

Originally posted by Kusa:

Steam does NOT provide the information on the store pages, the developers do.

Steam does, "This product does not have support for your local language". This warning automatically shows up when the interface in the given language isn't ticked and disappears when the interface is ticked. The developer can do nothing to simply control it.

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by Dino-Killer 912:

Originally posted by Kusa:

Steam does NOT provide the information on the store pages, the developers do.

Steam does, "This product does not have support for your local language". This warning automatically shows up when the interface in the given language isn't ticked and disappears when the interface is ticked. The developer can do nothing to simply control it.

And it's the developers the ones telling Steam That product does not have support for your local language.

[RiO]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Originally posted by Dino-Killer 912:

Steam does, "This product does not have support for your local language". This warning automatically shows up when the interface in the given language isn't ticked and disappears when the interface is ticked. The developer can do nothing to simply control it.

And it's the developers the ones telling Steam That product does not have support for your local language.

I think their argument is that Steam is prioritizing the wrong data point to illustrate that a title does or does not support a local language.

Steam is prioritizing the interface language over the subtitle language, which is technically correct - at least at face value. But for many titles that are story heavy, like RPGs or visual novels, this is not the case. For those it is managable to have an interface language that only requires a basic to modest grasp on the English language. But having to read all the dialogue; as well as understand the cultural idioms? That's a different thing altogether.

And that's where the available subtitle languages become much more important.

[Nx Machina]

Which is on the developers to support or not different languages, subtitles etc within the game itself and on the storefront page when advertising a game for potential purchasers.

[RiO]

Originally posted by Kusa:

Which is on the developers to support or not different languages, subtitles etc within the game itself and on the storefront page when advertising a game for potential purchasers.

Read again. Closely.

It looks like the point this user is making is that Valve is showing a special banner "This product does not have support for your local language" -- which is controlled by Steam and not the developer or publisher -- and Valve is basing the decision to show that banner on the languages (not) marked in the "user interface language" category, whereas the "subtitle language" category is more appropriate.

[Nx Machina]

Originally posted by RiO:

Originally posted by Kusa:

Which is on the developers to support or not different languages, subtitles etc within the game itself and on the storefront page when advertising a game for potential purchasers.

Read again. Closely.

It looks like the point this user is making is that Valve is showing a special banner "This product does not have support for your local language" -- which is controlled by Steam and not the developer or publisher -- and is basing that on the languages marked in the "user interface language" category, whereas "subtitle language" is more appropriate.

I do not need to read again. I already answered the OP.

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by RiO:

Originally posted by Kusa:

Which is on the developers to support or not different languages, subtitles etc within the game itself and on the storefront page when advertising a game for potential purchasers.

Read again. Closely.

It looks like the point this user is making is that Valve is showing a special banner "This product does not have support for your local language" -- which is controlled by Steam and not the developer or publisher -- and Valve is basing the decision to show that banner on the languages (not) marked in the "user interface language" category, whereas the "subtitle language" category is more appropriate.

And prioritising the other way around would only bring us to square one but with a different question.

[RiO]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Originally posted by RiO:

Read again. Closely.

It looks like the point this user is making is that Valve is showing a special banner "This product does not have support for your local language" -- which is controlled by Steam and not the developer or publisher -- and Valve is basing the decision to show that banner on the languages (not) marked in the "user interface language" category, whereas the "subtitle language" category is more appropriate.

And prioritising the other way around would only bring us to square one but with a different question.

I'm not contesting that. Either has its problems, really.

Maybe the solution there is to let a publisher/developer decide which is the priority?
Or if automated choice is the way to go; somehow use the genre?

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by RiO:

Or if automated choice is the way to go; somehow use the genre?

It wouldn't really solve it, as devs are bound to make the wrong choice fir someone either way.

The choice should probably fall on the user side.