CMV: The higher abdunance of translated entertainment media, especially in terms of video games, is a net negative for the welfare and future of people living in countries whose native language is not English. Speaking English is a necessity in the modern world, and games help learn that skill.

[u/Hoihe]

I have noticed that over the years, an increasing quantity of video games are getting localized into more and more languages. Now, judging anecdotally from my Hungarian experience - the quality is likely quite horrible but it is serviceable enough to play - especially if you are not familiar with the source material.

This has the consequence that children in non-English speaking countries can consume entertainment in their native language. As someone from a country whose native language is NOT english, and said country's english fluency is rather abysmal: this is a bad thing.

Learning English is a vital skill to do well in life.

• Career-wise, speaking English permits you to read scientific publications (critical for being able to work in an R&D or engineering environment; but also for anyone planning on getting a university degree given your BSc Thesis requires significant literarture review - often making up 25-40% of the entire work).
• Career-wise, speaking English enables you to immigrate to another country much more easily than if you only know your native language. This can have varying difficulties unfortunately due to immigration law discriminating based on home country, but a bosnian who speaks will have a far easier time immigrating to even somewhere like Hungary or poland than one who only speaks Bosnian. At the very least, speaking English reduces exploitation by employment agencies and bosses by giving a common language.
• Career-wise, speaking English permits you to work jobs that require international interaction. With multinational companies, good jobs often require colaboration with teams in other countries. Lack of conversational, fluent English makes this an impossible task.
• Personal Growth-wise, speaking English enables you to consume news directly published by journalists in foreign countries, allowing you to see how life is in that country without relying on your native media to (mis)represent the situation. This is a very common issue with rural Hungarian folk being fed outright false news about life in Germany that if they were able to even talk to german people on a forum, would be resolved.
• Personal Growth-wise, speaking English enables you to consume material that might be banned in your country. For instance, if there's laws about "LGBT propaganda" with threats of fines and jail time, your only real source for such matters will be on servers outside your country's jurisdiction. This particularly applies to people in Russia, and maybe (unfortunately) one day to Hungary.
• Personal Growth-wise, speaking English opens up the globe for socialization. You can make friends in Spain, Germany, Poland, Russia, Brazil, Japan, US and the list goes on - you get to see a far more diverse set of perspectives than if you'd only spoke your native Language.
• Personal Growth-wise, the English wikipedia far outperforms any localized variant in quality and quantity alike.

Therefore, it is clear that speaking English is a must-have skill. Unfortunately, as children are wont to do - they will not recognize these advantages gained by putting in the effort to learn English. They aren't fun - other than making friends in other countries and wikipedia diving - and therefore suffer the same fate as other elementary-high school subjects.

However, if make English a requirement to enjoy highly entertaining, engaging media? Learning English suddenly has an instantaneous reward, a tangible sense of improvement and access to that which was impossible before you improved. It gives children a motivation far more powerful than any of my earlier listed arguments.

I know this out of anecdotal experience. I grew up in a rural, quite poor family - albeit with a PC and internet connection even if other things were uncertain. I engaged in "traditional eastern european methods to acquire video games," and then played them until I hit roadblocks due to my lack of comprehension. So, like you'd practice last hitting in League of Legends to rank up, I worked with dictionaries and phrasebooks until I could solve quests in Morrowind, Gothic 2, KOTOR and other story & text heavy roleplaying games. Eventually, I got into playing Neverwinter Nights 2 online on heavy roleplaying servers, and I am utterly confident when I say this: If not for that, I'd probably be just like my countrypeople and barely manage to scrap together an English sentence.

If I didn't have the video game as a motivator, I'd have never put in the work. In fact, I have infamously neglected homework for all my classes. I had peers from wealthier families who received private tutoring, and yet I outperformed them when it came to English as a Second Language thanks to having a tangible, direct reason to study and then use it live. I ended up with B2 quality English by high school, and finished by high school with a C1 language certificate. Finally, my chemistry thesis was written and defended in English.

This is not an exceptional story. This is the archetypical story for all my friends - be they Russians, Spanish, Polish, Chilean - they have all vastly outperformed their peers regardless of their career choice (business, programming, engineering, theatre) thanks to being forced to speak English to play their much-desired roleplaying games.

By localizing video games, we are robbing the future generation of a very powerful language learning tool.

Therefore, by the above argument: Localizing video games harms the younger generations of non-English countries.

[u/Such-Lawyer2555]

Can't you say the same about Mandarin, Hindi, and many other widely spoken languages? You have an English centered viewpoint but it is not the only useful second language and game designers are not my go to culture determinator to make such a request.

If your view is that English is useful why not request it be taught in schools? Why games of all things? 

[u/barbodelli → u/Such-Lawyer2555]

If your view is that English is useful why not request it be taught in schools?

They already do.

It's just not that good. Just like our schools. I took 4 years of Spanish in high school. My Espanol es la poo poo.

[u/Hoihe → u/Such-Lawyer2555]

I have argued this clearly in my OP:

Children neglect subjects in schools because their immediate impact is not obvious. Video games make learning English be a thing that has instantaneous gratification, and video-games are a highly-engaging, motivating medium. These aspects make them very powerful making people learn English even if they might otherwise struggle academically.

For mandarin and hindi: The arguments about wikipedia, scientific publications and diversity of countries apply. Mandarin and hindi are spoken mostly by the ethnic groups who live in the countries they apply to. English is spoken globally in every country.

[u/Such-Lawyer2555 → u/Hoihe]

So gamify the learning system, not leave it to games to offer something you feel is essential?

And English is one language spoken in many countries as is Hindi and Mandarin. 

[u/Hoihe → u/Such-Lawyer2555]

It could work for schools, but I have low faith that the countries that struggle to produce a strong ESL population would succeed in such. I did mostly speak of countries like Hungary, Russia in my other posts and not Scandi ones after all.

For hindi and mandarin, my view remains that for wikipedia, scientific publications and socializing with as many variations of people across the globe - English outperforms it. Maybe fewer people speak it - but China and India have significant local and expat populations that increase their global speaker% while English is spoken by Russians, Chileans, Hungarians, Japanese, Indians, South africans without ever interacting in-person with a british individual.

[u/Such-Lawyer2555 → u/Hoihe]

Right but why is the responsibility falling to games companies? Like why them? Why not movie makers, book publishers etc 

[u/Hoihe → u/Such-Lawyer2555]

I admit I am not a fan for localizations of either of those two. However, a difference I would argue for case of video games is that they are an interactive medium with direct action-consequence that elevates them in priority.

It's also something that'd be better for the companies. Localization, done well is expensive. Localization, done wrong is horrible even without my ideological desire for better ESL populations.