Region and language tags (Page 1 of 2)

(E) is Europe, since... well forever. And yes, we continental Europeans had to have our games in English only for most of videogame history, how is that strange? Those English only titles were available in shops all around  Europe. Back when companies didn't have the habit of translating games, English was chosen as the only language simply because eveyone knew a word or two of English, not because the games were destined to England only.

Finally, since when hasn't England been a part of Europe? If you are English and think you're in a continent of its own, you might want to check the opinion of the rest of the world   (no offense)

Still not right because the English version was the one  exported to no-main-language countries.

Countries like Greece, Scandinavia, Holland, Central Europe east of Germany, Baltic region, etc, got the English release, which was simply considered the generic "PAL" release. It's an "European" release from every angle you want to see the issue from.

Unless recent systems have games translated in EVERY European language.

If some dump was released in UK only, it would deserve its own flag, but then what version was released in Estonia? In Hungary? In Bulgaria? Sure those countries got an English release, and if not the UK one, what then?

I don't think any company created an English release specific to non-UK, rest-of-Europe small countries. Bulgarian kids probably got plain ol' UK release, just like we Italian, French, Spanish, German kids got back in 1991.

From my point of view, No-intro has its ups and downs. I think we need to keep no-intro's convention and take it one step further. For example psx dumps (which I'm especially interested in) need the serial info, as many people base their research of psx releases/history to it. Because you cannot really tell which disc the dump comes from until you know its serial - no other info is so indicative

There's no way in hell English-only PAL games should be treated as anything else than "Europe", since they're the generic PAL release, unless there's any proven case that that specific dump, with those specific CRCs, was released only in UK and not in those other European countries which didn't get their own translation. The publishing companies officially released English-only games in those countries, it's not that the retailers independently imported those games directly from the UK It was the same for us Italian, French, Spanish, German people until very few years ago.

The (E) flag has ALWAYS stood for (Europe), not English, since Cowering acne days. Who did really believe the (E) stood for (England)?

The region naming reflects the actual, physical distribution. It has nothing to do with consistency or mixed labelling.

Once all PAL releases were English-only, because the whole PAL region were identified with English language, for simplicity and because there were simply not enough money to invest in translating in-game text. The copies of a game sold in each European country were too few to guarantee the return home of the money. Then some markets (read: 40+ million people markets) became large enough to make market specific releases profitable.

But the initial generic PAL release concept did't retire, because outside those 4-5 large markets distribution is still organized the same old way. If an English-only dump has been marketed in England, yes, but in Holland, Finland, Norway, Estonia, Greece, Serbia, Hungary, Poland etc etc etc too, why we should consider it anything else than "Europe", despite what we call consistency? The only consistency we have to adhere to is consistency to correctness, nothing else.

Multilingual games contains only 5-6 languages out of more than 20 European languages too, yet they're destined to the whole of Europe.

I don't get your example because while a German release is technically "European", but de-facto limited to Germany and Austria, given the language barrier, the English release has always been the multicultural one, valid for the whole PAL region, not tied with a specific national territory.

If its down to physical distribution, why list the language at all?

Listing as "Game (Continent) (Languages)" gives both physical distribution, consistency, and higher searching capabilities (when searching through files). It gives more information..

In addition, if for example, we have a German release, this is as likely as the Europe-English release to be distrubuted in German speaking countries, such as Belgium (or where-ever German is spoken also), this makes the German game, European aswell. So really that should be labelled Europe, not German

Even so, labelling Continent and Languages for every release, is more accurate surely? Can you give me a case in which it isn't?

Wrong, because usually an English-only game is OFFICIALLY distributed by the publisher in every country that isn't France, Spain, Italy and Germany, while the French one is OFFICIALLY sold only in France. Retailers don't even come into play.

Why do you say that labelling a game (En) shows it was primarily an England release? English has always been the primary language of videogames, since Pong, Space Invaders was English-only for all the planet basically. They're not books where language define perfectly the region where it's meant to be read. (En) has come to mean generic PAL through multiple release on multiple systems year after year: 80% of Europe received English-only titles for the past 25 years.

Adding that extra confirmation makes it alot more clear, even though (Europe) on its own would define it as an English only game, distrubuted to the remained of Europe, adding the English language confirms it. I think treating the labelling for each game would be seen as more politically correct, and maybe a little more clear for those unfamiliar with region tags.

Would it not be better to discuss any changes while a chnage has been recently made, and will have less of an effect than a years down the line?

(Europe) (Fr) i feel is alot more efficent for problem games such as those you've listed, as it is not singled out as a French distrubuted game only, however, it is clear thats where it was primarily distrubuted