Does Telltale even WANT to sell to non US customers?
Seriously, fix those DAMN things!
1 Allow key rebindings, moving the character with wasd is totally unplayable on a non-qwerty keyboard, push that idea deeply into your skulls! It's not complicated, even just allow fiddling in a text file would be a start, let alone a decent "controls" screen in the options.
2 Move your asses to make subtitles in other languages than english on release day, you took a year to do that for TWD and it's not even as good as the fan version.
Because of 1, I feel I got robbed of my money because I know that a friend of mine to who I bought TWD cannot play it because it's a pain in the ass to control.
So in the meantime, I will rob YOU your money, Telltale. Episode 1 of TWAU was kind of nice, despite the fact that it has all the flaws, 1/2 and technical, your previous games had.
Not putting a cent in your company until you fix things, at least a bit.
Regards,
A pissed off disrespected customer
ps: don't tell me about chaning my keyboard layout or use a gamepad. 1 I am not messing my computer's configuration over this and 2 I did use a gamepad for TWD and TWAU Episode 1, because I HAD NO CHOICE! So don't even bother with those "arguments".
Comments
"So in the meantime, I will rob YOU your money,...Not putting a cent in your company until you fix things, at least a bit."
guess they have to shut down the company in a few month then. its a real ptty we wont see the end of twd2 and twau.
Respect is a TWO WAY street. And they lost it for me.
If you don't like a product or service you get to stop buying it, you don't get to "rob" it. I don't know who you think you are. If you mean simply that you'll stop buying their products, that's perfect, it's what you should do. Now, if this is the first time you bring these issues to TellTale, then I recommend changing your tone and asking nicely, it'll take you farther and I seriously doubt TellTale are out to disrespect anyone, especially their customers. They are most probably doing the best they can with the resources they have.
Those issues has been brought to them a buttload of times for the last year, all has been ignored till now. There's only so much one can take before feeling robbed of respect. They don't do it on purpose? Fine, that's not an excuse.
And yes I most certainly meant not buying their products (and probably not even going to bother using them), not that I had been a big fan of their stuff until The Walking Dead.
Other indie (and "indie") devs have made similar errors, and fixed them. Just making sure every information is available to potential buyers so that they are not dissapointed, or at least have been warned ( :P ).
I am sorry that the lack of key re-mapping and simultaneous launch of localizations is not being done for our worldwide customers.
We have not added key re-mapping support to our games because our games are not control intensive. Using the arrow keys instead of WASD and knowing which keys are for action sequences allows our games to be played comfortably without re-mapping.
We have done simultaneous localizations in the past, and have learned that it does not work well with the pressures of timely releases for episodic games. Localizing the content is dependent on having the content first which means that localization will always increase the time it takes to complete an episode. If each episode's production time were increased by a week or two to support simultaneous localization, the overall delivery of a season would be delayed by 5 to 10 weeks. With most customers playing in English and wanting as fast as possible delivery of episodes, it makes sense to localize and make disc versions at the end of the season.
I played the Walking Dead with a gamepad but when you played on the keyboard, you had to move with the arrow keys and chose the dialogue with 1, 2, 3 and 4...
You were moving and had to look at the keyboard to quickly make a choice...
This is downright unplayable and a friend of mine, to whom I GIFTED the game because I liked it so much, is not playing it partly because of that.
But now that I get a clear answer, I thank you and conclude. You lose at least a customer for any of your future titles, and bad publicity. Not going to recommend buying any Telltale games to anyone now.
Too bad, your latest one (TWD and TWAU) were quite more interesting than the others (TTMI etc...).
Bah...
ps: just played some Outlast tonight (just 20 minutes cos I shat myself quite early) and I was (pleasantly) surprised that they have several localization. It's not that hard for every indie devs I guess. And it's their first game too (from the studio itself that is).
Why is it such a big deal to use a key mapping program? You claim it's not a valid solution, but you are clearly reaching. There are free solutions, such as KeyTweak, which are quick, easy, and work for everything you ever want to use instead of relying on each game to have the right options. You can argue against things like invasive DRM other companies use and I would agree (something you don't want being forcibly added and no way to disable), but being upset over a company not including an extra feature you want is ridiculous. You had to get an operating system to play it, and a computer too, and then directx on top of that... would it have made you happier if they included an installer for KeyTweak and a silent script to activate it while the game is running and in focus? You realize the game is most likely using directinput to "steal your key presses," so why doesn't that upset you too?
Bottom line is that when a "problem" exists in a game which is easily fixable by the user, then its not something to stop buying a game over. If a problem were something you couldn't fix, something forced on you, then I would agree with you. This is not the case here. It is your choice to not fix it. Which is going to cause you grief in the future I would imagine, every time you find a game which won't work on your keyboard layout, with your unwillingness to use any solution not hard coded into the game.
I stopped reading after a sentence...
Why SHOULD I use an external program because of a developper's shortcoming?
And don't give me the "poor indie" excuse, it's utterly invalid. Outlast allows for key rebinding AND had several languages for texts/subtitles.
There is NO excuse for Telltale, except that they are lazy, or at leas lazy in the wrong parts.
FALSE.
Phoenix Online Studios solved the episodic localization problem one year ago.
They released an episode of Cognition in english and after one month they released italian subtitles for that episode.
So in Italy we had to wait only 1 month to get the first episode in italian, so we didn't lost the episodic format at all. It's perfect beacuse it can be done easily having the content first (the episode is already out), the English customers are satisfied (they get the game asap), the foreign players too (just a month to play with their own language), and the episodic format is still present unaltered.
Why to wait 'til the season ends to start translating? Why not to start translating each episode separately after each episode release?
You can start to translate each episode the day after the release and provide multilanguage even before the next episode.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
The problem with using the arrow keys is that they are very far away from some of the other buttons you need to press very quickly during some of those "limited time window" moments, which makes it very inconvenient if you're not using a US keyboard.
I wanted to start a new thread about this, asking Telltale to please consider adding an option to remap keys for future games, but I can't seem to start new threads...
I would've prefered bumping a less "rude" thread than this one, but the next few that I've found pretty much have the same tone. =/
).
Anyway, I hope you guys will reconsider the issue at some point - because using the arrow keys for a game that is meant to be used with WASD configuration isn't very "comfortable", especially when you need to use the Q & E buttons during some very limited time windows, and you're also using a mouse (I seem to be lacking the necessary third arm to make this a smooth process
Someone mentioned using third party programs to remap the keys, but I hate using third party programs - and compromising the security of my various accounts in the process - and if I have to choose between buying games from a company that forces me to take these risks in order to play their games and one that doesn't... well...
You wrote "I stopped reading after a sentence..." and then go on to write "...There is NO excuse for Telltale, except that they are lazy..."
I think that says just about everything.
There is nothing wrong with asking the developers to include features you would like in a patch/update or future game, but the way you have done it is the problem. You are disappointed the game doesn't meet the needs of players in a specific market, and you want them to reach your market (even though you were able to play it yourself, but you are altruistically considering your countrymen, which is admirable). You can convey this sentiment without condemning the company or issuing a call to arms to boycott the game to those whom are able to play it. You could also post a heads up to people that this might be an issue for them to consider before buying. There is no need to have been aggressive about it.
On the topic of translating to localized editions, then maybe they in-fact do not have plans to localize to "non-US customers" (which I think you meant to read "non-English speaking"). Or perhaps it has to be scheduled for after meeting a certain sales milestone to meet budget concerns. I would be sad if I were affected by this as well, and ask them to localize to my language, but I certainly don't feel entitled to forcing someone to translate something for me. There are in fact books, movies, and games that I wish had translations, but I haven't called up the creators and demanded it. Hopefully they noted your concerns despite the way you conveyed them, and have either released localizations or will at some point (I don't have enough interest to look it up).
I know you aren't reading this, Zoidberg, but I still enjoyed writing it. I enjoy the sound of my own voice, even if it's just me dictating in my head as I think out what to write. I've head some people think in pictures, such as visualizing the words they are thinking as though reading them on a page; that is just crazy. I wonder if that's why is is so difficult for you to read more than a few words, because you are having to read them in your head again and get sidetracked with other things to "read" in your thoughts. That would be an interesting study. I am copyrighting that idea, actually. I think I will write a story involving it, but only in English.
I'm sorry if I look so "rude" in that thread but I've been asking this for quite sometime and only recently got an answer from TT staff, something along the lines of "deal with it".
So, yeah, that's what they think of their clientele... nothing to add really. If you DO have to play the game wait for a severe cut and buy on steam, that's all you can do really... apart from not buying/playing it.
:P
On the subject itself, I was only agressive because I have been pushed that way by circumstances, mainly the tital lack of respect from tt towards "specific markets".
People ARE entitled to things if the studio bothers selling their (broken) game in such markets. That's all there is to it. The missing feature should just be clearly advertised...
And don't tell me they don't have the money to do things better, twd S1 was a success...
Mate, you just made me register to answer to your, well, let's call it by what it is, purely "rage".
I myself am not a US customer, I live in Poland and well, we have qwerty keyboard, like most of the EU countries, but there's something I have to get out of my head about the translation.
We're living in XXI century, English is most likely the language that you learn as foreign one since you are like 4-6 years old.Language used in TellTales games isn't scientific, technical nor it is hard.After all, it's not a book, it's a game, even if you don't understand few words, you can pretty much always figure it out of the context/gameplay.
Translations aren't that great to be honest, even if they do a great job translating, for me it ruins the mood, maybe it is because I don't have to translate everything I read/hear in my head to my native language, I just understand it, you aren't as focused on the game as you'd be if you understood everything perfectly in English.
There's one other thing, would you rather wait month more for each episode/4-5 months for whole season and have it translated, or go along with the hype and play it ASAP ? It's obvious to me.
Translations are also expensive if done properly and time consuming, which most of the developers that don't have millions in their budget, simply can't afford.They are already making a beautiful, polished game in 1 year, trying to live up to our expectations - is the translation really worth the time and money ? It's not like they are going to cry over few hundreds of pissed off people because of some BS, when there's hundreds of thousands happy customers.
I hope you'll change your mind, because TTG makes amazing games, ones that make you laugh/happy/sad/shocked and cry.It's an emotion train once you get hooked into the game.Sorry if this message somehow offended you, I mean no harm buddy.
I think the disrespected guy was asking for subtitles, not translations.
I would love spanish subtitles in every TWD game
So much complaining without even thinking. Change your language settings of your keyboard and that's fixed.
Next time try to have a little respect, there's always an answer.
In my xbox 360 and change the region and do not leave Spanish subtitles, I feel cheated out of it and buy the season pass.
I have a pretty good grasp of the english language (if it has been possible I'd play every game I play, watch every series/movies I watch, read every book I read, in the original language and I would understand it perfectly, but let's face it - it is NOT possible) and I have played through season 1 in english, and with a gamepad (very annoying way to play their games to be honest, it's really badly thought out to be honest).
But as I'm not a total moronic egoistical prick, yes, I do understand how certain people deliberately feel left out. And NO, not everyone learns english as their second language (I'm from Belgium btw). And it is indeed a shame that TTG doesn't look the least bit concerned by that issue. I recently played Outlast, developped by a team of mainly french developpers, the game has voicing in english BUT subtitles in like 5 or 6 languages. True, I do not think there are as many subs to translate than in a whole season of TWD but it's their first game and they did it.
TTG on the other hand has had a pretty good success with their TWD series and they don't bother fixing simple things about their game (no key rebinding, graphical glitches, performance), so there's that...
As yyou said, they seem to be quite happy with their existing base, while a so called "negligible" part seem to be unhappy. And they refuse to look into it. So, they won't be able to say they haven't been warned...
As for I thanks, let's say I was able to play the first episode of the new season at a friend's (the same that let me play the first of the wolf) and I have really mixed opinions, on the missing features/uncorrected bugs, but not only...
TTG has become again that unknown dev that make subpar adventure games and I doubt they'll ever see a cent from me again (or gifting their games to my friends that are unable to play because TTG is lazy), nor will I make positive publicity of their company for aforementionned reasons.
Dubbing is a whole another matter and is understandably a second thought that should come later than sooner, if at all. I only really care about original versions anyway (personally).
And don't worry, as much disrespected I was treated, I can take it. Thanks.
No. There is no issue with my keyboard, I only use one layout. This is a missing feature that has to be fixed. And it is fixed easily once they implement it in their engine.