Forums: Non-Aethora Chat

Looks like some of you at least write if not speak German. Was just wondering if you’ve had a chance to play the full version Drakensang or Gothic 4 yet and what do you think if you did?

I just finished replaying Gothic 3 a few weeks back and have been using the Drakensang English demo to kill time while waiting for my characters to heal (well at least a few days ago – my characters rarely leave battle hurt anymore – even deep in the Plateney…).

I’m looking forward to both, but don’t speak German – had a couple years in high school but that was a looong time ago… Ich vergesse alle mein Deutsche (bad spelling I’m sure :) )

I do not only write and speak German (as well as understand it written and spoken) – I even think German, most of the time… mostly because it’s my native tongue. I fear that I’ll have to disappoint you, though. My computer is rather old, so most very new games don’t run all that well, so I’ve not followed the games market in a while, with few exceptions.
As far as I know – I may be wrong, but still – Gothic 4 isn’t out yet in German, and Drakensang… uh, I could ask a good friend what she thinks/thought about it.

Her review sounds as follows (rough translation, massively abbreviated and simplified):
“Graphics and Atmosphere are great, storyline is very good. It’s well-paced and the stuff you have to do “feels” urgent. She attributes this to the fact that true “The Dark Eye” writers have written stuff for the game. Difficulty is variable – some stuff is very easy, some stuff is very hard, and it’s very advisable to have a well-mixed group. Knowledge of The Dark Eye can come in handy, but isn’t necessarily required. The “other” group members you can pick and take with you are rather flat/2-Dimensional characters, unlike, for example, in Neverwinter Nights 2. They seem to have some fitting phrases they say while on adventure, and there are a lot of them to select from, though. It had some bugs in the beginning, but it has been patched a couple of times already and seems to be stable so far. Only parts of the dialogs/talks are actually in audio, some of it is text-only, even in the German full version.
The storyline is a bit short, though, but supposedly laden with references to the other three The Dark Eye games, as well as to Terry Pratchetts Discworld and a lot of other fantasy stuff. Knowledgeable people should find many good references in the game."

What’s The Dark Eye? And what other three games do you mean?
The Dark Eye, in original “Das Schwarze Auge” (literally “The Black Eye”, short DSA) is, apart from World of Darkness (Vampire, Werewolf, etc.) and Dungeons and Dragons the most successfull/popular Pen&Paper roleplaying rule framework in Germany/for German players. It was supposedly written about 13 years after D&D, when a German publisher wanted to release such a system, but the license for D&D was too expensive. It has ever since been one of the most, if not the most successful Pen&Paper rulebook system in Germany, and as much as symbol for Pen&Paper roleplaying as D&D itself.
There were three PC games released (93-97), usually called the Northland trilogy. In english, they are named “Realms Of Arkania”. Like Drakensang, they’re based on the “Dark Eye” rules (a bit like Neverwinter Nights is based on D&D) – another game based on it, called “Demonicon” has been announced only a short while ago.

Your spelling is alright, by the way. The meaning of your sentence requires a bit of decyphering, and the grammar is bad, but technically, all your words exist, exactly written like that.

Cool, thanks Kranodor. Sounds similar to the English version (some of it spoken audio, most just written text dialogs). The amazon you get early on gets quite annoying with her gung ho responses to your mouse clicks to move – haven’t looked to see if I can turn that off yet…I wonder why they released the demo so early when the game isn’t slated to be released here until early February…

Yeah, my German was never very good (only took 2 years of it) and that was 25 years ago – so I’m sure I’m slaughtering what I learned quite a bit :)

Yeah, it’s quite the difference if you’re native anglophone or something else. You know, in German, the saying goes “Not macht erfinderisch” which translates roughly into “Need makes inventive”, meaning that without need or necessity, few things would be done, made or invented. It is said that most tribes of the native american peoples (the northern steppe peoples, especially) didn’t even have one of the most basic inventions: The Wheel (as a means of transportation, that is. They had the concept of a wheel of life, but only as a figure, not as an object). Why? They had no need for it – they lived in great plains, very lush, grassy and plain ground, so sledges did the trick.
Most of the world speaks english – at least as a secondary or tertiary language. Why should anyone bother to learn something else, except for fun, for show, or because he/she is moving to a country where this language is primary?

Interestingly, an American of German origin (technically… four or five… or more… generations ago) has written a VERY entertaining German book on some of the originalities of the German language and why he is so eager to learn it, despite already speaking english. Sadly, there is currently no english translation known of, it’s a very funny and very enlightening book. There will actually be a sequel, next year, as the first book has sold very well.