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Next language in MTG?

Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2015 2:21 am
by Alien_Starfighter_Pilot
What do you think the next language MTG will be published in?

If you think it would a language not on the list, post a comment and I'll add it. :D

Re: Next language in MTG?

Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2015 11:26 am
by GlobalBoosterHunter
Tricky...

Not sure how many different Arabic languages there are but Islam forbids games of chance, so probably not a big market.

They speak English in Greece and Holland and most of Europe! And the Czech Republic.

Not sure how popular it is in other countries but India is big, nice market to tap into. Couple of languages though, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu etc. Once again, English is the big one.

Though it is hard enough to get all the boosters in the current languages as it is...

Re: Next language in MTG?

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 3:09 am
by l0qii
Honestly I wouldn't pick any of those on the list. I would put my money on Malay

Re: Next language in MTG?

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 5:31 pm
by Alien_Starfighter_Pilot
Malay would be interesting. I also added Thai because I think that'd look very interesting in foil!

I added most of the languages to the list based on total # of people that speak the language in the world. Hindi is the language most spoken in India, so I only added that one.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Chess originate from the Arab world? and since there are no more ante cards, I don't see how anyone could consider MTG to be any more of a game of chance than football (soccer to my fellow Americans).

Re: Next language in MTG?

Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 6:02 pm
by Neuron
Hey, I was about to post a similar poll. I think an important factor is how much Hasbro/Wizards can sell, so I would say either Hindi or Arabic, tending more to Arabic, as in India English is an official language.

Re: Next language in MTG?

Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 8:21 am
by dragsamou
Hi All

Arabic will never be printed by Hasbro/WOTC. Gaming is "Halal" or "Haram" according to the Quran. Female Illustrations can be inappropriately dressed, etc... All such things render MTG impermissible.

Re: Next language in MTG?

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 5:53 pm
by mystical_tutor
I agree with Alexis about the problems with Arabic. Plus the culture of the Arabic world does not lend itself to using the imagination thus, With it being bad just to make an image of something (anything almost). I wonder what type, if any, of "games" are played by teenage Arabs. In addition having a Magic shop in most parts of the world that language is spoken is would be downright dangerous.

I think there is a small chance for Hebrew as there is a small player base in Israel already.

IMHO there may well not even be a "next" language. English is so prevalent in those countries in which it is not printed in the local language that market results would not be large enough for the investment.

Gary

Re: Next language in MTG?

Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2015 5:34 am
by GlobalBoosterHunter
At my old school back in the 80s they were teaching us probability and one of the questions was along the lines of "What is the probability of pulling an Ace out of a deck of cards" Our lone Moslem student had to put their hand up and explain that in order to answer he needed to know how many cards in a deck and how many of them were Aces. He wasn't allowed to play with a deck of cards because it was a game of chance.

If you have 60 cards in a deck and you don't know which one is coming next then it is a game of chance.

Thinking of the cards that had to be altered to keep the Christians happy I can't imagine how many would need to be redone to keep the Moslems happy.

It would be good to get some of that Middle Eastern Oil Money into the hobby though.

Re: Next language in MTG?

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 7:43 pm
by Neuron
With the Global Series, Wizards has opened a door for printing cards in new languages:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2018-06-07

Section: A New Series

You can even tell them your favorite country.

Re: Next language in MTG?

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2018 8:35 am
by Alifromcairo
Thanks for the link Ron, I would say Hindi (huge market) or Turkish. I met many people that were into Sci-fi/fantasy related hobbies when I went to Istanbul

Re: Next language in MTG?

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2018 12:35 pm
by dragsamou
Neuron wrote:
Tue Jul 03, 2018 7:43 pm
With the Global Series, Wizards has opened a door for printing cards in new languages:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2018-06-07

Section: A New Series

You can even tell them your favorite country.
"What countries would you want us to build settings around next? Let me know!" I read that sentence not in a way of which new country/language should we try to implemented MTG in, but as out of the languages already existing what language/country already existing we should eventually set the next Global Series deck.
Alifromcairo wrote:
Thu Jul 05, 2018 8:35 am
Thanks for the link Ron, I would say Hindi (huge market) or Turkish. I met many people that were into Sci-fi/fantasy related hobbies when I went to Istanbul
Both countries will be an epic fail for different reasons. Turkish as well as other languages were already tried in 1999 and 2000 through products with the rules in the specific languages.

Re: Next language in MTG?

Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2018 5:00 pm
by Alifromcairo
Both countries will be an epic fail for different reasons. Turkish as well as other languages were already tried in 1999 and 2000 through products with the rules in the specific languages.
I did not know, thanks. In the other hand about Turkey, they tried nearly 20 years ago in a country where people were not so familiar with english language as they are now, when MTG was not as popular as it is today in a globalized world full of social networks.

According to Alexis's precious information, if anyone is owning and interested by selling this kind of product :
https://www.chaoscards.co.uk/magic-the- ... es-p134901 , or only the rule book in turkish, please feel free to PM me as I am deeply interested !

Re: Next language in MTG?

Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2018 11:40 pm
by BillBo
Alifromcairo wrote:
Thu Jul 05, 2018 8:35 am
Hindi or Turkish
Two or three years ago I played draft in Istanbul. Players told me a major hurdle were high taxes; combined with a bad exchange rate and low income this makes playing Magic prohibitively expensive, and only few can afford it. If this is true and doesn't change, then WotC has no reason to move into that market. India is admittedly huge, but English is one of the 20+ official languages and used in higher education; so people, who can afford an expensive hobby, are likely to speak English. My 2 cts …

Re: Next language in MTG?

Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2018 6:55 am
by dragsamou
Alifromcairo wrote:
Sat Jul 07, 2018 5:00 pm
Both countries will be an epic fail for different reasons. Turkish as well as other languages were already tried in 1999 and 2000 through products with the rules in the specific languages.
I did not know, thanks. In the other hand about Turkey, they tried nearly 20 years ago in a country where people were not so familiar with english language as they are now, when MTG was not as popular as it is today in a globalized world full of social networks.

According to Alexis's precious information, if anyone is owning and interested by selling this kind of product :
https://www.chaoscards.co.uk/magic-the- ... es-p134901 , or only the rule book in turkish, please feel free to PM me as I am deeply interested !
Hi

Don't know if you saw that thread, it might interest you:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10059

Re: Next language in MTG?

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2018 4:59 pm
by Alifromcairo
Players told me a major hurdle were high taxes; combined with a bad exchange rate and low income this makes playing Magic prohibitively expensive, and only few can afford it
This is true. And the current situation about their currency is not going to be better soon, trust me...
Don't know if you saw that thread, it might interest you:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10059
Thank you Alexis. As you said in 2006 that the Starter 2000 was a "true rarity", I guess it should be even more difficult to find it these days. I'll chase it anyway !