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FFXV in English doesn't give the option to toggle Metric Units and that's dumb

english_speakers_by_country.png


According to SIL International 942 million people in the world speak English in the world distributed mainly in the colored countries in that map. A healthy chunk of those of course come from the USA and to a much lesser extent the UK. With that in mind why oh why does FFXV automatically changes to Imperial units when playing it in English without an option for Metric?

FFXV works with Metric units. I tried toggling every other language and the meters were there for Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, Italian, French, German, and both versions of Spanish. Why not give the option to use Metric when playing in English?

I know this is not a deal breaker as I'm clearly still playing and enjoying FFXV but this kind of let's-cater-to-Americans-only mentality can get on my nerves. Of course its a great thing a Japanese developer went to the trouble of translating measurements into miles and feet for the US but there are millions of people outside of that country that are going to play this game in English who are not familiarized with a system that goes from 0.18 miles to 999 feet when running towards an objective.

I live in Mexico and english is my second language but I've been playing games in english ever since I can remember simply because games didnt reach my country translated into spanish ever. And it didnt start to become widespread until the middle of the PS3/360/Wii generation (Sony started as late as 2011's Killzone 3, for example).

I wont play a series I've been playing for decades like Final Fantasy in Spanish after decades of playing it in English because of Imperial units and, like I said, it's not a deal breaker. But it is mind boggling because Metric units are clearly in the game and I know millions in Australia, New Zeland, Canada, India, Japan, many countries in western Europe, South Africa, and even many in the UK would've preferred to play using Metric if given the option. Gran Turismo has given this option since at least GT3 on PS2. Why not FFXV in 2016 which already comes with the units for the other 8 languages?

It couldn't have been too much trouble to implement.

800px-Metric_system_adoption_map.svg.png
 

What I meant was I'll still choose to play FFXV in English even if I cant play with Metric units because its not a deal breaker and for me the advantages of playing it in English greatly outweigh the advantages of playing a FF in Spanish for the first time. But it is something I feel needs to be discussed. There are millions and millions of english speakers in the world that do not use Imperial units. The game already carries both units, why not give the option?
 

AlexBasch

Member
I disliked that in GTAV and searched the options for a change, without finding it.

Then I was like, "of course, I'm playing in a representation of AMERICA, no need for that puny ass metric units".

But then I'd get a bit distracted. I like my kilómetros por hora dammit.
 

sonto340

Member
I've never quite understood this complaint in video games.
It's not like it's actually a measurable mile to me.
The number gets smaller as I get closer to the waypoint no matter what letters symbols or nonsense is after the number.
 

Rellik

Member
Which game was it that offered Metric, Imperial and then a British option? I remember seeing it and being pleasantly surprised, since we tend to use a mix of both.
 

Markitron

Is currently staging a hunger strike outside Gearbox HQ while trying to hate them to death
As a scientist, I firmly believe people that use non-metric units belong in the 7th circle of hell. They are even worse than people who won't upgrade from Office 2003 becuase they are 'used to it'.

No I'm not re-sending that document in your stone age format, fuck off and listen to Evanescence or something.
 

Quonny

Member
Does it matter?

It's not really a mile. It's just a number. Look at the number, see how long it takes to go down X amount, and calculate it in your head.

They could've put 182 rw or 4.29 tw and it wouldn't matter.
 

itschris

Member
Agreed. When I saw the objective marker was in feet and miles, I immediately went into the options menu to see if I could change it. Like you said, not a big deal, but an option would be nice.
 

Sanpunkan

Member
Interesting. American here, but I was wondering as I played FFXV if the units changed based on your region. Guess not.

I would prefer they just use metric across the board. As an American, I'll be honest that I have a better intuitive feel for feet vs. meters, but that's not really a big deal. Curiously, I have a better intuitive feel for kilometers than miles, simply because the scale between Imperial units is so arbitrary.
 

Aeana

Member
While I agree that it should be a choice, I'm not sure what it really matters in this game. Yes, it says "miles," but what does that correspond to? It doesn't really feel like it has a 100% realistic scale, and I don't feel like I factor that into my experience. Distance in FF15 is a number relative to other numbers in FF15, and as such, could be labeled anything and accomplish the same exact goal. The only relevant piece of information is that 2 miles is twice as far away as 1 mile.
 
Strange you can't decide separately. If the game is set in a specific location I can see it choosing it for you, but it really should be toggle-able for something like FF.
 
I've never quite understood this complaint in video games.
It's not like it's actually a measurable mile to me.
The number gets smaller as I get closer to the waypoint no matter what letters symbols or nonsense is after the number.

This is my general feeling too. Had it been in metric from the start, as an American, it wouldn't have bothered me in the least. As this poster has stated, it's a number that goes up or down, and you know exactly what it means.

I mean, they say "Gil" all the time too, but you know exactly what that means.

I'd also pair this with the fact that the map isn't freely traversable. The numbers are giving you a straight line distance, and changes are, you're not going to be able to do it in a straight line. You might run into a cliff or a river, and you'll need to use the map to actually understand the true distance anyway. As such, it's just a matter of "Is number big? Better call a Chocobo or take a car. Is number small? I'll hoof it." No need to actually understand what the unit of measure means in a practical sense.
 

Rellik

Member
As a scientist, I firmly believe people that use non-metric units belong in the 7th circle of hell. They are even worse than people who won't upgrade from Office 2003 becuase they are 'used to it'.

No I'm not re-sending that document in your stone age format, fuck off.

Don't even get me started on Word document format when saving a file to send to another company.

Yeah, miles are weird and confusing, metric should be standard in games, no matter the region or language.

Lolno. We use miles here in the UK so I don't want no KM crap forced on me. Give me the option.
 

JayEH

Junior Member
Not that big of a deal imo. There's games out there with only metric in the American version. It's just a number and the lower it is the closer you are.
 

Hektor

Member
I've never quite understood this complaint in video games.
It's not like it's actually a measurable mile to me.
The number gets smaller as I get closer to the waypoint no matter what letters symbols or nonsense is after the number.

Because to people in the civilized world it's not relatable.

I'm 2 miles away, move 0.1 miles forward and suddenly this system switches to 800 ft.

It's confusing when you're used to the logical and actually useful system in which 1 big unit consists of 1000 small units
 
Does it matter?

It's not really a mile. It's just a number. Look at the number, see how long it takes to go down X amount, and calculate it in your head.

They could've put 182 rw or 4.29 tw and it wouldn't matter.

Like I said: not really, but it's worth pointing it out. For FFXV units of measurement are not very important but I wouldnt want Square to localize a game that uses them more importantly like, say, a racing sim and not letting us use Metric units for car specs and speed. It's more of a "hey guys, let's try not do this again" more than "I DEMAND A CHANGE NOW GAME RUINED!!!!!11!!111
 
Question for OP. Why is it relevant to use metric or imperial?
It's not like you are actually measuring anything in game, it's only purpose is to indicate whether you are closer to an objective or not.

Edit: Well, apparently I'm not the only one who had the same concern :lol
 

itschris

Member
While I agree that it should be a choice, I'm not sure what it really matters in this game. Yes, it says "miles," but what does that correspond to? It doesn't really feel like it has a 100% realistic scale, and I don't feel like I factor that into my experience. Distance in FF15 is a number relative to other numbers in FF15, and as such, could be labeled anything and accomplish the same exact goal. The only relevant piece of information is that 2 miles is twice as far away than 1 mile.

Sure, that's true, but I still don't like the arbitrary amount of feet in a mile. The game seems to switch from showing feet to miles once the distance is 1000 feet or more, which is around 0.2 miles, I think. Metric makes a lot more sense in that regard.
 
While I agree that it should be a choice, I'm not sure what it really matters in this game. Yes, it says "miles," but what does that correspond to? It doesn't really feel like it has a 100% realistic scale, and I don't feel like I factor that into my experience. Distance in FF15 is a number relative to other numbers in FF15, and as such, could be labeled anything and accomplish the same exact goal. The only relevant piece of information is that 2 miles is twice as far away as 1 mile.

This. Honestly they should use a made up number to indicate distance. It shouldn't take a full day to make a road trip that's only a few miles. By using real distance measurements it makes a disconnect in my brain every time I see a distance marker on the screen.
 

sonto340

Member
Because to people in the civilizied world it's not relatable.

I'm 2 miles away, move 0.1 miles forward and suddenly this system switches to 800 ft.

It's confusing when you're used to the logical and actually useful system in which 1 big unit consists of 1000 small units
I hadn't thought about it like this, and it's a pretty good point.
I'm pretty sure America is in the civilized world.
 
While I agree that it should be a choice, I'm not sure what it really matters in this game. Yes, it says "miles," but what does that correspond to? It doesn't really feel like it has a 100% realistic scale, and I don't feel like I factor that into my experience. Distance in FF15 is a number relative to other numbers in FF15, and as such, could be labeled anything and accomplish the same exact goal. The only relevant piece of information is that 2 miles is twice as far away as 1 mile.
I'm of the same mind.

I mean think about the countless games that we've play that just had made up unit systems and we don't bat an eye because ultimately that stuff ends up being meaningless just like this game. I don't see people mad they don't know what 1000 zenny is or how in FFXIV I doubt the vast majority of the people people know how far a Yalm is.
 

pswii60

Member
In Britain:

- We get taught only metric at school
- We drive in imperial speeds but fill up the car in metric litres
- We drink milk and beer in pints but drink water and soft drinks in litres
- We measure our height in feet but measure everything else in metres
- We measure our weight in stones and pounds but weigh everything else in grams and kilograms

..and it goes on... must be confusing for visitors :)
 

Hektor

Member
A game with dragons, monsters , women with big titties hanging out is at fault for being unrelatable?

Measurements are supposed to tell you facts about things. In order to understand these facts i need to be able to relate to the individual units of the measurement system.

If it's so unimportant as you imply, we might as well measure distances in Höfflpöffs where 437 Höfflpöffs are 126 Quixons.

It's a game with dragons, monsters and big titted woman afterall.
 
Because to people in the civilized world it's not relatable.

I'm 2 miles away, move 0.1 miles forward and suddenly this system switches to 800 ft.

It's confusing when you're used to the logical and actually useful system in which 1 big unit consists of 1000 small units

How is that different though from a delivery of information standpoint here though? It's still 1 large unit become more smaller units. What's so confusing about that?

If you were being required to do conversions, I'd understand and fully agree that Imperial is needlessly confusing, but in this game, what's actually causing an issue?

I'm just going to ignore whatever your first sentence is supposed to mean.

Measurements are supposed to tell you facts about things. In order to understand these facts i need to be able to relate to the individual units of the measurement system.

If it's so unimportant as you imply, we might as well measure distances in Höfflpöffs where 437 Höfflpöffs are 126 Quixons.

How are you not being told a fact about at thing? They're numbers. They go up and down depending on distance regardless of the unit.

If you know that 1 Quixon is made of a number of Höfflpöffs, and when you go below 1 Quixon, you're not looking at a larger number of Höfflpöffs that continue to decrease in number as you approach, what is the difference? The information is conveyed.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
I think this would be in the same category as letting you swap which side you drive on in terms of presentation, albeit a lot easier in terms of technical possibility, especially considering the opposite already functions in the game.
 

MilkBeard

Member
Lol is this really such a big deal? What if they made some fantasy unit, would it matter then? You're not interacting with the real world with this game, it has its own confined system.

I honestly don't give a damn what system they used, to be honest.
 

KTO

Member
First thing I did when I booted the game up. Yeah, it's a bummer hopefully they patch it in.

I think this would be in the same category as letting you swap which side you drive on in terms of presentation, albeit a lot easier in terms of technical possibility, especially considering the opposite already functions in the game.

Driving on the left in the regalia-f is more fun than flying it.
 

suikodan

Member
Wow, it's (kinda) funny. I have noticed the distances were in miles when I started playing in english but I switched to french and it's in metric.

And yeah, it did bother me as well.
 
Question for OP. Why is it relevant to use metric or imperial?
It's not like you are actually measuring anything in game, it's only purpose is to indicate whether you are closer to an objective or not.

Edit: Well, apparently I'm not the only one who had the same concern :lol

Because to people in the civilized world it's not relatable.

I'm 2 miles away, move 0.1 miles forward and suddenly this system switches to 800 ft.

It's confusing when you're used to the logical and actually useful system in which 1 big unit consists of 1000 small units

.
 

wmlk

Member
This. Honestly they should use a made up number to indicate distance. It shouldn't take a full day to make a road trip that's only a few miles. By using real distance measurements it makes a disconnect in my brain every time I see a distance marker on the screen.

They're selling the idea on an American-style road trip, so that's why they're using miles in the road signs, GPS like menu navigation, etc.
 
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