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Developers hear me out! Playing in English doesn't mean refusing the Metric system!

Tenrius

Member
I play BotW in English and the temperature is in C. It's probably because it's the PAL version

I'm confused, in the US we have to learn both Imperial and Metric and how to convert.

Do other countries simply learn one?

Yes, metric. No reason to learn the other one.
 

big_erk

Member
Metric is so backwards its weird.

Like how with temperature freezing in Fahrenheit is 32 degrees where as in Celcius its 0 degrees

The metric system is actually pretty straightforward. Water freezes at 0 degrees and boils at 100 degrees. What's easier to remember than that. It sure isn't 32 degrees for freezing and 212 degrees for boiling. I'm American and I do not use the metric system, but it is hardly backwards. Unfamiliar? Maybe.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
I can't remember the last game I played that didn't have distances in meters. That's almost always the standard.
 

Phu

Banned
Do people not know that Americans learn metric? You'd think it'd be easier on the devs to just use metric for everyone and call it a day.

Ultimately though, I don't really care. This seems akin to getting bothered by a currency getting counted like yen as opposed to a dollar and cent situation.
 
The metric system is likely a superior method for most measurements, but in video games, the measurements could be literally anything in most situations. Distance: Numbers go up? You're getting further away. Down? Closer. Number seem too small given how far away you are? It'll probably break down to a smaller subset of whatever the measurement as you get closer.
Temperature: Number goes up? Getting hotter. Number goes down? Getting colder.

I'm sorry, but in 95% of situations in games, it just doesn't matter.

This isn't the first thread about this stuff and it's really overblown.
 

theRizzle

Member
Do people not know that Americans learn metric? You'd think it'd be easier on the devs to just use metric for everyone and call it a day.

No, they don't know that because most Americans act like the metric system is an entirely new concept every time it's mentioned.

I do kind of agree that it seems a little arbitrary. Like, when I am playing a game I never wonder "Is this guy actually 6ft/182cm tall? How does that compare to the distances I am traveling? Is everything to scale here?" It is just a relative number and agree that it is akin to saying "What am I supposed to do with these Zenny or Gil things? Give me some good old fashioned USD please! I know what to do with that shit!"
 

lyrick

Member
There is no reason to learn backwards things.

As much as people shit on imperial due to their unfamiliarity and unconventional bases between scales of units, when dealing with daily temps that we all live in °F is a more precise scale that has an increased range during normal variances in temperatures.

If you live in a climate that has an average temperature range of between -11°C and 23°C, you're operating in a very small window of only 34 measures. In °F that range of measure is increased to 60 (13 to 73°F) which actually makes more sense by allowing a higher window into our everyday lives.

Since we all do real Science in °K anyway metric temperatures are pretty much nonsense, offering no perks above the other two measures unless you absolutely live for Water freezing.
 
Is the rest of the world jealous of Americans' mastery of fractions?

Maybe thats where all this animosity comes from. We can do precise machinery in thousands of an inch or cover great distances like a half mile.

You do realise all engineering and science in the world uses the metric system because it's more precise and practical for representing small numbers and conversion? Americans in those fields land up using metric regardless.

Metric is more practical representation and easier to do calculations/conversions with, which inevitably means precision is actually easier to represent in metric.

All machinery inputs are like this "cut to 0,23 mm" etc. Imperial system is impractical dealing with sizes such as millimetres, 1 mm is 0,0394 in, metric is easier to represent, especially in circuitry/computing concerning that sort of precision. The physical real world sizes are the same in the end.

You can't even represent nanometres in imperial.

1 kilometre = 1 000 metres, 100 000 centimetres, 1 000 000 millimetres.

What is 1/2 of 1 kilometre? 0,5 kilometres, which is 500 metres, or 50 000 centimetres, or 500 000 millimetres.

It is easy to know how many centimetres are in one metre, and how many metres are in a kilometre etc.

1 cm = 10 mm
1 m = 100 cm
1 km = 1 000 m

It's so simple. What is 1/12 of 1 kilometre? (1/12) * 1'000 = 0,083 kilometres, which is 83 metres. You can get centimetres, millimetres, whatever you want. That's 8 300 metres, and 83 000 centimetres respectively.
 

Joey Ravn

Banned
The metric system is likely a superior method for most measurements, but in video games, the measurements could be literally anything in most situations. Distance: Numbers go up? You're getting further away. Down? Closer. Number seem too small given how far away you are? It'll probably break down to a smaller subset of whatever the measurement as you get closer.
Temperature: Number goes up? Getting hotter. Number goes down? Getting colder.

I'm sorry, but in 95% of situations in games, it just doesn't matter.

This isn't the first thread about this stuff and it's really overblown.

It's only "overblown" because you use Imperial and are OK with that. So screw everyone who doesn't.
 

lyrick

Member
You do realise all engineering and science in the world uses the metric system because it's more precise and practical for representing small numbers and conversion? Americans in those fields land up using metric regardless.

Metric is more practical representation and easier to do calculations/conversions with, which inevitably means precision is actually easier to represent in metric.

All machinery inputs are like this "cut to 0.23 mm" etc. Imperial system is impractical dealing with sizes such as millimetres, 1 mm is 0.0394 in, metric is easier to represent, especially in circuitry/computing concerning that sort of precision. The physical real world sizes are the same in the end.

You can't even represent nanometres in imperial.

1 kilometre = 1'000 metres, 100'000 centimetres, 1'000'000 millimetres.

What is 1/2 of 1 kilometre? 0.5 kilometres, which is 500 metres, or 50'000 centimetres, or 500'000 millimetres.

It is easy to know how many centimetres are in one metre, and how many metres are in a kilometre etc.

1 cm = 10 mm
1 m = 100 cm
1 km = 1000 m

It's so simple. What is 1/12 of 1 kilometre? (1/12) * 1'000 = 0.083 kilometres, which is 83 metres. You can get centimetres, millimetres, whatever you want. That's 8'300 metres, and 83'000 centimetres respectively.

The fact that any real measurement or calculation involve time as well which also deals in arbitrary scaling [60/60/24/365.25...] so you can take your undying love for base ten things and learn how to convert.

It's only "overblown" because you use Imperial and are OK with that. So screw everyone who doesn't.
In games it's just an arbitrary labeled unit assigned to a nonsense measure. It's really not indicative of shit.
 

HardRojo

Member
The day the whole world embraces the metric system and Celsius will be the day world peace will have been achieved.
Not really, but please nuke the imperial system off this Earth
 

Phu

Banned
The metric system is likely a superior method for most measurements, but in video games, the measurements could be literally anything in most situations. Distance: Numbers go up? You're getting further away. Down? Closer. Number seem too small given how far away you are? It'll probably break down to a smaller subset of whatever the measurement as you get closer.
Temperature: Number goes up? Getting hotter. Number goes down? Getting colder.

I'm sorry, but in 95% of situations in games, it just doesn't matter.

This isn't the first thread about this stuff and it's really overblown.

At an old job I had there was a riding mower that had its speed settings between turtle and rabbit. Like, it didn't matter, you're cutting grass not going on the highway.

A game could have a bar with a snowflake on one end and a flame on the other and everyone would know what it meant and I don't know if anyone would take issue with it. But apparently having numbers go up and down in a way different from how you may typically want numbers to go up and down is an uncomfortable hurdle to deal with.

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but stuff like this has never blipped up on my radar. Games already have so many rules and made up terms and whatever that I just accept and go along with it. They could be using a totally fictional measurement system and it wouldn't irk me.
 

Ty4on

Member
Gran Turismo does it right. It's a Japanese game that when playing it in any language it still gives you the option to keep Metric or go Imperial.

There needs to be some granularity too in racing games. In Forza Motorsport choosing metric meant kW instead of hp as if you were Australian. I haven't played the latest ones, but I think it's still an issue which is insane.
Different countries use different metric measurements like hp/PS and N·m in Europe, kW and N·m in Australia, and hp/PS and kgf·m in Japan.
 
Give them a few years to figure out kettles first, then move on to the metric system. Baby steps first.

This is why they don't need egg cups yet. They don't know how many rods to the hogs head it takes to soft boil an egg.
 

Theonik

Member
As much as people shit on imperial due to their unfamiliarity and unconventional bases between scales of units, when dealing with daily temps that we all live in °F is a more precise scale that has an increased range during normal variances in temperatures.

If you live in a climate that has an average temperature range of between -11°C and 23°C, you're operating in a very small window of only 34 measures. In °F that range of measure is increased to 60 (13 to 73°F) which actually makes more sense by allowing a higher window into our everyday lives.

Since we all do real Science in °K anyway metric temperatures are pretty much nonsense, offering no perks above the other two measures unless you absolutely live for Water freezing.
There is nothing preventing one to use non-integer measurements of temperature so that argument is quite daft, also the advantage is providing a useful day to day scale while still using the same gradation as kelvin. It just uses a different offset.

Ultimately for what people use temperatures for, neither is useful. Humiture is much more useful in understanding how comfortable ambient conditions are for human habitation, water freezing is however very important as far as environmental conditions are concerned as it predicts the freezing of pavements, pipes and other important infrastructure.

Besides. You only use one system, and having everyone use the same one is hugely beneficial.
 

Dunan

Member
Is this a typo? I'm interested in this but did you mean "When did the Americans..." or maybe "back in 1700s they were definitely still using M-D-Y..."?
Oops, yes, it's a typo. I meant to say that the British Empire was still using M-D-Y in the late 1700s. You would see "April 15, 1775“ in the papers and not "15 April".
 

jayu26

Member
It's should really be like Science Journals, mandatory metric system. Make it a toggle but metric as to be in. And please don't make up in-game nonsensical units, they are even more annoying and rarely add to the lore. The only exception I can think for that is money.
 

lyrick

Member
There is nothing preventing one to use non-integer measurements of temperature so that argument is quite daft, also the advantage is providing a useful day to day scale while still using the same gradation as kelvin. It just uses a different base.

Ultimately for what people use temperatures for, neither is useful. Humiture is much more useful in understanding how comfortable ambient conditions are for human habitation, water freezing is however very important as far as environmental conditions are concerned as it predicts the freezing of pavements, pipes and other important infrastructure.

Besides. You only use one system, and having everyone use the same one is hugely beneficial.

But I spend most of my time working in Base 2, 8 and 16 and since we are all absolutely dependent on computers in our everyday lives we should come up with a new universal standard that doesn't rely on arbitrary base 10 shit or completely arbitrary scaling.
 

jayu26

Member
But I spend most of my time working in Base 2, 8 and 16 and since we are all absolutely dependent on computers in our everyday lives we should come up with a new universal standard that doesn't rely on arbitrary base 10 shit or completely arbitrary scaling.
Base 10 isn't completely arbitrary. Most humans have 10 digits collectively on their two hands. We look at them everyday. That's a very good anatomical reason why we started using and teaching base 10 math.
 
Each to their own, because as I've said, for me the numbers are just that, arbitrary numbers. 1 ingame mile does not actually represent 1 mile etc

(FWIW I live in a country that uses metric measurements a lot, especially weather)

Hmm debatable. In a racing game for example, this makes a huge difference at least for me. Km/h gives me the exact notion of speed whether m/h does not.
 

Theonik

Member
But I spend most of my time working in Base 2, 8 and 16 and since we are all absolutely dependent on computers in our everyday lives we should come up with a new universal standard that doesn't rely on arbitrary base 10 shit or completely arbitrary scaling.
Every scale is arbitrary. The point is in consistency but of course historical use matters too. Some languages are using base-20 in parlance for example. The base we use for arithmetic is derived from finger counting. Degrees are derived from early Sumerian measurements of the duration of the year. (360 days in a circle, they also used base 60 for their basic counting)

Base 10 isn't completely arbitrary. Most humans have 10 digits collectively on their two hands. We look at them everyday. That's a very good anatomical reason why we started using and teaching base 10 math.
That's not entirely true historically. Having said that yes it is true that these choices were anatomic in nature. Also interesting inches and feet are also based on human anatomy and make quick measurements without the aid of equipment easy. But the disadvantage conversion and inconsistencies bring warranted their elimination.
 

lyrick

Member
Base 10 isn't completely arbitrary. Most humans have 10 digits collectively on their two hands. We look at them everyday. That's a very good anatomical reason why we started using and teaching base 10 math.

You mean why the Majority currently uses base 10, that wasn't always the case and it may not always be that way. Other very successful civilizations used base 20 (you probably see your feet and toes every day too), we definitely have more anatomical pairs of things than we have sets of 10 of though so Base 2 has a much stronger argument using that logic.

Base 10 is arbitrary and people tend to prefer it because it is the only way they learned how to count.
 
It's only "overblown" because you use Imperial and are OK with that. So screw everyone who doesn't.

You really didn't read what I wrote, did you? It is wholly irrelevant what system they use as long as it's all based on the same logic.

A completely fictional system would be totally fine. I don't care if it's Imperial or otherwise. And given that I work in a medical field where we're using metric rather than Imperial anyway, I'd say your assumption is pretty stupid. Nevermind the fact that I never said, "screw everyone who doesn't."

Posts like yours do nothing to further a conversation, especially when I laid out my thoughts. You could just as well actually try to refute them.
 

Theonik

Member
You mean why the Majority currently uses base 10, that wasn't always the case and it may not always be that way. Other very successful civilizations used base 20 (you probably see your feet and toes every day too), we definitely have more anatomical pairs of things than we have sets of 10 of though so Base 2 has a much stronger argument using that logic.

Base 10 is arbitrary and people tend to prefer it because it is the only way they learned how to count.
Base 60 or we riot.
 

petran79

Banned
I wonder how players today would react if GTA returned to the UK and used their own traffic controls

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The units could be made up and the game would be exactly the same. There's no correspondence to real world units, nor are you ever called upon to come up with one.

In fact, using fake units seems to be the way to go to keep people from complaining. Lots of other games do it.

Sure, whatever. But if they choose to use real units there has to be an option to toggle units for measurement regardless of language chosen or, in this case, region. BOTW already uses both, I shouldnt have to change my console's region. With FFXV it's even worse since there's no workaround, period.
 

jayu26

Member
Every scale is arbitrary. The point is in consistency but of course historical use matters too. Some languages are using base-20 in parlance for example. The base we use for arithmetic is derived from finger counting. Degrees are derived from early Sumerian measurements of the duration of the year. (360 days in a circle, they also used base 60 for their basic counting)


That's not entirely true historically. Having said that yes it is true that these choices were anatomic in nature. Also interesting inches and feet are also based on human anatomy and make quick measurements without the aid of equipment easy. But the disadvantage conversion and inconsistencies bring warranted their elimination.
You keep using the word "arbitrary" but you don't know what it means.

It means...
google said:
based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system.

If there is a reason (anatomical) then how is it "completely arbitrary" like you exclamied?

You mean why the Majority currently uses base 10, that wasn't always the case and it may not always be that way. Other very successful civilizations used base 20 (you probably see your feet and toes every day too), we definitely have more anatomical pairs of things than we have sets of 10 of though so Base 2 has a much stronger argument using that logic.

Base 10 is arbitrary and people tend to prefer it because it is the only way they learned how to count.
Look, I have never said that we should stick to Base 10. I will be first in line to adopt any system that makes more sense to use in the contemporary society. I merely argued that rise of Base 10 (and imperial) can't be called arbitrary by definition. There was a reason for it. And as reasons to keep using both diminish we should move on to other systems.
 
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