Hey there!

Actually, GP already has the ability mostly inplace.  The strings you see for interface elements are loaded froma database table with constants, language, and translation.  Allwe'd need to do is throw in some translated strings for the non-Englishlanguage and the ability to select yourlanguage up somewhere, and you'd see it in action.  As for theback-end database, the majority of the text fields are stored asunicode, so we can support character sets like the Chinese Big 5.

The problem is the translation.  I can run a bunch of strings like"Login," "Welcome, [name]," and "Disable Signature" through one of theweb-based translation tools, but I'm sure you know better than I do howterrible a job they do.  Sandie and I talked about hiring somecollege students to do the translations given a list of strings to workwith, but the biggest problem is that at the rate we add functionalityto the site, it'd be that much more added to the load we already havefor everything we did.

Then, there's support.  We'd have to support the non-Englishspeakers if the site spoke their language, and again the translationtools are just plain awful going both ways.  There are optionslike outsourcing to call centers with multiple supported languages, butfor us they're just too 'spensive.

This isn't a "no."  I'd just like to get any ideas that anyonemight have on this.  At the last E3 there were conferences on"globalization," but those were mostly catering to folks making gameinterfaces who could staff support centers in the actual countries theywere serving.  We'd be fools to ever refuse it, since for example,the Korean market has a higher percentage of online users per capitathan the US, and far more MMOG players (though they're games most of ushaven't even heard of)... The logistics of actually making it happenand keeping it going once it's in place is the tough part. 

Now that we might be able to work at.