Chapter 788 - 788: Dragon Language Activities

As the promotional video for "The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim" built momentum, more and more players began discussing it on various communities and forums.

For gamers, any topic that sparks debate is something they'll eagerly discuss. You could say players are a highly dedicated group, capable of interpreting the deep meaning behind the tiniest details.

It's like you in middle school doing reading comprehension, Bell, dissecting every punctuation mark and character to write a mini-essay of hundreds of words.

As the discussions broadened, they even extended beyond just the player base.

Language scholars also jumped into the fray. After all, linguistics is a rather niche field, and most people probably don't even know it exists.

Plus, the dragon language in "The Elder Scrolls" actually has real-world linguistic connections, which, combined with Nebula Games' popularity, isn't too surprising.

"Clearly, the dragon language in 'The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim' is a fictional language, but based on what's been shown so far, it seems to have referenced Germanic languages."

"The word 'kelle' for 'kell's' is common in Germanic languages. Also, the combination of 'dov' and 'k' can form 'dovahki,' mentioned in the video as Dragonborn. The 'k' here means kin in English."

As more analyses emerged, countless players were stunned.

So there's actually some basis for this?

Regarding the language in "The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim."

It quickly became a mainstream trending topic.

After all, the idea of creating a language is quite intriguing.

Of course, this was also because "The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim" didn't have much else for players to discuss yet.

While the trailers and materials made the game's setting feel epic, it was hard to get a solid grasp on the gameplay from just a trailer.

But the "Song of the Dragonborn" in the trailer, combined with the dragon language dialogue, obviously opened up many avenues for discussion and buzz.

"Creating a language isn't that simple, is it? And it's just one teaser trailer."

"Right, what can you really tell from just one teaser trailer?"

"Heh, didn't you see the professor's repost on the official Weibo a while back? Language experts are way more knowledgeable than you keyboard warriors."

"If you're so smart, why aren't you a professor?"

"Damn it, you only look at the beginning and not the end. The language isn't hard, the key is acceptance and completeness. You're just taking things out of context!"

On all the major community websites, players were investigating, and naturally, there was plenty of arguing.

Even within Nebula Games, Lucas, watching the diverse online debates, was a bit surprised.

The promotional video for "The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim" was meant to build hype for the game. There was nothing to say about that. But what surprised Lucas was that players' attention was completely captured by the dragon language in "The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim."

From a linguistics perspective, while the dragon language in "The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim" wasn't made up out of thin air,

it still couldn't be used for extended word construction.

Compared to Tolkien's created Quenya or Star Trek's Klingon, it was still lacking something.

However, for "The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim," creating a basic structure was perfectly fine.

"But we can make some marketing out of this," Lucas thought, looking at the players' heated discussions online and recalling a recent promotional ad for a new Atari title. He smiled slightly, called in the head of marketing, and after about a twenty-minute talk, posted something on the official Weibo.

Soon, players who were still discussing the dragon language topic found a new post on Lucas's official Weibo.

"Regarding the dragon language, it indeed drew inspiration from languages like Finnish, Germanic, and cuneiform. During its creation, we invited many linguistics professors as consultants, so it's not randomly made up. Unlike the familiar 26 standard Latin letters, the dragon language has 34 letters."

"These include 25 single sounds and 9 compound sounds that form the pronunciation of the dragon language. The dragon language characters are all three strokes, drawing inspiration from ancient cuneiform."

"However, the so-called dragon language is merely a fictional language designed for the game and cannot be considered a standalone language."

"Furthermore, within the game, players can learn more about the dragon language through game content. We will also be adding some unique dungeons related to the dragon language, featuring a dedicated dragon language challenge quest with puzzle elements."

"Additionally, upon the release of 'The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim,' the first player to complete the puzzle challenge will receive a reward of $300,000 USD."

"Moreover, we've added a large number of randomly discoverable dragon language Easter eggs within the game. The first ten players to uncover these Easter eggs will receive a VR game pod. The first 1,000 players will receive a 299 yuan Nebula Games voucher."

"Finally, we are providing a learning chart for the dragon language."

Lucas's official Weibo post instantly captured the attention of countless players.

On one hand, Lucas admitted something about the dragon language. On the other hand, Nebula Games was planning to add corresponding in-game levels.

A fixed dragon language challenge quest with a $300,000 prize for the first completer?

And then there were the randomly distributed dragon language Easter eggs.

This immediately drew many players' interest.

The event rewards were quite generous, and the momentum generated by the dragon language hype was enormous.

Suddenly, "Elder Scrolls" and "Dragon Language" and other related terms directly dominated the trending headlines.

Meanwhile, in the Atari meeting room, where staff were seeing news about Nebula Games online, their mouths twitched. They had originally planned to release their new game during this period but decided to delay it due to the surprise emergence of "The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim."

A reward for completing a puzzle challenge? This whole scheme felt so familiar!

This was exactly the "Sword Hunt" event they at Atari had first organized to compete with "Uncharted" when developing "Element World"!

And why was their hype so huge and so hardcore?

Playing a game required learning a language, and it was a fictional one at that!

Watching countless players online discuss "The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim's" dragon language topic,

with some even hosting live streams to learn it.

Not just Atari, but other game developers were left utterly bewildered.

Nebula Games always managed to come up with something new!

(End of this chapter)