The different wolves you get by changing the language of the game

I feel like the names are fine, it's all dependent upon what the localization teams felt were right. I feel like frontier should have different priorities when it comes to their game than a wolf name in hungarian lol
Well, I think Hungarian customers deserve the same treatment than the rest of customers. If the confusion with the name happens in several languages, keeps being mentioned from time to time in the forum after so long and it's not something isolated, there might be a reason behind it.
 
I feel like the names are fine, it's all dependent upon what the localization teams felt were right. I feel like frontier should have different priorities when it comes to their game than a wolf name in hungarian lol
It's definitely not close to the top priority. At this moment the worst thing in PZ is the climbing system.

However.....it really is such a small thing, and they ought to fix it. Would take someone 20 minutes, tops. Really shouldn't even take that long. Besides, don't you just love the sound of Planet Zoo's Taxonomy is TRASH! Let's fix it!
 
I definitely don't have as strong of feelings about this as others do. I tend to think about these in terms of in-game mechanics (biomes, terrain, continents of plants that can be used), as well as DLC possibilities that it leaves open.

I also think it's okay that in a game that is not going to have 40 official wolf subspecies, that they may want to have one animal that represents the species generally, or even a large collection of sub-species that are commonly thought of together, and then get more specific if/when they add on dlc animals that have a distinct look biome, etc.

Indeed, it might even be that leaving the inconsistency and vagueness might work in our favor, as opposed to trying to nail down the answer right now. If Frontier is remaining open to how long the official DLC support might extend -- if they haven't decided definitively that there definitely will or absolutely will not be a Eurasian wolf in the future, for example -- then leaving things as is allows for the most flexibility.
 
Well, I think Hungarian customers deserve the same treatment than the rest of customers. If the confusion with the name happens in several languages, keeps being mentioned from time to time in the forum after so long and it's not something isolated, there might be a reason behind it.
Well no, you’re missing my point. The hungarian localization team probably chose that specific term because it’s what they view the species as. Having it all be centralized would be an ethnocentric view that discredits the work of the localization teams.
 
Well no, you’re missing my point. The hungarian localization team probably chose that specific term because it’s what they view the species as. Having it all be centralized would be an ethnocentric view that discredits the work of the localization teams.
I don't think each localization team had the liberty to choose the names they wanted. Instead, they probably translated it at different points in time when the wolf was meant to be different things. A similar case is the West African lion, which is sometimes called the Barbary lion in the game.
 
A lot has been said about the timber wolf in the game and the general confusion about it being a North American subspecies or the general grey wolf. Frontier has never said anything on this issue as far as I know. The zoopedia entry clearly says that it is the general grey wolf (scientific name "canis lupus", the map, the list of countries, the text in the description... so many things to consider the whole Zoopedia as an error). However, the common name "timber wolf" has caused the confusion not only for some players, but also for the translators of the game. Depending on which language you play the game in, you get a different animal:

I can't add more photos
I can't add more photos
I don't understand the remaining languages, but if someone wants to add them, please feel free to contribute.

Please, @Tim Smith, @Jens Erik, @Eltanin Casciani or @Francesca Falcini , could you confirm us which animal is the wolf we have so that all players have the same animal regardless of the language they speak?

Thanks!
YOU FORGOT RUSSIAN
 
волк - Volk

Here in Holland we refer to the Gray wolf mostly as just "Wolf".
 
Last edited:
Thank you for reminding why I play the game on English instead of Danish. Apparently the translations haven't gotten better over time
Its so annoying. I can never find them because i look at B names LOL. I’ll switch to english at one point, im just clinging on with excitement that danish got included in a game for once
 
People, may i ask, why in the world should we take the one temperate eurasian species that we have in the game and make it northamerican only?
I dont understand the obsession with making things more exclusive instead of picking the general option.
Im very happy that we got alces alces and im even happier that we got the gray wolf.

And now as a german, funfact to the german zoo pedia and timberwolf.
Timberwolf is just a fancy nickname for population of wolfs that live in boreal forests and the german zoopedia actually specify one subspecies "also known as the european graywolf" so theres that.

If we actually make it a specific subspecies, easy european gray.
Why?
Glad you asked, but doesnt north america already have their own subspecies of canis lupus?
And more importanly, doesnt every continent besides europe and southamerica have their own large canid?
I wouldnt say i would want the wolf to be anything but generic gray, but if they would need to for some reason make it a subspecies the european graywolf would fit great for europe, while the much requested maned wolf fits well for south america.

Tldr pls leave the wolf alone and if you do tinker with it, make it european thank you
 
People, may i ask, why in the world should we take the one temperate eurasian species that we have in the game and make it northamerican only?
I dont understand the obsession with making things more exclusive instead of picking the general option.
Im very happy that we got alces alces and im even happier that we got the gray wolf.

And now as a german, funfact to the german zoo pedia and timberwolf.
Timberwolf is just a fancy nickname for population of wolfs that live in boreal forests and the german zoopedia actually specify one subspecies "also known as the european graywolf" so theres that.

If we actually make it a specific subspecies, easy european gray.
Why?
Glad you asked, but doesnt north america already have their own subspecies of canis lupus?
And more importanly, doesnt every continent besides europe and southamerica have their own large canid?
I wouldnt say i would want the wolf to be anything but generic gray, but if they would need to for some reason make it a subspecies the european graywolf would fit great for europe, while the much requested maned wolf fits well for south america.

Tldr pls leave the wolf alone and if you do tinker with it, make it european thank you
It only helps to educate if Frontier chooses to make it a more specific species. I don't particularly care if they change it to European or American, but there are over 30 species of wolves, not to mention subspecies. Leaving it as "Timber Wolf" is just as big of a sin as calling the Reticulated Giraffe simply "Giraffe", or Saltwater Crocodiles simply as "Crocodile". Specificity will only help to educate the public.
 
It only helps to educate if Frontier chooses to make it a more specific species. I don't particularly care if they change it to European or American, but there are over 30 species of wolves, not to mention subspecies. Leaving it as "Timber Wolf" is just as big of a sin as calling the Reticulated Giraffe simply "Giraffe", or Saltwater Crocodiles simply as "Crocodile". Specificity will only help to educate the public.
I get that, but then i would prefer the actual species of canis lupus tp just be gray wolf across the board and just simply not such a slugish name like timberwolf. That was a really poor choice
 
I think the reason why it should be a North American subspecies is mainly based off of the fact that the gray wolf has New World set pieces based off of it, which go along with the American bison, grizzly bear, and pronghorn.

Somewhere along the line they decided: "Hey, you know what? We have a clearly North American wolf subspecies. Let's make it a generic gray wolf and then add a gray wolf subspecies next pack"

The European wolf looks much different; stockier and more tan than what we currently have in-game
 
I think the reason why it should be a North American subspecies is mainly based off of the fact that the gray wolf has New World set pieces based off of it, which go along with the American bison, grizzly bear, and pronghorn.

Somewhere along the line they decided: "Hey, you know what? We have a clearly North American wolf subspecies. Let's make it a generic gray wolf and then add a gray wolf subspecies next pack"

The European wolf looks much different; stockier and more tan than what we currently have in-game
Eh, I think the Timber passes for a eurasian wolf. For me the problem is mostly with the hot-climate wolves.
 
I think the reason why it should be a North American subspecies is mainly based off of the fact that the gray wolf has New World set pieces based off of it, which go along with the American bison, grizzly bear, and pronghorn.

Somewhere along the line they decided: "Hey, you know what? We have a clearly North American wolf subspecies. Let's make it a generic gray wolf and then add a gray wolf subspecies next pack"

The European wolf looks much different; stockier and more tan than what we currently have in-game
The overlap in morphology among temperate and taiga subspecies of the Grey Wolf is significant. IMO the worst option would have been to (fairly arbitrarily, given the fluidity of subspecies designations) assign a particular subspecies to the current model when there’s only very limited differences among Eurasian vs. North American populations. Many people complained when we got the Arctic wolf (and even the dingo) that it was a ‘reskin’ (even though it wasn’t) - I didn’t, but probably would if someone tries to sell me a temperate NA wolf and also a temperate European wolf - that would be a reskin - same model, same environmental requirements, virtually the same pattern. I don’t see how limiting the range to just a limited part of NA benefits anyone, other than people who think that common names mean a lot more than they really do.

edit: to reply to the OP.. the wolf is the same in every language - it is Canis lupus. Part of the point of scientific names is to remove / resolve the issue of species/subspecies etc. having different common names in different regions or languages.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom