{"id":10242,"date":"2022-03-04T16:38:19","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T07:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=10242"},"modified":"2022-03-07T18:04:03","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T09:04:03","slug":"20220304-10242","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220304-10242\/","title":{"rendered":"Elden Ring \u201cfort, night\u201d message perplexes Japanese players"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the\u00a0original Japanese article<\/a>\u00a0(original article’s publication date: 2022-03-04 12:39 JST)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n


A message in Elden Ring<\/strong><\/em> saying \u201cfort, night\u201d has left Japanese players confused and international players reacting on social media. Perhaps spreading memes with the game\u2019s message templates is harder than we all thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elden Ring<\/em> is the latest action RPG from FromSoftware. Not only does the game feature online battles and cooperative play, but there is also a messaging system that helps bring players a little closer together on their difficult journey. The system allows players to combine predetermined words and phrases to create their own messages to leave for other players across the game\u2019s world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the words and phrases players can use are fixed, there are still plenty to choose from. You can combine two different kinds of phrases or leave behind a gesture, the game\u2019s version of an emote, for others to see. Part of the fun is not only sharing tips with other players but combining phrases to make dumb jokes and puns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The system also allows other players to rate your message and each time you get rated, you recover health. This has players all around the world leaving messages around Elden Ring<\/em> as they please.
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Messages are also shared with players across different languages and each set word or phrase is assigned an equivalent in each language. So if someone uses \u201cdog\u201d in their message, it will be converted to the predetermined corresponding word in other languages. Because of this kind of language conversion, players can share their message globally regardless of language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this kind of word conversion can lead to some mysterious messages. One that\u2019s getting special attention on social media is a message saying \u201cfort, night,\u201d which can be seen often in the Fort Haight area of the game. If you took it at face value, you might think something special will happen if you visit the fort at night. On Twitter<\/a>, we can see perplexed Japanese players saying they waited at the fort until nighttime, but nothing happened. That\u2019s because the message is a bit of wordplay left by English players that doesn\u2019t really translate when converted directly to Japanese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cfort, night\u201d message is a reference to the popular game Fortnite<\/em>. The similarity between \u201cFort Haight\u201d and \u201cFortnite\u201d seems to be almost daring players to make the reference. But when that English wordplay based on a game title gets directly converted to Japanese, it becomes a message that makes players think something happens at the fort at night.
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It looks like players in the English-speaking world also noticed Japanese players\u2019 bewilderment at the message when Japanese to English translator Andrew Hodgson posted about it on their Twitter account. The tweet let the world know that a simple joke was being taken as a serious hint when converted to Japanese and misleading players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Losing my mind at the fact that Japanese Elden Ring players kept seeing \u300c\u7826\u3001\u591c\u300d(Fort, night) player messages all over the game and some started theorizing there was some kind of event\/boss at some fort at nighttime, but it was just English players making Fortnite memes.<\/p>— Andrew 'Steiner' Hodgson (@DistantValhalla) March 3, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>