Effect Betawiki

Betawiki is the site on which most of the mediawiki software localization is dealt with. It was born mainly to localize mediawiki, but lately it has started to be seen as a valuable resource for other Open Source Projects. This eventually led to manage the localization of a free Colonization clone called Freecol on the same site.

As a side effect, localizers who work to prepare local versions of mediawiki can now produce a localized videogame for their languages using the same technology they are already familiar with.

The first Freecol release to include a European regional language is 0.7.0 and it starts from the piedmontese localization. Probably more such "minor" localization will come, since videogames are a primary tool for spreading alphabetization in regional languages among the youth.

Freecol is a simulation of the historical process that lead to the Declaration of Independence of the English colonies in North America, and require players to perform actions that are both administrative and political in nature (apart from eventually going to war against the Crown).

According to pms localizers, the game wasn't chosen because of its nature, though. It simply happened to be there, ready to be localized, while nobody had a clue at what the game might have been about. The "where it is" argument (betawiki) and "how it can be localized" (mediawiki standard) proved decisive on deciding to embark in the process.