Videogames (beginner but I'm brave)

[prisma dawn]

I think the ones I've seen the most suggested are Stardew Valley and The Sims. Minecraft can also be used for basic vocab since it has a lot of labels of items although it doesn't have much full text.

Oh yeah, Skyrim as well although people don't play that much these days. It has old-fashioned language though like typical fantasy speech so keep that in mind.

Of course many big games these days will also have a German translation... I would recommend to just look at any of the big AAA games you own and see if they have German option. Like if you have anything like Witcher 3, newer Assassin's Creed, God of War, Baldur's Gate 3, etc. I think most of those have German subtitles and voice acting.

[verbal cedar]

I use minecraft in German. Also I had my phone in German a while ago, that can also help but it's difficult to figure out at first

[inner drum]

I think Animal Crossing would also be decent. I used to play Animal Crossing in French as a child to improve my French :)

[tropic perch]

I think in general point and click adventures have a lot of natural language. If you like those kind of games, it would be worth it.

https://youtu.be/VOCml1sQ9fA?si=6TTZcPPC3YYdSjZe

I like this one 😄

[limber bison]

I believe any story telling game has a good german translation

like detroit become human or something like night in the woods

[prisma dawn]

Hmm, not "any". Story-telling games are good options, but certainly many of them have no translation, or sometimes a bad one. So it is good to check for each specific game whether it has a good translation or not.

[limber bison]

I mean it’s what I’ve been doing but animal crossing is also a good choice

[cyan quarry]

Deutsch Welle website is good.

For me, all the problem seems to be games.

[thorn prawn]

An absolutely excellent choice that I think anyone should know for language learning is Disco Elysium. It has many languages available in text form (only English is voiced). The best way to use Disco Elysium for language learning, IMO, is to treat it like an interactive book (I turn the voiceover off completely—or, technically that's not an option, but I just turn voiceover volume to 0; text doesn't progress without player input anyway). It's a very narrative game anyway, very unlike any other game out there. Heavily choiced based, your character build heavily influences your interactions, and your comprehension of the text will guide your choices.

What makes Disco Elysium so special in my mind is that it supports a dual-language setup. You can choose language 1 and language 2, and then at the press of a button, the game switches languages on the fly. At literally any point, you can switch languages. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not always going to be the most everyday, natural language—there is a lot of narration, a lot of inner monologue, a lot of stylised characters... but the sheer exposure to vocabulary and phrases works just like a book, then the ability to check your comprehension or clear up misunderstandings by switching language on the fly fills in potential gaps of frustration (this works best though if you can be strict on yourself and really work at comprehending before switching), and finally, the added interactive aspect of choice-based storytelling keeps your comprehension skills actively tested in a way a book might not.

I will say that you cannot always rely on an 1-to-1 map between the languages, in that the localisation is very much a localisation and not just a translation. Even language-specific jokes sometimes have equivalents that work for each language rather than a direct translation of the English joke that might not quite work in language X. So the language switching does have a little caveat in that respect. But I highly recommend!

[prisma dawn]

The setup for Disco Elysium is very good but the vocabulary is advanced even for most Level C learners, so... I would not whatsoever recommend it for Level A. It's one of those things where it's too advanced even for a challenge for the majority of people.

Even for me at B2 I think it's a bit too difficult for normal practice.

[thorn prawn]

That's fair. I often forget how more advanced material can make some people bounce right off when they're lower level, as it's rarely been an issue for me—probably have my ADD hyperfocus episodes to thank for that 😛 I'm always a bit blind to how advanced vocab is supposed to be for probably the same reason—when someone says B1 grammar, C1 vocabulary, that's way over my head (beyond the bare basics, which are kind of obvious :P); all I know is that it's come up in something I'm interested in, and I don't know it, so now I'm learning it!

That said, I do feel the dual-language functionality does a ton of heavy lifting, and the fact that it's not real-time dialogue gives you however much time you need with a piece of text before moving on. Whatever the challenges of the vocabulary, I, as a result, found Disco Elysium much easier than plenty of games with real-time dialogue, where you're beholden to the pace of the game.

Funnily enough though, I'd say the opposite is true now that my German is a good bit better; I wasn't even B1 back when I played it through in German (2020 I think? I'm sure it was not long into Covid), so back then, I very much favoured any text-based games. With Disco Elysium, I'd have a notepad at the ready, a set of pens of various colours so that I could note down sentences, highlighting vocabulary/interesting grammar/collocations; I'd note down what came across as key terms (not always correctly identified tbf) and look them up on the spot (while letting parts of dialogue that weren't crucial to my overall comprehension slip aside for the time), and if I still couldn't make sense of it, I'd look at the English dialogue and review the German with that in mind. Often I'd even make saves and replay the same section a series of times over days/weeks in a spaced-repetition-esque manner. It was a very enjoyable study piece (probably my single favourite game that I've used for study). If I were to first come across Disco Elysium where I am now, I'd certainly have a much easier time of playing any game with real-time dialogue that tend simpler/more superficial in terms of subject matter. It's an interesting wee flip.