That is a good enough reason to translate it, especially in a sales promotion.
Well, unfortunately, I sort of side on the programmers with this one. It's an industry standard term, one that transgresses the boundaries of any one game, and one that a majority of the players know. It's used in MMOs and non-MMOs alike. The translation, of course, would simply be "fires off" or "activates" or "becomes active," all of which might leave people scratching their head at the actual translation. "Wait, so how do I activate the weapon?" It's one of those things that you are either familiar with, or you're not, and if you're not, you ask. It's a lot like the word "mob." Yeah, the industry is wider than its original audience of 18-34 year old men, but the terms sort of come with the territory.
Programmers often forget they're not writing for other programmers, particularly when they speak or invent the math behind systems. Sooner or later this has to be broken down for the lay-person. It's not that things need dumbing down, they just need to be more accessible to the majority of players who are not industry insiders or mathletes.
Well, I agree with you that on one hand, the programmers forget they're not writing for other programmers. Believe me, I agree with you whole-heartedly on that. On the other hand, particularly with fantasy MMOs, I wish they didn't provide nearly as much information as they do -- and yet, also understand why they do. People like to know they're accomplishing something, which means the mysterious math behind the systems ends up being revealed. Personally, I almost prefer not knowing how many hit points something has, nor how much damage I'm doing. I would prefer an immersive world where you do damage, and that which you attack gets hurt. You see "hit," "miss," "critical hit," and so forth, and never really know how much damage you're doing. You also see things like flashes of light indicating slayer damage and so forth.
But then, I don't like my fantasy worlds dumbed down to math. That's why when I DM in AD&D, dice rolls don't interfere with the plot of my story. Because I like story over math. hehe
I don't care where imported terms come from, particularly. There's only one that seems odd to me, it's "toon". If any game should be sticking with the term "avatar" it's Ultima.
Yeah... "toon" doesn't make much sense to me either. Paperdoll, avatar, character... sure. Toon?