Translations

[LordCrash]

In my experience most Polish gamers can speak either English or Russian or both

Fun fact: the majority of young people in Poland don't speak Russian. We usually learn English and German and in recent years Spanish has become more popular than Russian. Three, maybe four of my friends would be able to understand a game in Russian (though it's true that virtually everyone can play in English).

Ok, but that isn't a pro-argument for a Polish version because if it's true what you say most (young) Polish can play PE in English or German.

 

(as you said....)

Edited September 25, 2012 by LordCrash

[Ryuzaki]

I think the Italian market is for a niche game like that too small to justify an Italian version. Same is true for all other suggested languages.

 

What? I do not think so. 90% of my friends loves the Obsidian RPG. :D

Edited September 25, 2012 by Ryuzaki

[norolim]

I'm Polish as well and I have to disagree with Rosveen. Knowledge of English is not as common among young people in Poland as he says. Many may know some basics, but in most cases it's far to little to be comfortable playing a text heavy game in that language. Besides, this is a type of game that will also appeal to an older generation. I'd estimate, no more than 10% of them know enough English to play it in the original language.

[LordCrash]

I think the Italian market is for a niche game like that too small to justify an Italian version. Same is true for all other suggested languages.

 

What? I do not think so. 90% of my friends loves the Obsidian RPG. :D

That's indeed not a very good argument because your and your circle of friends are not a group big enough to be representative for the Italian speaking population.

[Ryuzaki]

That's indeed not a very good argument because your and your circle of friends are not a group big enough to be representative for the Italian speaking population.

 

 

Well, the Italian market in Europe is the fourth best market for video games after England, Germany and France (official data).

On the forum I know many people who play RPGs on the PC, while all the previous Obsidian games have been translated into Italian amateur.

So probably the Italian market is not the best, ok, but if this game will be translated into Spanish, there is no reason why it should not be translated in our language.

[Flouride]

I personally don't care, but I guess people who speak Italian, Portugese and/or Polish would appriciate it

[Arsinis]

Russian translation would be great.

[Frozen]

I weep when I see games translated by Cenega. Far Cry was a joke, Mass Effect remarkably poor, even Skyrim came out rather bland. I'll take fan translations any day

Mass Effect (the first one) was translated by CD Projekt, not Cenega

[Siegrun]

Russian. I love Obsidian!

 

Learn English.

And..? I don't want give my money for english game. It is abnormal. You are bad businessman with bad ideas))))

[LordCrash]

That's indeed not a very good argument because your and your circle of friends are not a group big enough to be representative for the Italian speaking population.

 

 

Well, the Italian market in Europe is the fourth best market for video games after England, Germany and France (official data).

On the forum I know many people who play RPGs on the PC, while all the previous Obsidian games have been translated into Italian amateur.

So probably the Italian market is not the best, ok, but if this game will be translated into Spanish, there is no reason why it should not be translated in our language.

But you forget the fact that Spanish is not only spoken in Spain but also in many other countries in Latin and South America. So there is a much bigger market for Spanish games than for Italian games. If Obsidian decides that the Italian market is big enough for a translation at release, be happy but I wouldn't count on that.

[Ryuzaki]

But you forget the fact that Spanish is not only spoken in Spain but also in many other countries in Latin and South America. So there is a much bigger market for Spanish games than for Italian games. If Obsidian decides that the Italian market is big enough for a translation at release, be happy but I wouldn't count on that.

 

 

But the Italian is also spoken in Switzerland, North Africa and in parts of South America, not to mention some small areas of Australia.

I believe that a game of a certain value should be translated according to the standard EFIGS in Europe with possibly Russian.

I hope that if they add other languages​​, Italian and Russian are the first choices.

Edited September 25, 2012 by Ryuzaki

[PaganPoetry]

Certainly Russian and Italian should be priorities, no? Followed by Chinese/Japanese/Korean I would think, if only because speakers of those languages are so much less likely to know English.

 

I don't even know why they bother to hire people to do professional translations though. Not that I don't think the game should be translated (I think it absolutely should), I just think having a large volunteer base help them with it would actually be cheaper & better quality. Volunteers care the most. Like, if they asked me to translate it into French I would be there in a heartbeat, no pension required.

[evdk]

Certainly Russian and Italian should be priorities, no? Followed by Chinese/Japanese/Korean I would think, if only because speakers of those languages are so much less likely to know English.

 

I don't even know why they bother to hire people to do professional translations though. Not that I don't think the game should be translated (I think it absolutely should), I just think having a large volunteer base help them with it would actually be cheaper & better quality. Volunteers care the most. Like, if they asked me to translate it into French I would be there in a heartbeat, no pension required.

 

Riiiight. The quality would be highly dependent on what talent you would crowdsource. \and good luck when your translation project disintegrates due to drama overload.

[leshy]

I think that Obsidian in further stretch goals might give additional languages: Itallian, Russian, Portuguese and maybe Polish would seem obvious choices as they seem most widely used.

Good question is how many people in Asia are interested in Project Eternity. After all the mostly used language in the world is Mandarin Chinese, also Hindi and Japanese have very many speakers.

Edited September 25, 2012 by leshy

[PaganPoetry]

Contrary to popular belief, professionally minded people can be found online who are not caught up in the "drama" all of the time.

[anek]

But you forget the fact that Spanish is not only spoken in Spain but also in many other countries in Latin and South America. So there is a much bigger market for Spanish games than for Italian games. If Obsidian decides that the Italian market is big enough for a translation at release, be happy but I wouldn't count on that.

 

 

But the Italian is also spoken in Switzerland, North Africa and in parts of South America, not to mention some small areas of Australia.

I believe that a game of a certain value should be translated according to the standard EFIGS in Europe with possibly Russian.

I hope that if they add other languages​​, Italian and Russian are the first choices.

 

I'm pretty sure that a Russian translation would have a much larger user base for this kind of game than an Italian one.

 

But personally, I think providing translations is overrated... I the devs make the game moddable enough, the user community can create their own translations using crowd sourcing. The resulting translations would probably be of higher quality than those commissioned from professional translators, too, since the latter usually don't understand fantasy settings very well, and certainly would not be as intimately familiar with the game as fans who have actually played it.

[evdk]

Contrary to popular belief, professionally minded people can be found online who are not caught up in the "drama" all of the time.

All I am saying is that leaving translation to the fans is a hit and miss proposition.

[PaganPoetry]

Of course, but have professional translations really been that much better? I can't say since I always play games in English but I can just imagine European gamers getting an influx of "this guy are sick" in most of their translated games.

[anek]

All I am saying is that leaving translation to the fans is a hit and miss proposition.

 

But whether or not it succeeds is something that the fans themselves can control. So if they really want it badly enough, it will happen. It they don't really want it that badly, why spend developer money it?

[leshy]

But personally, I think providing translations is overrated... I the devs make the game moddable enough, the user community can create their own translations using crowd sourcing. The resulting translations would probably be of higher quality than those commissioned from professional translators, too, since the latter usually don't understand fantasy settings very well, and certainly would not be as intimately familiar with the game as fans who have actually played it.

 

Community based translation can be done. But in order to have a reasonable level of quality you'd have to do it the way most Open Source projects are done. You have the core team (in this case 3-4 people), contributors and users reporting bugs. This way you can achieve a good translation. However, it will take time as it's a highly iterative process and needs good maintainer and dedicated and disciplined user base.

 

I agree it can be done, but it's definitely not easy.

[evdk]

Of course, but have professional translations really been that much better? I can't say since I always play games in English but I can just imagine European gamers getting an influx of "this guy are sick" in most of their translated games.

O yes. I have only played one game translated into Czech (IWD2) and NEVERMORE. That's why I don't want any translations, really.

[anek]

Community based translation can be done. But in order to have a reasonable level of quality you'd have to do it the way most Open Source projects are done. You have the core team (in this case 3-4 people), contributors and users reporting bugs. This way you can achieve a good translation. However, it will take time as it's a highly iterative process and needs good maintainer and dedicated and disciplined user base.

 

I agree it can be done, but it's definitely not easy.

 

True, but having that iterative process in place will ensure continuous improvement and hence a much higher quality in the long run.

 

It translations are done by professional all at once and shipped with the game in binary form, it will be much more difficult for fans to correct mistakes and make further improvements to the translation during the years to come.

[The Sharmat]

From a marketing perspective I'd think that after the listed language Russian would be a priority, since the eastern European market seems rather open to this genre.

 

Other than that...dutch, at least, seems unnecessary, since as far as I'm aware anyone from Holland is also fairly certain to speak either French, English, or German in addition to their native tongue.

[Peter]

Just give community easy to use tools and packaging platform so that we can translate region-by-region or quest-by-quest or npc-by-pnc and use multiple packages at once. Than we could create some simple site with text overview and rating system or use some existing script and this game would have as many translations as you want.

[Auxilius]

I'd rather be ignorant with more quests in English than enlightened with half the quests but all of them fully playable in Swahili. But that's just me.

That's being selfish, caricatural and stupid.

There is no world beyond glorious anglosphere. Nobody deserves this games beyong glorious english speakers.

Obsidian doesn't need dirty strangers' money.

Geez, sorry for being a not-native speaker.