Translations

[Sanguin]

I am a French student in linguistics (and archeology, but it has nothing to do with what I'm about to say), and if I can bring my support to the French translation, it will be with pleasure.

Contrary to the belief of all the ignorant who do not want any translation, every language is unique, and translations brings much more to the game than just understanding. I understand English, but I prefer a good translation in French because it is more immersive.

Or else, the original game should be in elven or I do not know which fantasy common language from the background of the game.

[Ausir]

 

I chose other, since there wasnt an no other translations option.

I've always felt translations from the original language is semi retarded, why would you want to worsen the language used, since alot of the terms which is in the english language, has no equivelent in alot of other languages.

I've always dread when stuff gets translated to Danish from original languages, since so SO much is lost during the translation.

 

On top of that, reading/watching stuff in another language than your own really, REALLY boosts your knowledge of said language.

 

Just my 0.02 $

 

It might not be true in Denmark, but in other countries many people don't speak English sufficiently well to play a game in it.

[True_Spike]

Anyway, I'll gladly be part of a Polish translation team. I already have experience with translating games, and I'm sure working directly with the developer on it (as opposed to a Polish publisher, who is in contact with original publisher, with pretty much no contact with the devs to help out with ambiguities) will help make it much better than usual.

 

I'd personally prefer the translation to be done by experienced professionals, even if it's not going to be me . But if Obsidian decide they'd rather have fans do the job, I'm sure we'll manage to gather a team of skilled enthusiasts.

 

Well, I am a professional translator myself. I know that inXile intends to fansource their translations of Wasteland 2, but I think it's a mistake. With so much text that needs to be kept consistent between various dialogues etc., you need to, at the very least, one professional per language to then edit that fan translation for errors and consistency.

 

Translator high five!

I doubt a single person will have enough time to proofread *and* correct every line of text in the game without a significant drop of quality, unless localizations are to be released way after the English version. It has to be done by a well coordinated group of professionals right from the get-go

[Shardbearer]

Super-Hardcore mode: Everyone in PE World speaks a new language invented for the game, you must learn it before playing.

[Del-Vey]

I am Russian and sufficiently understand English, but I prefer to play games translated into my native language. According to statistics, only 4% of Russia's population speaks English.

Edited September 26, 2012 by Del-Vey

[Capitalism]

Capitalism votes for Russian and Polish.

It's strange not to see Itallian included in 2.2m goal.

[Veca]

I chose other, since there wasnt an no other translations option.

I've always felt translations from the original language is semi retarded, why would you want to worsen the language used, since alot of the terms which is in the english language, has no equivelent in alot of other languages.

I've always dread when stuff gets translated to Danish from original languages, since so SO much is lost during the translation.

 

On top of that, reading/watching stuff in another language than your own really, REALLY boosts your knowledge of said language.

 

Just my 0.02 $

 

It might not be true in Denmark, but in other countries many people don't speak English sufficiently well to play a game in it.

 

And why do you think we danes can understand sufficient english to not needing translations of everything ?

because were exposed to english every day, on TV, on the internet, in games, in books, in comics, etc.

You will only become better at something if you expose yourself to it.

[Loki Ador]

I chose other, since there wasnt an no other translations option.

I've always felt translations from the original language is semi retarded, why would you want to worsen the language used, since alot of the terms which is in the english language, has no equivelent in alot of other languages.

I've always dread when stuff gets translated to Danish from original languages, since so SO much is lost during the translation.

 

On top of that, reading/watching stuff in another language than your own really, REALLY boosts your knowledge of said language.

 

Just my 0.02 $

 

It might not be true in Denmark, but in other countries many people don't speak English sufficiently well to play a game in it.

 

And why do you think we danes can understand sufficient english to not needing translations of everything ?

because were exposed to english every day, on TV, on the internet, in games, in books, in comics, etc.

You will only become better at something if you expose yourself to it.

 

Point taken, people will make sure to tell that to their governments.

 

Now, let us move from national education policy issues, and focus on the game, as people will not play it to learn another language (if it was the case, most of the people on this forum would not play it as they actually already speak english well enough). As PE is meant to be text intensive game, it would rebuke people whose mastery of english is not sufficient, thus reducing the customer base and the impact of the game.

[Veca]

I chose other, since there wasnt an no other translations option.

I've always felt translations from the original language is semi retarded, why would you want to worsen the language used, since alot of the terms which is in the english language, has no equivelent in alot of other languages.

I've always dread when stuff gets translated to Danish from original languages, since so SO much is lost during the translation.

 

On top of that, reading/watching stuff in another language than your own really, REALLY boosts your knowledge of said language.

 

Just my 0.02 $

 

It might not be true in Denmark, but in other countries many people don't speak English sufficiently well to play a game in it.

 

And why do you think we danes can understand sufficient english to not needing translations of everything ?

because were exposed to english every day, on TV, on the internet, in games, in books, in comics, etc.

You will only become better at something if you expose yourself to it.

 

Point taken, people will make sure to tell that to their governments.

 

Now, let us move from national education policy issues, and focus on the game, as people will not play it to learn another language (if it was the case, most of the people on this forum would not play it as they actually already speak english well enough). As PE is meant to be text intensive game, it would rebuke people whose mastery of english is not sufficient, thus reducing the customer base and the impact of the game.

 

Well good riddance to them then, if they dont want to participate in what is presented, then they shouldn't.

I dont plan to spend weeks in for an example france or spain, due to the fact I cant speak either french or spanish, and I dont come down there expecting them to learn danish so I dont have to adapt.

[Treantsin]

Come on, b'yes.

Czechs play video games too!

All fifteen million of us!

[evdk]

Come on, b'yes.

Czechs play video games too!

All fifteen million of us!

15M? To asi ne, že? Protip: Slovensko už není 19 let součástí federace. Dnešní děcka...

Edited September 27, 2012 by evdk

[norolim]

15M? To asi ne, že? Protip: Slovensko už není 19 let součástí federace. Dnešní děcka...

 

I guess news travel slower, where Treantsin lives

[Loki Ador]

Well good riddance to them then, if they dont want to participate in what is presented, then they shouldn't.

I dont plan to spend weeks in for an example france or spain, due to the fact I cant speak either french or spanish, and I dont come down there expecting them to learn danish so I dont have to adapt.

 

So basically, since they do not speak english, screw them, their loss ?

 

Well, also Obsidian's loss for losing potential customers.

 

The franchise's loss for losing the possibility to expand its fanbase beyond fluent english speakers.

 

And our loss, as it would downsize the PE community on the internet, hamper the isuance of sequels, and fail to demonstrate other developpers that breaking the mould of big publishers can be worthwile.

 

Well, at some points, if it is your stand, so be it. I happen to be relieved that Obsidian Management has a broader point of view.

[norolim]

Ha! Polish overtook Italian

[Richard Teph]

Russian translation all the way. While I am perfectly able to understand English, translation would add a lot to immersion and enjoyability of the game. Y'see, even when you know English perfectly fine, if it's not your native language, you don't think in it - you have to translate everything in your head, which makes the game more tiring mentally.

[evdk]

Russian translation all the way. While I am perfectly able to understand English, translation would add a lot to immersion and enjoyability of the game. Y'see, even when you know English perfectly fine, if it's not your native language, you don't think in it - you have to translate everything in your head, which makes the game more tiring mentally.

That's not what knowing English perfectly fine means.

[-O-]

Looking at the target audience for this game (25+ year nerds) I might get an idea who is asking for translations....

[norolim]

Russian translation all the way. While I am perfectly able to understand English, translation would add a lot to immersion and enjoyability of the game. Y'see, even when you know English perfectly fine, if it's not your native language, you don't think in it - you have to translate everything in your head, which makes the game more tiring mentally.

That's not what knowing English perfectly fine means.

 

You can't know a language perfectly. Even if you are a native speaker. It's a colloquial expression that means nothing.

[twincast]

If I know the language I always want to experience the game/film/book in its original version and I'd encourage everyone to follow suit, but the reality is that many people don't have the necessary language skills, don't trust theirs enough or in a baffling showing of anti-intellectual reverse-snobbery don't want to have them. Ignoring that market is plain stupid.

 

Every game that wants to have international success needs to be released in English, Spanish, French and German. That's very much a fact and they're all covered, so that's fine. Especially for this genre I'd consider Russian and Polish secondary, Italian and Norwegian tertiary, and Hungarian and Greek quaternary. Turkish, Arabic, Persian and Indian pose a number of questions on viability that are beyond me to answer. (That said, most Scandinavians are perfectly fluent in English, so that kind of scraps Norwegian from the list of necessity.)

 

----

 

Regarding professional translations: I can only really speak for German ones, but boy do they tend to be terrible. And that's the most famed foreign language dubbing industry in the world. (At least to me US and JP are both without peer in dubbing of respective domestic games and animation, yet at the very bottom when it comes to dubbing foreign products, so especially from each other.)

Hollywood films (both live-action and animated) and major Hollywood TV series usually get great voice actors (and great illusion of lip-synch), but especially TV series (due to their length) accumulate a number of glaring mistakes in the actual translation, turning the German lines utterly nonsensical just because somebody couldn't be bothered to look up a word or expression. (Ironically often inherently hard to translate wordplay is handled about as good as can be most of the time, though.)

Anime for any and all ages and US animated series aimed at mid-teens and below (as well as the inherently cringeworthy Disney Channel sitcoms) are (at least since the anime boom) without exception saddled with terrible dubs. The Disney comedies sound like the infamous shopping channel dubs (think porn dubs minus the moaning) of old; British TV series fare only marginally better and minor Hollywood TV series are somewhere between them and their major Hollywood TV series brethren and sistren. And every single animated series (US and JP) has a number of utterly terrible voice actors, in most cases the majority of the characters. And most of the time they can't be bothered to consult anyone on the proper pronunciation of Japanese names. (German is much closer than English to Japanese phonetically, so in theory the accent should be much reduced instead of sometimes even worse. I've made my peace with odd vowel lengths and would transcribe Japanese consonants differently if I had my way, but the standard is what it is, looking it up even once wouldn't be hard at all. The "j" more often than not being a German/Latin one instead of an English/Japanese one I can at least understand, but in the unbearable atrocity that is the German Naruto dub they even pronounce "ch" neither English nor German, but French! WTF?) Only Detective Conan ever was reasonably close to being a good dub. The actual translations seem fine most of the time, though.

Now, regarding games: Like many books the basic translation is fine most of the time, but the (usually unnecessary) translations of proper nouns (organizations, places, characters) are almost always beyond cringeworthy (and/or merely semi-correct). (Hello there, Thedas.) The voice actors however, no matter whether it's a German game or a foreign one, are -- occasional German voice actors of Hollywood stars aside -- from the same talent(-free) pool of emotionlessness as the TV animation dubbing brood, even in the most (oddly) acclaimed translations. (Hello again, Thedas.)

Well, that's more steam than I meant to let off, so TL;DR: Text translations tend to be good (and easily correctable), but foreign language voice dubbing tends to be bad, so I'm happy that they IIRC only mean to translate the text.

 

----

 

(Example:) I live in Japan at the moment and it's rare that people know enough English to introduce themself. Even all the university students I've met have had problems with that level of basics. I'm on a English class (second year in high school) and only two people can speak it on (somewhat) conversational level. For most of them, it takes 10-30 minutes to fully understand one easy page of a children story. All the TV-shows and movies are dubbed. All the books translated. All the games in Japanese. It's rare for people at banks or post office to speak English. etc etc

 

Didn't translate? Too bad, a country of 125 million people, with one of the world's biggest gaming industries/gamer communities in the world, virtually monolingual. Good luck trying selling a RPG there.

Heh, during my college exchange year I took an "Advanced English" course for some easy credits; most could hardly speak it (and nobody had the slightest idea what soap operas and talk shows are, the originally planned topic of the course being American TV) to the visible frustration of the (mid-30's female Japanese) teacher. That surprised even me. And Japanese live-action dubs are for the giggles.

 

Anyway, I sadly don't see it being a viable market anyway (not that I wouldn't appreciate PE acting as some kind of forerunner). South Korea? Well, they oddly prefer pay2win grindfest MMO's, but at least it's got a PC games market. China even more so, but trying to sell your product in that environment? Good luck. So, of the East-Asian countries I'd go for Korean first and foremost.

As for South-East Asia? Lots and lots of people, but also lots and lots of poverty and (partly thusly) no idea how big the local gaming markets are.

Edited September 29, 2012 by twincast

[Hornet85]

How many times are you guys going to argue about this?

 

I don't care how much you hate translation, the dev have already said they will translate the game. Can't you guys just leave it at that? Those who doesn't want translation could just not waste their time posting on threads about translation.

 

Its embarrassing that some people are still marching the whole learn English say no to translation agenda.

[RosesandAshes]

I think they should include as many languages as possible. The more translations, the more people who will be interested in the game, which is a win for everyone.

[dlux]

I'm surprised that there are so many votes for Japanese. I once read that western cRPGs are extremely unpopular in Japan... hmmm

[Bill Gates' Son]

I live in Japan (I'm an American though), and unless this game is either heavily advertised or has anime influences like art style or character types (like moe characters), then it's not going to sell at all over here. The people here have certain bias when it comes to a style of gaming. GTAIV and Fallout 3 did pretty well over here, but that's only because Bethesda and Rockstar had a ton of money to throw around.

 

A Polish translation would be nice I guess, but from what I've seen on the internet and my RL Polish friends, most of the younger people understand English very well.

 

Brazil is currently a big gaming market that still growing at the moment. IMO, I think the game deserves a Portuguese translation after an Italian and Russian translation.

Edited September 29, 2012 by Bill Gates' Son

[Humodour]

Learn English.

 

Don't be so damn rude.

[Humodour]

I'm surprised that there are so many votes for Japanese. I once read that western cRPGs are extremely unpopular in Japan... hmmm

 

Which probably still makes Japan a bigger market than most other countries in the world.

 

Even if the Japanese purchase western CRPGs at a rate of, say, 1/4 that of your average Western country, per capita. Since Japan's population is about 130 million, then Japan would be, in this example, a larger market for this game than any 'average Western country' with a population of less than 32 million or so. That's a lot of Western countries.

 

Now I don't know the exact ratio of how much less likely the Japanese are to buy Western CRPGs than Westerners, but Japan's huge population gives it plenty of room to be both "not interested in Western cRPGs" while simultaneously being one of the largest world markets for Western CRPGs.

 

 

Russian translation all the way. While I am perfectly able to understand English, translation would add a lot to immersion and enjoyability of the game. Y'see, even when you know English perfectly fine, if it's not your native language, you don't think in it - you have to translate everything in your head, which makes the game more tiring mentally.

That's not what knowing English perfectly fine means.

 

He explained to your very well why he needs a Russian translation. Russia is a huge PC game market (ask Valve). Why do you have to be so damn rude? So maybe you were born in an English-speaking family. Lucky you. Get over it and stop sniping at people requesting translations (which are some of the most genuine requests I have seen on this forum between the constant complaining like 12 year olds that feature X doesn't suit people or houses should be fortresses or whatever rubbish is floating about at the moment).

 

Glob, what are you, some sort of GoP-loving redneck yank?

Edited September 29, 2012 by Krezack