30 replies to this topic

[Alpie]

Those textures are completely disaster to game's atmosphere (IMO, as a native russian speaker). Hope they not be included in game.
The quality of translation are poor (Klava was right in fact), but still better than nothing...

Oh, yes. I'd prefer to play with original textures, of course. Good for us we know English enough, yeah?
But for someone, who doesn't know English at all it's all Greek. No easter eggs and so on. Great that you decided for them... Oh, wait, thank God you couldn't decide.
By the way, Russian textures are optional in the Well-DING team patch just for smart asses like us.

[toremygg]

Give us some examples of what you think is bad. I know enough Russians in the language business to get a definitive verdict. This bickering with no substance is leading nowhere.

[Happy Tree]

It's all academic anyway as I would assume RTG would verify any localisation with a native-speaking Russian translator in Oslo before recommending it. "Have a look at this. Is it any good?" So whatever people think of it on here doesn't really matter.

[toremygg]

True, but if it could stop this endless bickering...

[ShadowNate]

Yeah, I'd say it's also a matter of... honor I guess for lack of a better word? 

 

I have been part of fan translation teams in the past for PC games because my country (Greece) doesn't get many officially localized games, and the amount of effort required is considerable. And these projects are typically run by people in their free time, out of love for the original games and they try to respect the original material as much as is possible. Yes, nothing can be perfect and localizations always have issues with special terminology and dialogue that is based on jokes or idioms etc that don't work when translated -- and there are quite a lot more issues that are particular to localizing an adventure game as opposed to a movie or a book.

 

Anyway, I just find it odd that there was such a strong and negative reaction towards the topic starter and their team's work by fellow countrymen/women, with not much or anything really to back the claims that the translation is bad/ ruins the game or whatever.  Odd and sort of depressing. 

[Klava]

Give us some examples of what you think is bad.

 

 

"Меркурия" - this, apparently, is how "Marcuria" renders in Russian. that is, if you listen to the professional translators who made this "localization".

"Жатволуние" - this... ummm... remarkable neologism stands for "Reapmoon" i guess.

"Можно мне отнять минутку вашего времени..." - and this is what an ad-bot of one of the most powerful corporation in Stark is programmed to say to a potential customer. my 11-years-old niece is better spoken and more polite.

 

those are few of the absurdities found on the screenshots posted in this thread. i didn't play much of the whole thing, but what i did see was just as awful.

 

 

well, anyway, i'm not here to bicker, really. i just don't want to see this crap endorsed by RTG, that would be embarrassing indeed. i also don't expect anybody to act on my word - i'm sure there are people with actual skills in russian language out there who RTG can consult. i hope they do.

[Alpie]

"Меркурия" - this, apparently, is how "Marcuria" renders in Russian. that is, if you listen to the professional translators who made this "localization".

Funny, that you mentioned this word, cos it's great example of the TLJ and Dreamfall:TLJ official professional localisations legacy, which translators had to keep in mind considering familiarity for majority of the Russian players.

Жатволуние" - this... ummm... remarkable neologism stands for "Reapmoon" i guess

The original word used in the game (Reapmoon) is a neologism by itself. It's a widely acceptable and common thing to translate a neologism with another neologism. The word Жатволуние sounds pretty similar to many other Russian words that mean an exceptional time of the year (like равноденствие or солнцестояние).

"Можно мне отнять минутку вашего времени..." - and this is what an ad-bot of one of the most powerful corporation in Stark is programmed to say to a potential customer. my 11-years-old niece is better spoken and more polite.

Hmmm... Original: "May I have a minute of your time.. "
Just no comments ))

And yes, as I thought, there are only two opinions — yours and the "wrong" one (yeah, I've noticed your love for quote marks, even feel all the undertoned hate)

[Alpie]

Almost forgot, I assume, the most doubtful part of the translation - euroslang.
To save an authentic feeling of living in a big multilingual city, the team decided to transliterate most of the non-English slang words and created Euroslang dictionary as a bonus - https://drive.google...iew?usp=sharing

[ChrisR]

Well, I haven't used Russian translation, so I can't judge its quality, but after Klava's examples I can see that she's either trolling or hating for no reason or hating for some reason which is only apparent to her. Seriously, what an attitude.

[ShadowNate]

Funny, that you mentioned this word, cos it's great example of the TLJ and Dreamfall:TLJ official professional localisations legacy, which translators had to keep in mind considering familiarity for majority of the Russian players.

I think this is one of the blessings and curses of localizing a sequel for which the previous installments were already localized. 

 

As a positive, you get a prepared vocabulary for special terms and expressions for the game's universe and mythology, so you don't have to figure it out and spend extra time debating the most fitting translation (and that happens a lot anyway with the new terms and expressions introduced in the sequel). 

 

As a negative you are stuck with it, to keep consistency with the previous games. On some occasions the sequels will introduce inside jokes or word play on the established terms and that could be hell to translate if the original translation can't work like that (which is what usually happens when you go for the "beautiful" translation -- that works better and is generally preferable-- instead of the "faithful" which sounds harsher and weirder). 

 

I'm just saying I've seen the issue come up many times, and in my experience, the translation team also feels uncomfortable with going with a not-so-appropriate or well thought out translation term that was inherited from a previous title. But at the end of the day, I agree that the legacy term should be used. 

[Vainamoinen]

Fan translations are not exempt from the Translator's Curse: Whatever you do, people will tear your translation apart, regardless of actual quality, and you need a microscope to find any kind of appraisal in the depths of the internet.