Grandmauden on 9/4/2020 at 04:01
Quote Posted by Anfortas
[...] the city itself was a bit of a letdown.
Only because I ran out of time to flesh out the city like I wanted before the deadline. Hopefully, I can salvage this thing with an update/overhaul sometime after the contest is over.
Psych0sis on 9/4/2020 at 18:41
While that may be true, from my own experience and from talking around with other authors, most of the people here who are so eager to translate FMs usually have a pretty low grasp on English as is and either bug the author too much because they don't understand the meaning of some simple phrases, or they end up half-ass translating things (examples like brk. lard to Schmalz, or schlepping milk)
nicked on 9/4/2020 at 19:35
I think it's more usually an oversight from authors who aren't aware of the non-English-speaking Thief fandom, or simply impatience to get the mission out. I've certainly never had any cause to complain about any translators I've worked with; but if you want to release with multiple languages, you do have to factor that time in during, or more likely after, testing.
fortuni on 9/4/2020 at 19:38
Seeing 95% of missions are translated from English to another language (German/Russian/French/Italian) unless you are multi-lingual and have played every translated mission in every different language it's been translated into how would you know the translators screw things up so spectacularly?
Since Athalle set up the translators forum they have translated nearly 40 missions in the last 2 years and not once have we ever had any feed back from any author about someone bugging them to explain the meaning of a word or phrase, far from it most authors join the forum and are more than happy to assist the translators being very grateful for their work, but then again if you mean bugging an author as in the same way beta testers bug authors when trying to improve the missions game play I guess I now know what you mean.
FYI before a translator 'bugs' any authors for meaning of phrases or words they usually ask on the translators forum for other peoples thoughts, often myself or Athalle, it's only on rare occasions when we do not understand what the author intended is when they then ask the author, and that usually happens because the author has written something undecipherable in the first place.
And btw every translator I know of has an exceptionally good grasp of English, better than a lot of people who post on this forum, yes sometimes a few words get mistranslated but then again how many missions are released with serious bugs in them.
Psych0sis on 9/4/2020 at 20:13
Quote Posted by fortuni
And btw every translator I know of has an exceptionally good grasp of English
Quote Posted by zappenduster
Even in consideration of the fact that a translation will never be 1:1 (thinking of
rimes, proverbes ... )
:rolleyes: :P
ticky on 9/4/2020 at 20:24
Since this thread is not only about subtitles, but the contest and voting in general, I'd like to admit the following.
Playing FMs since the very beginning, it is interesting to see that I met the TOP2 most annoying things in the FM world within this small contest. I really appreciate all the nice FMs in the contest, and the efforts, and the countless hours of fun playing these, but the following are the two most annoying thing ever for me:
1, Kernel, the invicible and ever reappearing creature in The Builder's Paradise
2, GORT's entry, mission 2, Collecting it all: the clock puzzle.
Yandros on 9/4/2020 at 20:29
Everyone settle down a bit here. All points are well taken, but I would advise those claiming that someone can't assess the quality of a translation if they only speak English, to consider that those people might have friends who speak the language being translated into natively, who have offered opinions of the quality of said translations in private. To be fair, though, those are just opinions as well, and quality can be very subjective of course.
fortuni on 9/4/2020 at 20:31
You can roll your eyes as much as you want but there are a load of foreign language players who are deeply appreciative of the work the translators do, I've never heard any complaint from any of them so why do you feel the need to attack those who put so much effort and time into the translations?
Edit: Yandros I posted the above before I saw your post, your welcome to delete it if you think it's uncalled for.
Yandros on 9/4/2020 at 20:44
No it's ok, but I didn't see anyone attacking translators directly here or suggesting that their efforts were not appreciated by those who use them. Psych0sis' delivery might be a bit abrasive, but he was just relaying comments he has heard (presumably in private since I've not seen them made here). I didn't take that to mean that the translators who work hard to make FMs accessible to more Thief fans were wasting their time.
Psych0sis on 9/4/2020 at 20:52
No yeah, translations are fine, I even worked happily with Apiai (even if he was a bit annoying at times !) for the TT French translation. Overall it seems to have come out fine, though I'm still very upset he changed the "The Plumsie and You: How to Make Grapes" joke readable into something else entirely and ruined it :(.
Mainly, I was just scoffing at the idea that translations aren't "additional work" for the author.
