The Witcher 3 Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Decado]

For example I don't understand why muricans seem to have problem with watching movies in the original language with subtitles. You are missing half the fun that way.

We aren't trained to do it. 99.9% of our media is our own, unlike pretty much every other country I have been to. So you could go 30 years into your life without even realizing the French make movies, let alone watch one. One day a kwa bro encounters his first subtitled foreign movie and he's like "wtf is this shit?" and quickly changes the channel before his world view is challenged.

Also video games aren't movies. If your English version sucks, it just means your translation sucks.

Seriously. Translation is pretty fucking cheap. There is no excuse for poor translation.

 

[Lemon]

For example I don't understand why muricans seem to have problem with watching movies in the original language with subtitles. You are missing half the fun that way.

We aren't trained to do it. 99.9% of our media is our own, unlike pretty much every other country I have been to. So you could go 30 years into your life without even realizing the French make movies, let alone watch one. One day a kwa bro encounters his first subtitled foreign movie and he's like "wtf is this shit?" and quickly changes the channel before his world view is challenged.

Also video games aren't movies. If your English version sucks, it just means your translation sucks.

Seriously. Translation is pretty fucking cheap. There is no excuse for poor translation.

Good writers are rare, and good translators are rarer still. My fifth form latin teacher described it as a kind of poetry. I think that's apt. You're translating the idea into different words, in a different language, while retaining the rhythm of the original.

That's no small thing.

 

[Cadmus]

For example I don't understand why muricans seem to have problem with watching movies in the original language with subtitles. You are missing half the fun that way.

We aren't trained to do it. 99.9% of our media is our own, unlike pretty much every other country I have been to. So you could go 30 years into your life without even realizing the French make movies, let alone watch one. One day a kwa bro encounters his first subtitled foreign movie and he's like "wtf is this shit?" and quickly changes the channel before his world view is challenged.

Also video games aren't movies. If your English version sucks, it just means your translation sucks.

Seriously. Translation is pretty fucking cheap. There is no excuse for poor translation.

I would argue it's pretty hard to find a good translation. As Lemon said, translations are hard, it doesn't matter whether they are "fucking cheap".

 

[DalekFlay]

RPGs are pretty dialog-dependent. If I made an RPG and the German translation sucked ass I would endeavor to get a better translation done.

 

[Cadmus]

RPGs are pretty dialog-dependent. If I made an RPG and the German translation sucked ass I would endeavor to get a better translation done.

That's good on you!

Listen, I don't mean to say that it's great that the English translation wasn't perfect, but there are things to consider.
1) it's a translation and if you want, you'll find that every translation ever has flaws - translations are hard to do
2) it's hard to get the different flavour of slavic dialogue into the english one and if you don't the translation will have nothing to do with the original and you lose again
3) even when I hear the Witcher monster names in English, I think how stupid it sounds and how an important aspect of the atmosphere is lost
it's just difficult to get across the different mythos, culture and manner of speaking when translating into English.

I've played the first game with the czech localization and while it was badly done in places, it was still a far better way and closer to the original idea than playing it in English. I would even go so far as to say that it's very likely that muricans just won't get it unless they've been heavily exposed to the slavic culture.
I didn't like the second game's translation simply because it's lost almost all of the uniqueness in English. I wish it had been translated to czech.

Also, I have no idea when to capitalize letters when it comes to language names and stuff.

I'm surprised at Operation Flashpoint's popularity because it's practically a love letter to the eastern europe.

 

[DalekFlay]

...

That's all well and good but I found the original game almost incomprehensible at times. That's more than just a poor translation in some lines or whatever, that's a pretty big problem for a huge portion of the market. So I think you're underestimating the problem.

Witcher 2 was totally fine though, so it matters little at this point.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Damn, I didn't find the Twitcher incomprehensible at all.

 

[Cadmus]

I wonder have you guys considered playing the game with the original VA and english subtitles? I'm curious what would you think

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Damn, I didn't find the Twitcher incomprehensible at all.

Location: سمَـَّوُوُحخ ̷̴̐خ ̷̴̐خ ̷̴̐خ امارتيخ ̷̴̐خ

 

[Ninjerk]

I don't remember translation being a problem.

 

[Rake]

I wonder have you guys considered playing the game with the original VA and english subtitles? I'm curious what would you think

I did it, as i'm not a murican and i prefer subtitles to full localizations. While the problem wasn't so exaggerated as DalekFlay and others have faced, sometimes the subtitles felt a little off.
Not something that made the game incomprehensible, but also not something that i would consider "great" writing.

 

[Storyfag]

Witcher 2 was totally fine though, so it matters little at this point.

Thank you

 

[Infinitron]

It can't be THAT hard to be a great translator if one of them is just hanging around on the Codex.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Can Storyfag prove he translated for the Witcher 2? Could be yet another FAIRY TALE.

Also the difference was, they've *implemented* TW2 in English instead of merely translating afterwards. Whatever that means. Kurwa.

 

[Storyfag]

Can Storyfag prove he translated for the Witcher 2? Could be yet another FAIRY TALE.

"another"? Have I ever amused the Codex with confabulations?

I guess I could think of a way to provide sufficient evidence, but, frankly, I don't care. Not fond of the idea of breaking the NDA or revealing too much of my personal data.

 

[Roguey]

How strange considering http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/the-witcher-2-written-in-english-first.42377/

Or maybe not so strange if he's the guy.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

"another"? Have I ever amused the Codex with confabulations?

It was a joke. A reference to TW1, the professor says it to Geralt.

 

[Storyfag]

Ah, true that. Very

 

[norolim]

CD Parrot RED

 

[Quatlo]

CD Parrot RED

Looks more like a super saiyan sparrow to me.

 

[undecaf]

Some sort of pokemon?

 

[LESS T_T]

That remind me of Pidgeotto from Pokemon.

 

[Necroscope]

Sparrows are extremely common in Poland. When I was a kid there was even a cartoon about "Sparrow Ćwirek" ("ćwierkać" means "to chirp").

So it's a familiar symbol. And it looks pretty cool.

 

[undecaf]

They should've gone for something like this:

 

[Decado]

For example I don't understand why muricans seem to have problem with watching movies in the original language with subtitles. You are missing half the fun that way.

We aren't trained to do it. 99.9% of our media is our own, unlike pretty much every other country I have been to. So you could go 30 years into your life without even realizing the French make movies, let alone watch one. One day a kwa bro encounters his first subtitled foreign movie and he's like "wtf is this shit?" and quickly changes the channel before his world view is challenged.

Also video games aren't movies. If your English version sucks, it just means your translation sucks.

Seriously. Translation is pretty fucking cheap. There is no excuse for poor translation.

Good writers are rare, and good translators are rarer still. My fifth form latin teacher described it as a kind of poetry. I think that's apt. You're translating the idea into different words, in a different language, while retaining the rhythm of the original.

That's no small thing.

I have worked in translation for highly technical stuff (so, a lot harder to translate than video games) and I can tell you this:

Good translation is never done by one person. Generally, when you want to have a document translated, you send it to a person fluent in both languages. Then, you send that document to an editor who is fluent in the final language. The last step is HUGELY IMPORTANT but also the one most often skipped by people who are trying to save some money. Which is ridiculous when you think about it, because what you're looking for here is essentially an editor. You never, ever go from the first draft of a document (no matter the language) right to release, so why on Earth would you do it for a translation?

And that's the biggest problem with The Witcher, by the way, and a lot of other shitty translations. The actual translation per se is usually pretty good. The problem is that a competent editor is rarely used to edit the translated work. People think "Okay well it's translated, ship it!" which is ridiculous. The point of having an editor who speaks/writes the translated language fluently (in the Witcher's case, English) is so that a native speaker can read/hear the dialog and pick out the words/phrases/sentences/intonations that will sound "off" to a native speaker, who in this case is the group that makes up your audience.

In my opinion and experience, that's why translations end up fucking terrible. And there is no excuse for it. You can go on E-Lance and find a competent editor for a few thousand bucks. It is peanuts.