18th April 2005, 6:40 PM
...no...
I was talking about Eternal Darkness.
Anyway, there is one other thing. OB1, you seem to not understand the details of the translating issues. Bringing their games to other countries, yes they do that, but that doesn't apply here, because that is done after the original language version is released. Now, why not do it DURING? Why don't they do such things during any game's creation? Well, they have a deadline to keep, for one. This is a very important point. To delay it for several months to translate it would alienate a lot of people, and more than that, it would result in a lot of lost sales, for very little gain. They've dropped actual gameplay features for less of a time delay than that. Further, to actually translate the script side by side with the script writer just doesn't work. You've read the interviews on IGN before, scripts are rewritten countless times during game creation. All the work translating it bit by bit would be lost, and that's lost effort on the part of the hired work and lost money on the part of the ones hiring them. Just not a good idea... It's the details of creating the game, that's the issue.
And perhaps you misunderstand me ABF. Regarding subtitles, a lot of the time, it's not a big deal, but sometimes, things pop up. In a game specifically, a lot of the time characters will shout things at me. The entire point of the character shouting stuff is so I don't have to read something and possibly die. So, they better say "watch out for the cannon!" in english so I know what the heck they are saying. As for emotion and tone, well, that's troublesome too. Since language is more than just word definitions, but grammar too, sometimes there is the issue of matching their tones to what the translation on the bottom of the screen is. If, for example, turning something into english means putting the beginning of their sentence at the end of our's, this can cause problems. I might end up wondering why he just screamed when he said his mother's name, if that would also make sense in such a scene. Again, too much effort to do something minor.
Remember, this ENTIRE time I only wish to express why an english writer would prefer to write a story in english. When it comes to a story written originally in another language, that's another matter completely. Why bother bringing that up? I've talked about it before. And, one last thing, is this a double standard, or is Hideo Kojima also simply catering to the lowest common denominator (that's a frickin' MATH term and all it is in fact equal in value to the highest common denominator, what the heck were they thinking using that as an expression?) when he makes Metal Gear games using Japanese voice actors for the Japanese version? I should hope you hate that too, when all the characters speak english or Japanese despite their nationality.
But, no matter. OB1, I've said what I will. Please do not be so insulting or confrontational. All I did was say something contrary and attempt to explain why some would disagree. This is not something that is simply black and white. This sort of thing really comes down to a lot of things and a blanket answer doesn't fit. There are advantages and disadvanteges to both ways of doing this. To you, one of the advantages cleraly outweighs the rest, but that is not so for a lot of people, and they are not wrong or close minded idiots for thinking so.d There is a lot more I wanted to add here regarding translation in general, but I honestly don't think even what I've said here will be listened to, and I may have offended.
I guess I'll just go.
I was talking about Eternal Darkness.
Anyway, there is one other thing. OB1, you seem to not understand the details of the translating issues. Bringing their games to other countries, yes they do that, but that doesn't apply here, because that is done after the original language version is released. Now, why not do it DURING? Why don't they do such things during any game's creation? Well, they have a deadline to keep, for one. This is a very important point. To delay it for several months to translate it would alienate a lot of people, and more than that, it would result in a lot of lost sales, for very little gain. They've dropped actual gameplay features for less of a time delay than that. Further, to actually translate the script side by side with the script writer just doesn't work. You've read the interviews on IGN before, scripts are rewritten countless times during game creation. All the work translating it bit by bit would be lost, and that's lost effort on the part of the hired work and lost money on the part of the ones hiring them. Just not a good idea... It's the details of creating the game, that's the issue.
And perhaps you misunderstand me ABF. Regarding subtitles, a lot of the time, it's not a big deal, but sometimes, things pop up. In a game specifically, a lot of the time characters will shout things at me. The entire point of the character shouting stuff is so I don't have to read something and possibly die. So, they better say "watch out for the cannon!" in english so I know what the heck they are saying. As for emotion and tone, well, that's troublesome too. Since language is more than just word definitions, but grammar too, sometimes there is the issue of matching their tones to what the translation on the bottom of the screen is. If, for example, turning something into english means putting the beginning of their sentence at the end of our's, this can cause problems. I might end up wondering why he just screamed when he said his mother's name, if that would also make sense in such a scene. Again, too much effort to do something minor.
Remember, this ENTIRE time I only wish to express why an english writer would prefer to write a story in english. When it comes to a story written originally in another language, that's another matter completely. Why bother bringing that up? I've talked about it before. And, one last thing, is this a double standard, or is Hideo Kojima also simply catering to the lowest common denominator (that's a frickin' MATH term and all it is in fact equal in value to the highest common denominator, what the heck were they thinking using that as an expression?) when he makes Metal Gear games using Japanese voice actors for the Japanese version? I should hope you hate that too, when all the characters speak english or Japanese despite their nationality.
But, no matter. OB1, I've said what I will. Please do not be so insulting or confrontational. All I did was say something contrary and attempt to explain why some would disagree. This is not something that is simply black and white. This sort of thing really comes down to a lot of things and a blanket answer doesn't fit. There are advantages and disadvanteges to both ways of doing this. To you, one of the advantages cleraly outweighs the rest, but that is not so for a lot of people, and they are not wrong or close minded idiots for thinking so.d There is a lot more I wanted to add here regarding translation in general, but I honestly don't think even what I've said here will be listened to, and I may have offended.
I guess I'll just go.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)