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Awesome Game. Awful Translation. - Wolfspirit - 10-23-2015
Hello,
Just thought I'm going to put in my two cents...
At first:
Thank you for this awesome game.
It really has a wonderful atmosphere...a deep story and many things to think about after playing. There isn't much to say about the game itself as it's really wonderful...
To bad such a wonderful game has many many translation errors making the story hard to follow at least in German. I'm not sure about the other languages. One example is when you arrive at Omicron and you enter the room with the glass room in the middle you can see a person inside saying "You need to stop it". The German text to that is "Du musst damit aufhören" which means something like "Stop doing that" which completly destroys the intention of that words. Everybody playing that in german is wondering "What do I need to stop?" while the person saying that would never want us to stop. He wants us to keep on doing what we are doing. It should better have been "Du musst es aufhalten" preparing on what is going to happen. The "stop it" is just translated in the completely wrong context. Most of the translations are done "right" and are completly correct german sentences, but even so they are "right" there are many places where the translation is just completly out of context as if the translation is done by someone who is just translating some texts without any context.
After playing the game in german I hate I actually played it in german cause of that. If I'd have known there are tons of that mistakes...I'd have played it in english so things actually make sense even so my english isn't the best.
I'm really hoping that kind of issues get fixed with an update maybe.....hopefully...
Or maybe some fans are able to add a better translation...Would love to see that.
RE: Awesome Game. Awful Translation. - Googolplex - 10-23-2015
I'm actually working hard on a better translation and already corrected all typos and optimized some lines. But when you can help me by posting all of these wrong sentences, it would be easier for me to fix it. Actually I haven't even noticed that the sentences are in a wrong context. The "monster" in the glass room could mean: Wir müssen damit aufhören, uns noch weiter in das Forschungsprojekt einzumischen, dessen Ziel er unter allen Umständen vermeiden will.
Wir als Spieler schnüffeln in Pathos-II herum, um herauszufinden, was mit uns und Catherines Projekt geschehen ist und wollen die ARCHE starten. Er möchte versuchen, uns im guten Sinne davon abzuhalten.
Also ich habe nicht bemerkt, dass da etwas falsch übersetzt wurde. Aber vielleicht zählst du mir mal ein paar Zeilen auf. "You need to stop it" könnte durchaus beides bedeuten. Und vielleicht ist es sogar so gewollt, dass man sich fragt, womit man aufhören soll. Das erfährt man ja noch.
RE: Awesome Game. Awful Translation. - felixmole - 10-25-2015
(10-23-2015, 08:56 PM)Wolfspirit Wrote: After playing the game in german I hate I actually played it in german cause of that. If I'd have known there are tons of that mistakes...I'd have played it in english so things actually make sense even so my english isn't the best.
I'm really hoping that kind of issues get fixed with an update maybe.....hopefully...
Or maybe some fans are able to add a better translation...Would love to see that.
As far as I'm concerned I played the game entirely in English because of the bad memories associated with the French translation of the game in Amnesia: TDD.
I think you should report that problem in the "Technical Support" forum so they take notice of the problem and forward it to their subcontractor... unless they already know. I don't think the fans should get involved in it other than just reporting the incongruities.
RE: Awesome Game. Awful Translation. - Googolplex - 10-25-2015
This is probably not a "problem". It just depends how you understand the context.
RE: Awesome Game. Awful Translation. - Romulator - 10-25-2015
At the end of the day, the translation as released by the German localisation team, whether it be a single person or a group of individuals, may contain some errors, issues or mistranslations as there would be with any other project. A translation's main constraint from English to any language is context; there are so very many words for some objects (seat, bench, chair, etc) but may only one in another language. A lack of understanding contexts and fluency in English results may result in problems. Even I have some issues translating some English to Chinese, since I probably require a more basic word than something specific.
If you feel you can improve the translation, go for it! Release an add-on mod for it and upload to ModDB (I am aware you do not use the Steam Workshop). The only real thing Frictional can do from this point on is ask for the translation be proof read and/or adjusted to suit contextual language; but if the community is working on such a project, then there is no need for them to take much further action.
RE: Awesome Game. Awful Translation. - Googolplex - 10-25-2015
As I said, I already corrected EVERY single typo and mistranslation. But the only thing that needs more effort is to check the right context. Personally I don't see a problem with the context. For me everything was clear. It just depends how people understand it.
RE: Awesome Game. Awful Translation. - felixmole - 10-26-2015
It's very nice to submit a mod on Steam or somewhere else, but those are used by a relatively low number of players. It's too bad to work for such little impact. Which is why I think it's important to let FG know about these mistakes, it might still be time to fix the translations directly in the game.
RE: Awesome Game. Awful Translation. - Googolplex - 10-27-2015
I made this translation for me. But when people are interested I will share it here. But please accept that I will not publish it on Steam, because I don't want to support other people's money machine with my work. When people like it, I hope there is a way that FG add it in an update. I corrected and optimized so many lines, I don't remember every single change in the file. But you can always trust me that I work with my best conscience.
RE: Awesome Game. Awful Translation. - Wolfspirit - 10-27-2015
Thanks! It would be nice to have a better translation! When I get some time I will look through a lets play again to find some wrong contexts. I'm pretty sure he wants to say "You need to stop it (the wau)" and not "Stop what you're doing" cause as far as I remember nearly everything he says their is meaning "Kill the wau". Especially as you're need to find the harmful structur gel in Omicron. He won't say "Stop what you're doing" as he actually wants you to get it. It just makes no sense in my opinion.
I didn't write down the wrong contexts I found. As the first time playing I of course didn't notice wrong contexts cause you don't even know what's going to happen. It's just when you watch a Lets play afterwards it gets completly obvious that some parts are just out of context.
I remember there were at least two wrong contexts around Theta. If I remember right one of them wasn't really story relative but made no sense in general. I will post it here when I find some more mistakes.
PS: One wrong context is the text in Cathrines diary in Theta about a machine being build to be stolen by the WAU. That completly makes no sense in German. (As far as I remember it was the text at the 5. June?!)
RE: Awesome Game. Awful Translation. - Googolplex - 10-27-2015
I will look at this. An other solution is to look at the french or italian text lines and translate them to german. Then we will see how the context is meant there.