After English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish, Brian Fargo now announced Wasteland 2 will be localized in Polish and Russian too. All localizations will utilize fan assistance, and presumably be text-only.
Wasteland 2 Polish and Russian localization confirmed
- Thread starter Brother None
- Start date
thats a good thing. Keep the english voices. If there are any.
Brother None said:
Hmmm, a tricky situation: on one hand, I would like to assist with translation (I've got a sccussful RU-EN game localization under my belt). On the other hand, I would hate to spoil the game plot for myself, by reading these texts.
I wonder what I should do...
You make sure you get early access (you will need to know the context of each line, no?) and play away like never before.
I bet they'll use the beta for translators.
I bet they'll use the beta for translators.
Bewitched
aka Vault_13
This was kinda confirmed a while ago, no? So it turns out we should have been worrying all this time 
?
?
Bewitched said:
Not at all. He hadn't brought it up since update #1. I mailed Fargo about this a few days back because the Kickstarter page only has "English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish" and he never confirmed other, Eastern European languages.
rumpl said:
Wouldn't think so. But there's a thread in the WL2 forum where a ton of people are volunteering. Getting Russian and Polish volunteers to help out is probably one of the easiest things.
Brother None said:Getting Russian and Polish volunteers to help out is probably one of the easiest things.
I do hope that BF knows how to work with these volunteers, and they tend to disappear soon after some real work begins and deadlines are set.
And who will edit these translations? Who will create a single glossary? I really hope he knows what he's doing.
egalor said:
Nah, he's got no idea. This is totally his first time doing this.
Maxxim
First time out of the vault
I've volunteered (right from the start, actually) to help Brian out with the overall organization and logistics for Russian localization. (Having been in the industry for more than a decade, I think I have some insights to share.) I hope he finds someone competent on his end to manage the localization as a whole while I focus on running things here in Russia. (I wouldn't mind working with them in California, of course, but I don't think they'll go through the hassle of obtaining an H1-B for me.)
Oh, and Brother, are you sure you aren't misinterpreting "we will coordinate with the offers of help" as "the localization will be crowdsourced"?
I maintain that crowdsourcing is the second worst thing that can happen to W2 localization (the first being the way it's usually done in the industry, by sending text resources in spreadsheets for translation a couple of months before the game is expected to be shipped).
That "he's got no idea" really worries me. I think I need to write Brian a memo or something.
I really want this localization to be a success, unlike most Russian game localizations (they even half-botched The Witcher, can you believe it?).
Oh, and Brother, are you sure you aren't misinterpreting "we will coordinate with the offers of help" as "the localization will be crowdsourced"?
I maintain that crowdsourcing is the second worst thing that can happen to W2 localization (the first being the way it's usually done in the industry, by sending text resources in spreadsheets for translation a couple of months before the game is expected to be shipped).
That "he's got no idea" really worries me. I think I need to write Brian a memo or something.
I really want this localization to be a success, unlike most Russian game localizations (they even half-botched The Witcher, can you believe it?).
Maxxim said:
No, because I don't think it'll be crowdsourced. But that doesn't mean you can't utilize offers for help. As long as people don't expect to be paid.
Maxxim said:
It was sarcastic. He ran one gaming's biggest publishers for years (albeit not very well), he knows what he's doing.
Maxxim
First time out of the vault
Localization by volunteer professionals, huh? That's… a daring concept indeed.
BTW, research shows that sarcasm (as well as other nuanced emotions) is easily misinterpreted in electronic communications.
BTW, research shows that sarcasm (as well as other nuanced emotions) is easily misinterpreted in electronic communications.
Maxxim said:
I've recently finished TW1 in polish with russian subtitles(don't speak polish, native russian speaker) localization seemed pretty decent to me, better than english one. Especially since i was reading the books in russian at around the same time
The Russian localization was fixed in the enhanced edition release. It (and other localizations) were pretty bad in the first release.
Obviously not all of it. But I think there are some possibilities to work with fan volunteers, not only in localization, and Fargo's mentioned such things as well.
Maxxim said:
Obviously not all of it. But I think there are some possibilities to work with fan volunteers, not only in localization, and Fargo's mentioned such things as well.
Brother None said:
Oh really? Where did he use the crowdsourced translation? Wish I could lay my eyes on it.
However, judging by his recent interviews, this whole "crowdsourcing" thing seems to be kind of new to him. That's why he's been so amazed by this. But, commissioning an translation of the entire game from these people might as well amaze him, but not in a so positive way. That's what I fear, actually.
Maxxim
First time out of the vault
…which is nothing short of a miracle considering that they basically used the English version as source.Sam Ecorners said:
(Also, see this discussion featuring the localization's editor for some more details).
I wish it were true, but I played the latest, most updated and enhanced edition.Brother None said:
THat thread if rom 2007, that's before Enhanced Edition.
All I know is that I played through the game switching between polish and english VA(russian VA is terrible) and russian text very closely matched polish VA, while english VA was often significantly cut.
All I know is that I played through the game switching between polish and english VA(russian VA is terrible) and russian text very closely matched polish VA, while english VA was often significantly cut.
Maxxim
First time out of the vault
I've just thought up a neat concept and I think the multilingual among us might appreciate it. Or at least get a couple of chuckles out of it.
I was thinking of the best way to convey to Mr. Fargo, a supposedly monolingual individual (mille pardon if I'm mistaken), the idea of how difficult it is to produce a good translation.
Because ideally you need a translator who's every bit as good as the original author — and doubly so (because they need to be equally well-versed in both the source and the target language). So ideally, on the "receiving end" you need a copy of the original author, but with a different native language. In other words, you need to… clone Avellone!
(A stack of cloned Stackpoles won't hurt too, but they didn't rhyme so well.)
I was thinking of the best way to convey to Mr. Fargo, a supposedly monolingual individual (mille pardon if I'm mistaken), the idea of how difficult it is to produce a good translation.
Because ideally you need a translator who's every bit as good as the original author — and doubly so (because they need to be equally well-versed in both the source and the target language). So ideally, on the "receiving end" you need a copy of the original author, but with a different native language. In other words, you need to… clone Avellone!
(A stack of cloned Stackpoles won't hurt too, but they didn't rhyme so well.)
any of you ever watched any tv shows translated with notabenoid? I know leprousers use it for their translations and i've heard good things about them.