notes-proder-gr-3-motivation-1
Notes of the Games Translator 3. Motivation.
So, perhaps it has already been mentioned (and perhaps not) that translations are our hobby. A hobby that takes all our free time at all.“Watch the movie?” When? “Play games?” For what? You need to test something? “You have a day off, can we go somewhere?” No, I need to finish up to 45% today.
Today, our senior translator decided to figure out why people generally go to amateur localizations and that they are holding them there. It is in amateur. After all, this note was written just a week before we received our first official project (which was in the last note). About the “business” part and the conclusion of contracts with developers/publishers, we will tell you somewhere next time.
“And you didn’t think to do something useful?”
“Let’s talk about motivation.” * The sound of the filled glass Intensify.
I wanted to describe what makes people spend hundreds of hours on translations of games, which most often they have already passed. No, true. In addition to, in fact, I take part in working with personnel. People come and say they want to help (and it’s great, really). If you think from the point of view of common sense, such people who dedicate themselves to such a matter absorbed by them … why do they do it? They … volunteers? They … no, really, why are they doing it? There are official studios that translate games ..
Here we remember that if the question bettingsitesnogamstop.co.uk/ of translating the game is raised at all, then it is either not translated or translated poorly. There are people who are not satisfied with one of these two moments. Some of them are expressed about this in the comments in the relevant communities, part decides to take everything into his own hands, hits himself with a fist in the chest, feels that “who, if not me”. What can happen next? There may be several options, I will assume those that seem to me the most likely.
This person decides that he will cope himself. He is confident in himself and his abilities, he understands that behind his motivation is a community of people who need this translation. He may have passed the game, and in his head the memories of the characters, the events of the game are fresh. He can translate them, because he already feels them on the subcortex of his consciousness. But … for some reason the game is encrypted. Why? Yes, who will understand these Japanese, indie developers, large studios (freeze out unnecessary). Straining his gyrus, understanding the terminology and the specifics of the analysis of game files, a person successfully pulls out files from the game, and … finds other archives inside the archives. Or is faced with the fact that he can pull out the game files, but does not understand how to add them back. Or after minor intervention, the game suddenly stops working as it should, flies out, freezes, etc.p. It suddenly turns out that the translation of the game does not come down only to translation of the text.
If this person manages to deal with all these subtleties, then my respect.
Many people, thinking about the same matters, immediately understand that they need like -minded people. Some of them become a core, like -minded people gather around them. So communities and groups arise, they grow up or suddenly fade away (but I really wish to end my projects to everyone who started them). Part join existing groups. That’s like ours. What drives them?
“I would like to try my hand”. No problems. We have a number of projects. I describe the games that our guys work on. There is an interest in any of the projects, and we are throwing off the test. Most often this is a fragment of the text from the game. We accompany a person with all the necessary context, and then we take off the file itself. The text contains the code. At least these are code -sized codes to another line and isolation of part of the text with bold or color. At a maximum … in shorter code there is a lot. Which is most important? The ability to work with the context-the same text can be translated in different ways, but the context imposes restrictions. The characters have a character. The terms have a specific translation. The events of the game require the accounting of individual points that have to be prescribed as a director describing the scene to the actor when shooting: well, look, this is the beginning of the game, so the character is still unknown and you need to translate it as a character of an unknown gender. Yes, in English you do not yet ask about the floor, it is not clear, and here you need to avoid mentioning the floor to the third act of the fifth action ..
So – but how then to say in the past tense? Yes, everything is simple, I say. There is an umbrella. “When it started to rain, I opened/opened an umbrella so as not to get wet”. You need to change the object and subject in places. We know that the masculine umbrella is true? “It was raining. The open umbrella helped me not to get wet. “. Crookedly? Well, yes, a little. But the bottom line is that if you look for ways, you can reflect such moments in translation.
Some people respond to a specific project. It can be fans of a certain game or series. They are driven, in addition, the desire to share this game with those who, for one reason or another, is not taken for the English version of the game.
Others are strictly tuned to participate in commercial projects. Often these are experienced translators who want to combine their professional activities with their interests. Despite the apparent ambiguity of the amount collected into individual translations, if it is divided into the amount of work, it turns out not so much. In addition, payment on the result is when everything is ready, that is, conditionally – not soon. If such guys still linger, then I myself am happy to learn something from them, since the main field of activity is not a translation, but instrumentation and analytical chemistry.
A separate group of those who wish to help with translations – people who may not even be very important what to translate and how to help. They say that we are doing a bright work (and they ourselves are like the paladins in a radiant armor-somehow it seemed to me in my head). Recently, just one such person came to us and now helps with the translation of Xenoblade. The work went productively with him and the rate of translation immediately increased.
Whatever the reason is, great when new people come. We are always happy with them and with each individually we decide how to direct its motivation in the right direction. The main thing is that the motivation does not disappear or a new. I, as a person close to all sorts of calculations, encourages the growth of statistics of translation. In all the translations where I am participating, I will certainly add a calculation of a percentage of translation, I follow it so that it increases every day. Or set some intermediate goals: finish all the interface files; translate everything related to the first chapter; translate all the sides of a particular character and t.p. I feel that with a long translation, you need to constantly maintain this fire with something, the only way you can finish the project.
And communication with our guys helps me in this. Who did not go to us in the discord, does not know what a cozy and cheerful company we have gathered among those who have not lost motivation and lingered. Thus, the translation becomes not only a test of skills and a thing that absorbs a lot of free time, but also the time spent in the warm company of like -minded people.
By the way, do not forget to write what exactly you would like to know about, and we will definitely try to make a note about this in the future. In extreme cases, we plan a small podcast. And, yes, we still have a group in which all these notes are fastened, as well as our reports and keys are played for official projects, on which we worked. We will be glad to you.
