Game Censorship & Localization General Thread

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Borax Bozo said:
Cygames has posted a shot to X of the desk of one of their localizers (who is apparently a turbo Umamusume fan), but has inadvertently revealed that the localiser is just using DeepL translation software. They are currently being called out in the quotetweets and comments for this.



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Look closely at the icons on the right side of the right-hand monitor.
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There's never been a better argument for replacing localizers with AI :story:
 
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Borax Bozo said:
Cygames has posted a shot to X of the desk of one of their localizers (who is apparently a turbo Umamusume fan), but has inadvertently revealed that the localiser is just using DeepL translation software. They are currently being called out in the quotetweets and comments for this.



View attachment 6459808

Look closely at the icons on the right side of the right-hand monitor.
Click to expand...
Complete aside, but who just uses the same fucking wallpaper on both screens like that like that? Bitch needs lessons on aesthetics and actual Japanese.
 
X Prime said:
Why? DeepL is awful for anything other than terminology. It can't do dialogue for shit.
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Yeah. Even when I needed a quick and dirty translations, DeepL messes up and sometimes google translate provides a better version but not by much.
 
Localizing is a funny thing. Been doing it for upwards of 10 years on Steam and there's a fine line between staying true to the original text but also "completely rewriting" things to make sense locally. Yakuza is a notorious example cause the character will yell out an emotion like "CUTE" as if a fucking Pokemon, and they'll translate it to an entire sentence with proper structure. Then you got video game terms like "Boss" or "sentry gun" that are impossible to translate. Boss is such an ingrained term that even non-natives will know what it means, making video game specific terms into a third language separate from plain english. Then you got the entire concept of online games where saying "DAS SANDKÜNGEN" interrupts gameplay whereas keeping the english Sand King would make infinitely more sense, but Valve were hellbent on translating hero names for Artifact, further disrupting the DotA universe between the two.

Anyway: Read enough niche manga translated by people who literally don't understand japanese, using only google translate and their imagination, and it makes you wonder if it's even that bad in that specific context. Obviously a huge corporation with a paid product should invest in localization, but other times you only really need to understand the message as opposed to the specific text. I think localization went wrong once no-talent tards started exploiting their god-given talents of.. speaking a language? to warp a message to fit their own agenda. You know, like how voice actors go "I LITERALLY AM HIM" despite just reading out loud what someone else told him to.

I translate games to think "if even just 5 kids get to experience this game and learn a bit of reading doing so", whereas troons and other loonys go "PROPERTY IS THEFT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
 
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"Shigesato Itoi is STUPID! My writing is much more mature"!
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The Decimator said:
"Shigesato Itoi is STUPID! My writing is much more mature"!
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I don't know what's being refered to, but a lot of time using English names for places in games can potentially fuck with native speakers enjoyment through how bizarre it is. Name changes are one of the few changes that can be justified when the names are either not appropriate or bad translations of Western names.
 
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wtfNeedSignUp said:
I don't know what's being refered to, but a lot of time using English names for places in games can potentially fuck with native speakers enjoyment through how bizarre it is. Name changes are one of the few changes that can be justified when the names are either not appropriate or bad translations of Western names.
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Even without the source linked I know it's about Mother 1/Earthbound Beginnings.
ebb1.jpgebb2.jpg
 
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wtfNeedSignUp said:
I don't know what's being refered to, but a lot of time using English names for places in games can potentially fuck with native speakers enjoyment through how bizarre it is. Name changes are one of the few changes that can be justified when the names are either not appropriate or bad translations of Western names.
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But his intent was trying to appeal to older players, not to make it less bizarre, so it was a bad decision from the get-go. Localizers must think their job is game development or marketing, not localization. They should switch careers.
 
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Brain Power said:
Even without the source linked I know it's about Mother 1/Earthbound Beginnings.
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Ah so it was the first game. the one that got shitcanned right before release due to "shifting focus" bullshit and for years only existed in english as pirated romdumps of the unreleased copies people found. Was confused about the holiday name thing because the earthbound that actually released was the sequel that didn't change too many names for the towns from what I remember (i mean aside from shit like threek becoming threed to make the number pun more blatant)
In the case of mother 1 these area name changes add even more jokes/puns in a way that keeps roughly the same surreal goofy vibe that fits the stuff gong on n the areas, but unfortunately also removes the whole holiday theme joke. It's both a loss and a gain simultaneously, somehow that ties into the whole vibe of the series in a cosmic sense without really trying to.
 
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Mojo Thief said:
Not sure where else to put this, but I came across this interview with the creator of Dragon Quest where he confirms Western Wokism (which he calls a "religious concept") is what is forcing him and other Japanese developers to include the body type BS in modern RPGs

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Gotta say, "religious concept" is a pretty accurate take, wokism is like a secular religion these days
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I saw it on Push Square and people in the comments were blaming it on Christianity.
 
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Mojo Thief said:
Not sure where else to put this, but I came across this interview with the creator of Dragon Quest where he confirms Western Wokism (which he calls a "religious concept") is what is forcing him and other Japanese developers to include the body type BS in modern RPGs

View attachment 6469550

Gotta say, "religious concept" is a pretty accurate take, wokism is like a secular religion these days
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The problem is that it's not specified, so some are choosing to say it is somehow talking about the Christians and "Bible thumpers."

It is entirely possible that the interviewees are kind of dumb and conflating the two things due to how it is all phrased, because it then goes into age groups by manga which has absolutely nothing to do with wokism.
 
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