Print On Demand and other languages

MarcusVitel wrote:

As per my previous post I don’t think it is difficult to do, but it has to be done properly.

Well, experience with translated material - in a country where everything is translated - is that it's alway done pretty badly. I don't really see what make you so optimistic, but decreting it's easy won't make it easy.

Don't forget the amount of work to be consistent between every cards. We would need translator (which is a job, not an hobby) that actually know rule well.

I understand your concerns and trust me that I am fully aware of what you mean – especially movie titles have been and will be translated horribly many, many times. What I don’t agree with is the statement that while something had not been done properly in the past, we can assume that it will go wrong in the future. There are always infinite ways to do something the wrong and maybe only one way to do it right. This project has a high potential of attracting new players and I understand that we need the right people to take it on. For someone who has a solid knowledge of English and a team to help him/her, it will be easy. Especially when you have the V:TM rules handy in the designated language as most of the terms have been translated by the RPG publishers.

We had many volunteers submitting their art for new cards and I would not tell these enthusiastic community members that I have seen many bad pieces of artwork on gaming cards, so we need a professional full-time artist to do the job or if we can’t afford that we created cards without artwork.

I am also not intimidated by the amount of cards that need translation. When the team decided that “Intercept” translates to A, “Predator” to B and “the acting methuselah” to C - how hard could it be to translate “+1 A - [only usable if] your B is C”. Once the key terms are defined, most of the card texts fall into place. Just start with one of the base sets and go one set at a time.

-MV-

Ohlmann wrote:

MarcusVitel wrote:

As per my previous post I don’t think it is difficult to do, but it has to be done properly.

Well, experience with translated material - in a country where everything is translated - is that it's alway done pretty badly. I don't really see what make you so optimistic, but decreting it's easy won't make it easy.

Don't forget the amount of work to be consistent between every cards. We would need translator (which is a job, not an hobby) that actually know rule well.

This is not going to be easy, true. In fact, again - considering this volume - it will be a highly complicated project. However, it is far from impossible. If you're worried about consistency, you use a CAT tool (Computer Assisted Translation) and share the database between translators. Initially you translate all the terminology and then validate it, this gives you the core stuff so you can work on the rest. I really don't want to post a wall of text here about how I think it should be done (I don't think this is the right place for it), but it is totally doable. Takes a lot of time, work and energy, sure, a lot of attention to detail as well, proper teamwork (and - more importantly - a proper team) is essential, but I wouldn't be so pesimistic about it.

If this becomes a realized direction, why dont we make an IC member reaponsible for coordinating things, then decide like1-3 Languages to test with.

They need to be decided by ease of translation compared to potential playerbase expansion/relevance.

Id assume spanish and german would probably be top contenders.

But we should wait until pod is running, and thus current texts exist for all cards.

I am fluent in traditional Chinese/Mandarin (reading, writing, speaking to 9th grade level). My simplified Chinese needs improvement but I can read half of the language and the rest are not too hard to identify given time, and of course, English is my native tongue.

Yes, this will definitely be a job and not a hobby as it would take up a tremendous amount of dedicated time to translate the rules and card texts correctly, but can definitely be done with proof-reading afterwards. I also agree the card title/name should remain English, and only translate the body of description to foreign language.

I will talk with the Asian community here in Asia and see what we can come up with.