General Discussion

So I recently received this email in my emailbox:

Acclaim has an exciting new project planned for 9Dragons, and by helping us, you could earn lots of Acclaim Coins.

HELP US TRANSLATE 9DRAGONS INTO FRENCH!

The 9Dragons players have spoken and we are listening. They want the game in all major languages, and so we've built a completely custom tool for you, to make that possible.

To test the tool out, we are going to start with French, then add the other languages in the near future.

So if you are Fluent in French & English, then log in to the 9Dragons Homepage and click "TRANSLATE" on the top navigation bar, or go here: http://translate.acclaim.com/9dragons/. Choose FRENCH, and then choose the section of the game you can help translate into French.

The Game Industry commonly uses external companies to do game translations, but often they don't play the games, or even understand the lore, and so that's where you come in! We believe our gamers "Get It", and their version of the translation will be the 'perfect' / 'authentic' version for everyone else in their country. Our early tests have already proved this has been a great decision, and so now, we can't wait to play the version of the game you help create! If your native language is something other than French, have no fears. We'll be sending out another email soon, with the next language we're going to translate to, so make sure you check your email!

Thanks,

The Acclaim Languages Team.


OH, ONE MORE THING....

If you would like to volunteer as a French Manager (who handles approvals, checking spelling, grammar etc.)

Email the following information to : translate@acclaim.com

(1) Your Acclaim Account ID.

(2) Your Direct email address.

(3) How many Hours per week you would be able to spend managing the language?

(4) Explain your expertise in French and English. (Why are you manager level?)

(5) Describe your knowledge of 9Dragons. (What level are you? How long have you been playing?) You also will be rewarded with lots of Acclaim Coins for helping. :)

Thanks,

The Acclaim Languages Team

I actually had to read that twice to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me. Is Acclaim seriously asking its playersbase to translate the game for them!? One of the key aspects of a publisher is to localize the game! Their excuse is also quite funny:

"The Game Industry commonly uses external companies to do game translations, but often they don't play the games, or even understand the lore, and so that's where you come in!"

Well I'm sure there are plenty of external companies who can do a good job, and if that fails you can get an internal translation team, like any respectable game publisher should have. I'm pretty sure they will do a much better job than some random players who probably don't know the first thing about translationg narrative and lore.

And what do they get paid? Some acclaim coins which they can exchange for ingame items (lets unbalance the game some more)

What's next Acclaim? You're going to ask your players to design an entire game for you?

oh..

wait.

www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp

Wow. Acclaim is actually implying that through players "knowing the lore" the players can "translate" the language into French and essentially put in snippets of their own work into the excerpts. This can create major problems though. Its quite questionable as to what is exactly Acclaim's intent here, (besides saving money) as it would be very easy for them to simply hire a translator.

But I cant exactly place any "blame" on Acclaim. I believe they have every right to do so, as long as the translations are actually translated correctly. And therein lies the problem. It sounds as if Acclaim isnt even going to moderate this translation, and rather have volunteers be "managers" to overseer the project. Pretty shady, but hey....there are plenty of gamers out there with more than enough time on their hands.

Let's hope they don't get a "All your base are belong to us" type of translation. 

I'm going to find my old account, go in and "translate" as much French as I can into "U.S.A. rules and our fries are better, too!". And maybe some sexually explicit text for flavor.

lol im surprised acclaim hasnt gone under yet. Do they even have any decent games out right now?

Pitfall and Kaboom

Sorry, Pitfall was Activision I think.

LOL its not so bad, i kinda agree with their explanation that only the players can truly understand the game to the core, so using the players as translators might give a more precise and definite translation. but i still have to agree that its a cheap move LOL

but hey, its better than luminary online (the global version).  they choose players to be GM's there and they pay them with gcoins (used to purchase item mall stuff, last i heard was equivalent to us$50 per month LOL) now isnt that the most cheapo you can get? now i can tell you more about the huge disadvantages of hiring GMs from the player base, but thats another topic

I translated a few. The funny thing is that the English doesn't even make sense sometimes.

Anyway, I don't think you even get anything for it, so I didn't bother anymore, I don't see the point in this but Acclaim being lazy.

9dragons has some pretty nice animations and skill progression.  Thats it out of the whole acclaim lineup.  I can't really think of anything more positive to say about thier games,