Greetings, Underlords
Many of you who have grappled with translations community have noticed That Certain words and / or names are difficult to translate into Their Own language.
This thread is created with the aim to annoy developers
If you have any doubt about how to translate a name or word you can ask here.
P.S. I will try to keep updating the list with Devs suggestions
Developers guidelines
List words / names translation
- “Lord O’Theland” is a contraction of “Lord of the Land” (a reference to a certain game where you keep a dungeon). You may see fit to change this name to a similar contraction or joke in your own language.
- "Crackpot" = Mad Alchemist
- "Warband" = War Group/Legion
-
-
Many of you who have grappled with translations community have noticed That Certain words and / or names are difficult to translate into Their Own language.
This thread is created with the aim to annoy developers
If you have any doubt about how to translate a name or word you can ask here.
P.S. I will try to keep updating the list with Devs suggestions
Developers guidelines
Localisation Guidelines & Advice
Translation is a complex art, and when bringing a game to another language there has to be a degree of creative freedom permitted to the translators. As you likely realise there are many cases where some things don’t work when literally translated into another language, not least of all jokes and wordplay, which you’ll find no shortage of in WFTO. So we have a few suggestions for you on how to approach things. As above, you’re under no obligation to follow our advice.
1: Localise for your audience
The difference between translation and localisation is who you’re aiming the words at. When we wrote War for the Overworld we wrote it with a British audience in mind. This means that the humour, cultural references, and stylistic effects like wordplay might not be understood by another culture. Here we encourage you to be creative in your interpretation of the English text, such as changing a cultural reference to something more appropriate for your audience, but which retains the “spirit” of the original.
2: When clarity is important
When it comes to describing critical systems or gameplay mechanics to the player, such as in tutorial messages, tooltips, or game options, we encourage you to remain as close as possible to the intent conveyed by the English text.
3: Don’t translate proper nouns unless necessary
The names of individuals are generally considered to be “sacred” and so should not be translated. There are many examples of proper nouns in WFTO, such as “Emperor Lucius”, the leader of the Empire. These should always be kept in English, or remain as faithful as possible in non-Latin alphabets.
Be aware that you may change an individual’s title. For example Mandalf the Maroon’s title changes between different colour names each time he respawns. In this case, retaining the colours is preferable (since they match his visible clothing), but if the joke does not work anymore then you may want to be more creative.
Similarly, “Lord O’Theland” is a contraction of “Lord of the Land” (a reference to a certain game where you keep a dungeon). You may see fit to change this name to a similar contraction or joke in your own language.
4: Remember context
Context is important in any delivery of text or speech, and some languages require different word choice depending on the context. Unfortunately when we first generated our translation files we didn’t provide very much context alongside them, and this still remains an issue (though is something we’re working to address in future releases). So you may have to look at the game to get more information about the context of certain texts. However, we are more than happy to answer questions on the Community Translations forum if you are having difficulties deciphering context.
Translation is a complex art, and when bringing a game to another language there has to be a degree of creative freedom permitted to the translators. As you likely realise there are many cases where some things don’t work when literally translated into another language, not least of all jokes and wordplay, which you’ll find no shortage of in WFTO. So we have a few suggestions for you on how to approach things. As above, you’re under no obligation to follow our advice.
1: Localise for your audience
The difference between translation and localisation is who you’re aiming the words at. When we wrote War for the Overworld we wrote it with a British audience in mind. This means that the humour, cultural references, and stylistic effects like wordplay might not be understood by another culture. Here we encourage you to be creative in your interpretation of the English text, such as changing a cultural reference to something more appropriate for your audience, but which retains the “spirit” of the original.
2: When clarity is important
When it comes to describing critical systems or gameplay mechanics to the player, such as in tutorial messages, tooltips, or game options, we encourage you to remain as close as possible to the intent conveyed by the English text.
3: Don’t translate proper nouns unless necessary
The names of individuals are generally considered to be “sacred” and so should not be translated. There are many examples of proper nouns in WFTO, such as “Emperor Lucius”, the leader of the Empire. These should always be kept in English, or remain as faithful as possible in non-Latin alphabets.
Be aware that you may change an individual’s title. For example Mandalf the Maroon’s title changes between different colour names each time he respawns. In this case, retaining the colours is preferable (since they match his visible clothing), but if the joke does not work anymore then you may want to be more creative.
Similarly, “Lord O’Theland” is a contraction of “Lord of the Land” (a reference to a certain game where you keep a dungeon). You may see fit to change this name to a similar contraction or joke in your own language.
4: Remember context
Context is important in any delivery of text or speech, and some languages require different word choice depending on the context. Unfortunately when we first generated our translation files we didn’t provide very much context alongside them, and this still remains an issue (though is something we’re working to address in future releases). So you may have to look at the game to get more information about the context of certain texts. However, we are more than happy to answer questions on the Community Translations forum if you are having difficulties deciphering context.
List words / names translation
- “Lord O’Theland” is a contraction of “Lord of the Land” (a reference to a certain game where you keep a dungeon). You may see fit to change this name to a similar contraction or joke in your own language.
- "Crackpot" = Mad Alchemist
- "Warband" = War Group/Legion
-
-
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Tim White