And there’s something alienating about obviously translated text. Obvious translation is bad translation and it turns characters into caricatures and people into pixels. We met Helga Parmiter, the woman in charge of localising Sacred 2. “This game’s script is not just double, it’s three times the original game, so it’s a massive job,” Helga says. She left midwifery to translate games; as a former EverQuest hardcore player, she has a long-standing love of fantasy gaming, and a dissatisfaction with the standard of German translations. So, is it a royal pain in the arse to be a German-speaking gamer? In terms of fantasy gaming, yes. “I pay extra and wait longer for English versions of games. Diablo has a terrible German translation. EverQuest 2’s was terrible, too.” Why does it go wrong, so often?



“The localisation process is the most underestimated part of making a game. A lot of people use agencies – you send a sample text to them, and it goes to someone with a knowledge of video games and fantasy and it’s perfect. The next lot you send might go to someone who’s used to writing technical manuals. I mean, I couldn’t write such a thing, I wouldn’t know where to begin.” That’s why Helga’s here. Having decided she wanted to translate into English – a language which she says has more scope for creativity in the fantasy world – she rang up Ascaron’s Birmingham offices and did her best Lenny Henry impression, to fool them into thinking she was the native Brit asked for in the job description. By the time she came clean, they’d already decided to give her the job.


 
Another explanation for games having bad translations is the fact that reams of the work can be done in a creatively sterile environment of a spreadsheet. “You sometimes have words, that are utterly without context,” Helga explains, “and sometimes there are four or five possible translations. If you just look in the dictionary and take the first one, it can be completely wrong.” This explains phrases like “prices are sinking!” and “band of the first hour.” That’s why Helga prefers to translate when she has knowledge of the scene, preferably looking at it – otherwise it’s like writing captions for a picture you haven’t seen.

Sacred 2 is too far from completion to offer anything other than optimistic enthusiasm. There are dozens of lovely touches that slapped us to attention, and the world and translation have been given loving investment. You simply don’t get a tiger’s coat that lustrous without caring about attractive tigers. With a translation as tight as Ascaron seem intent on supplying, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel stands a much better chance of breaking the into US and UK consciousness than its predecessor.

Aug 19, 2008