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Saying No feels empowering
Thread poster: Mikhail Kropotov
finnword1
finnword1
United States
Local time: 03:21
English to Finnish
+ ...
don't knock it! Sep 3, 2014

880 euro for 22 000 words of video game localization is a lot of money. It does not require much translation talent, and with a good Translation Environment Tool, connected to a couple of Machine Translation Engines and a good data base, one can localize 22 000 words in a jiffy. It's so easy that a caveman can do it.

[Edited at 2014-09-03 06:09 GMT]
 
Rita Pang
Rita Pang  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 03:21
Member (2011)
Chinese to English
+ ...

MODERATOR
And let them know WHY Sep 3, 2014

Max Deryagin wrote:

Elizabeth Tamblin wrote:

… but 'no, thank you' is even better.


I concur. It sounds stronger.


I am for the "no thank you" statement - and I would include a quick line telling them what market rates are.

I have once made the mistake of exchanging 10+ emails explaining to an agency why they think a job of proofreading 32 pages of personal documents (for notarization) merits more than 10 pounds.

However I do vow to myself that I shall no longer spend that kind of time on that kind of discussions - in the future, it'd be a simple "no thank you", plus my desired rate, and goodbye.
 
Mikhail Kropotov
Mikhail Kropotov  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 09:21
English to Russian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Check your facts Sep 3, 2014

finnword1 wrote:

880 euro for 22 000 words of video game localization is a lot of money. It does not require much translation talent, and with a good Translation Environment Tool, connected to a couple Machine Translation Engines and a good data base, one can localize 22 000 words in a jiffy. It's so easy that a caveman can do it.


You're right in the sense that so many games available today seem to have been localized by cavemen using MT and paid peanuts. You're wrong in saying that videogame localization doesn't take talent and is always easy work. It's a field of specialization like any other, with lots of lousy and mediocre translators and few good ones. High-quality translation in this area is paid much better than 0.04 EUR/word in the stated combination. I would suggest that in the future you limit your comments to fields you're proficient it, in order to avoid making generalized statements and a fool of yourself on a public forum.
 
finnword1
finnword1
United States
Local time: 03:21
English to Finnish
+ ...
my apologies Sep 3, 2014

To all the cavemen that might be reading this: I am sorry.
 
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 09:21
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Varies from game to game Sep 3, 2014

... but generally video game scripts fall into "creative writing" category. I wonder how those authors would feel if you told them their scripts and concepts didn't require any talent. That's like saying a movie script writing didn't require any talent.
 
The Misha
The Misha
Local time: 03:21
Russian to English
+ ...
A caveman? Really? And I've been wondering all these years... Sep 3, 2014

Mikhail Kropotov wrote:

finnword1 wrote:

880 euro for 22 000 words of video game localization is a lot of money. It does not require much translation talent, and with a good Translation Environment Tool, connected to a couple Machine Translation Engines and a good data base, one can localize 22 000 words in a jiffy. It's so easy that a caveman can do it.


You're right in the sense that so many games available today seem to have been localized by cavemen using MT and paid peanuts. You're wrong in saying that videogame localization doesn't take talent and is always easy work. It's a field of specialization like any other, with lots of lousy and mediocre translators and few good ones. High-quality translation in this area is paid much better than 0.04 EUR/word in the stated combination. I would suggest that in the future you limit your comments to fields you're proficient it, in order to avoid making generalized statements and a fool of yourself on a public forum.


I couldn't say it better myself. I've always been wondering who produced all those atrocious legacy TMs for game projects. Now the gentleman enlightened me.

[Edited at 2014-09-03 13:03 GMT]
 
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Saying No feels empowering







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