A little argument for supporting more languages(especially via mods)

Hello.

I am the one of a team which making Koran Patch mod in Steam workshop of Warhammer: Vermintide 2, and the translation has been done recently so waited for the staff who charges game mode from his day off. And he just got back to work since this week, so I asked him to approve our mode for useable in official realem.

However, I heard an information from him:
Sanctioning that mod requires a bit of internal discussion to decide what’s a good way to proceed about supporting more languages.
The community-driven translation is a bit more tricky because it contains a lot of strings in a language we cannot easily verify ourselves. It carries a bit of risk that a translation could be (non-intentionally) misleading, and it would be out of our control to push a fix.

Well. Yes, I take on board about that issue, but ppl who heard that before in my place even knows like fatshark refused to approve language patch mode.(I think they’re misunderstanding by lack of communication though.)
But I would like to tell that problem he mentioned even happens in official localization work. you know, hiring labor for translation from developer or distributor.
A game called Darkest Dungeon had score terror on steam when Korean language has been officially released. Because it was really sucks, kinda “All your base are belong to us.”, "YOU’RE WINNER"
Also korean language in Total War: Warhammer 2 had a change the word usuage oddly after release, and it went worse and messed up so all of gamers in my place disliked that. I’ve heard ppl using word fix patches nowadays.
Those problems I mentioned fixed so late or even still excists at present. Reckon both of them used cheap labor which aint placed in South Korea tho.

And… Let’s think things over about this problem again. Maybe… an user-driven translation is easier to change than the official language localization, ain’t it?
Therefore, I would like to say there is no need to hesitate sanctioning the language patch mode by this issue, because community-driven translation sometimes better than official one, at least few points.

P.S. Speaking about misleading, some ppl in our team are obsessed on Warhammer Lore, so you can count on me about it. XD

I mean, the guy you chatted with has raised a very legit concern.

You,and your friends, can indeed make a translation but the they, the fatsharks, have no way to know if its right or not. Which is a really big concern given there´s some massive legal pitfalls that exist in this space.

Writing purely hypothetically, what if some duche sneaks in a translation that includes some messages with homophobia/racism or such? If it happens and gets reported then its´s a major issue that might hit the studio itself very hard.

Its not just a question that you lot might not do a sufficiently good job, its also a matter of policy and safety, thus, not adding something they cant verify to the game seems like a rather reasonable stance.

Well, I have no idea about homophobia/racism or such, but I’ve emphasized the problems, even you mentioned, ain’t settled perfectly in official localization, at least hiring translator for full time job
And I’m not sure why problems of mod is a responsibility of game developer either. do Bethesda needs to be accused by naughty things from modes? welp, of course they don’t because they are not involved much with modders.
I think you said another good point of community-driven localization though, mate. errors and misleadings can be fixed by feedbacks from gamers, and I’m pretty sure it will be apply faster than official one. however, theres no need to take a responsibility on fatshark

It could be a matter of resources, for all we know Fatshark can judge that there isnt anything worthwhile to gain from hiring translators and expanding on that side.

They are still not a major studio, with only really two games that appeal to a more niche playerbase. They arent giants like Bethseda or Blizzard that can sneeze on a manuscript and suddenly translations for every language on the internet will exist to certainly boost sales.

There are a couple of striking differences between Bethseda and Fatshark though which is this whole approval system and multi vs single player aspects though.

Bethseda is known for games like Skyrim or Fallout that are extremely modable but also single player games. On the other hand, Fatshark only really has the multiplayer vermintides right now, which have the above mentioned approval system. That system which probably exists to make sure people wont get any nasty surprises while trying to do normal stuff like going into quickplay or whatnot.

Also helps make sure they wont get reported to someone for not safeguarding stuff properly, their big bosses in games workshop hits that stuff hard.

Thus you can view it as Fatshark vouching that every approved mod is beneficial or at least not harmful/bad for their playerbase, but they can only do this because they know how to test and check the code.

They cant do that for a language they dont understand :sweat_smile:

well, many developers using outsourcing for official localization. and sometimes its totally messed up and theyll never know till release their own game. but only few companies got willing to fix it. unfortunately.

and if you gonna talking about “this is multiplay game”, then to-do thing of fatshark is just have a check mods theres kinda cheat or something, eh?
i think misleadings are not kind of them tho. of course racism nor homophobia neither.

That…is something to avoid, isnt it? Randomly adding bad stuff that they cant fix only to later remove them will just cause people to be frustrated.

Of course they do check mods before approving them, that´s the whole point of that system. A mod must be checked and be deemed alright to be added.

However that means there’s an inherent problem…if the mod cant be checked or tested then it cant be judged to be alright. Similarly, they cant add a korean translation because there is no one in their studio who who can check the translations.

The only way forward is if they either hire a translator i think…which i also doubt they will do.

Why not? Sure they can’t read the Korean translation. But the actual coding parts are tied to the language of the game engine. So even if they can’t understand the text, they should be able to determine if a mod is harmful or contains elements outside of a language swap.

As for the translation I agree with rellajoa that Fatshark can shake of responsibility. I accept to a certain degree the argument that mods for official realm are curated, however Fatshark can define exceptions and simply make a remark that people use the translation on their own “risk” and that Fatshark is not responsible. And at the same time offer that if someone finds something offensive they just unsanction it again. However, while a lot of “modders” put out trash without end just for clicks (have fun visitting the L4D2 workshop) the translators usually don’t belong to that group. Even when it is offensive I have serious doubts that they could be sued. Seriously, State of Decay developers plastered the game with hidden penises and nothing happened to my knowledge.

The only thing which could be used reasonably against a translation mod is that the “translated” tool-tips are so much better that it gives the mod user a notable advantage.

Well, yes, that bit should be fine?

This is the part i am doubtful about, between the approval system that has fatshark vouching for it being good and the fact that GW has every warhammer studio on a noose-like-leash it feels like it could easily backfire if things were done badly.

I mean, hell, GW banned fan-made animations and stuff like such, they got zero tolerance for anything they find wrong so its really a case of threading on ice around em.

:joy:

Hm, I admit the interaction with GW is something I overlooked. While I still don’t see a particular reason against such a mod, I concur that GW is kinda unpredictable.

Yeah, i can myself easily picture them going like “Translator’s got no license? How about game’s got no approval?”

Or them raising hell if a problem is found in the translation.