Yep, I saw that article from Lars a few days ago and it was interesting. I'll complete it with a 3-part article (last part should be out soon) from one people working at Lingualinx:

http://gamasutra.com/blogs/CaitlinNicholson/20140708/220529/Gaming_Localization_Part_I_Translation_vs_Localization_for_Gaming.php

http://gamasutra.com/blogs/CaitlinNicholson/20140819/223689/Gaming_Localization_Part_II_How_to_Ensure_Gaming_Localization_Success.php

And as Jamyskis pointed out, languages and the way you talk are a cultural thing too and they matter a lot for translations. For example in English, we only say "you" when talking with someone but in French and Dutch (the two languages in Belgium) we can speak with a polite/formal form ("vous"/"u") or with a familiar/friendly form ("tu"/"jij"). In a film, according to the scenes and the personalities of the characters, some translations from English fall flat because they use inappropriate forms (I had just the case yesterday when rewatching the season 3 of 24).

Thanks for posting about the blog post RWarehall, and thanks for the article links catpower1980 (I'll read them later). It's an interesting subject for sure. It's possible that it's not that they're bad, just that they just don't have much need.

Still, as someone who played a lot of hidden object adventures I can say that developers from non-English-speaking countries aren't necessarily much better at translation. In fact I think that the perfectly translated games are a minority, regardless of genre (well, of course genres with little text are easier to translate).

Normally, the translator should translate into his mothertongue (yours truly in french and you in hebrew.) Many HO devs are from Russia, where bad translations are well, common.

Maybe not directly related... but... maybe it is...

Internationalizing code

Good information. For myself, I know I hold on buying certain games without French, when they exist elsewhere.. Latest release of Black Mirror for example, I still keep my CD copy until then.

Native language is a strong selling argument.. I am picky mostly for "big" games, though, and story focused.. "Small" ones and certain dynamic J-RPG of the Final Fantasy kind, I like English better, as French does remove from the "cool" somehow, to my overall experience..

Loosely related rant about French versions of games, thankfully the old cathodic television tubes days are OVER, we had to cope with 50hz slower, smaller stuff with black borders, but STILL get this crap from (insanely priced) Virtual Console games on Wii Shop, and PAL PSOne Classics purchases.. I know I use my Us PSN account to help with these.

We have it in German as well with "du" and "Sie". Compounding this problem somewhat is the fact that we also have an informal plural form "ihr", and it's often difficult to know whether you should use it when speaking to a crowd of people (especially when you're on friendly terms with some people and others are strangers).

You can't even apply equal principles when translating between languages like Danish or Dutch/Flemish and German. There are fewer cases in Dutch/Flemish where you would use "u" than where you would use "Sie" in German, and "De" in Danish/"Ni" in Swedish is even rarer still (on the other hand, the social conditions underlying "du/Sie" and "tu/vous" in French are fairly similar and can usually be carried over one-to-one).

(It's a bit of a running gag in German-dubbed movies in particular that people seem to refer to each other with "Sie" right up until the time they've already had sex, when they spontaneously switch to "du". It's obviously for the translator to decide when the two interlocutors switch between the forms, but a lot of them seem to lack some kind of social perspective.)

I dunno about that, sex makes it quite clear that they're then familiar, but wouldn't that depend upon the situation? Historically wasn't the formal used for damn never everybody that wasn't either a family member, close friend or somebody they'd had sex with?

Seems like films that need to be dubbed or subbed into German wouldn't be written to provide a natural progression from formal to informal the way that a film written for German would.

Perhaps it's because I'm American and out here we've pretty much completely done away with such formality to the point where we're about the opposite, but still.

Yeah normally you use the formal "Sie" with people you don't know or don't know well or often at work with your boss. But sometimes in movies it is just funny, because in Real life you would switch to the more personal "du" long before reaching the stage of sex and in some movies this switch is handled very badly which makes it often a laughing matter^^

Historically, yes, but today, no. It's never as simple as categorising people. For example, we here would all refer to one another as "du" even though we're not close friends or family. We're all on more or less the same social and organisational level here. Work colleagues in modern environments will often use "du" (except major "old guard" corporations where you're still expected to refer to the boss as "Sie", even though that's a dying trend). And yet, I've known my elderly next door neighbours for 3 years and we still refer to one another as "Sie". If you go into a shop, the saleperson will always refer to you as Sie, and work regulations may require personnel to refer to each other as "Sie" in the shop, even though they use "du" in private.

I guess it's some kind of innate sense that tells you whether you should refer to someone as "du" or "Sie", much in the same way that foreigners struggle to know when to call someone "-san", "-sama", "-chan", "-kun" or even just by first names in Japanese. The transition from "Sie" to "du" is never at a fixed point - it's organic, sometimes coming naturally, sometimes with an offer from the senior party to "duzen". The translator is expected to exercise good judgement in determining when to switch, which they seldom do.

(On that note, it does irritate me a little bit that companies like EA always resort to "du" when I contact support. I wonder if they assume that all of their customers are children? Also, Ikea here in Germany makes a point of using "du" the same way as in Swedish - for everyone - and some people seem deeply offended by it for some reason)

I know that those must annoy you because they make your job harder, but I disaggree here.

Community translations are often of a higher quality because they don't only get excel tables but usually know the game.
A dev of Wesnoth made a nice dissertation on this topic @ FOSDEM 2014:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TvBOtbdYLY
This game was even translated into Latin! :D

A good community translation requires that the translator actually be a translator. A lot of people can speak more than one language, but it's understanding the cultural and linguistic nuances that makes the difference. Also, being a writer is essential.

A lot of community translations are not done by actual translators. This means that, even if there are no errors (a rarity in its own right), the wording is often stilted, reflecting the original language's sentence structure, register and tone are not reflected.

For example, how would you translate "Eine Kooperation mit einem zuverlässigen und kompetenten Partner" in a PR text?

Yes, they do. They complimented my mother on my upbringing and all kind of funny stuff. (That's because I was civil, which I guess they didn't expect.)

Edit: No, sorry, that was Xbox support. But it's possible that EA also assumes this.

Indeed. This also sort of brings up the fact that it's damn near impossible to get German language movies legally in the US unless they were originally filmed in German. Rarely, if ever, is the German translation available on DVDs that aren't restricted to European players.

[...] you surely had a lot of fun with Oblivion xP "Schw.Tr.d.Le.en.-W." ftw!