Wasteland 2 - Localization Crowdsourcing Effort

[Couchpotato]

InXile Entertainment send news they have launched a localization crowdsourcing effort to help translate Wasteland 2 into various different languages.

HOW DO YOU SAY “YOUR MIND JUST EXPLODED LIKE A BLOOD SAUSAGE” IN GERMAN?

inXile Entertainment harnesses the power of the crowd to localize Wasteland 2 for international audiences, rewarding the best contributors along the way

Newport Beach, California – June 2, 2014 - inXile Entertainment has launched a localization crowdsourcing effort to help translate the French, Italian, German and Spanish versions of Wasteland 2, due to ship the end of August 2014. Anyone can join the effort on the Get Localization project (http://www.getlocalization.com/Wasteland2/), where fans will work together with professional editors to fix any errors and inconsistencies within the translated text. Additionally, inXile will have hardcore RPG fans in each language jumping in to play the game in their own tongue, providing an extra level of feedback. This process will ensure the final product is up to the high quality standard of Wasteland 2.

The project has already commenced, with the translation output from fans demonstrating a high level of quality and consistency. That's the value of getting real RPG gamers involved! inXile is going to reward the best contributors: anyone who has submitted approved translations for over 250 strings will receive a copy of Wasteland 2, including access to the currently ongoing beta.

"This is another development concept that fits what we've been trying to do all along with Wasteland 2. This project could never have happened without the crowd, and that's true for this particular effort as well. As the game's script is approaching 500,000 words, localizing becomes an unfathomably large task, and I couldn't imagine tackling it without our fans' help in conjunction with the editors," said Brian Fargo, CEO of inXile Entertainment.

More information.

 

[Voqar]

Gotta be kidding me. All the money they're making charging people $60 for the game on Steam right now after the "crowd" already funded the game and now they want to suck more blood out of generous players? Wow.

 

[TomRon]

Gotta be kidding me. All the money they're making charging people $60 for the game on Steam right now after the "crowd" already funded the game and now they want to suck more blood out of generous players? Wow.

This is for people who want to do it, no one is forcing them. As for your comment on your early access price complaint, you've heard the reasons for the price tag several times and still don't seem to get it.

 

[Burress]

500,000 words! So this thing is on the order of War and Peace?

I might take this off my to-play list if this is just endless pages of text. Anyone in the early access can comment on the wordiness of the game?

 

[Morrandir]

I've signed up on the localization page and did a few translations to German.

Although it's nearly finished, I see problems here. The biggest one is lack of consistency. E.g. there are a lot of IG organisations (like "Civil Enforcers", "God's Army" etc.) that are translated in 3-4 different ways by the crowd. There's clearly a lack of coordination, they should have put up a glossar for named entities beforehand.
Additionally every string (from single word up to 3-4 sentences) is localized separately. Although it is displayed which character is saying this string, it may very easily happen that you get different linguistic styles here when parts of conversations are localized by different guys. So IG it might happen that in a conversation an NPC has different choices of language.

It's not an actual problem for me as I'll play it in English anyway, but a big problem for fellow Germans that want to play in their first language. And I doubt it's different for other languages.

There was a comment in the forums which said that there will be a professional guy looking over the localization afterwards, correcting stuff. But to me it seems that this will take nearly as much time as if the localization had been done by pros in the first place.

 

[ChaosTheory]

500,000 words! So this thing is on the order of War and Peace?

I might take this off my to-play list if this is just endless pages of text. Anyone in the early access can comment on the wordiness of the game?

It's pretty wordy… However a lot of it overlaps with dialogue. I've discovered this isn't a game where you just keep clicking on all the dialogue options until they disappear like most modern RPGs. If you do, it often circles back around to stuff you already know, or discusses quests you've already solved.

And as much as I like the gameplay, I'm not real impressed with the writing in general. I think it tries too hard to be funny in most cases.

 

[Burress]

Writing 500,000 words fit for consumption is not normally something that is done well in a couple of years, or more to the point, by hardly anyone in any span of time. Why some people think they can cram that much text in a game is beyond me.

 

[TomRon]

Writing 500,000 words fit for consumption is not normally something that is done well in a couple of years, or more to the point, by hardly anyone in any span of time. Why some people think they can cram that much text in a game is beyond me.

ALOT of it is "filler text", that you don't have to read at all. Like descriptions every time you enter new areas etc. It doesn't at all feel text heavy to me compared to a game like PS:T where you have to read alot to actually understand anything. And while I love PS:T THAT much reading is not what I'm looking for in a game like this. But like I said, at least to me it doesn't at all feel text heavy when most of it is flavour and optional.

 

[ChienAboyeur]

That's the value of getting real RPG gamers involved! inXile is going to reward the best contributors:

What about getting real translators involved!