Machine Translations

[frankfelidae]

First of all, I know perfectly well that a translation, or anything in general, done by people is better than almost anything done by AI. The point is, I've been seeing people attacking machine translations..., with those tools where have translations of games that were never released outside of Japan.Its true that these translations leave much to be desired and have many weird lines, but they're practically the only way to enjoy gems that were never released outside of Japan(i know that learn japonese its a option but i tried and is very hard xd) like Telefang 2 or Super Robot Taisen OG Gaiden. Translating a game requires time and sacrifice, and often fans translations remain unfinished simply because these are people with lives who can't dedicate so much time and resources to something that won't bring them any kind of remuneration. So we need to stop attacking everything related to AI indiscriminately. It's preferable to use AI translations to break the language barrier until a fan translation appears one day, rather than simply never playing the game or playing it without understanding anything at all.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

I have no problem with machine translations and I fail to see why anyone would, either.

Yes, they are not perfect (God no), but the most vocal opposition seem to speak from a point of extreme privilege: they want an actual human being to do something long and hard for free and enjoy it themselves without pay while also refusing to settle for anything less or learning the language or tools themselves.

It's kind of weird.

 

[jankusanagi jankusanagi]

No problem with machine translations either.
I'd obviously prefer a human-made translation, which are usually made with a lot of love and dedication, but if that's not available, better machine translation than nothing.

P.S.- I do have a problem with calling everything made by a computer following an algorithm, "AI", but sadly that's already said by everyone everywhere... Everything is called """AI""" now.

 

[G.L.a.D.O.S.]

The only problem I honestly see with an AI/Machine translating the script for a game is that it will do so word for word, and it won't make as much sense. Humans can tweak the translation to fit better, such as how they sometimes have to alter parts of the story to make it coherently fit what's being talked about. Some things don't translate well without the cultural context, like a festival or joke that is specific to Japan or wherever else the game is from.

Myself, no I don't find machine translations nearly as good as human ones. However, I agree with @Samantha, I honestly see nothing wrong with using AI for that, especially if it's an old, obscure game that will never receive a translation in any other way.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

BTW: Do you know what accounts for a shit ton of time and effort when making a translation? Script insertion!

Some systems are so hard and finicky to develop for that many translation teams end up having to program their own tools to get the translations to show up in-game or have to become walking thesaurus to account for hard character limits and other hardware/software limitations — some teams never get past this hurdle, while others burn out trying to clear it.

Having AI take control the translation while they work around to insert it can only be a good thing akin to licensing an engine for your game (just so you can focus on actual development) vs programming one from scratch yourself.

Just my two cents.

 

[Vardalis]

Pretty much agree with the general sentiment, yeah. It isn't ideal, and a human reviewed or edited MTL is always better, but it's better than absolutely nothing.

 

[JG5009]

Considering how there isn't many alternatives about it, it's really the only choice for people that aren't already knowledgeable on Japanese, and that takes at least a couple of years of grinding it nonstop to happen as fast as possible.

The number of games that get the privilege of a full team working on it (or a one man army that takes care of everything at once) is minuscule in comparison to the ones that probably never will, these projects take an obnoxious amount of time.

Heck, I myself want to be able to take part on these projects, yet I lack the technical and language knowledge and that will remain like that for a time because the complexity of everything is just way too high. It's easier to make an original game at that point.

 

[X y b e r - S k u ll]

Generally, I don't have an issue with machine translations in principle, but like others in the thread; I'd obviously prefer an actual person to translate a game (assuming they do it honestly and as accurate as they realistically can make it) since sometimes machine translations can sometimes trip themselves up and make strange errors.

With the sheer amount of still untranslated games, manga, anime, books etc. and only a finite amount of people with knowledge or expertise in other languages, I suppose machine translations are perhaps a tool people are going to have to acknowledge sooner or later.

I guess the ideal solution in my mind is a machine translation, but with a human to proof read it and iron out any issues when it's done. You get the best of both worlds in that case.

 

[4C374552A1CA2638]

I'm fine with them as long as they've been proofread. It's understandable and unavoidable for the machine to miss cultural idioms or so on, but it's less tolerable when the translation gets confused on terms, the names of places or people, or even pronouns. Machine translations already have a reputation for being lazy, and putting out the translation without even a proofread pass brings it down to "did whoever that produced this even care?"

I'll also point out that official translations aren't always perfect, and fan translations can end up like this. Sometimes translations turn out great, sometimes localizing creates memorable lines or characters where there weren't in the original... sometimes you get disasters, both officially and by fans. Sometimes people throw a fit because things weren't translated the exact, specific way they wanted or "what's proper."

 

[Guinea]

If it ain't an MT then it simply ain't for me!