Will AI machine translation help fan translation game projects?

[Ikagura]

translation
noun
trans·la·tion tran(t)s-ˈlā-shən

a rendering from one language into another

That completely ignores the cultural, social and contextual meaning of sentences. A proper translation isn't copying 1:1 a sentence from one language to another or else you'd see many sentences with a verb at the end.

 

[Arucardo]

Don't know how to break this to you but having a small ego is traditionally a good thing... Hopefully this is the first time you make such a grade school level insult because otherwise the people in your life have been making fun of you behind your back.
So your petty anger aside you are admitting that those fundamentally flawed 'translations' are junk and yet you elect to unconditionally defend it. Why? Well no one expects a petty man to have a well thought out reason but I regardless hope you will provide one miraculously.

Bonus: claiming those 'translators' get rich of it is just straight up lying, game translations are almost exclusively freely distributed and the manga 'translators' beg every time while their donation wall has like 2 people. No idea how you got this idea.

BTW did you know that the likelihood a proper translator group will touch something that has been tagged as translated is next to 0% ? If you didn't know, now that you Do know do you still like the idea of people doing quack translations and dooming a piece of art to never get a proper translation?

Are you a translator yourself which is why you see AI translations as soulless usurpers regardless of their quality?

Or are you a believer that either a game is translated PERFECTLY with every little detail and nuance properly and smoothly presented to capture the vision of the game's creator as good as humanly possible...or it shouldn't be translated AT ALL?

If the latter then are you also against translations made by fans who learned Japanese only like 3-4 years and lack the cultural context of every sentence, use honorifics perfectly and are extremely knowledgeable about the franchise itself having played many more other games made by said author? Or as long as its not AI then its great?

Just curious.

 

[ChronoCloud]

Still I don't trust it. Languages like Japanese are already pretty hard to translate and lots of people who speak Japanese say that AI's attempts are absolute garbage.

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 12:57 PM

I can assure you no one is translating something for wokeness lol. Literally what benefit is there to that? Like no one who translates anything is doing it for woke brownie points they do it because they want their favorite piece of media in a more accessible language lol

There's been countless examples of these bolshevics cramming their garbage into everything they touch. In fact, AI could probably list the examples for you

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 8:18 PM

At the end of the day, AI isn't going away. The endless crying and gnashing of teeth is just a waste of electricity. It's not like everyone doesn't already know what your opinion is. Like every lumpenprole opinion, everyone on earth already knows everything you have to say. The reddit status quo opinion is just a waste of breath. It's actually downright narcissistic and delusional to have the most basic lumpenprole reddit opinion on every issue yet lecture everyone nonstop as if this was an original thought that we've never heard before. On and on endlessly with the same basic drivel as if every second hand opinion you're regurgitating is some incredible revelation.

 

[Insomnia_ig]

No it couldn't because those examples don't exist.

 

[ChronoCloud]

No it couldn't because those examples don't exist.

There was a whole kerfuffle on this very website because some clown removed the word "psycho" from a game because it's "ableist". Even though there's like 50 games with psycho in the title. That's just right off the top of my head.

Another is Daikaijū Monogatari, they really shit that one up by inserting full blown political screeds into the game.

 

[Insomnia_ig]

There was a whole kerfuffle on this very website because some clown removed the word "psycho" from a game because it's "ableist". Even though there's like 50 games with psycho in the title. That's just right off the top of my head.

Another is Daikaijū Monogatari, they really shit that one up by inserting full blown political screeds into the game.

Okay but those are like rare examples. Even then fan translators have literally been the reason why we've been able to experience media for years. A translators job is to translate things they aren't going to change it I can assure you. Especially fan translators they want people who to experience the game they love they're not going to botch it for politics. Even then there's plenty of creators who resent AI translations and would rather just hire fan translators.

 

[outrider]

translation
noun
trans·la·tion tran(t)s-ˈlā-shən

a rendering from one language into another

Which it fails to do. It's not a translation. If it were a translation you could read and understand what the original text says in the new language.

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

Only if AI would stop with the fine MTL-poetry that disintegrates any context into eldritch theatre i wont deny that .

But either it takes a while or it should be used as a tool for faster and more efficient translation work .

 

[Aisf]

Ai does suck in general so if it did it would take a while. I really don't see ai advancing to be "good" enough for it until like 2037 or something.

 

[ChronoCloud]

Ai does suck in general so if it did it would take a while. I really don't see ai advancing to be "good" enough for it until like 2037 or something.

AI has been doubling in ability every year.

Remember how quickly game graphics improved in the 90s? it's like that

 

[WitchDetective]

Said it in a nicer way earlier in the thread but I think people just want free stuff and more content to consume. The excuse of accessibility kind of runs straight into a wall when we're getting AI translations of games that are already majority translated onto the site.

Still I don't trust it. Languages like Japanese are already pretty hard to translate and lots of people who speak Japanese say that AI's attempts are absolute garbage.

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 12:57 PM

I can assure you no one is translating something for wokeness lol. Literally what benefit is there to that? Like no one who translates anything is doing it for woke brownie points they do it because they want their favorite piece of media in a more accessible language lol

Now that you said this someone's going to bring up the bad Kobayashi Dragon Maid dub, probably the same clip about the patriarchy or whatever when the whole dub was just kind of bad. Who knows though, they might be creative and bring up Prison School using Goober Gate by name for a joke that wasn't in the original.
Also, notice that none of these people ever list examples for how the AI translation is better or that they even proofread. I'm wagering to bet most of them don't even speak the language of the games they're translating. I've asked before and I only get crickets. Vibe coding meets vibe translating. Why people need to shill this stuff by posting it and crying about us not liking it is beyond me.

 

[ChronoCloud]

Said it in a nicer way earlier in the thread but I think people just want free stuff and more content to consume. The excuse of accessibility kind of runs straight into a wall when we're getting AI translations of games that are already majority translated onto the site.

Now that you said this someone's going to bring up the bad Kobayashi Dragon Maid dub, probably the same clip about the patriarchy or whatever when the whole dub was just kind of bad. Who knows though, they might be creative and bring up Prison School using Goober Gate by name for a joke that wasn't in the original.
Also, notice that none of these people ever list examples for how the AI translation is better or that they even proofread. I'm wagering to bet most of them don't even speak the language of the games they're translating. I've asked before and I only get crickets. Vibe coding meets vibe translating. Why people need to shill this stuff by posting it and crying about us not liking it is beyond me.

criiiiiiiinge.

how about you look up a couple posts.

 

[monina]

There's been countless examples of these bolshevics cramming their garbage into everything they touch. In fact, AI could probably list the examples for you

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 8:18 PM

At the end of the day, AI isn't going away. The endless crying and gnashing of teeth is just a waste of electricity. It's not like everyone doesn't already know what your opinion is. Like every lumpenprole opinion, everyone on earth already knows everything you have to say. The reddit status quo opinion is just a waste of breath. It's actually downright narcissistic and delusional to have the most basic lumpenprole reddit opinion on every issue yet lecture everyone nonstop as if this was an original thought that we've never heard before. On and on endlessly with the same basic drivel as if every second hand opinion you're regurgitating is some incredible revelation.

Image unrelated.

 

[WitchDetective]

criiiiiiiinge.

how about you look up a couple posts.

Direct me to the posts then. You could do that instead of trying be vague. I'd be willing to look at what you think a "good" post is regarding the topic. Of course, this is operating under the assumption that you're not just being obtuse.

 

[Ikagura]

AI has been doubling in ability every year.

And consuming even more ressources in the meantime.

I'm starting to believe that Ian Malcolm was truly right.

Remember how quickly game graphics improved in the 90s? It's like that.

Game graphics were made by people's mind and skill, not algorithms, that's a false equivalency.

And I think that art style is what made some game age better, not polycount.

 

[Mpampakas]

Translations are technically similiar to fanfictions anyway, you don't beg for every authors to produce quality meeting your standards, you search through the piles of garbages and see which would you enjoy.

Naturally you chose to not comment on the fact if something is tagged as translated then no one competent gives it a second glance. What a curious decision.
The sum of your argument is literally "I have no standards so neither should you".
...Well i expected no more from someone that doesn't even have the will to improve his knowledge by looking up how 'low ego' translates to English as an insult ( this is assuming your culture shames having a low sense of self importance. There is a much higher chance that you are just stupid and can't understand what egoism is).

Then you proceed to assert once again that anything free is beyond scrutiny, a fallacy only someone that doesn't respect other people's time could commit.
So in conclusion you have a massive ego being propped up by ignorance of how the world works and refusing to learn. Something something average fate fan.

 

[WitchDetective]

So in conclusion you have a massive ego being propped up by ignorance of how the world works and refusing to learn. Something something average fate fan.

Absolutely crazy stray bullet at the end here.

 

[Mpampakas]

Are you a translator yourself which is why you see AI translations as soulless usurpers regardless of their quality?

Where did i use such colorful language and even if I did, where is that high quality AI translation you claim exists?
Also classic authority fallacy. I don't need to be a surgeon to tell you to not cut your stomach open for lols. Do better.

Or are you a believer that either a game is translated PERFECTLY with every little detail and nuance properly and smoothly presented to capture the vision of the game's creator as good as humanly possible...or it shouldn't be translated AT ALL?

Why should we not strive to get the best experience possible? If that is not realistic why not strive for second best? Very cute of you to drive me to the extreme conclusion of never having something translated if it is not perfect, why yes I do in fact agree with Lumina Tales and their delaying of Tales of destiny 2 for 3 years to make sure it is perfect.

If the latter then are you also against translations made by fans who learned Japanese only like 3-4 years and lack the cultural context of every sentence, use honorifics perfectly and are extremely knowledgeable about the franchise itself having played many more other games made by said author? Or as long as its not AI then its great?

If it is the latter then I am also against people that can't translate stuff...translating stuff? Crazy concept.
Apparently it needs to be spelled out for you to not act in bad faith so let me do just that:
A person that doesn't even know the language in a semi fluent level SHOULD NOT be copy pasting deepl drivel and calling it a translation.

Just curious, what is stopping your from using a translation overlay on your own that causes you to insist people upload zero effort 'translations'?

 

[MontyMole303]

Naturally you chose to not comment on the fact if something is tagged as translated then no one competent gives it a second glance. What a curious decision.

Reminds me of the Sega GAGA debacle. A tiny crew ripped that one to shreds the moment it was posted.

Nobody ever said what was specifically wrong with it (they rarely ever do) and, surprise, surprise, even with ALL the tools there at their fingertips - and months later - none of them have come forward with their translation. Or a page listing the tons of mistakes.

Or anything even similar.

There was a great post about the Grandia Museum translation over on SegaXtreme forums.

Someone posts their version using AI and human pass over to tidy up what they could. Incredibly detailed post explaining all the tools and techniques. You know, useful stuff that could help improve it down the line. Actually, how they used AI was fascinating... for someone like me anyway.

Soon after, OG translator chimes in and says (something to the effect of) "Damn! You've just messed up my project, now that you've done this I'm going to abandon my "human" translation project I've poured so much of my time into. They are clearly blaming this new release and AI for destroying their project.

Well.... that's sad, isn't it?

Yeah, it would have been if I hadn't read their follow up post saying that their 'translators' had abandoned them ages ago.

Ultimately, nobody is holding a gun to anyone's head. Don't like it? Just move on. You don't need to be the first to comment with the predictable "This is AI slop" posts that seem to excite you. Posts you make without ever commenting on what specifically is wrong (I mean they always fail on this one) and posts that do nothing except stir up angry (and ultimately needless) debate.

AI is here to stay, so live with it.

Human translators are only so good. Some might have studied a language for years, others just months. The fact that something is human translated means very little if you really want to look at it objectively.

 

[Super2]

Human translators are only so good. Some might have studied a language for years, others just months. The fact that something is human translated means very little if you really want to look at it objectively.

Your post is the best response I've seen out of all of these discussions.

And I might add, it is very unlikely that anyone will be coming forward with a list of any 'mistakes' by the AI.

Why? Because current AI models seem to be producing almost-perfect Japanese to English translations. There seems to be almost nothing to nit pick in their work.

I'm very happy to see these amazing tools and their skills become available to everyone who wants to use them.

 

[WitchDetective]

Ultimately, nobody is holding a gun to anyone's head. Don't like it? Just move on. You don't need to be the first to comment with the predictable "This is AI slop" posts that seem to excite you. Posts you make without ever commenting on what specifically is wrong (I mean they always fail on this one) and posts that do nothing except stir up angry (and ultimately needless) debate.
AI is here to stay, so live with it.
Human translators are only so good. Some might have studied a language for years, others just months. The fact that something is human translated means very little if you really want to look at it objectively.

My guy, in the very thread you brought up in the first place they brought up that the claude coded translation doesn't even boot to battles without crashing. What quality are you talking about?

Your post is the best response I've seen out of all of these discussions.
And I might add, there will be no one coming forward with a list of any 'mistakes' by the AI.
Why? Because current AI models seem to be producing almost-perfect Japanese to English translations. There seems to be almost nothing to nit pick in their work.
I'm very happy to see these amazing tools and their skills become available to everyone who wants to use them.

This is completely wrong when people literally give examples in a majority of the threads where they explain how they don't want AI here. You'd know that if you didn't make up stories in a thread to try to garner sympathy for a flawed technology that has no place being pushed into peoples faces. You want people to think your translations with a machine are better? Prove that it's better by actually showing it instead of just claiming it.

 

[mistymermaid]

Your post is the best response I've seen out of all of these discussions.

And I might add, it is very unlikely that anyone will be coming forward with a list of any 'mistakes' by the AI.

Why? Because current AI models seem to be producing almost-perfect Japanese to English translations. There seems to be almost nothing to nit pick in their work.

I'm very happy to see these amazing tools and their skills become available to everyone who wants to use them.

Not that I'd necessarily go so far in praising AI output.

Still thanks for reiterating a point I made earlier, vitriol against AI is not the same as identifying specific faults in the script.

 

[Sfjeov]

Machine translation isn't for me but that's cuz I don't really like literal translation in the first place. I kinda see MTLs as a last resort though.

 

[Boofy]

Would really hate it if people started making Sopranos AI voiced lines for Road To Respect mods.

U better not do that.

 

[starman271]

Man after reading responses this why I freaking don’t trust yall because I don’t give i don’t give a flying fuck about people adding woke or anything on jrpg it doesn’t effect me at all so yay no more ai if you don’t like then you are lazy to learn Japanese or whatever language