Japanese / English Lodestone Translation Issues
Can we have a little more quality control over the Japanese / English translations?
For instance:
http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/topics/detail?id=ebb24e6b791146967b5ef78776aa0ef7e9d2ddc0
1/25/2011 - Valentines day
Quote:
材料を手に入れる
開催期間中は各都市国家にベルが設置されます。以下の場所に設置されたベルを調べるとチョコレートの材料を入手することができます。
Quote:
How to Participate
Compared to most popular Eorzean festivals, Valentione's Day can seem fairly low-key. While some celebrations feature city-wide parades, lavish decorations, and various other manners of bacchanalian revelry, Valentione's Day is truly more about an individual's quest to muster the courage to conquer his own fears of rejection. It is for this reason the realm does not see any dramatic changes for the duration of the festivities. This, however, does not mean people are on their own in preparing for the holiday. City-states provide free portions of powdered sugar—a rare sweetener imported from far-away lands to the south, and usually only reserved for the noble classes—with which Valentione chocolates are created. To receive a pinch, citizens need only ring one of the many special bells erected in convenient locations within Limsa Lominsa, Gridania, and Ul'dah.
Each year, there are those who feel inclined to bring attention to the fact that these bells closely resemble those used during other festivals, such as the recent starlight celebration. It is unfortunate that these people must concentrate on the negative when the true meaning behind Valentione's Day is about expressing gratitude to a fellow friend or companion—something that should not require unnecessary displays of extravagance.
When I read the bit I highlighted in English above, it made me raise my eyebrow a little. It sounded like it was putting players down for holding an opinion and even picking a fight with players. When I read the Japanese version however and realized that paragraph wasn't there at all, I must admit I was a little annoyed. Why was the last bit added to only the English version of the text?
http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/topics/backnumber?ym=201101
1/27/2011 - Patch 1.15a
Quote:
Several of the scheduled improvements mentioned in last week's letter from the producer are nearing completion. The following is a list of some of the most significant changes
Quote:
第1回プロデューサーレターにてお知らせしております、操作性や利便性向上のためのシステム変更などの内容を含めたパッチ1.15a（※）の公開を2月上旬に予定しています。
In Japanese it says "2月上旬", the first 10 days of February, but in English all it says is "nearing completion". That's an important bit of info that got left out on the English version?
http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/topics/detail?id=7268beda5ef81b10600f4ba07316083b634f7678
3/3/2011 - Letter from the Producer #5
Quote:
Questions 4 and 5 were aimed at party and solo play, respectively. These tremendously informative results will go a long way towards serving as a barometer of sorts for future content balancing. We will draw heavily on this data when considering the necessity of forming parties, the presence of in-game features to aid in doing so, and other such differences between solo and party play. These differences seem to attribute in part for the strong showing of the solo PvE content option. Also, the solo play response for farming/gathering is extremely valuable feedback for the dev team, and I’m thinking that this is something we can tie into the in-game companies we have planned!
Quote:
それぞれパーティ向け／ソロ向けのコンテンツアンケートでした。今後のコンテンツバランスの参考に、非常に有益な回答がいただけました！ 事前にパーティを組む必要があるのか、システムでサポートされるかによって、ソロとパーティって実は微妙な差がありますが、その点も「ソロでダンジョン攻略」にそれなりに票が入っていることからも、しっかり参考にできると思っています。アイテム稼ぎをソロで！というのが、開発チームとしては貴重なご意見でした。これはパブリックカンパニー（仮）と呼んでいる仕組みの中で、達成していけるんじゃないかなと思っています。お楽しみに！
The portion in red, in Japanese it seems to read something more along the lines of:
"Going solo or party play is subtly influenced depending on whether you need to form a group prior (to engaging) and whether or not system support exists (for forming parties). Keeping this point in mind and also keeping in mind the number of votes "conquering Solo dungeons" garnered in itself [note: Yoshi-P doesn't really say "strong" showing, he just notes that solo PvE got enough votes to be noticeable], we will use this knowledge accordingly (in developing the system)."
It's probably a minor difference, but the English translation read a little differently to me, especially when you take into account "the necessity of forming parties" and "strong showing" were taken out of context from the original Yoshi-P text. I would imagine some people read the English translation as Yoshi-P was considering moving away from the necessity of forming parties because there was a strong enough showing in the solo PvE option, which I'm assuming was not the intended original meaning.
I realize translating is a difficult task, and sometimes minor differences like the Producers Letter example will occur, but the ones like the Valentines Day and Patch 1.15a differences really punctuate the feeling of being "left out" of information that Japanese readers are privy to.