Tokyo Fan Fest - Only keynote to be translated

[Burningskull]

Only the keynote's are going to be translated live? Sounds fine to me... Only the keynotes really matter that much. To me anyway.

Oh. I just read the thing. It says on a separate channel. Wonder if that means at the same time or after. Seems odd that they would do live translations for NA and EU but not JP when they made the point of making the streams free. Maybe they just have a lot to say and having to wait for the translations would take to much time that hey don't have to schedule. The power points normally have english on them anyway at least lol.

[Vahlnir]

Eh, just leave the translating up to someone in the community. Chances are someone will be on top of it on the reddit forums.

[TarynH]

Live translation takes time, more than anything. They will have to interrupt speaking to let translator speak the same thing just in different language. That interrupts the flow and takes away from what they are able to present.

If that were the case, they could just have someone come out and give the keynote in English (at NA/EU events), while Yoshi stands and smiles at them. I personally don't mind the "flow being interrupted" if it's done professionally. Koji and Yoshi are a good team on stage.

Oh. I just read the thing. It says on a separate channel. Wonder if that means at the same time or after.

If it's like the last Fan Fest in Japan, it'll be someone that is so excited about what is being announced, that they'll "ooh" and "aww" instead of translating. Or talking nonsense back and forth, while missing information. I'd rather have Koji there live, with the back and forth.

[Theodric]

So long as the key details are translated, I'll be content. There's a high chance that the minor details will be translated by members of the community who are fluent in Japanese either immediately or within a matter of hours.

[Vaer]

Welp, it's free other than the in person only concerts and this is how they usually do things anyway. Live letters aren't really live translated either unless they are abroad like at E3/fanfest or something.

Would have been nice to have a translator for the dev panel at least, but the rest of the stuff seems to be mostly fluff. They might just translate the slides and call it a day.

[Shougun]

IMO it would be neat to see Koji Fox, Foxclon, or Aimi running a presentation for the English speaking community whenever there is one in Japanese (which I would argue is /massive/, our EU friends who don't use English as their first language tend to have a decent bank of words to fall back onto as well). Anyway, they could use whoever is at the office and can speak both languages (and therefore in the know of what can and can't be said without having to give them a huge binder of catch up).

Those three seem to do well on the stage but I'm sure it takes hours to prep and so they may feel it's not the best use of their time, but if it's possible to be done it would be pretty nice. Make sure Yoshida guest stars occasionally though, to keep his face active as leader - even if Koji becomes more of our English daddy lol. Rather than two separate times it could always be Koji Fox "reaction" haha, where we're not live at the same pace but he has the live feed sent to him so he can pause, rewind, etc, to make comments/translate and manipulate it on the side as he talks over it via greenscreen or side by side.

Bit of an aside but it would be neat to see little community events after each presentation, a bit like Warframe I suppose. Whether in game or out, just a sort of community tool to get more people in on the presentations and with each other (puzzles and riddles in the presentation or an event in the game later, etc).

[Iromi]

Except the whole thing is being live-streamed online to a worldwide audience. I kinda understand why generic live letters aren't translated given their small scale, but this is a Fan Fest.

Yup. It seems like by not making the information translated so everyone can know, they are shooting themselves in the foot a bit. Also often times fan translated things are wrong, which leads to misinformation being spread, and then disappointment eventually when its released and nothing like "they promised at the fanfest!"

[Burningskull]

If it's like the last Fan Fest in Japan, it'll be someone that is so excited about what is being announced, that they'll "ooh" and "aww" instead of translating. Or talking nonsense back and forth, while missing information. I'd rather have Koji there live, with the back and forth.

Eh.. Just post all the pictures on the forums then lol. I'll miss Koji doing a live tanslation tho. Him and Yoshida are rather funny to me.

[kikix12]

Seems odd that they would do live translations for NA and EU but not JP when they made the point of making the streams free.

They didn't make live translation for the NA and EU streams. They made live translation for the guests on the premises. And that was simply streamed live. They went to a foreign country with mostly foreign spectators paying for actual tickets to see them. They could not ignore the translation for the people at the venue.

But with the next Fan Fest in Japan, the entire audience is expected to know Japanese so no on-venue translation is needed. Even if there are foreign guests as well (there surely will be), some of them will know Japanese all the same (most people simply wouldn't go there otherwise).

And the remaining few?! Sorry, but the concept is the same as in EU. There was no German, French, Spanish, Polish, Danish etc. translations for the EU Fan Fest even if it was in France. If you want to see some foreign event held in some foreign country (or internationally)...it's on you to learn the universal language in the area. In Europe English is the most universal as it's taught across all the countries plus it's the primary language in England and Ireland, plus a very strong second language in numerous others. In Japan...it's Japanese. It's as simple as that.

I personally don't mind the "flow being interrupted" if it's done professionally. Koji and Yoshi are a good team on stage.

Flow being interrupted means that less information is being given in the same amount of time. Not only is the information given repeated an additional time, but the in-between and the translation process itself (the translator needs to "translate" it in their head due to different way that phrases are built in the two languages, if nothing else).

As a result, to match the same duration, the information is condensed and some is omitted. What's worse, the more information is condensed and omitted, the easier it is to make a mistake while translating something.

So yeah, flow is actually a lot more important that "I can understand only half of what they're saying".

Well, you may still say that you don't mind it being interrupted...you're free to do so. But clearly Square Enix chose the practical option.

Yup. It seems like by not making the information translated so everyone can know, they are shooting themselves in the foot a bit. Also often times fan translated things are wrong, which leads to misinformation being spread, and then disappointment eventually when its released and nothing like "they promised at the fanfest!"

Did you actually look at the posts after key notes and live letters?! Do you know how many people were spreading misinformation about something that was clearly written and translated properly, just cause they cannot read fully?!

The people that spread misinformation from fan translations often are the ones that have difficulty with reading comprehension, a problem that affects huge chunks of humanity. Functional illiteracy is a thing, you know, and that's only for those most severe cases. There are countless more that make frequent mistakes when reading even if they can do so with some degree of accuracy in general. No amount of on-the-fly translation (which is AS PRONE to mistakes as fan translations) is going to prevent that.

Look at forum posts and comment sections. How often do you see an exchange similar to this:
MR.A: "I like Big Bad because he shows us how to make a well written character. I hope to see him in the sequel if it'll ever be made."
MR.B: "Big Bad is not good, he's evil! Did you even watch the show? And no one said there will be sequel either, don't lie to people!"

The above exchange may be just an example...but I've seen even more obvious cases of illiteracy of people that "can" read and write (type) "on paper".

[Burningskull]

They didn't make live translation for the NA and EU streams. They made live translation for the guests on the premises. And that was simply streamed live. They went to a foreign country with mostly foreign spectators paying for actual tickets to see them. They could not ignore the translation for the people at the venue.

But with the next Fan Fest in Japan, the entire audience is expected to know Japanese so no on-venue translation is needed. Even if there are foreign guests as well (there surely will be), some of them will know Japanese all the same (most people simply wouldn't go there otherwise).

And the remaining few?! Sorry, but the concept is the same as in EU. There was no German, French, Spanish, Polish, Danish etc. translations for the EU Fan Fest even if it was in France. If you want to see some foreign event held in some foreign country (or internationally)...it's on you to learn the universal language in the area. In Europe English is the most universal as it's taught across all the countries plus it's the primary language in England and Ireland, plus a very strong second language in numerous others. In Japan...it's Japanese. It's as simple as that.

Fair point. And honestly as long as the slides continue to have English on them it doesn't matter to me personally. Also the Reddit Discord has some wonderful translators that do a really good job with live letters. Not sure if they are doing it for the JP Keynote.