Interview - Cost, Hiring, FT, Hardcore and Casual, Ultimate, Cosmic, Future of FFXIV

[Jeeqbit]

I remember their main translators saying how few people were able to do it and how they were trying to get people to express interest in it via twitter.

[Atma]

I remember their main translators saying how few people were able to do it and how they were trying to get people to express interest in it via twitter.

Are you referring to live letter translation or for general dev purposes?

I'd agree that translators who can translate in real-time are definitely way rarer than those who can take written direction and translate that for SURE. That is definitely a much rarer skillset.

[Jeeqbit]

Are you referring to live letter translation or for general dev purposes?

Both.

I'd agree that translators who can translate in real-time are definitely way rarer than those who can take written direction and translate that for SURE. That is definitely a much rarer skillset.

They'd need it for real time for dev purposes because they want to work with people in person.

If they work remotely via text they could just use Google Translate or a browser plugin. I think that is part of the issue. The determination to collaborate in person. Nevertheless, they have to collaborate remotely to an extent regardless.

[Mawlzy]

Both.
They'd need it for real time for dev purposes because they want to work with people in person.

If they work remotely via text they could just use Google Translate or a browser plugin. I think that is part of the issue. The determination to collaborate in person. Nevertheless, they have to collaborate remotely to an extent regardless.

They could kill two birds with one stone -- Yoshi-P waffling for hours and potential mistranslation -- by having a written translation in all localized languages prepared ahead of the broadcast.

If Yoshi-P is genuinely winging it as his associate "Haha, Hai Hai!" further extends the blathering, it's no wonder the LLs lead to more confusion than clarity.

Amateur operation all round.

[Mawlzy]

Isn't it clear from the latest live letter that they don't plan to make the game one-size-fits-all, but rather allow for customisable and variable difficulty on a gamemode-per-gamemode basis?

Nothing is ever clear from LLs other than Yoshi-P's need to be on camera for hours.

[Atma]

Both.
They'd need it for real time for dev purposes because they want to work with people in person.

Sure. But now let's discuss the concept of 'wants' versus 'needs.'

They may 'want' to be able to 'work with people in person', but it does not - from how they are describing it - seem like that's a viable solution. But they NEED developers with skills in working on MMOs, which they are seemingly struggling to get.

So needs > wants. They should find a way to adapt to this communication gap, like every other company that's forced into this same situation. They are far from the being the first and/or only company thrust into this same situation. They are, imho, being obtuse and stubborn by refusing to do so.

A single head US located developer with access to a translator who can communicate with their JP counterparts opens the prospect of entire teams of US based developers being able to begin cranking out work product. It is not as though every single developer needs to be able to speak to every single other developer at all times in real time. Communication between the two needs to really only happen at the top levels and then be disseminated down.

And then dedicate part of each week to slowly cross-training people in linguistic skills. 4 days of dev, 1 day of language classes. Plant the seeds, and in 4 years you have a forest.

[Fawkes]

I'm curious about what exactly he meant with the Forked Tower changes as well, since they weren't announced previously. But we're going to find out within days when we read the patch notes anyway.

I think he means the development team will have the goal of trying to make Forked Tower more like it's original intent, after the 7.3 patch. Like that's when they're going to start working on doing that.

[Ryaze]

I’m surprised no one has mentioned the last question about fanfest. And the reiteration that the goal is to align China and Korea with the international version, despite Yoshi-p admitting that both are still behind. The interviewer asks if there will be five fanfests then instead of the usual three, and the response is that it is impossible. That there is a separate team planning a fanfest.

Personally, I don’t go and don’t care. But there’s a lot of people that care about these events.

It sounds like there might be only a single fanfest that will be translated into multiple languages. Now, this is google translate which might not be 100% accurate with regarding “a”/singular. But I’m sure 5 fanfests not being feasible before 8.0 is reasonably accurate.

[Jeeqbit]

If Yoshi-P is genuinely winging it as his associate "Haha, Hai Hai!" further extends the blathering, it's no wonder the LLs lead to more confusion than clarity.

He is definitely winging it (with bullet points that we see on screen with the slides). And winging it is good because people who use a teleprompter come across insincere.

A really good example of this contrast is when the person in charge of Xbox came to Fanfest and they spoke like a living teleprompter. The audience just stared in silence at this unnatural, robot, corporate speaker. The contrast was stark - Yoshi-P had been talking for hours in this natural, genuine, passionate, human way and was immediately followed by this corporate teleprompter that oversees Xbox and can only speak in corporate lingo.

Nothing is ever clear from LLs other than Yoshi-P's need to be on camera for hours.

It's not that he needs to be and more that he wants to be in order to create the personal connection with the players by addressing them with his face. The difference in that is the ability to read facial expressions and emotions. When they talk you can clearly see a genuinness, fun, laughter, all that stuff.

They may 'want' to be able to 'work with people in person', but it does not - from how they are describing it - seem like that's a viable solution. But they NEED developers with skills in working on MMOs, which they are seemingly struggling to get.

So needs > wants. They should find a way to adapt to this communication gap, like every other company that's forced into this same situation. They are far from the being the first and/or only company thrust into this same situation. They are, imho, being obtuse and stubborn by refusing to do so.

Agreed. Nevertheless, it's actually common that companies prefer "in person". Despite clear evidence that remote work is better, a lot of companies forced people back into the workplace. Like with everything, people are attached to what they grew up with, so the old guard will view remote work as "lazy" and "anti-social" despite how younger people understand the power of collaborating online.

I think he means the development team will have the goal of trying to make Forked Tower more like it's original intent, after the 7.3 patch. Like that's when they're going to start working on doing that.

Well we got the patch notes and it seems they probably meant making it require 24 instead of 16. Just didn't come through well in translation.

It sounds like there might be only a single fanfest that will be translated into multiple languages.

Although they could repeat the single one they did with Endwalker, I think they could do the 5 then translate whichever 3 Yoshi-P goes to.

[Ryaze]

Although they could repeat the single one they did with Endwalker, I think they could do the 5 then translate whichever 3 Yoshi-P goes to.

In the source interview, that you provided, Yoshida said this is literally impossible.