An Introduction to Dragonspeak

[Intaki]

With respect, this is just unprofessional.

With respect, I think you don't know what you're actually talking about and are trying to impose your belief on how things should be run over how they actually are, and then holding the EN team to your revised standard.

The translator is usually given a bunch of text that they need to translate, to the best of their abilities, making it sound and feel natural (in context) in the target language, but without altering any of the literary features of the original work.

And we already know that the EN localization team is in direct contact with the JP team as well as the head of all the lore. We also know that there is no actual "original Japanese script"; we've been told before that the creation of the writing is a collaborative process, and teams from each sector can and do take eachother's ideas an incorporate them into their own work.

[Vandesaan]

The irony of making the English translation more vague than the original Japanese is too funny to me

[Delily]

This is all an poor excuse not to give us a proper translation. We are not a dragon. We are players. We don't have the familiarity. We need explanations or we don't clearly understand what's going on. It's unjustified by the sole fact we must go to the fan Japanese translations just to clearly understand what was happening. We should not have a different experience than Japanese players. Our version of the story should not be more ambiguous than theirs.

That's the point. From the English translation I think the key points are pretty clear. Midgardsomr made a pact with Hydalyen, and thus he has claimed us for himself and has started to test us. The skirmishes between the dravians and Ishgard about to erupt into a full on war. The version the Japansese got basically added "..but everything will be fine!" whereas our version adds an element of suspense.

[MeeDeggiThePunisher]

Y I didn't understand more. I just noticed that Midgardsormr didn't have a personality in the original.

That's a failing on your part.

[Ethys]

I think Fern's explanation and vision for the character of the Dragons is fantastic and I'm so excited to see it pan out through Hward, but damn does his translation here make analysis and speculation more work. Not that it's a bad thing! I gave it a dig immediately after finishing the story - well before seeing a direct JP-ENG translation - and I'm satisfied that Fern is giving us all the tools to reach the core of this discourse with just a little bit of thought... and I would honestly prefer it to remain that way than receiving the platter that the JP players seem to have enjoyed. If anyone's interested I'm regularly building a library for lore junkies - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs2...TfDj-2g/videos

[Ethys]

This is all an poor excuse not to give us a proper translation. We are not a dragon. We are players. We don't have the familiarity. We need explanations or we don't clearly understand what's going on. It's unjustified by the sole fact we must go to the fan Japanese translations just to clearly understand what was happening. We should not have a different experience than Japanese players. Our version of the story should not be more ambiguous than theirs.

I'm happy to do the work for you - it's not simple but the meaning is definitely discernible without referring back to the Japanese. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lrpwWCKnEc

[Thandronen]

I rarely if ever feel the need to post on the forums but I just had to chime in here on this one...

To anyone who feels that "the translation is fine as is", you're missing the point. I (and many others I assure you) want as close to the exact translation that the original content writer intended as possible. Those of us in this camp do not want some cooked up "dragonspeak" version of what some EN translator though would sound cooler or more dragon-like. This was clearly a case of someone (Fernewhales) attempting to be cute and doing more than what was called for and I'm sure that he will likely be reprimanded for it and told to refrain from this type of behavior in the future. There was simply too much material left out in his translation here or left to speculation and it is completely unacceptable.

[Delily]

I rarely if ever feel the need to post on the forums but I just had to chime in here on this one...

To anyone who feels that "the translation is fine as is", you're missing the point. I (and many others I assure you) want as close to the exact translation that the original content writer intended as possible. Those of us in this camp do not want some cooked up "dragonspeak" version of what some EN translator though would sound cooler or more dragon-like. This was clearly a case of someone (Fernewhales) attempting to be cute and doing more than what was called for and I'm sure that he will likely be reprimanded for it and told to refrain from this type of behavior in the future. There was simply too much material left out in his translation here or left to speculation and it is completely unacceptable.

As (self) righteous as you're trying to be, you miss a few key points. There is no "original content writer". The story is developed in a collaborative fashion. Furthermore, Fernwhales version was approved to go to production; it was fully sanctioned by SE NA. It's your opinion that too much was left out and left to speculation. For every one of you who wanted the Japanese version, there's another one who likes the English version.

[Thandronen]

Someone had to write it... you do realize that every translation team was at worst given a script of what the story is supposed to convey right?! It didn't come out of thin air as much as you might like to believe it did.
I guarantee you that the majority of folks playing this game (or any other game for that matter) want the ORIGINAL story content, translated as concise as possible... not completely re-written to the point that it egregiously leaves out at least 3 major points that Midgardsormr expressly conveys in the Japanese (aka Parent version of the story) text.
If you recall, we were also provided with extremely vague hints about how to pop S Ranks hunts compared to the other language translations. The translator(s) need to simply do their job and nothing more here.

[Viridiana]

This was clearly a case of someone (Fernewhales) attempting to be cute and doing more than what was called for and I'm sure that he will likely be reprimanded for it and told to refrain from this type of behavior in the future. There was simply too much material left out in his translation here or left to speculation and it is completely unacceptable.

Hahahahahahahaha

Oh, wait. You're serious.

Edit:

. . .not completely re-written to the point that it egregiously leaves out at least 3 major points that Midgardsormr expressly conveys in the Japanese (aka Parent version of the story) text.

I'm curious what you think was left out. I bet it's there.