Why do people fan translate?

[TigerTiger]

I get doing it for language practise, but from everything I know about video games, there are much easier media to translate if you're a translator on your own, so why?

I kinda feel like it'd just be boring to work on the same game for X number of years like many projects tend to be, and they don't get paid either, so what do fan translators get out of it?

 

[Shadow#1]

I get doing it for language practise, but from everything I know about video games, there are much easier media to translate if you're a translator on your own, so why?

I kinda feel like it'd just be boring to work on the same game for X number of years like many projects tend to be, and they don't get paid either, so what do fan translators get out of it?

The joy and love of playing the game in the new language it was never intended to be

 

[TigerTiger]

But, does a fan translator actually feel like that at the end? I've never finished a fan translation so I can't say, but even playing a game, as much as I might enjoy it, once I've finished I don't feel like I want to replay it. For someone who is replaying it multiple times, translating, testing, re-testing the fixes, would they still feel as excited about it as they did at the start?

 

[Latiodile]

so that other people can play in a language the game was never released in, or a version of a game that differs from the international version

or for the people that got the japanese version of a game for $2, and want it translated, without paying for another copy of the game but in english instead

 

[CoolMe]

Uh, because the game was never (officially) localized/ released in the west? Specially for well known franchises, they're usually good games, so that alone is enough incentive to work on a translation, usually it's from JP to EN, bit it can expand to other languages if the process wasn't difficult and the actual translation was satisfactory.

 

[The Catboy]

Sometimes people just do things for the sake of doing things. If there’s a game someone enjoys and it’s locked behind a language barrier, sometimes that’s motivating enough to translate it. Sometimes it’s just about bringing the game to a wider audience. Sometimes they are doing it because they translating. Each individual has their reasons. Not everyone is motivated by monetary gains. I am someone who used to spend literal hours to days helping different projects with no pay involved beyond the occasional tip here or there. It was never about the money, it was always about seeing the project out there and being enjoyed.

 

[FAST6191]

Burnout on a game where you have likely pondered every word, branch in the story, possibly gameplay loop and more is a real... for want of a better term I will go with concern in ROM hacking world. ROM hackers playing in the translation world seldom use their own product as it were.

I will note it is not usually done on your own either; most groups will at least split between hacker and translator aspects, the translator then getting a fairly normal translation job at that point (here is big text file, try not to make it go beyond this size/line length/section length/...). Some teams will add proofreaders (sometimes doubling up as text management when trying to get it back into the game), graphics editors and other aspects that might be necessary, and possibly junior hackers as well (can I spend 20 hours figuring out encodings for a game with several thousand Kanji? Yes I can, do I want to if some new hacker is willing to take the grunt work and leave me to figure out something interesting so they in turn can get the nod when they in turn want to do their own project... you bet I am on team lazy -- translators are usually the rarer commodity so don't be wasting their time and proven ability to work in an established team does make for some credibility).


For the challenge (some people write stories, some poetry, some build model steam engines, restore old cars, some fix furniture, some sew, some paint, some take photographs... all knowing that they will never make the big money, or indeed even above minimum wage, and no different here), for the love of the series/game/greater franchise, for the love of the device it is on, for the love of the language speakers that the game is being translated into (or maybe just a few -- had several translate games for some kids, elderly relatives or some such and share it onwards anyway, not usually seen in the English world but outside it common enough), internet cool guy/epenis points (you do get invitation to the special club), to be swarmed by the groupies (they are not quite as good as those for rock bands and serial killers but hey)...

 

[TigerTiger]

or for the people that got the japanese version of a game for $2, and want it translated, without paying for another copy of the game but in english instead

I have to disagree with this point. If you consider the amount of work that goes into a project - no one is going to do that just so someone else can use a cheaper copy. Yes, there are sometimes translations for older (normally cheaper) versions of games, but as you said, those are there because the older versions are somehow different. I think translating a port of a game that has an official translation of what's more or less the same thing is pretty sketchy.

It was never about the money, it was always about seeing the project out there and being enjoyed.

That's a lovely sentiment It's kind of a strange thing though, in my head internal satisfaction of being proud of doing something and external satisfaction of having a positive influence in the world are two seperate things. Like how it's not really altruism if you're expecting to gain from it? Does it lean one way or the other, or is it just a mix of both feelings?

internet cool guy/epenis points (you do get invitation to the special club), to be swarmed by the groupies (they are not quite as good as those for rock bands and serial killers but hey)...

Ooh, these are some really interesting thoughts, thanks! I guess half of it does just come down to 'why does anyone do X hobby', but video game fan translation seems like such a complex field I was thinking there had to be more to it than just say, translating a book

About this quote though, do you think those necessarily count with fan translations of games though? I gotta say, from my time on the forum I see a lot of released translations get overlooked when unreleased ones can have hundreds of pages talking about the project. Even for such a well-established site like this (yay, 20 years!), I still feel like the area is pretty niche. Then again, I don't really know if it's quantity or quality with these things. My gut says quantity (on the grounds of social media influence, even if you don't want to, it's hard to not be affected by the need for popularity and 'likes'), but I might be wrong.

 

[Latiodile]

I have to disagree with this point. If you consider the amount of work that goes into a project - no one is going to do that just so someone else can use a cheaper copy. Yes, there are sometimes translations for older (normally cheaper) versions of games, but as you said, those are there because the older versions are somehow different. I think translating a port of a game that has an official translation of what's more or less the same thing is pretty sketchy.

monster hunter XX was never released on the 3ds in the west, and is different from X (generations), which is on the 3ds, i have a copy of generations ultimate for the switch which IS XX, but is... also on the switch, different game

i want to experience XX in a language i can actually read, just because it's a minority case, doesn't mean it's invalid

 

[FAST6191]

Overlooked vs not usually amounts to.

Is it a big nice RPG that counts among the "why on earth did they not bring this over?/man I hate licensing deals that split things between 15 competitors in the west*"? Congratulations you will get attention. Same can apply to things that popped before but companies half arsed otherwise (Megaman being the more notable of these).

Is it a big franchise RPG that might have had a questionable official translation that either played to 80s-90s American sensibilities ("Sushi? What is that, better make it toast" and things more relevant to the story like a character obsessed with face that is an alien concept to the American knuckle dragger as envisioned by similar vintage company executives) or indeed went more on the pizza cats** side of the literal-literal-pizza cats side of the translation spectrum). See the endless debates over Final Fantasy for one of the bigger ones here.

Is it pokemon, zelda, kingdom hearts or something that will be out in 3-6 months in English but impatient people think can make something happen (is possible, Chinese translations often manage great feats here) and run into the technical skill barrier and time even if not? Merely mentioning this means several mods of the site have just had a shiver come over them as well and are probably not sure why.

Is it a tie in game to some anime that the surprising amount of superfans will fawn over despite anime tie in being only marginally better than western kids film tie in most of the time when it comes to quality? Dragon Ball (Z) being a time tested favourite, as might be yugioh, for a long while the endless shonen animes (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece being the big three non DBZ things, Zoids, Full Metal Alchemist, Medabots, Shaman King and Digimon + several I am likely forgetting you can see if you scan GBA release lists) but those have tapered off a bit with the demise of 4kids and anime not being as prominent as it once might have been. As most translations tend to be force of will efforts on the part of translators and hackers, which don't necessarily find themselves that represented among the anime superfans, you get people trying, stopping, running with it for a bit, trying to pick up a fallen project onto to find it be hard yo this probably represents some of the threads you talk of.

The occasional visual novel, which might also include Phoenix Wright as a split between this and the neglected popular games.

Anything that has meme staying power. Cooking mama, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan for another and also good option for the westernised vs not if you want to look at its official translation in Elite Beat Agents. Phoenix Wright might also make an appearance here.

*see super robot wars for the more prominent example, though Jump Super Stars and Jump Ultimate Stars represents another.

**for those unfamiliar with the debate. You can translate things word for word aka literally, though the results are usually quite stilted or composed of 1000 proper nouns, important for medical notes, legal treaties, patents and such but harder for translations. You can take the spirit of the work and convert it across at varying levels, usually makes for a nicer read but you do get the do we have sushi as a thing the characters can eat idea. Pizza cats is named for the samurai pizza cats cartoon wherein the western division was given a bunch of animation, no real scripts, no ordering, very little in the way of guidance and instead made their own cartoon from the stuff they had, by most accounts taking what was a middling Japanese show and making something really quite special from it, translations can go this path as well but results vary considerably.

As far as more to it. Translating a book might be one thing (though I rarely see those outside of a few ancient texts), comics/manga often needed some fairly considerable graphics skills (plus it was a race) and on the anime side of things then start messing around with the higher end stuff like some of the groups out there and it is not rip a DVD to RMVB or 3gp (sorry for those now rocking in the corner at such memories) but sorting out MPEG2 transport streams you might have had to piece together from Winny downloads, sorting interlacing, possibly colour correcting, full bore ASS/SSA subs... and into a real container and formats; that is real technical skills needed.

 

[porkiewpyne]

The same reason why any other forms of fan projects get done. It's essentially in the name. Because they are fans and they love the IP and want to spread said joy to others, in spite of the challenges it presents. I honestly do not know how many translators do it with language practice being the primary goal but if I had to guess, I'd say not many. I would assume it to be a bonus. But when all is said and done, it really just boils down to people being able to and wanting to do it.

We can even extend that to projects outside the fandoms. You could ask the same question to those who in the hacking and homebrew scene.

 

[Marc_LFD]

Because publishers ignored/refuse to release it in the West so the fans decided to take care of it themselves.

It's a lot like preservation projects of shows and movies done by fans while distributor release crappy releases.

 

[Veho]

Some games don't have an official translation.
Some have a horrible one.
Maybe the translators were incompetent or indifferent, and the publisher didn't give enough of a crap. Maybe it was censored, edited to fit some local rating guidelines, or otherwise bowdlerized. Maybe the localization was iffy. Maybe some nuance was lost, maybe all the names are (terrible) puns or carry some other significance in their original language but they were translated to "Bob". Maybe a ton of wordplay was never adequately transported into the new language.
Maybe 20 characters can fit a whole lot more text in Japanese than in English so a lot of it had to be cut.

Either way, some games don't have a decent (official) translation, and some fans would like to see them get one.
Some fans draw fanart, some collect merch, some make fan translations.
What do they get out of it? The warm fuzzies, I guess.

 

[SG854]

If no benefit or money is gained I don't understand - Conservative

 

[BasedKiliK]

But, does a fan translator actually feel like that at the end? I've never finished a fan translation so I can't say, but even playing a game, as much as I might enjoy it, once I've finished I don't feel like I want to replay it. For someone who is replaying it multiple times, translating, testing, re-testing the fixes, would they still feel as excited about it as they did at the start?

You seem to be looking at this from a very narrow perspective of experience, which is just your own.

I can tell you personally that, yes, people finish and replay fantranslations all the time. They can breathe new life into a game, allow people who have been curious to truly experience them for the first time, and reignite discussion and interest in not just a single title but an entire series.

A fan translator typically wouldn’t even put in the work if they weren’t passionate about it in the first place.

 

[Jokey_Carrot]

People do things for one of two reasons: They want to, or they need to. Questioning anymore is pointless.

 

[KabanFriends]

As a person who is working on a fan translation right now, I do it because uh, I simply think it would be cool honestly
Also seeing more people play my favorite game is a really exciting moment

 

[Shurrick]

In my case gaming helped me to succeed in learning English (maybe it's not so obvious, but still )
We never had official game localizations for several generations (!!!) of systems.
It's really sad to understand that some games like Paper Mario won't be truly appreciated by our gamers.
But sometimes exceptions may take place: I remember playing Captain Tsubasa II on Famicom in Japanese by trial and error method.) To play or not to play was not a question

On the other hand, not all fan translations are useful, some horrible ones become a meme grail)
For example, Russian and CIS fellas can remember ugly machine translation of GTA: San Andreas which was quite a wide-spread over 15 years ago)

 

[Daemon_Edevane]

In my opinion, people do fan translations for the purpose of giving to other persons the opportunity of playing a game that they never heard of and was never officially translated and released outside of japan, in my case i always wanted to do a translation of some games like the Hunter x Hunter psp game, or the Captain Tsubasa of PS2 just because when i was a kid i found them in a hidden second handed store but i never understood anything in them, trying to fill the gaps and finally when i had the chance to have a pc and play them with a pc, i found out that they didn't had any english patch, so, i did a little partial translation of the Captain Tsubasa one for my enjoyment (like just menus and some text of the begginings of the matches) and i was like, well that's all that i can do, but then one friend told me that he always played with his brother but they never understood the menus, so i gave him the game with the translations and he told me that he really loved, hearing him having so much fun with a little thing that i did for a hobby made me so happy, so yeah, i think that people do that just to feel useful for giving joy to other people that once were like them uwu

P.S: Sorry for the long text xD

 

[Xdqwerty]

If the companies won't translate something, the fans may do it