Gaming Would you pay for a translation of a game?

[Carmentis]

Before reading the post, as someone stated I should have clarified, I mean a fan translated game.
I've downloaded some app's for my iPad and even paid for the additional lessons so that I could slowly but surely play some of the 3DS games I know will never come out in English. I got to thinking then, if I paid for that would there be someone willing enough to pay to translate the game itself I want?
I tried looking into even just text dumping and the a novice like me it was like in yet a whole 'nother language so I'm quite aware how much effort it would take. Especially having to edit the pictures, testing, the text especially if it's an RPG and who knows what else goes into it.
I thought that maybe if someone was with the same idea(s) as me that there may be someone who would like to be on the receiving end of the project, aka, translating the game and producing the final product.
The more I thought to the prices should vary because as I stated there are some games that require a lot more work then others like RPG's with their text while others not as much.
Again though, I don' know the specifics but it just has been bothering me for a long while and thought I might bring it up and see if anyone agrees. My thoughts were along the line of say a minimum of $100 per game and the price going up depending on the game as previously stated.
Question(s) is though, would people do it? Pay it? Or just keep praying someone will translate a game you want or pay a person who is in need of money for medical, student loans, money or whatever they need it for translate the game.

PS. I deeply apologize if this is the wrong forum/subsection for this.
PSS. Another reason I bring this up is I know there is a game out in japan that will never be localized and I got to thinking that I would if anyone would be willing to accept payment to translate a game. I know it would take months at least but still, the thought crossed my mind and wanted to see if people had the same thoughts as me and/or wanted to be on the other side and be paid.

 

[exdeath255]

depends on the game. I know if someone translated tales of hearts for ds and tales of destiny DC for ps2 and tales of destiny 2/rebirth for psp i would pay top dollar

 

[Deleted User]

Yeah, it depends on the game. To me, if it was Ace Attorney 10 that wasn't being released here, I would pay for it.

 

[cearp]

we already pay for translated games, most games i play at least are originally in japanese, so yeah if you want to play in english, part of the price you pay will take care of that translation...

if you mean paying for fan translations (your title should have specified this), they ONLY translated the game, so assuming the translation is legally distributed, like through a patch, how much should a translation cost?
it's a very small part of the work of a game relativley, so maybe only a 1/5th of the price i guess.

when games are made, how much of the development cost is required for the writing/translation? nothing like art and programming i'm sure... but i'd like to know the facts

 

[cearp]

oops double post

 

[Supster131]

At first I was thinking it would be fine, you know, putting the 3rd option aside.
After reading @cearp 's post though, it got me thinking. Wouldn't it technically be illegal? You would be profiting off someone else work, which is illegal. Even if it's just the patch by itself without any of the original game assets.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong though.

 

[cearp]

At first I was thinking it would be fine, you know, putting the 3rd option aside.
After reading @cearp 's post though, it got me thinking. Wouldn't it technically be illegal? You would be profiting off someone else work, which is illegal. Even if it's just the patch by itself without any of the original game assets.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong though.

i guess you do need permission to translate someone's work and then distribute it, so yeah i guess it's illegal (depending where you are). it doesn't matter if it's for free or not.
but i'm not a lawyer!

 

[Zan']

i guess you do need permission to translate someone's work and then distribute it, so yeah i guess it's illegal (depending where you are). it doesn't matter if it's for free or not.
but i'm not a lawyer!

I guess it kinda depends on your region.
But either way a translator can't SELL his translation without permission.
He may set up a donation page or anything to keep up his projects. (Doesn't count as payment towards something)

A gray area thing would be to set up a donation page and ask for donations so you can keep progressing. And people who have donated will get a weekly (or whatever time interval) updated translation patch as "thank you". The whole thing however won't get released until 100% work has been done.
You could argue this to be legal. But yeah as I said.... gray area.

He also can not provide a full version of a translated game. He may provide patch files or similar.
Providing a translated version of a game would still violate the copyright. And is illegal.

Selling a transated version would count as selling other peoples work. (Yeah even if you did all the work translating - the main aspect is still not your's)

Don't quote me on that but I believe there is a 60% rule or something that has to be changed before you can actually make profit of something. (And you won't ever reach that by text changing)

 

[KingpinSlim]

For proper finished translations of the SNES-Era Dragon Quest games?
Sure, i would donate. Gladly, actually.

Also the Goemon games. Those as well.

EDIT: I would donate. I would however not purchase a translation.
Make it public and ask for donations or just stop.
Don't be scummy.

 

[Carmentis]

There have been some very good points made which made me rethink of a way that the fan translation could be 'paid' for and basically covers both the translators fears and the buyers. Plus it works within the gray area as you spoke of.

What could be done is that the translator and purchaser could contact one another and discuss the price and options as said. It could be done via private message here, e-mail or any other numerous ways.

After the finite details are done the translator could make a tumblr/blog/website or whatever and post progress of the translation and post a donation option which would technically be the way that the purchaser would pay in increments for the translation plus if other people are also interested in the game they could give a boost to the translator as well. Bottom line though the purchaser would have to make the payments no matter if the translator hit 'total' that they would need.

As for profiting from someone else's work well which @cearp and @Supster131 talked about. How that could work out is that only the translator and true purchaser know the details and then from everyone else's view point, the project is working on donations. Which there are many of websites, past and present, that are making patches for games and asking for donations.

In the end the person gets the game; wait let me rephrase that, patch (the rom would not be in circulation, I should have said patch in the first place) they want to make the game in English and post it so that others may download it as well while the translator gets his earning for their hard work. I was actually thinking the same think as @KingpinSlim mentioned that it is impolite to rather 'horde' said patch for a game that would make others happy as well.

 

[KingpinSlim]

There have been some very good points made which made me rethink of a way that the fan translation could be 'paid' for and basically covers both the translators fears and the buyers. Plus it works within the gray area as you spoke of.

What could be done is that the translator and purchaser could contact one another and discuss the price and options as said. It could be done via private message here, e-mail or any other numerous ways.

After the finite details are done the translator could make a tumblr/blog/website or whatever and post progress of the translation and post a donation option which would technically be the way that the purchaser would pay in increments for the translation plus if other people are also interested in the game they could give a boost to the translator as well. Bottom line though the purchaser would have to make the payments no matter if the translator hit 'total' that they would need.

As for profiting from someone else's work well, as only the translator and true purchaser know the details and the from everyone else's view point, the project is working on donations. Which there are many of websites, past and present, that are making patches for games and asking for donations.

In the end the person gets the game; wait let me rephrase that, patch (the rom would not be in circulation, I should have said patch in the first place) they want to make the game in English and post it so that others may download it as well while the translator gets his earning for their hard work. I was actually thinking the same think as @KingpinSlim mentioned that it is impolite to rather 'horde' said patch for a game that would make others happy as well.

The dumping and translating of roms is for archival purposes. The cartridges themselves are eventually all going to die, but roms can exist forever, limiting access to betas, prototypes, undumped cartridges and translations is against the spirit of archiving so i am against this in all forms.

Like the new translation of SD Snatcher, for example.

I am however perfectly willing to donate to a cause i deem worty.

 

[Carmentis]

@KingpinSlim I'm very sorry if I offended you in some way. I'm not very tech savvy so to speak. I just was agreeing with you that when the translation patch is done for the game that the person 'donated' and the other finished the final product that the primary 'donator' would not have exclusive rights to the patch and would be uploaded on the programmers/translators website.

The two primary people would still fulfill their ends and donations from other fans would encourage the translator/programmer.

Personally I have already been burned so to speak from Kickstarter games so that's why I was just tossing out ideas and such and seeing if anyone thinks the same way I do. Possibly even start a erm, I can't precisely say legitimate, but a safe way I suppose you could say to get a game you want a patch in english and support translators/programmers.

 

[KingpinSlim]

@KingpinSlim I'm very sorry if I offended you in some way. I'm not very tech savvy so to speak. I just was agreeing with you that when the translation patch is done for the game that the person 'donated' and the other finished the final product that the primary 'donator' would not have exclusive rights to the patch and would be uploaded on the programmers/translators website.

The two primary people would still fulfill their ends and donations from other fans would encourage the translator/programmer.

Personally I have already been burned so to speak from Kickstarter games so that's why I was just tossing out ideas and such and seeing if anyone thinks the same way I do. Possibly even start a erm, I can't precisely say legitimate, but a safe way I suppose you could say to get a game you want a patch in english and support translators/programmers.

No, you didn't offend me at all!

I'm just a little passionate about videogames ; )

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I think the term donate would been better used than "Pay" As in pay means give money for service or product while donate is optional and not withing contacting of terms of service. But i still think is inaccurate. If your willing to donate someone for service of doing something you like is a donation, if you paying someone, there is expectations behind it for the service. There people who donate money to charity cause they want to provide help for the cause, if your paying a charity you maybe expecting something in return.

While i wasn't sure if your asking would someone pay for a translation, we do pay for our games in localized content. which is legal. But fan translations is something done by people who wish to translate something willingly not for profit. As well as fan translations not being endorsed or backed by anyone but the person who wants to do it. There no funds going into it cause is done willingly. Is possible to ask someone or request for a translation to be done and i guess people accept donations for the ammount of time and work they do for it but is not consider service this way cause they intended to do it anyway as well as was gonna be done for free. I think translators know they cannot legally be paid for it as unless is their job so i hope i cleared things up miss @Carmentis

 

[dimmidice]

i wouldn't be against donating a few dollars after its all done. but translations so often get dropped or end up taking years i definitely wouldn't donate anything before hand.

 

[KingpinSlim]

i wouldn't be against donating a few dollars after its all done. but translations so often get dropped or end up taking years i definitely wouldn't donate anything before hand.

I don't know... I'm a passionate guy.

If someone said they were working on finishing the Dragon Quest 3 Translation i might give some after seeing some proof.
Mostly to show my support for the project and because this would be really exciting to me.
Don't you ever just get swept along by your excitement?

 

[The Catboy]

The issue with unofficial translations, is that there's no guarantee that they will be finished nor that the company won't send a cease and desist. Which makes it hard to justify donating to them, when you can't be sure there will be a finished project in the end.

 

[KingpinSlim]

The issue with unofficial translations, is that there's no guarantee that they will be finished nor that the company won't send a cease and desist. Which makes it hard to justify donating to them, when you can't be sure there will be a finished project in the end.

You don't donate as payment for a product, but in support for the project, but i get what you are saying.

 

[The Catboy]

You don't donate as payment for a product, but in support for the project, but i get what you are saying.

Paying for a translation is a quick way to get an unofficial translator sued out their ass for copyright infringement. I'd much rather call it "donations" so at least they just get slapped with a cease and desist

 

[Carmentis]

Ah, I'm very glad I didn't offend you @KingpinSlim and I know and understand how you feel about being passionate. When a game is, or even in the past, been announced in Japan I would hope it would get localized and to this day I still get (yes, it's quite embarrassing) depressed and lethargic that I know I'll never be able to play and understand it.

I suppose that's why I made this post about 'pay/donating' in hopes that there would and could be more teams around to be more motivated and have incentive.

@Sonic Angel Knight I agree with you fully. I have requested a few but unless it's a popular title I usually get ignored sadly which there is a game I have in mind I would like, nay, love a patch for that I know now one would do. Plus I do pay, heck, pre-order games that I get excited for and hope that companies will localize more of the series (even the Digimon All-Star Rumble in hopes the other Digimon games would be localized). That is just one example of how I try to support big businesses. I always pre-order my games in hopes that it will show enthusiasm and if they make them, get the collectors edition of said version. It takes me back to the time of Working Designs, now Gaijin Works, where I ordered the physical copy and bought (even though you get a code) a digital to support it. I still have my pre-order screen cloth from the Dragons Quest Monster DS as well. That even reminds me I even pre-ordered back when they had gameboy (and color version) games. Still remember Dragon "Warrior 2 Tiara" and how excited I was playing that and these examples are a very small number of games I pre-ordered but I suppose was not popular or money efficient wise.

One game that still, yes still to this very day, floats in my mind is Black/Matrix for Sega Saturn. Don't ask me why but I guess I was so obsessed at that time and it left a scar with me.

Back on topic as with @dimmidice and @Crystal the Glaceon said, the term donation is what I want(ed) to use as a back up as I've seen over the years teams of translators come and go. Some finishing, some not as was stated and even with donations they could drop it. I just am trying to find I suppose a loophole to support the programmer/translator and the 'donator' (s) so that the patch would have to 100% be finished.

 

[The Catboy]

Back on topic as with @dimmidice and @Crystal the Glaceon said, the term donation is what I want(ed) to use as a back up as I've seen over the years teams of translators come and go. Some finishing, some not as was stated and even with donations they could drop it. I just am trying to find I suppose a loophole to support the programmer/translator and the 'donator' (s) so that the patch would have to 100% be finished.

I actually am on topic. The issue isn't about payment, it's about going under the radar from the original publishers. You can easily donate, but you can't always guarantee they won't get a cease and desist.