You really should stop arguing with people on the Internet. Life is much better when you realize that the crazies online are to be ignored, not fought.
This was one of my friends.
Unfortunately, they're the type of person who, while I get along with most times, when they get start arguing, it feels like I'm arguing with the worst of Tumblr.
So, today we're working on a translation case for a game developer. We're translating the in-game text, stuff like dialogue, item names, NPC names, quest hints, etc, from Chinese to English. Since it's a mobile game, every string has a very strict length limit. We get that. That's to be expected.
The problem is that the developers have set the length limits hilariously short. This is because Chinese is generally more concise than English, and can express concepts in fewer characters. The devs have set the limits based on the Chinese text, not realizing that the English versions would be much longer.
For example, there's an item that, if accurately translated, would be a "divine dragon gold medallion". They've given us five characters for it, because the Chinese text only took up four characters of space. I don't even know how I'm going to cut this down to five characters. GldMd? AuMed? DrgAu?
We asked them if they could loosen the string limits a bit. They said no, everything's programmed and finalized on their end, and it's up to us to figure something out. So if you guys come across a game on the app store sometime in the near future, with negative reviews stating the English is utterly incomprehensible, please know that we did our best.
The problem is that the developers have set the length limits hilariously short. This is because Chinese is generally more concise than English, and can express concepts in fewer characters. The devs have set the limits based on the Chinese text, not realizing that the English versions would be much longer.
For example, there's an item that, if accurately translated, would be a "divine dragon gold medallion". They've given us five characters for it, because the Chinese text only took up four characters of space. I don't even know how I'm going to cut this down to five characters. GldMd? AuMed? DrgAu?
We asked them if they could loosen the string limits a bit. They said no, everything's programmed and finalized on their end, and it's up to us to figure something out. So if you guys come across a game on the app store sometime in the near future, with negative reviews stating the English is utterly incomprehensible, please know that we did our best.
Problem with that is that they also have medallions from other sources, and with different materials. Eg, phoenix gold medallions, jade rabbit silver medallions, monkey king bronze medallions. I'm pretty sure I saw a meat medallion mentioned somewhere later in the document.
GasBandit
Staff member
Can you use unicode? ֍ ?
It's a pity you can't request them to use a font that you can enter symbols into, then you could have an icon of a medal, and then use the other 4 characters for "Gold" "Silv" "Brnz" etc
I think what we're eventually going to do is translate it out fully, then just send it back to them, and say, "No, you guys figure it out. You asked for a translation, here's the translation. We're the professional translation experts, and we're telling you there's no way to shorten "divine dragon gold medallion" to just five characters. Also, fuck you."
This sounds a lot like the SNES translation of Breath of Fire II. Every item was around 5 letters and generally you'd have nearly no idea what the abbreviations were for.
Yeah I actually considered inventing five character names for everything. Divine dragon gold medallion? You're now a Yelna. Phoenix gold mdallion? You will henceforth be known as a Floso. This NPC is named the Undefeated General of the Dragon Clan? Yeah, he's now Steve.
BoF2 did what you initially mention, kind of. a Steel Sword was StlSd, Pot Helmet was PtHlm, etc. The game's playable, as character text and item descriptions are (mostly) sensible, but the rest is pretty rough.
e: Even with the issues it's still one of my favorite SNES RPGs, though.
e: Even with the issues it's still one of my favorite SNES RPGs, though.
You can't even shorten "fuck you" into just five characters!
...but you can shorten it to only one finger.
--Patrick
I still say you just name everything Medal. -everything-. Sure, they are different things, but they're still Medal. Then the dev can call it Medal of Honor and slap that shit on the appstore hoping people buy it by mistake.
I'm pretty sure this is how most mobile developers work, anyway.
Yeah, I mean look at all those Facebook ads that blatantly rip off WoW/LoL/Tera/etc for art and assets.
fkyou
WELP-got another mouse in the house. On the one hand I saw it and it was cute, on the other hand I don't want it nibbling up my stuff. Mixed feelings here.
Did you get the expected result (1)?
GasBandit
Staff member
Work is being pretty bullshit today. Sales weasels trying to weasel things. Owner flying off the handle about nothing. Everybody is extra whiny because the printer is broken because it got struck by lightning and the new motherboard is on the way, and this is pretty much why I warned against doing away with multiple printers for one centralized printer. But no I guess it was more important to save fifty bucks a month then to be prepared for inevitable equipment failure through redundancy. Can you tell I'm in a really cranky mood?
GasBandit
Staff member
Another thing that drives me up the wall. For the last couple months I've been hearing personal endorsement advertisements from all the second string right-wing Talking Heads for this cough drop I've never heard of before called Pine Brothers.
That's all very well and good so far, but one of the copy points that every single one of them is sure to mention every time is, and I quote, " shown to be number one in throat coating action."
How in the ever-loving fuck do you show something to be better at coating a throat than something else? And won't shut up about it. It's mentioned multiple times every single time. Fuck you, Pine Brothers, and your misleading spurious claims. You know what's number 1 in throat coating action?
That's all very well and good so far, but one of the copy points that every single one of them is sure to mention every time is, and I quote, " shown to be number one in throat coating action."
How in the ever-loving fuck do you show something to be better at coating a throat than something else? And won't shut up about it. It's mentioned multiple times every single time. Fuck you, Pine Brothers, and your misleading spurious claims. You know what's number 1 in throat coating action?
GasBandit
Staff member
That'll probably have to wait for the weekend.
Coming home from work yesterday, my car broke. "Snake" belt snapped when the auto-tensioner froze up. Managed to get the car to the local Honda place, they were all like "you shouldn't drive it like that" and I was like, "I couldn't push it here so bite me." Anyway, they can fix it, replace the tension thing, the belt and labor, a little under $400. But I don't have my car again until tomorrow.
Serpentine belt, and man, they fucked the shit out of you with that price. maybe 10 minutes max to change it yourself
locked up pully wheel, and to be honest, took almost an hour last time I did it, it's a small car and no room for my arms in there.
Same thing happened to me on my way to work. Idle pulley bearing died, serpentine belt went off the rail and broke. Limped my way to work. During my lunch that day, I borrowed a co-worker's car, went to the local auto part store (after calling first), got a new idler pulley and belt, installed them both (with a socket set borrowed from the same person whose car I borrowed), and that was the last time I had to deal with it until the car was junked.
--Patrick
I slept through last night's playoff game, and I don't care. It hit 90 here yesterday, and the air conditioner in my bedroom decided to stop blowing cold air right in the middle of the hottest part of the day. Which is when I'm usually trying to sleep. Even with the a/c running in the next room and a box fan to try to steer that cold air, it was like an oven. And just when I gave up and decided to go downstairs, the compressor finally kicked in again. BUT the fan speed control wouldn't do anything.
I tried the master bedroom downstairs, which was cool enough, but the fan speed wouldn't adjust there either, and the bed is in a dead zone where the air isn't moving. Nope. To the couch I go. It's now nearly 6pm, and I've been fighting this for nearly 2 hours. Just as I start to get comfortable... CLICK. Mom trips the circuit breaker because she was microwaving dinner in the basement. The jackass who redid the wiring (a DIY job, I'd guess) put far too much on each breaker. And never bothered to label the panel. After resetting the breaker and waiting for her to finish with food, I was able to go lie down in relative peace again.
By 11:30, the attic rooms were back to just over 70F again. And it shouldn't get as hot as yesterday for another week.
I tried the master bedroom downstairs, which was cool enough, but the fan speed wouldn't adjust there either, and the bed is in a dead zone where the air isn't moving. Nope. To the couch I go. It's now nearly 6pm, and I've been fighting this for nearly 2 hours. Just as I start to get comfortable... CLICK. Mom trips the circuit breaker because she was microwaving dinner in the basement. The jackass who redid the wiring (a DIY job, I'd guess) put far too much on each breaker. And never bothered to label the panel. After resetting the breaker and waiting for her to finish with food, I was able to go lie down in relative peace again.
By 11:30, the attic rooms were back to just over 70F again. And it shouldn't get as hot as yesterday for another week.
fade
Staff member
The house I just bought is the first one I've ever lived in with the breakers a) labeled, and b) properly labeled. I still don't believe the labels, but it's nice that they seem to be correct.
That's amazing.
It is amazing. In one house under renovation, when I worked in that field, I found the most fucked up breaker setup ever. I was at the box, going through the breakers one by one to find the right one to shut off. Got to the end without the light bulb going out, so I started again, leaving all the breakers off. About three quarters through the light finally goes dark. So it's that breaker, obviously, right? Well, I turn all the others back on and the light comes back on, too.
Turns out, this circuit ran through two breakers (not adjacent) , and if just one breaker was set (it didn't matter which), the thing was live.
Turns out, this circuit ran through two breakers (not adjacent) , and if just one breaker was set (it didn't matter which), the thing was live.