Good, unlucky and bad translation...

[SisAmethyst]

I dunno if Turbine had access to at least the translation Templates from Codemaster but they do a great work in providing the French and German players a localized version. To give everybody an impression I took some examples.

The first impression was already a shock ... translating of trademarks and nouns? Even in Germany this game is known as 'Dungeon&Dragons' and not as 'Verliese und Drachen' *shudder*


Well, I bug reported this and some other minor issues but it looks fine so far. I entered the game and talked to some NPC.

So very good and well done is the translation of the conversations, item descriptions and effects:



But on the other hand, due to some translations several descriptions, menus and buttons look now a bit distorted or even unreadable:



Also why do we need to translate things like Spells, Components and even more worse Quest names?

• Die Dreaming Dark - half german, half english
• Tower of Despair - perfect, keep that name, but what is 'Überfall'? Everybody who play an MMO know what a Raid is!
• Erinnerungen zurückholen - good translation, but which quest is this? If someone is looking for a group for that Quest in German then I wish him good luck!

Why a name of a spell needs to be translated? How you translate 'Mordenkainen's Disjunction'? Translate the description but the name? A spell could be named 'Simsalabim' or 'Abracadabra' and make no sense at all. It could be spelled in draconic (which I am unable to write) but only important is I know what the spell effect is. And if I know the effect then it is irrelevant if I need as material 'Eyelash in Gum Arabic' or 'Krudelbutz'. Anyway, translating spells and components is debatable and I don't mind this that much, but the name of Quests should stay as they are as they are standing nouns.

A translation should help players to find their way through the game and connect them. It shouldn't lead to the point where players being segregated or put into a box. I would like to know and understand about what a fellow player is talking about if he talk about a 'Greensteal Weapon' or in case someone is searching for the material Heart of a Hen' that I could lead him to the right vendor, independent if that player is speaking French, English or German as a mother tongue.

Last but not least, thanks for the effort to providing a translated version, which may help a lot of players that eagerly waited for it since Codemasters closed!