Story from MGS translator

StilgarISCA

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Donor 4 years: 2016, 2023-2025
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This is a long read by modern standards, but an interesting story from a guy who translated Japanese games to English. He took some liberties with Metal Gear Solid and upset Kojima. I don't think I agree with some of the changes he lists either, but it does point out what a difficult job these can be.

 
Jeremy Blaustein is a translation legend. It's unfortunate that many debates now "localization" is a polarized word that just gets people angry lol. Gaming is so big now there's room for many different localization styles.

This is a great read BTW and anyone interested in the subject matter might enjoy many of the interviews he has on YT and in print!
 
The problem is so many "translators" are either failed writers taking out their resentment on more successful people who got jobs in the games industry elsewhere, or simply incompetents who only stay where they are because of publishers who could care less whether the end result has anything to do with the source material. A while ago a bunch of people were mad about some strategy game translation and it was discovered that the localization company was pushing out script rewrites they knew didn't need to be made because they were paid by the work unit and more changes meant more money. This is before you take into account higher-ups who outright give the order to censor things for the kiddies (90s NoA) or deliberately butcher the original for the sake of an agenda (modern NoA, NIS America, and especially Working Designs were all big on this).
 
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