Mexican Apeman translation discussion

[olzen]

Now that I get what you guys have been talking about all along, I'm leaning towards the "Prussian soldier"-idea as well. Suits the moustache!

I'd gladly do a Danish translation, though. Ironically, that may actually be more suited for a German translation with those two countries sharing borders

[mjomble]

I'm leaning towards the "Prussian soldier"-idea as well. Suits the moustache!

So you want to change the actual character to be Prussian instead of Mexican? Or am I misreading this?

[olzen]

I would, in the Spanish translation. But as far as I can tell, it'd only involve changing Tacobelian to something else (Bismarckian?) and translate the Spanish into German.

I did get another idea, though. What if each translation features a new nationality for the ape guard, but with the same pattern? Namely that he always belongs to the country that shares border with the country of the in-game language

I know that last sentence was a pile of crap, but I honestly don't know how to make it more understandable

[pcj]

I would, in the Spanish translation. But as far as I can tell, it'd only involve changing Tacobelian to something else (Bismarckian?) and translate the Spanish into German.

I did get another idea, though. What if each translation features a new nationality for the ape guard, but with the same pattern? Namely that he always belongs to the country that shares border with the country of the in-game language

I know that last sentence was a pile of crap, but I honestly don't know how to make it more understandable

Well, we already screwed up then by not making him Scottish in the English version.

[Noctambulo]

I still wouldn't want to change the actual character (as making him Texan or Prussian would), only the text that is shown.

The thing is that the mexican guard doesn't speaks English (as his lines are in Spanish). If you keep his lines in the Spanish version, you miss the point

Much like Roger and Vohaul don't become Spanish characters - they stay the same and sound the same, justdifferent text is shown.

Roger and Vohaul may not become Spanish characters, but they would speak Spanish. But in order to make the ape guard to speak in a foreign language, you actually have to change his nationality to make sense.

And so the question is - in what way to change his text? Danish might not be bad, actually - we could call it an easter egg of sorts.

Same text, different language (like, say, German )

But as far as I can tell, it'd only involve changing Tacobelian to something else (Bismarckian?) and translate the Spanish into German.

That's what I am saying, including the "Bismarckian" nationality.

[olzen]

I would, in the Spanish translation. But as far as I can tell, it'd only involve changing Tacobelian to something else (Bismarckian?) and translate the Spanish into German.

I did get another idea, though. What if each translation features a new nationality for the ape guard, but with the same pattern? Namely that he always belongs to the country that shares border with the country of the in-game language

I know that last sentence was a pile of crap, but I honestly don't know how to make it more understandable

Well, we already screwed up then by not making him Scottish in the English version.

Well, not really; we're not using British English in the game.

[mjomble]

But in order to make the ape guard to speak in a foreign language, you actually have to change his nationality in order to make sense.

I still disagree:

Roger - Nationality: Xenonian (English) - Voice: English - Text in original: English - Text in translations: not English
Mex Guard - Nationality: Tacobelian (Mexican) - Voice: Spanish - Text in original: Spanish - Text in translations: not Spanish

We don't need to change Roger's nationality in order to change his lines to "not English".
Similarly, we don't need to change Mex Guard's nationality in order to change his lines to "not Spanish".

So I'd say in the Spanish translation of the game, the Mex Guard would be described as Tacobelian and voiced in Spanish, but his text would appear in a language other than Spanish (whether it's English, German, Danish or something else entirely - though I'm actually leaning towards English now).
Just like Roger would be described as Xenonian and voiced in English, but his text would appear in a language other than English.

[Noctambulo]

I still disagree:

Roger - Nationality: Xenonian (English) - Voice: English - Text in original: English - Text in translations: not English
Mex Guard - Nationality: Tacobelian (Mexican) - Voice: Spanish - Text in original: Spanish - Text in translations: not Spanish

We don't need to change Roger's nationality in order to change his lines to "not English".
Similarly, we don't need to change Mex Guard's nationality in order to change his lines to "not Spanish".

So I'd say in the Spanish translation of the game, the Mex Guard would be described as Tacobelian and voiced in Spanish, but his text would appear in a language other than Spanish (whether it's English, German, Danish or something else entirely - though I'm actually leaning towards English now).
Just like Roger would be described as Xenonian and voiced in English, but his text would appear in a language other than English.

Well, that's your prerrogative . I'm just saying that I quite don't understand why a Mexican character would be not speaking in Spanish... I assumed it was kinda easy to translate his lines to German, and instead of calling him a "Tacobelian", use the "Bismarckian" -in Spanish: "Bismarkiano" that acctualy rhymes with "Marciano" (Martian)-, with no further changes.

[pcj]

We could do a reverse easter egg where the Mexican understands Roger and the other guy is a gringo.

[mjomble]

I'm just saying that I quite don't understand why a Mexican character would be not speaking in Spanish...

For the same reason Roger wouldn't be speaking English

The translations would keep each character's nationality, but change their lines to something different than their native language.
Roger remains a Xenonian character, but his language changes from English to Spanish.
Similarly, the guard can remain a Tacobelian character and have his language changed from Spanish to something else. Like German. But his character does not need to change to German or Prussian, just like Roger's character does not need to change to Spanish.

[olzen]

There's hardly any character, is there? Just a reference to the "Tacobelian" sector. When stripped of that reference, he's just an apeman recruited through an exchange programme.

And I still think we should change that reference when translating the game, because the joke falls completely flat if the guard is called Mexican, yet speaks English, German, Danish or whatever. I think most players are gonna think it's an oversight on the part of the translator. If there are players out there who, for one reason or another, would prefer to play VSB in their own language, we should at least ensure the jokes all work.

[Noctambulo]

For the same reason Roger wouldn't be speaking English

Well, techically, Roger doesn't speaks "English", "Spanish" or another Earth's language, but "Xenonian" (and I think no one here speaks that language, hehe). You can make Roger speak in Latin if you want, but that doesn`t change a bit his personality. There is no a "Xenonian" stereotype we are messing with.

Now, a Mexican character would be speaking Spanish, no matter in what planet he is... Right?

But, again, that's your prerrogative

[pcj]

This is why the game took ten years - this much discussion for a character with 13 lines.

[Noctambulo]

This is why the game took ten years - this much discussion for a character with 13 lines.

Then wait for the Narrator discussion xDDD

[mjomble]

There's hardly any character, is there? Just a reference to the "Tacobelian" sector. When stripped of that reference, he's just an apeman recruited through an exchange programme.

And I still think we should change that reference when translating the game, because the joke falls completely flat if the guard is called Mexican, yet speaks English, German, Danish or whatever. I think most players are gonna think it's an oversight on the part of the translator. If there are players out there who, for one reason or another, would prefer to play VSB in their own language, we should at least ensure the jokes all work.

His voice would still be Spanish, even in the translation. And Roger's voice would be English.
The voices would match the characters' nationalities, we'd only translate the "subtitles" to different languages.

Original version: voices, nationalities and text all match each other for every character.
Translated versions: (for at least every character other than the Mex Guard) the voices would match the nationalities and the text wouldn't match either the voice or nationality.

To keep things consistent, I'd treat Mex Guard the same as every other character by having the voice match the nationality and the text not match either.

Well, techically, Roger doesn't speaks "English", "Spanish" or another Earth's language, but "Xenonian" (and I think no one here speaks that language, hehe). You can make Roger speak in Latin if you want, but that doesn`t change a bit his personality. There is no a "Xenonian" stereotype we are messing with.

Now, a Mexican character would be speaking Spanish, no matter in what planet he is... Right?

But, again, that's your prerrogative

The guard isn't actually Mexican either, he's Tacobelian.
We just have an implied mapping:
Xenonian <-> English
Tacobelian <-> Mexican