• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Steam should point out when a translation is community-made

Castef

Banned
(note: this is about a general issue with translations on Steam, NOT about a single game with a bad translation, to the point that I'm not disclosing which game I'm talking about. Also, I cited Steam, yet this applies to every online store)

Recently I reviewed a game on Steam and noticed that my language - along with tons of others - was supported for the text (Italian, that is).

When I played the game I discovered that the translation was VERY bad, to the point that certain passages were meaningless. In addition, other parts of the text were left in english.

Basically, a mess of a translation.

When I inquired the developer about the quality of the translation I've been told that:
- It was community/fan made
- It was made providing text to the players without context
- I could contribute fixing it

Now, I'm all about community efforts towards games. On the other hand, when I see that my language is officially supported in the game by having a look at the Steam page I expect it to be... complete.

I mean, I have no issues in playing in english, yet I think that someone who just wants to play the game in a specific language should be advised when that translation is "professional", yet it comes from the community and so it is not guaranteed to be of quality.

So, I was thinking about Steam allowing/requiring developers to specificy when a certain translation is not made by them, yet it is provided by the community, to let buyers know and eventually investigate about the quality/completeness of the translation itself before buying.

A simple asterisk or symbol at the side of the "check" mark on the translation list would be really appreciated and useful.

Do you think it would be feasible/useful?
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom