http://www.germanservices.ca News, views and tips for video game localizers Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:48:50 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The other day I was proofing a dialog script translated by a German colleague of mine and had to smile a little when I saw that he translated "woah, hang on" with "brr, warte mal". It happens quite often that excellent translators stumble over interjections and onomatopoeia. It usually means ... http://www.germanservices.ca/index.php/2010/09/o-tannenbaum-interjections-in-video-game-localization/ I posted in February of 2009 a list of MMOs offering free trials to help out translator colleagues who had never played any and wanted to get into game localization. Interestingly enough, two of the games on the list will be F2P very soon (in noob language: free to play). ... http://www.germanservices.ca/index.php/2010/08/no-such-thing-as-a-free-mmo/ I took a little break the other day from a rather large MMO project I am working on and decided to do some dishes. I turned on the radio and got to work. To my surprise, I heard the words "video game localization." It was CBC host Nora Young interviewing ... http://www.germanservices.ca/index.php/2010/05/game-localization-on-the-radio/ 1. Ubisoft saves trees, scraps manuals (cnet.com, Josh Lownsohn) Ubisoft is just one of many game publishers to only make digital manuals available for the players. I say, good riddance. I still need to localize it into German. Especially good when renting console games from your neighbourhood game store. The booklets are ... http://www.germanservices.ca/index.php/2010/05/saving-trees-and-more/ If there were an award for the best continuous localization for an MMO, World of Warcraft would get it. While others release games without even the tutorial and tool tips localized (I am not going to point fingers, don't want to suffer the Wrath of Kahn), Blizzard's in-house localization team ... http://www.germanservices.ca/index.php/2010/02/fuhrer-leaves-wow/ Sometimes, proprietary is good. I have been using Firefox now as my primary browser since September of last year, and I was quite happy with it. It crashes more often than Opera and doesn't come with everything I need (a few addons will rectify this) but overall it is a good ... http://www.germanservices.ca/index.php/2010/02/noscript-for-opera-pretty-please/ 1. No mention of WoW on the Apple iPad (wow.com, Adam Holisky) No need to read this article, I just mention it here to demonstrate how huge the iPad is. It even makes non-news.  "And many of you began writing into us as soon as the iPad announcement was made, asking if ... http://www.germanservices.ca/index.php/2010/01/ipad-makes-non-news-and-more/ Dear Lego, I want to localize your new MMO "Lego Universe" into German. Real bad. I would do it for free. Hell, I'd pay you money for it. Most probably. While awaiting your response, I shall be watching the trailer below over and over again. Kind regards, Patrick P.S.: I would not use words such ... http://www.germanservices.ca/index.php/2010/01/best-mmo-trailer-ever/ 'Tis it the season already? Time to make one of those great top ten lists and show off with your inside knowledge of whatever it is you are blogging/writing/singing about? We here at German Services blog, write and sing about video game localization, and we sing in a deep, husky ... http://www.germanservices.ca/index.php/2009/12/the-totally-awesomest-games-of-2009/ This might be NSFW (not safe for work) due to a lot of obscenities in the subtitles but it is worth watching again. As you might know, Microsoft banned many Xbox 360 users from their subscription services recently for violating the terms of use (they used a hack to play ... http://www.germanservices.ca/index.php/2009/11/xbox-swings-the-banhammer-again/