[unofficial weekender] Music was my first love

[ninjillyParticipant 11673xp 3]

Normally I’m the same with the YouTube Weekender @blinky465 but this week’s was great with all the Spring Clean Hobby Challenge stuff in it. The XLBS I love though.

@crazyredcoat it’s been a while since I watched it and while you’d never be able to make it now, it made me laugh all afternoon through the painkiller haze ? it was entirely influenced by the mention in the front stage show.

Managed to get a little hobby finished off this morning (technically last week’s pledge but I’ll take my wins where I can get them!). This is a complete force for Forager and finishes off (except some spare models for the bits box) my Perry plastics box.

While I painted these I finished off an audiobook on Dolly Parton but I might save you all from the music from that… Especially after Ladybaby earlier in the week ?

[sundancer 42900xp 1]

Dolly Parton audiobook…. and here I was thinking she needs a lot of pictures XD

[crazyredcoatParticipant 13642xp 1]

@limburger Don’t worry, mate, I’m waiting for this all to be a little more quiet before I venture back towards Europe. With a bit of luck and a following wind I can permanently move back to do my Masters degree, but for now I have to stay here and finish the undergrad. 😛

@ninjilly It’s definitely not something that would pass inspection these days, but still fun nonetheless. Loving the Voltegiuers, they look great!

[sundancer 42900xp 2]

So here is a thing that has been on my mind for some time: why is it so hard to get my hobby mojo back? And I think a not insignificant part on this is language.

In the current climate of kickstarters and digital distributions it’s way more affordable for small companies and individuals to make a game. Most basic way is “write a rule book and distribute as PDF and print-on-demand”. (See Reign in Hell for example)

Small boardgames get made via the medium of crowdfunding because the ones who would want that game to exist simply “force” it into existence by throwing money at it.

But here is the catch: working on a budget you need to make sure you spend your coin wisely. And adding a translation is costly. And it’s not just the translation itself. When you layout a book in one language you can almost bee 100% certain that that layout will fall apart the moment you exchange the text for another language. Making a new layout needed. Which then again generates costs. That’s why most things are mostly English.

And that is my problem. I personally don’t have that many troubles reading in English but getting the rules right when sentences are structured weird or uses unconventional wording is used it really starts to hinder fluent gameplay. Also having non English speakers at the table makes you the one rules reader. Which again can really slow things down.

I’ll give you some examples:

• Frostgrave
• Stargrave
• Burrows and Badgers
• A Billion Suns
• Moonstone

All these games really tempt me (especially seeing and hearing the excitement from others on these games) but they are either not readily available on this side of the canal and all of them are English only (as far as I can tell. Saga, for example, is also available in German)

So, what to do? Wait for a German release? Find some “not so official” translations? Or just ignore everything that’s not translated? I really want something “fresh and new” but currently my mojo isn’t there…

What are your thoughts on this? Especially all non-English native speakers.

[limburger 21668xp 2]

@sundancer and they you kindly ignore the fact that translations especially in fictional settings can be really really awkward.

You can really spot the difference between the likes of Harry Potter (where even the characters and places have names that have been ‘translated’ which makes watching those movies with Dutch subtitles an odd experience) and the ones that do the bare minimum (the Age of Sigmar rules are a crime against language).

I’ve given up on finding anything in Dutch. The few boardgames that do get translations rarely get anything done for add-ons.

At least Germany is big enough that they could (afford to) do Starwars Legion.
Although at least with wargames the language is usually confined to the rules, unless you run into abonimations like 40k and AoS where the unit cards are filled with text that is impossible to translate because the idiots decided that (a) all special skills need to be uniquely named and (b) they need to be trademarked to hell and back. As a result the ‘orbital drop’ and it’s AoS equivalent has at least one variant per faction (and sometimes a slightly modified one for various units within a faction).

[danlee 22433xp 2]

Always double check the dimensions before ordering…

 

 

That’s the new UV curing box I bought and the model I needed it for.

[ninjillyParticipant 11673xp 1]

@sundancer I suspect those games won’t get translations which sucks. I know the communities around the McCullough games have done their own translations but as with anything community made, quality will vary.I like it when I see translations being included in KS stretch goals but as you say, it just gets so much more expensive for companies that are usually running with tight margins as it is. Is there much of an indie game scene in Germany? I know there are a bunch of smaller games here (things like Reign or Brutality), possibly there are people making similar natively in German. Perhaps there’s a wee gem in there for you? I don’t know, it doesn’t feel like a great answer.

[crazyredcoatParticipant 13642xp 2]

I’ve always wondered about that. The vocabulary shouldn’t be that hard to copy over, but the structures of a language is much more difficult to tell. Even the way a sentence is formed in English might not be consistent whereas I understand that German has a bit more structure to it. It’s a real shame that these kinds of things aren’t available in many languages, but like you said it’s likely the cost. You can’t just run English through Google Translate and trust that it makes perfect sense in the language you just converted it too… English may be a common language but when it’s not your first language it’s not the easiest of things to follow.

In other news…it is oppressively hot here… I couldn’t even turn my computer on until the day had passed just to stop it adding to the heat… I miss the AC in my car…just wish someone would turn it on in the house…me and the cat are not enjoying it. 😛

[sundancer 42900xp 1]

Yeah, names and fictional/made up words add to translation nightmare. If anyone needs a “live demonstration” on how different languages look: go watch the intro to “Porco Rosso”. The introducing scroll text is written in 10 different languages. And when 8 are done “writing” on screen… two go on for a bit. Guess which two those are 😉

[limburger 21668xp 1]

At least Germany has a few big names in the boardgaming industry (like Klaus Teuber and Reiner Knizia) so at least you do have a chance of having something in your native tongue that is popular and doesn’t need translations. Heck, the entire ‘Euro’ style is probably down to boardgames from Germany becoming famous in that part of the hobby.

The only thing we ever get translated is the same ol’ crap from MB that everyone gets, although the rise of Catan has at least gotten us a few translated versions of those games. However for the most part I’m stuck at English.

[sundancer 42900xp 1]

Yeah…. and with The Dark Eye (Das Schwarze Auge or DSA) there is one major RPG in our region… and one of the few examples where they translated the name…

[blinky465 17027xp 0]

Just leaving this here:

The take by Juan in the opening bars of Enter Sandman sounds interesting, and I really like the Jason Isbell version of Sad But True – reminds me a little bit of a Reel Big Fish/Hayseed Dixie cross-over.

After raving about Miley Cyrus singing Plastic Hearts (while being equally disappointed in her rendition of Blondie’s Heart of Glass) it’s a shame she shows the same lack of subtlety in Nothing Else Matters. But all in all, it sounds quite interesting.

[blinky465 17027xp 0]

[blinky465 17027xp 0]

Actually, after a few listens, it’s alright….

[crazyredcoatParticipant 13642xp 2]

This might seem a bit odd, but as a follow up to @sundancer‘s translation questions I was thinking of using translations to practice my Norwegian. I’m not very good at learning languages (I’m fairly sketchy with English these days I was born with that language… 😛 ), but for those here who can speak two (or even more) how did you guys manage it? Not having someone I can practice a language with really hinders me a bit…

I also realise that I haven’t actually shared any music this week… Hopefully these all work… Another downside of being on the other side of The Pond from you lot… 😛

 

[Author]

Posts