Hi, I'm about to start working on translating the rules and eventually the cards to Mandarin/Chinese. Are the rules in "Rulebook" here up to date? What I mean is, are the rules here detailed and updated where all the erratas are or is there another place I should look for now that there's DM expansion out... Thanks.
Get busy living or get busy dying
----Andy Dufresne
Rules + CRR + Some rulings seems to be the way.
I'd be willing to help you since my wife is a Mandarin speaker/reader as well.
Retired Baron of Sydney, Australia, 418
Also, I'd really suggest you pick a clear obvious set of keywords to be important in the game and stick to them really really harshly. Keywording has been terrible at times in the English versions, so we don't need to have it be all over the place in Mandarin.
Retired Baron of Sydney, Australia, 418
The Rulebook here is up-to-date:
vekn.net/rulebook
The up-to-date card texts are here:
vekn.net/images/stories/downloads/cardlist.txt
In addition, there is a forum for translations here:
vekn.net/forum/107-translations
... including a list of the most important game terms:
vekn.net/forum/107-translations/56472-blank-list-of-game-terms
V:EKN Website Coordinator
> Juggernaut1981 wrote:
> Also, I'd really suggest you pick a clear obvious set of keywords to be important in the game and stick to them really really harshly. Keywording has been terrible at times in the English versions, so we don't need to have it be all over the place in Mandarin.
>
Oh, don't worry about the keyword. I already knew that and that's one of the many things I have to carefully consider when I translate. This is going to be an expected tedious long effort on my part. Yes, I will let you know if I need help, but I think for now I'm just gonna dig in deep and do it myself until I get stuck or need proofread. I'm fluent in both English and Mandarin and their cultures. I just need to make sure everything is consistent and understandable/acceptable by the Chinese here.
Get busy living or get busy dying
----Andy Dufresne
It's a lot harder than I thought. There are names/terms that do not exist in Chinese and I will have to make something up, which shouldn't be hard but the hard part is to make sure there aren't any terms set up yet, and that's the part that takes time. I'm being very careful translating this as there's no easier way to do this (I tried Google translate and it was horrible LOL). Will do my best to get it done correctly, and like you mentioned, hopefully, gain a huge interest in China. I do have to say, the Chinese in China are very lazy when they translate to Engrish, ahem, I mean English. You can just tell by their translation of English movie titles... it's a funny read if you know both languages
Get busy living or get busy dying
----Andy Dufresne
For example, tap and untap. They play other games (like yugioh) where they call it attacking and defending, but that's different. I've looked but no terms made, and so I just made a term myself that explains the motion/action.
Get busy living or get busy dying
----Andy Dufresne
> James wrote:
> For example, tap and untap. They play other games (like yugioh) where they call it attacking and defending, but that's different. I've looked but no terms made, and so I just made a term myself that explains the motion/action.
>
Tap and untap are important. Also, MTG uses them, and is translated. I dont recall if its Simplified Chinese or Mandarin.
Yeah. I also had to use different terms for tap/untap in the Spanish translation, and choose two describing the rotation of the cards.
V:EKN Website Coordinator
James,
I've been thinking of a rewrite just to remove Tap and Untap (purely for my own purposes at the moment) and what I'd suggest is something like: Weary/Fatigued for Tap and Refresh or Renew for Untap.
ti (4) si (death) zi pang + 10 strokes might work well.
fu shi might also work nicely.
I didn't try Chinese script since I didnt' expect the bbcode to handle it.
Retired Baron of Sydney, Australia, 418
Hello James,
Just fyi, Tap/Untap was translated as the following when MtG was translated as 魔法風雲會 or 万智牌.
Tap, héng zhì, 横置
Untap, chóng zhì, 重置
Prince of Tokyo, Japan
> ayukata wrote:
> Hello James,
>
> Just fyi, Tap/Untap was translated as the following when MtG was translated as 魔法風雲會 or 万智牌.
> Tap, héng zhì, 横置
> Untap, chóng zhì, 重置
>
Out of curiosity, what does it mean?
Prince of Paris, France
Ratings Coordinator, Rules Director
Since MtG has been translated I'd definately take a peek of the Chinese rulebook to get insight.
Why re-invent the wheel again?
Both MtG and VTES are Deckmaster games designed by the same guy and they share, AFAIK, plenty of the terminology and basci conceopts
Finnish Politics!
Lonka,
Getting away from MtG terminology gets at least the Chinese version away from US patents by changing the terminology. There could be an advantage in that.
Ankha,
Hengzhi = Horizontal
Chong zhi = Vertical
Retired Baron of Sydney, Australia, 418
> ayukata wrote:
> Hello James,
>
> Just fyi, Tap/Untap was translated as the following when MtG was translated as 魔法風雲會 or 万智牌. <-- name for Magic, which directly translate to Magic the wind and cloud gathering (Magic the epic [from natural scene]gathering )
>
> Tap, héng zhì, 横置
> Untap, chóng zhì, 重置
>
I thought about that as well, however, the tap 横置 translation directly means 'to put it horizontally/sideways' and untap 重置 directly means 'to put it back again the way it was'. My problem is, some cards will 'tap' some other cards or minions and that doesn't translate well in Chinese if I were to use 横置. I personally translated my version to 打横 for 'tap' and 打横的 for 'of tapped' and 樹立 for 'untap/standing vertically' and 樹立的 for 'of untapped/of those standing tall or vertically'. I may just have to explain the official rules into my own words for easier understanding since other card games uses the same mechanics for different meaning/purpose.
My main concern/interest is to translate this game so that Chinese card players of other card games can understand easily and relate to this game better so in future luring/converting those players will be a lot easier. This game is complicated enough already that some the Chinese players in China already blogged this game as somewhat of a 'failure' without getting further into this game and are stuck with Magic or Yu-Gi-Oh.
Speaking of which, the Chinese from China and the Chinese from Taiwan/Hong Kong are a bit different in translation. Some phrases used in mainland China are not used in Taiwan/Hong Kong and vice versa so that adds to the difficulty. btw, glad to hear from vtes players from Japan ^_^. I personally try to avoid reinventing phrases so I might just use that, but I'll have to think about it since it doesn't flow right for Taiwanese and assuming people from Hong Kong.
Get busy living or get busy dying
----Andy Dufresne
Maybe as another pair of alternatives...
Ready and Torpor might be well set by having "Alert" (惕） for Ready and weary/fatigued/exhausted maybe like 累 or 倦 for Torpor.
Retired Baron of Sydney, Australia, 418