Talk:Transformers Online (2012 video game)

Guys, Thundertron

http://tf.91.com/guide/map/map.shtml Yup, that blue and silver guy is Thundertron, which means we have a faction symbol for the Star Seekers too. This game is amazing. Antimatter 01:40, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

I think you mean here. --Monzo 01:44, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

I am completely positive that Thundertron's name is on my link, too. Granted, your's has the proper picture. Antimatter 01:46, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

"that blue and silver guy is Thundertron" is kind of misleading when there's no guys, period, on the page you linked to. But this is a great find, nonetheless! --Monzo 01:54, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

Fair enough, apologies. Very excited! Haven't helped the wiki this much before. Antimatter 01:57, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

Character names

Moved and continued from User talk:TX55

Before we start making pages, shouldn't the names we use be the original phonetic Chinese, NOT the English translation? I mean, we don't call the Trainbots "Moonshadow" and "Devil-Queller" and whatnot. Just wanna nip that one in the bud. --M Sipher

Using the original phonetic Chinese +1, since we've used phonetic this rule for a long while. Not to mention there is no official English name by far.

Awww. Why do you hate the glory that is Fakie Men? These names are so fun. But if we must be stodgey, serious ol' spoil sports, we have to at least make sure all the translated names are there in the pages and maybe as redirects even. --76.28.76.206 14:53, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

Well, Notes exist for a reason. Antimatter 15:00, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

Two or three is funny. Nearly 80 is fucking stupid. It's Family Guy-level END THE JOKE FIVE MINUTES AGO unfunny. --M Sipher 15:27, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

Will we be keeping the accent marks used in Pinyin or disregarding them in article titles? —Interrobang 17:13, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

I agree with Antimatter notes are important --Shockwave1704 15:34, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

My Thoughts: Which is easier, clearer, and more useful for us and the users of the wiki? 20+ fairly long, meaningless (to non-speakers) and easily confusable phonetic names like "'Hùanyǐng Xīnxīng" or 20+ well translated (obviously) versions of those names that are just as acurate but also unique, easily memorable and evocative, like "Phantom Nova" If both are equally acurate, true representations of the characters Chinese names then I vote for the translated versions that mean something and are memorable for each character. I'm fine if the Wiki decides otherwise, but just personally thinks this is the better option so wanted to say so. :) --ZacWilliam 18:57, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

I am not at all comfortable with "translating" Chinese character names to fit our convenience. We don't do it for Japanese names and wouldn't do it for other languages. The game is not in English; we are just going to have to deal. —Interrobang 19:32, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

In a vacuum, I'd prefer translated names. But we don't translate Japanese character names that are in Japanese, and at least some Chinese names for "imported" characters are basically English, so the consistent thing to do is use the names in Chinese. Which also obviates the need for arguments over what is or isn't a good/accurate/appropriate/Transformery enough name translation. -LV 20:17, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

No. --ItsWalky 20:29, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

That's cool too. :) Not a big deal. I just like the more evocative translations. Maybe we'll get lucky and some of them will show up in some fan-aimed English fiction someday. Stranger things have happened. --ZacWilliam 20:33, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

I don't think the situation is entirely analogous. Regarding the Trainbots argument, most Japanese characters have straight phoneticization of English names, even the original Japanese-exclusive guys. Therefor, Trainbots or Dinoforce having Japanese names are noteworthy. Further, they've been referred to as such in some official English-language publications.

The situation doesn't seem to be the same in the case of Chinese character. Characters who have less fanciful names tend to have straight translations: Dà Huáng-fēng (大黃蜂, "Bumblebee"). Tzáng Tǐeh (藏鐵, "Iron hiding"). Pái-húai (Taiwan, 徘徊, "Prowl"). (Or Jǐng Chē (China, 警車, "Police Car")). Lìeh-chǐuan (Taiwan, 獵犬, "Hound"). (Or Tan Zhang (China, 探長, "Chief Detective")). Admittedly, more fanciful names tend to have less literal translations. It seems to me that translating the names would be in-line with historic norms. After all, we call ブレイバー 'Braver,' not 'Bureibā.' That is, in fact a translation.

There are, after all, a LOT of new characters, and as is pointed out above, the phoneticized Chinese is going to be very difficult for anyone to use in any kind of meaningful way. I think the utility of translating the names, along with the historic trends both in Chinese nomenclature and how this wiki handles foreign names lends weight to the idea that we really should be using translations. --Jimsorenson 10:21, 18 March 2012 (EDT)

Just to throw in a practical example, when I was trying to refer to the post I made on Phantom Nova's talk page down below in the next section I could not remember or hope to spell his untranslated Chinese name to make the reference. I couldn't even get close enough spelling wise to look it up on our search. I had to search Phantom Nova. Now imagine your looking for any random one of this huge batch of new characters when we get them all in. I would have to click on every single chinese name in the catagory till I hit a particular one by trial and error because they're like 40+ indistinguishable, big long meaningless (to us) jumbles of Chinese. That's honestly a terrible thing for users. Listing them by accurate translations would be infinately more useful for 99% of our users.--71.233.191.25 10:54, 18 March 2012 (EDT)

Whose accuracy do you have in mind? --Monzo 11:17, 18 March 2012 (EDT)

But all translations of anything are ALWAYS that way always. The translator picks which ever possibility he thinks fit best using his own judgement. That's how anything is translated. They are ALL accurate and true. So we pick one, which or why doesn't matter because they're all true and accurate, and then we note on the page that it is an "unofficial translation". Then we are making it useable, and helpful for our users and keeping a true accurate translation, AND being honest about it being unofficial, just like we do with officially unnamed characters like "Big Red". That's the best model to follow in this case, IMO.

File updated (Male Autobots done)^{old version} --TX55^TALK 21:29, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

I don't know if these will help, but it looks like Bing Translator and Babelfish use different algorithms to translate Chinese - Hùanyǐng Xīnxīng is "Phantom Star" at Bing, "Illusory Image Nova" at Babelfish, and "Phantom Nova" at Google Translate, so it might be worth comparing the results between different translators if something doesn't make sense at one of them. (I do the same thing with Japanese between Google, Babelfish, and Infoseek Japan.) Unfortunately, I can't get the MMO's sidebar to go away when translating pages with Bing, but the page text can be copied and pasted fine.

By the way, should we move this discussion to the Transformers Online talk page? --Monzo 23:19, 16 March 2012 (EDT)

According to my and my friends' experience, translators are not really reliable. They make mistakes frequently. (At least in situations such as CH/EN, CH/JP, EN/CH, EN/JP, JP/CH, or JP/EN translation) They can be just for references.

The term "新星" (lit. New star) is the Chinese word for "Nova", definitely not "Star". However, "幻影" is much complicate, it can be "Mirage", "Phantom", "Illusion", even "Vision" (like "I have a vision") depend on situation where the word is used.

Not a problem! (The contents have been moved.) :D --TX55^TALK 06:14, 17 March 2012 (EDT)

Hm. Well, TX, could you comment on some of the changes I made? When I looked up "chāonéng" (超能) for Chāonéng Jīanbīng and Chāonéng Yóujíshǒu, I saw that it was "super, ultra, incredible" rather than "psychic", which my searches told me was "chāonéng lì" (well, chāo néng lì). Was that right?

I also changed Zhòng Chúi Tǐe Wèi to "Heavy Hammer Iron Guard" from "Heavy Hummer Iron Guard"; wikipedia, at least, says that Chúi is a traditional type of hammer weapon. --Monzo 09:10, 17 March 2012 (EDT)

Mind, even I have to translate CHS to CHT, as I learned using Taiwan's system. As for name's, half are basically based on how it sounds in English (look at G1 Megatron as an example) as noted earlier. Translating them would result in funky names (G1 Optimus' as another). I'm for having the accent marks/macrons present, because all it takes is for one change in pitch to change a word/character/meaning. --lonegamer78, not logged in

I use translate.google.com to convert the pages and such thing didn't happen as all words (including names) remain the same except they became Traditional Chinese. And I vote for having macrons, too. --TX55^TALK 06:14, 17 March 2012 (EDT)

File updated (Female Autobots done)^{Old version} --TX55^TALK 14:03, 17 March 2012 (EDT)

File updated (All done) --TX55^TALK 12:15, 18 March 2012 (EDT)

Alternate translation

The Allspark's Meister79 has started doing his own set of translations.

http://www.allspark.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=85740&view=findpost&p=2031656

He understands the language as well, so definitely worth checking out. --Monzo 12:22, 17 March 2012 (EDT)

Yeah it's good to have those. A lot of translation from any foriegn language is always personal interpretations and trying to catch complex and subtle feelings and connotations and recast them in an entirely different "medium." I might suggest linking these alternate takes in the notes of this page or the characters themselves. The more translations we have to compair I think the closer we can understand the full text. --76.28.76.206 12:58, 17 March 2012 (EDT)

Hi people! I just completed translating all 4 pages of the bios today. I think I have the gist of what they mean, and tried to express them in more conventional English. The names are still a bit wonky, though. This is because the Chinese usually give their own names to characters, and literal translation will not get us the intended name. Eg: 红蜘蛛(Red Spider) is supposed to be Starscream. - Meister79

How is "红蜘蛛" pronounced? Is the idea to approximate "Starscream" phonetically, ignoring the literal Chinese meanings of the characters, or is it just a new name with no connection to the name "Starscream"? -LV 10:51, 18 March 2012 (EDT)

It is Hóng Zhīzhū. The name is use because 1) Starscream is red 2) Chinese think spider is bad (and Starscream is a bad guy). --TX55^TALK 12:17, 18 March 2012 (EDT)

Oh. Huh. Well, thanks. -LV 12:35, 18 March 2012 (EDT)

You're welcome. --TX55^TALK 12:45, 18 March 2012 (EDT)

Thanks Meister. :)I asked over on Phantom Nova's (can't remember or spell his Chinese name) page If maybe we should put both translations on the character's talk pages as references. So people can see a little of the variable meanings you cab get translating the original Chinese. Thought iy might be a good idea to pose here to. Thoughts?--76.28.76.206 07:56, 18 March 2012 (EDT)

Perhaps we can create a source page like Generation 1 cartoon timeline (Japan)/src and place available translations with original Chinese material there as a reference. --TX55^TALK 09:41, 18 March 2012 (EDT)

I see that you guys are creating pages for the characters with their names in original phonetic Chinese. I have updated all my translations with the original phonetic Chinese names (of both the character and the vehicle name) in brackets. They can be found here:- http://www.allspark.com/content/view/10079/20/ Hope that helps. - Meister79

For translating the meaning of character names, dictionaries like MDBG are going to be way more reliable than google translate or any machine translator.192.249.47.177 16:21, 3 May 2012 (EDT)

Why can't I shake the feeling...

...that these characters might be, at most, NPCs filling space and not fighting anything? --M Sipher 09:02, 19 March 2012 (EDT)

Generally if you've played MMOs you know they tend to have lots of NPCs with random punctuation marks over thier heads for you to interact with (well, to be lazy and send you on fetch quests they really should be able to do themselves and then give you random or unrealistic rewards for doing it for them.) That's probably these guys. Though it occurs to me, we've read that there will be 3 factions in this game: Bot, Con, and Pirate... I think it's interesting that they posted a ton of Bot/Con NPCs but no Star Seeker ones. Maybe they won't be a playable faction after all? --ZacWilliam 09:27, 19 March 2012 (EDT)

Yeah. I'm even not prepared to reject the idea that they aren't from the game at ALL, and are instead just examples of each body type. But it's more likely that they'll be random questmasters. There might be a boss or two in here, but those are more likely to be non-player-type characters, I would think. -LV, not logged in

New names from where?

A bunch of new Con names were added in the last edit. Did a new page of characters fo up somewhere? --76.28.76.206 13:00, 30 April 2012 (EDT)

No. It's the Decepticon females. —Interrobang 13:13, 30 April 2012 (EDT)

AH, didn't realize everyone wasn't up from those pages already. cool. --76.28.76.206 13:45, 30 April 2012 (EDT)

Official site link

I'm not sure if anyone else noticed but the url now links to something...considerably different. Does anyone have an updated link to the Transformers Online site? Antimatter 20:07, 17 September 2012 (EDT)

Nope, I can't find one so far. --TX55^TALK 22:21, 17 September 2012 (EDT)

Did it actually get going in the end? The page still says it is "upcoming". Maybe it's a site glitch? --abates 00:39, 18 September 2012 (EDT)

I saw some press blurbs from a few months ago that said it had already launched, having started beta testing last year. http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/netdragons-transformers-online-limited-beta-testing-underway-and-trailer/22575/ http://tformers.com/transformers-mmo-from-netdragon-officially/17369/news.html I just checked NetDragon's site for their products. http://ir.netdragon.com/game/ No Transformers Online to be found. I think it's already dead. Antimatter 18:38, 18 September 2012 (EDT)

Okay, well...until there's some confirmation this thing is out there, I'm going to remove the stubs. Can't add details that don't exist. --Xaaron 22:07, 22 February 2013 (EST)

Um, this would make their [Game] Section empty. Should we keep this or remove the section and change the continuity identifier into "sb. is a Autobot/Decepticon from Transformers Online of the Aligned continuity family."? --TX55^TALK 08:04, 23 February 2013 (EST)

some news. (i'm quoting here so bare with me.) When it comes to MMO Games, China is no stranger. In another push to market Transformers franchise in China, Hasbro has introduced a new Transformers MMO Game (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) titled Transformers Online.

What’s so interesting is the fact that the game seems to feature characters across multiple Transformers Universes including Michael Bay Movies, Generations and even High Moon Studio’s Fall Of Cybertron.

“Tencent Games and Hasbro today officially announced a new Transformers Online shooter. The game is a competitive online action shooter powered by Unreal Engine 4, and in other words, it will be similar to Overwatch in gameplay style. Transformers will start closed beta in China on August 5 and the game will reveal more details at ChinaJoy 2016 later this week. Stay tuned for our following coverage.

You can choose from Megatron, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and other iconic characters in the series. The game promises that all Transformers will stay true to their personality, abilities and combat style in the franchise.

There will be 2 factions of course and some playable characters for Autobots have been revealed, including Jazz (melee), Bumblebee (assassin), Ratchet (support), Bluestreak (sniper).”

The official website is still in development and you can check it out here. Also, check out the trailer, after the jump. unquote

So yeah, same name, same country, different creator and different premise of sorts. and you can check the site here. http://tfol.qq.com/act/a20160720mis/index.shtml

Hope that clears out the confusion. Giving out the warning now just in case of any confusion.--Projectus (talk) 21:02, 30 July 2016 (EDT)