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)

File updated (Male Autobots done) --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)

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)