#i understand trying to localise certain concepts/things to make them understandable for another audience

[randomnameless]

FantasyInvader reply on the Edelstans going full circle on “translation=making Edelgard look bad” is the first time I heard of Treehouse hating Rhea, but it honestly makes sense now that I think about it.

Oh,

TBH I ranted a few years ago about the localisation and the direction Cherami Leigh received to dub Rhea, and, uh, well...

I don't think she hates the character or anything, she just goes with the direction given, but man what a load of crap Pat told her lol - she made an interview where she says Pat told her Rhea has a hair-trigger temper (tfw she only loses her shit when you try to reenact the genocide she escaped when she was younger - but nah it's just a hair trigger temper) and how Rhea "just is", something we know is bullcrap because she's the same person who's insecure about "bothering" people if she eats with them, Rhea isn't the assured person she tries to pretend to be, but Pat dgaf.

Regardless of the meaning of the quotes, if you have time to spare of the feh wiki, just compare the delivery of lolcalised!Rhea and Inoue!Rhea (her Halloween alt is telling), they're like night and day - but in the game proper, we have the fe datamine website !

Short story : Lolcalised!Rhea isn't supposed to emote bar being AnGrY, monotone (that line where she worries about Aelfie's plans in the DLC could be swapped with her reading the notice of aspirin) or have 2 lines where she's relaxed (billy supports) - Jp!Rhea is allowed to be upset, to mourn, to be worried, cheerful etc etc.

I've already complained a lot about FE16's lolcalisation, cultural bias at play and wanting to soften a certain character, but to exaggerate only a little bit, I have the feeling Rhea was portrayed in the lolcalisation (and not localisation, the lol is very important) as the ultimate bogeyman of the "dictatorial evil leader of an organised religion who is also a zealot and does not tolerate dissent because she's religious" which has...

idk, but serious issues because again, if you are supposed to localise a product you cannot edit something red to be something violet and sparkly and if the shitstorm (that ultimately came from a misunderstanding!) about "creative localisation" is any indication, more and more people are fed up with lolcalisations altering the meaning, not of a word, but of a game to suit their own agendas.

Oh, and not specifically tied to Rhea but in a way it is because it adopts Supreme Leader's prop a ganda words :

A friend earlier noticed that the NoA official website - where you can buy the game (digital version) - adverstises Fodlan as a land controlled by the Church of Seiros. Oddly (lel) enough, this "controlled by the Church of Seiros" crap of a tidbit doesn't appear in the japanese website, and even in the european ones!

I don't believe we got another version compared to the Treehouse version - even if at times, the french script is closer to the japanese one and at times they come up with their own bullshit - but there is a point to be said that in a certain part of the world, the game was advertised in a way that kind of fit a certain's characters POV, something that doesn't exist in the rest of the world. And it's in that same "part of the world" that the person who directed the VA for the eng dub, well, worked and directed said VA.

So what, is it some great conspiracy or something else? lol no.

Did Treehouse told NoA "don't worry, I've got this game, I'll localise it just close your eyes and market it that's all" and they went bonkers? And for some reason whoever was in charge at the NoE branch didn't close their eyes (maybe half-closed) so we have a weird mix between the two? idk.

[gibsonmusicart]

The Real Truth Behind Pay To Play

By Chris Standring

Few things get my goat. "Pay To Play" has always been one of them, as long as I can remember. Until recently. For those of you who are not familiar with this concept I will briefly explain. I should preface this article by saying that there are indeed many other band-booking scenarios. This article is specific to one and one only. Also, the concept of pay to play is rife in big US cities such as Los Angeles and New York. It may not exist in certain countries. It's not a perfect world, just the one that we live in. Ok, with that little disclaimer aside, I will continue.... An unknown (and unproven) band will approach a club booker and try to get their act booked on a certain date. The booker listens to the band's CD and decides that they are worthy of public attention and agrees to give the band a date. There are two ways this will pan out. First, about 300 tickets will be printed up and sold to the band by the club. The band then sell these tickets to their fans and do their promotional job inticing people to come see their show. It is in the bands interest to sell all the tickets otherwise they are out of pocket and end up "paying to play". The second way is where a contract is issued to the band explaining that they need to have a certain amount of people in the club for them to make a profit, lets say 100. If 100 people do not show up and pay 5 bucks to get in, the remaining amount is due to the club. So if a band only fill that club with 50 people, then 50 people (that haven't paid $5) is due to the club. The band end up paying the club $250.00 Ok so now we have that understood let's try to get a new perspective on this. Although I have always abhored this behaviour from club bookers I have a new attitude to it, something that changed once I started touring as a recording artist, promoting my own records. What all bands want is a nice guarantee to perform at venues and start making a profit. However, as a new unproven artist, one has absolutely no market share. This is essentially "ticket value". If a promoter wants to book The Eagles to play live then he knows that this band has an enormous fanbase and can guarantee an audience. He then does a deal with the bands' agent who later accepts. The promoter is initially out of pocket but with low risk as he has done the numbers and knows that he will turn a profit with this proven act. The new artist has no market price as this band is unknown. Therefore a club booker cannot offer a guarantee because he is at risk with this band. It is therefore the band's responsibility to take the risk. Usually the band does take a hit because it cannot draw a crowd and ends up out of pocket. Now the band has an attitude about giving away free entertainment! But this is business. A product needs to be proven to work before other business people decide to get involved and give away money. Here is something that opened my eyes once I got in the record game. A manager friend of mine said to me as I signed my first record deal, "Welcome Chris, now you're off to the races let's see how much money you lose in the first year!" Now there's encouragment I thought. Wise words however and I took heed... As my first radio single took off on the airwaves I started to get invitations to perform at radio station events and promotional functions. Most radio stations like to have annual events they call "listener parties" where they invite thousands of listeners to an event they put on and invite lets say 3 bands to perform. The first two artists will be proven stars, the third (little old me in this example) what they call a "new rising star". The first two bands may be offered a guarantee to perform, but quite possibly not. Usually if money is offered for radio events it will be minimal as they expect record label tour support. Sponsers sometimes jump on board and offer free hotel and air so ostensibly the radio station end up coming just a little out of pocket to promote their event. So, I am invited to perform at one of these listener parties but the radio station only want to pay $1500.00 assuming that my label will kick in the rest. I go back to my label and ask for a further $2000.00. The event is on the east coast and I have to fly 4 other guys as their is no air sponsor. Air tickets are costing $595 each as it's peak summertime. That's $2975.00 before I have even paid my sidemen! My label agree to kick in $1500 and that's it! So now I have a guaranteed budget of $3000 and my air fares for the band have tapped that! I absolutely have to pay my band as they should not have to take a hit, it's my career after all! I decide to try and do the show without a sax player. That will save me an air fare and show fee. Now my air fare is down to $2380.00. I'll pay my band $250.00 each to do this show. Now I am up to $3130.00 I am down $130.00 and I haven't paid myself a penny!!! Do I do the show? You're damn right I do, this listener party has 7000 people coming in checking me out, possibly buying my CD and becoming new fans. Now 3 years later and another hit record to my name I am being offered more healthy guarantees from promoters in the USA and Europe. Why? because I was smart in the beginning and made sure I got things to work when I needed them to. Now I even have musicians I call to do shows that live in New York, Los Angeles and London to make an even healthier profit. This is obviously not such a good idea if you are a 4 piece band but as a solo artist you can do this very effectively. By hiring musicians in London for a UK show I can save myself around $2400.00 That's a big slice if you do this on a regular basis! So understand one thing. You have to start small and build your fan base. Once you have a legitimate fan base, you can do good deals with promoters. In order to do this you need to localise. Build in one area and expand. It's a "baby step" program. Watch for the con artists, they do exist as I'm sure you know. Be smart. I love contracts, you should grow to love them too. Prove yourself. Build your market share and understand that "pay to play" does exist but it's nothing more than smart business. Once you have market worth, trust me promoters will be calling you offering healthy guarantees!

Source: Music-Articles.com

[everygame]

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (Nintendo DS)

Developed/Published by: Chunsoft / Aksys Games Released: 16th December, 2010 Completed: 22nd December, 2016 Completion: Got the safe ending, got the axe ending, and then got the true ending! Trophies / Achievements: n/a

Alright, look. There’s one discussion that I basically think that we should never have when it comes to video games—actually, two, because “are games art” is a burst couch by now—and it’s the whole “but is it a game?” question. I can’t think of anything more stupefying than trying to declare what is and what isn’t a game. I don’t give a shit.

What I do find interesting, however, is the question “what value interactivity?”. Because sometimes you’re going to play games that are, say, so heavily story-led, or that feature play that is so disconnected from the story, that you have to ask why you were playing it rather than just, you know, reading it, or watching it or whatever, because you just didn’t get very much out of the bits where you play it.

(Or even if you did, but it wasn’t in any way that related to or aided the story that the developer seemed to be more interested in than anything else.)

I can already see the kinds of people that I might have talked about this kind of thing about with going “interactivity matters, even if it doesn’t reach this particular bar you’ve set” and I’m like “listen mate, I’ve set the bar, so I don’t think it does.” And if you’re struggling with the concept, pretty much imagine having to, say, solve a random sudoku every time you want to read the next chapter of a book—does that make the book interactive?

(“yes”—someone tiresome.)

So, you might think I’m setting up to give Chunsoft’s generally beloved visual novel Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors a kicking here. But actually, I’m not (even though, honestly, you could consider the game the most elaborate set-up to eventually doing an actual sudoku you could possibly imagine.) Yes, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is a visual novel, and—honestly—it’s not the most fantastically-written thing you’re ever going to read. It’s choking with unnecessary waffle, re-stating the same things over and over (it repeatedly commits that crime where the reader will know what the characters should do/know aaages before the characters do, too) and thanks to a intentionally casual localisation there are jokes and references that are honestly awful*

*I’m not some kind of a “translations should be direct” weaboo here, but I’m at least slightly against when writers make jokes that the character wouldn’t, or rather wouldn’t understand they were making (well, if the game is serious, anyway.) In Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors the main character Junpei makes a bizarre reference to “throwing a hotdog down a hallway” that’s a total non-sequitur, and it’s hard not to be bothered by it!**

**I’ve just started playing the sequel, Virtue’s Last Reward, though, and I can see why some weaboos are all about that direct translation, though. Because I can understand some spoken Japanese, playing it in English with Japanese voices can be a bit confusing, as I hear a character say one thing and then read something that isn’t a translation but a localisation that could more or less be something entirely different. However, I’m also a grown-up and know that the localisation is better for the general audience so I don’t piss my wee pants over it, and I read fast so I’m skipping through it.

ANYWAY

Dodgy-ish moment-to-moment writing aside, Nine Hours, Nine Doors, Nine Persons is the pretty-interesting story of a group of nine characters (“duh”—readers) who have to pass nine doors (“are you taking the piss here”—readers”) within nine—(“shut up”—readers) ok look basically you play Junpei a wee guy who’s woken up on a boat, he solves a puzzle and finds this bird he fancies and some other people and they discover they’re in a life-or-death game that, you know, he wants to survive, but obviously they have to work together to make it happen.

It’s all very “Saw franchise” if you’ve seen any of those films—most particularly comparable to, uh, two or… five? There might be another one where Jigsaw or… one of the other antagonists... makes a point of making a group take a bunch of trials, but I can’t remember (look, I watched all the films in a single day this year and while I highly enjoyed it they all sort of blurred into one big weird insane movie, ok) to the point where it has to be a direct influence. It’s a good setting! It works!

But to get back to my point, Nine Hours, Nine Doors, Nine Persons may largely split up the “play” from the “narrative” by slicing out the “escape the room” puzzles from the story pretty much entirely, but it’s still the kind of thing where when you come to the end you see that it was interactive for a reason. For example! It’s a game where you can’t get the true ending until you’ve seen a bad ending, and that matters in a clever way. And at least when played on Nintendo DS there’s a even deeper meaning to what the player is doing when solving puzzles that’s revealed at the end of the game, and it really does work the same way a systemic twist like the end of Memento (or whatever) does to make you cast your mind over everything that already happened.

Of course, Nine Hours, Nine Doors, Nine Persons has some moments that don’t work—most notably the ability to lock yourself from certain endings with single prompts. I was using a “cheat sheet”—just telling me which doors to select during the game to get the endings—but of course managed to get the “axe ending” because I said the wrong thing at one point, requiring me to play through three quarters of the game all over again (thank god for the text fast-forward.) The good news, of course, is that Nine Hours, Nine Doors, Nine Persons is being re-mastered, and they’re probably going to let you skip all around the game in the remastered version, so this likely doesn’t matter at all now. Hurrah for more interactivity!

Will I ever play it again? I doubt it.

Final Thought: OK, after all that, you’re probably confused as to what my actual opinion of this game was, and I’m basically going to say… I enjoyed it. However—and this is from the position of someone who has yet to finish Virtue’s Last Reward—it doesn’t feel particularly essential that I ask you to play it (well, unless you are going to go on to play the sequel, which I haven’t recommended yet either.) I think my main issue is that, sure, the story does come together to make the interaction make sense, whether or not it actually does totally make sense is… up in the air. There’s a hell of a lot of moving parts, and at least one piece of characterisation that doesn’t make any sense to me (at this point.)

However, of course, whose to say that once I’ve finished Virtue’s Last Reward I won’t consider them both utterly essential?