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Pandemic - names of the cities
Posted: 08 July 2021, 20:32
by aghagh
City names for Pandemic have been translated back and forth a couple of times now between English and (in my case) Spanish.
I understand that when playing with players from around the world it can be helpful to have a common reference. But if the translation of a game has to be accurate to how the game has been published in a particular language, then city names should be fully translated (except for the map image).
Is there a BGA policy for this?
Thanks in advance
Re: Pandemic - names of the cities
Posted: 08 July 2021, 22:05
by ufm
Developers may replace names printed on components with translated strings (7W, for example).
But in Pandemic players should be able to communicate... maybe reverting and blocking translation like Marco Polo 2 would be better.
Re: Pandemic - names of the cities
Posted: 08 July 2021, 22:54
by KongKing123
Pandemic does have many localised versions in which the city names are translated, so those versions should be followed if they exist.
"Paris" is called "Parijs" in Dutch, for example.
Re: Pandemic - names of the cities
Posted: 09 July 2021, 17:24
by aghagh
How about one of these two options ?
- Option A
A new set-up option at table creation.
* "Cities in English" -> city names would be displayed in English for all players at the table
* "Translated cities" -> city names would be displayed in the language of the player
- Option B
When playing BGA in English, cities would be displayed just in English (no change).
But when playing BGA in another language, cities would be displayed both in English and the language of the player.
Examples using Spanish: "London / Londres" "Chennai / Madrás" etc.
Either option would require some coding. I'm not sure which would be easier to implement.
If nothing is implemented, I favor using fully translating city names (which would have to be fully translated anyway), as they are already in English on the board.
Re: Pandemic - names of the cities
Posted: 09 July 2021, 21:05
by MoiMagnus
aghagh wrote: ↑09 July 2021, 17:24
How about one of these two options ?
- Option A
A new set-up option at table creation.
* "Cities in English" -> city names would be displayed in English for all players at the table
* "Translated cities" -> city names would be displayed in the language of the player
- Option B
When playing BGA in English, cities would be displayed just in English (no change).
But when playing BGA in another language, cities would be displayed both in English and the language of the player.
Examples using Spanish: "London / Londres" "Chennai / Madrás" etc.
Either option would require some coding. I'm not sure which would be easier to implement.
If nothing is implemented, I favor using fully translating city names (which would have to be fully translated anyway), as they are already in English on the board.
Some games have display options available for each players, rather than at table creation. That's probably a better place to put those kind of options.
IMO, the most important thing is that both cards and the board use the same. Last time I've played pandemic in French, the board and all the tooltips used translated cities, while the cards used English cities, which was unpractical.
Re: Pandemic - names of the cities
Posted: 09 July 2021, 21:08
by KongKing123
aghagh wrote: ↑09 July 2021, 17:24
- Option B
When playing BGA in English, cities would be displayed just in English (no change).
But when playing BGA in another language, cities would be displayed both in English and the language of the player.
Examples using Spanish: "London / Londres" "Chennai / Madrás" etc.
If nothing is implemented, I favor using fully translating city names (which would have to be fully translated anyway), as they are already in English on the board.
They're translated on the board as well. I think the best solution would be a less cluttered version of option B: display them in English on the board and translate them in a tooltip (or the reverse). As mentioned, a display option could also work, but is not as practical.
A suggestion would need to be filed for this:
https://boardgamearena.com/bugs?game=1383