How to handle terms that have been translated into different words.`

[gando006]

Hello everyone,

This is my first time posting here. I've worked on a few English-to-Spanish translations, and my main priority is usually consistency over personal preference particularly when we talk about keywords where uniformity can help you identify something across the play-trough.

Whenever I am translating a game, I start by checking existing translations of each keyword to make sure the term is used consistently throughout the game. As stated before, In my view, it is far more valuable for the player to encounter the exact same term over a maybe slightly more appropriate translation.

However, when multiple people contribute, I often find conflicting translations. For instance, in the game I'm currently translating—Hegemony (a game I own and love, by the way)—the word "Deal" has been translated as both "Acuerdo" and "Trato". On top of that, capitalization varies (e.g., "Acuerdo" vs. "acuerdo"). Both are accurate Spanish translations. In my opinion, "Trato" fits slightly better, but either is technically correct.

With that in mind, I have a few questions for the community:

• Consistency vs. Preference: Do you agree that keeping terms identical across the whole game matters more than picking an alternative that might sound slightly better in one specific line?
• Resolving splits: When an inconsistency is already present, (like the one of my example) do you generally align with the more common existing translation or update it to the better alternative?
• Should I fix translations that are linguistically correct but inconsistent with other strings? If so, how should I decide which term wins? Imposing my personal preference feels a bit presumptuous toward other contributors, but my goal is purely internal consistency rather than claiming I know best.
  • If you agree with the previous point, how can I modify existing translations on BGA, because it requires having played the game 10 times which makes (which I can totally see why), but it limits me a lot, I don't want to play a game I don't love 10 times, just to be able to change a word, either because I don't like the game a lot, or because even though I like it like Hegemony it takes quite a long time to rack up 10 digital plays, so I don't see me doing that either. Is there anything I can do? should I post it here, so we discuss about it and someone with the 10-play requirement can apply the changes. (I don't care about translation credits or Gift Points; I just want Spanish speakers to have the cleanest possible experience with the game).

Thanks for reading, and apologies for any English errors it's not my native language.

[Bender3002]

I totally agree to keep the same terminology throughout the game. If there are multiple existing variations and no official rules are available and both fit, I'd use the one which is used the most.
Recently I translated a game together with others at the same time and at the end, one keyword was translated in 2 different ways and each way had about the same share of roughly 50 text blocks. In that case, I contacted the one who had the other translation and we agreed on a common word and everybody fixed their previously translated block.

In your case, I saw on bgg is an unofficial translation and they use the word Acuerdo, maybe that's the origin for it. Anyhow, I would definitely fix the strings to be consistent. You can change approved translations after you have 100 approved translations yourself, you don't need to have 10 games played.