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9 Dragons: Adaptation Over Translation
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
We kicked off our E3 game coverage with 9 Dragons. Over lunch, Howard Marks - the CEO of Acclaim - told us about the game and how he hopes to do more than just translate it to English. Learn more about this and other aspects of their martial arts MMORPG in our interview based preview.
;) He gave the example of Star Wars. It is a western style story, similar to the Greek epics. There is good vs. evil, a central hero on a mission, etc. Yet, it also folds in the more Asian idea of the Force.
With 9 Dragons, Marks wants to marry the familiar things people want in an MMORPG and its story with the unique twist of being a Ming Dynasty era martial arts game. Thus, Altman an American who has lived in Hong Kong and speaks Cantonese acts as a conduit. Marks believes he will provide Western gamers with a new and unique experience, but ultimately one they can relate to and understand. |
You can read the article here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
Um...?
Lineage 2
Ragnarok Online
ROSE
Maple Story
RF
I could go on. He may have meant that these games were simply "translated" and not localized, but that's not the case. Every game requires a certain amount of localization or things wont make sense. Not to mention how many Korean games have their grind reduced for the western market (increased exp and drops). What this guy thinks is revolutionary is actually a standard practice. There's nothing new here.
To be honest the only vibe I'm getting from 9 Dragons is that of yet another Kal, Silk Road, Martial Heroes, etc. type game. A mediocre, free to play, semi-historical Chinese game. He can hype it up all he wants, it wont change things.
I can't wait for this game either. If you can get onto the korean website, with a bit of navigation you can view a host of gameplay movies and I'm very impressed.
The gfx look good although not groundbreaking but the combat looks excellent, the animations are way better than any other mmorpg I've seen.
I'm not sure if this game will apeal to everyone but If they get this right they'll make us martial arts/mmorpg fans extremely happy.
I happen to live in Hong Kong, I'm an hongker foreigner and my wife is a local cantonese chinese resident...
I was born in North America. I Not only speak english and french but I can speak some cantonese and Mandarin as wel...
The thing is Hong Kong is sure not Korea and Hong kong as it's own Hypo-urban culture if he doesn't speak Korean why should he do it? If he's so into Hong kong Why as he left? For most Hkers, Westerners/Foreigners who leaves are the one who can't adapts... Anyway
...
I don't want to be a party-pooper but I'll believe it when I'll see it but for me, I'd doubt about the efficiency of that translation... I'd rather ask a Korean who grew up in the West... Doesn't it make more senses?
HK doesn't fit as a good Asian background... it's an old colony and a strong urban culture...I don't know..
I'd choose someone living in Beijing or Singapour or heck Seoul itself. That my opinion...
Long days and pleasant Nights,
- Moguri
sounds interesting