Language/Mandarin-chinese/Culture/Translations-of-Skyrim
This is a comparison of different versions of the Chinese translations of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. You can learn about the art of translation from it.
Background
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a 2011 role playing game. It is about an adventure on the fictional Skyrim region of Tamriel continent, on the planet Nirn of the realm Mundus. It is widely praised for its designs.
During that time, Chinese versions are usually absent in games because the Greater China was not considered as a profitable market, and software piracy was seen as Prometheus' deed. Fan translation teams had been active on the stage of history for some years. Some of them received great fame. An example is 左贤王汉化组, which translated some games in Total War series, Anno series and other games with pre-modern settings.
Apparently, it is in the gray area of copyright law. They modify the game content, usually without the consent of the copyright holder. It is hard for the copyright holder to sue them because they are not selling the game in this region, so they can hardly say that the copyright violation is unfair and causing damage.
There is a classical mistranslation of the title The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind: 老头滾动条3.
There are four major versions, sorted by the creation date:
- 蒹葭汉化 https://dl.3dmgame.com/patch/33410.html (not Special Edition)
- 大學漢化 https://forum.gamer.com.tw/C.php?bsn=2526&snA=43636
- ANK汉化 https://www.cr173.com/soft/1401310.html
- 汤镬汉化 https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/10845
The official version is based off 大學漢化. It is less preferred because it doesn't support updated versions of the game.
In progress.