Download - TFG 1- rev pdf
-
1
1 Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 2
Resumen........................................................................................................................................ 2
1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 3
2 Translation Theory ................................................................................................................ 3
2.1 Basic concepts of translation theory ............................................................................. 3
2.2 Wargame translation theory ......................................................................................... 4
2.3 Difference between wargame and board game ........................................................... 5
2.4 Fluff and Crunch ............................................................................................................ 6
3 Dystopian Wars: The Wargame ............................................................................................ 8
3.1 Description of the wargame: An overview of its rules .................................................. 9
4 Text Translation Tools, Resources, and Method ................................................................. 10
4.1 Tools and Resources .................................................................................................... 10
4.2 Translation Process ..................................................................................................... 11
4.3 Text Translation Analysis ............................................................................................. 12
5 Main problems .................................................................................................................... 15
5.1 Main problem alien to the translation of the source text .......................................... 15
5.2 Problems affecting the translation of the source text ................................................ 15
5.2.1 Problems affecting the fluff ................................................................................ 17
5.2.2 Problems of crunch ............................................................................................. 20
6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 26
7 References ........................................................................................................................... 28
-
2
Abstract
The miniature game market is a difficult one to compete in because of its high costs and the
popularity of cheaper forms of entertainment. However, there is a large number of different
English-language miniature games covering a wide range of themes and target users.
Unfortunately, the texts that supplement and explain the features of most of these games
(rulebooks, in-board textual information, etc.) remain untranslated into Spanish. The present
study discusses the translation of wargame texts. Specifically, this piece of work focuses on
the description of the methodology applied and on the analysis of some of the main and most
frequent problems encountered in the English-into-Spanish translation that I made of the
rulebook of the well-known tabletop miniature wargame Dystopian Wars An account of these
problems is given and how they were solved. Overall, there are two different types of
problems, literary, belonging to the lore or decorative text, and technical, problems related to
the rules. The two types of problems require different approaches, the first one with the style
and form as a priority, the second one giving prominence to the message, the wording, with
clarity of understanding as the goal.
Resumen
Es difcil competir en el mercado de juegos de miniaturas en trminos comerciales, debido a
su alto coste y a la popularidad de otras formas de ocio ms baratas. A pesar de todo, existe
un gran nmero de juegos de este tipo que abarcan diferentes temticas y usuarios.
Desafortunadamente, la mayora de los textos, escritos en ingls, que suplementan y explican
el funcionamiento de estos juegos se quedan sin traducir al espaol. Este estudio se centra
en la traduccin de materiales textuales de los llamados wargames (juegos de guerra). En
concreto, el trabajo analiza la metodologa empleada y los problemas que encontr en mi
traduccin del ingls al espaol del libro de instrucciones del wargame llamado Dystopian
Wars, un juego de mesa muy conocido. En general, existen dos tipos de problemas: literarios,
pertenecientes al lore o trasfondo del juego, y tcnicos, relativos a las reglas. Estos dos tipos
de problemas exigen diferentes enfoques, el primero tomando el estilo y la forma como
prioridad, y el segundo dando prominencia al mensaje, la frase, la claridad y la comprensin
como objetivo.
-
3
1 Introduction
Wargames are a relatively unknown form of tabletop game. They are related to board games,
but are genuinely different and with a varying though normally high degree of complexity.
This high degree of difficulty and the fact that a wargame often requires its users to invest
quite a lot of money for full gaming experience are the main causes for a small wargame
market. Thus, only the most popular wargames are translated into languages other than the
original, leaving a huge number of relatively unknown English-language wargames
untranslated. This poses a barrier for their expansion into countries speaking languages other
than English. In modern times and as a consequence of globalization, translation has become
a commercial service key to successful marketing. In the case of Dystopian Wars, the lack of
a Spanish version of its rulebook is a major disadvantage to the commercial promoters of the
game.
Taking all this into consideration, and to fill this translation gap, the present study analyses
the translation process of the rulebook of the tabletop wargame Dystopian Wars (book written
by Glover and Walpole in its 1.1 edition) and the issues particular to translating a wargame.
The study is divided into four sections: (i) a general introduction; (ii) presentation of wargame
translation theory; (iii) the methodology and tools used for the translation of the Dystopian
Wars rulebook; (iv) presentation of the main and most remarkable problems and discussion
on how they were solved.
2 Translation Theory
2.1 Basic concepts of translation theory
This section deals with some basic concepts about translation. In the past, translators
practiced their profession without a solid and standard theoretical framework; however, as
from the 1950s, theorists started developing theoretical premises and theory on translation in
academic studies.
Therefore, being a relatively new and acknowledged field of knowledge and expertise,
there has even been debate over the very definition of translation. Munday (2001/2008:5)
and Mary Snell-Hornby (2006:21), for instance, draw on Jakobson (1959:139) to define the
following three categories of translation:
1. intralingual translation or rewording: an interpretation of verbal signs by means of
other signs of the same language;
2. interlingual translation or translation proper: an interpretation of verbal signs by
means of some other language;
-
4
3. intersemiotic translation or transmutation: an interpretation of verbal signs by
means of signs of non-verbal sign systems.
The first category refers to transferring the meaning inside one same language, for example
when a teacher explains a complicated concept in simple terms. The second category is the
common definition of translation that is, transferring knowledge from one language to
another. The last category involves the transfer of the message from a verbal system into a
different semiotic system, for instance sign language.
Particularly useful for the purposes of this study is the work by Newmark (1988), which
is a standard practice guide for translation valid for the type of translation task carried out in
this study.
2.2 Wargame translation theory
As opposed to more widespread subjects of translation, wargame and board game translation
can draw on hardly any authoritative theory and translation research. As will be explained
below, board games and wargames are not entirely the same thing. However, there is a body
of research studies on board games that provide useful insights to the present paper. One of
these studies is that by Evans (2014), who claims for a multimodal approach to board game
translation insofar as successfully translating a board game involves not only the
consideration of textual information but also of other types of information , such as images,
gaming pieces, the board, etc. Evans (2013: 28) argues that clarity and usability are key
elements in the translation of the rules and the in-game text, as they are in the translation of
websites (Pierini, 2007). He also explains that in-game text is usually short, and sometimes,
shortened to ease the translators task. Importantly, Evans (ibid: 34) highlights that the
relevance of images to conceptually support, and sometimes, even replace the source and
consequently the translated text, thus reducing the need for players to read text during the
game. This secures maximum effectiveness and accuracy in the understanding of the rules on
the part of the target audience.
The several combined components that make up the multimodal structure of board games
are the following: first of all are the rules, which are usually included in a small booklet or
piece of paper. Rules contain the necessary information and instructions to play the game,
which is, how to prepare the game, which actions are available for the players, and finally,
how to win. The second element is the board itself. Often made of cardboard, boards are an
expensive material in comparison to paper; consequently, game boards are designed with as
little translatable text as possible, and thus, the company does not need to produce localised
-
5
boards for each country; with the notable exception of Monopoly1, which has the street names
adapted to every country. The third element is the playing cards. They commonly represent
actions, items or anything that interacts with the board or other players and they almost always
contain a piece of text describing the effects of the card.
Translating the rules does not pose much of a difficulty, but the text on the cards is often
constrained to little space and there may be cultural references on the cards or the board, for
instance, the street names in Monopoly. Cultural references are a particular problem in my
study, where there are very difficult to translate nautical expressions, for example, 'Tally
Ho!!2. These expressions pose a problem for the reader as well as the translator because they
have a very specific and exclusive sense in a highly contextualised setting, the nautical field,
with which few people are familiar. As we shall see, it is common for the rulebook to contain
images which illustrate the rules and the game process, as well as other forms of assistance,
such as the text layout. The fourth element, which is intangible, is the interaction between all
three elements discussed above (rules, board and cards) and the players. Considering Evans
view that successful playing relies on a combination of images and texts, the translators task
should preserve this multimodality, as the desired result is a game played the same way in
every country where it is available.
2.3 Difference between wargame and board game
There is a major difference between a wargame and a board game: the board game is a self-
contained game usually coming in a box that has everything necessary to play the game
immediately, out of the box. In contrast, on purchase, a wargame only includes the rulebook,
and everything else needs to be acquired separately. There are many wargames which only
involve the rulebook when they are bought. For example, Osprey Publishing3 company
distributes many rulebooks, but does not produce any miniatures. In this case, the rulebook
often contains instructions and advice about miniatures that fit in the scale of the game. In
addition, wargames can be played with anything pretending to be the troops e.g. pieces of
paper and cardboard boxes passing for hills and forests. No boards are involved with
squares where the pieces move and the scenery is purely decorative.
Taking this into account, the effect of multimodality when translating a wargame is
diminished, since there is not a playing board or game cards although in Dystopian Wars
there are game cards, they are entirely optional. However, there is certainly a number of new
1 Monopoly by Hasbro, first version published by Parker in 1935, (http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/ consulted on 11/05/2015) 2 Dystopian Wars, Spartan Games, (2012) p. 39 3 https://ospreypublishing.com/store/osprey-games (Consulted on 30/01/2014)
-
6
factors that contribute to multimodality. The main factor is the measurement system. In a
wargame, the units shoot and move over the table, covering a concrete distance according to
the range of the weapon fired or the models attributes regarding the movement capacity.
Therefore, the table and the space are part of the game. This factor is important because
measurement units vary across countries and cultures. For this reason, the translation of the
original game version in a target country with a different measurement system from the source
country might present a problem to the translator. At first glance, this exercise would mean
an effortless change, but it may actually be more complicated. There may be rules that are
intrinsically related to distance. For example, for a miniature that moves a certain distance
randomly as determined by adding up the numbers given after the cast of two dice, the
numerical result is the amount of inches that miniature unit can move forward. If the
measurement system is adapted to foreign players, the Imperial measurement system should
be changed to the international metric system to avoid (e.g. 12 inches the top number that
can be obtained by the rolling of two dice are much more than 12 centimetres4). This and
other factors will be discussed in detail in the analysis section of this study (4.3).
The rulebook in a wargame represents the only conventional element shared by all gamers.
It contains all of the rules prescribing the course of action in a game. A rulebook sometimes
contains a background story as well, which anchors and describes the setting of the game, the
world, the factions, the characters and the story. The sequence of rules is usually presented in
a logical order as players advance in the game, which facilitates its dynamic. Rulebooks
normally include many visuals, including pictures and diagrams that support and reinforce
the guidelines. The story is often provided in a separate chapter with illustrations to assist the
players in fully understanding the rationale of the game.
2.4 Fluff and Crunch
In wargame slang, fluff and crunch are two different items. Fluff, or lore, is the background
story, presented in a literary fashion and often using a writing style and vocabulary related to
the setting of the game. For example, the lore in a medieval game will include colourful,
archaic medieval words and it will have no mechanical effect on the rules. The lore is not
restricted to the rulebook; the most popular wargames may have their story expanded with
novels and other complements. Some games can have army books, in which a certain
faction is fully described, and include the lore and the specific units belonging to that faction.
4 12 inches equals 3048cm (1 inch = 2.5cm)
-
7
Therefore, the lore fragments of the source text should be approached as a literary text for
its translation. High fantasy settings commonly contain compound words, invented names,
etc., and therefore, creative and free translation is suggested, for example pistoliers as
herreruelos, jabberslythe as escuerzo alado, Grimgor Ironhide as Grimgor
Pielierro5. In the first example, the translator resorted to an archaic word in Spanish instead
of a literal translation, which may had been acceptable. This decision results in a colourful
and accurate translation. The second example in English is a reference to the jabberwocky,
the monster from the poem by Lewis Carroll. In the article in Wikipedia there are a list of
translations in Spanish of the poem, from which the translator could have drawn inspiration6,
but instead used the word escuerzo, which is a type of toad, a show of free translation. The
third example is the name of an orc chieftain. In English, the language used by orcs is
intentionally bad, with misspelled words, to give a comical impression of primitive and
brutish. In Spanish the translator preserves this style, for example Kaudillo Orco Zalvaje,
and the example above. Furthermore, in some other cases in English, several units have names
with very similar meanings such as scouts, explorers, and rangers. For these cases, the
use of synonym dictionaries and thesaurus is recommended. The names above can be
translated as montaraces, batidores and exploradores, respectively.
In contrast, the crunch involves the actual mechanics of the game system, that is, only
rules and numbers. The rules are the essence of how the game is played, and thus, the crunch
can be considered to be technical, where the main objective of the translator should be to
preserve the meaning and sense and be less perceptive about the form and the style. The game
must be played the same way everywhere and in every language. Even a small change in the
rules for example, a missing comma could be interpreted as two actions taking place
simultaneously, instead of one right after the other. This will doubtless disrupt the normal
running of the gameplay, causing conflicts between players from different countries in
international tournaments.
Fluff text is often accompanying a crunch text to decorate the rule with the purpose of
illustrating it in the context of a games background history. See context (1), extracted from
Dystopian Wars (2012) on page 85:
(1) The main engine block has taken a powerful, jolting shot.
The Movement (Mv) of this model is reduced by HALF.
5 These examples are taken from the English and Spanish versions of the following books by Games Workshop: Warhammer: El Imperio, (2012), Warhammer: Hombres Bestia (2009) and Warhammer: Orcos y Goblins (2010) 6 https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberwocky (Consulted on 21/6/2015)
-
8
In this example, the fluff text is clearly separated from the rule and it is marked in italics.
In some cases, both types of text are put together in the same fragment and are
indistinguishable from one another, as in context (2), extracted from the text of the wargame
Warhammer: The Empire, Games Workshop (2006):
(2) If the Steam Tank is not engaged in close combat, then the Engineer can
open the hatch and fire his repeater pistol with a 360 fire arc (...)7
This fragment visually illustrates the action of the Engineer while explaining a rule too.
Hence, the crunch fragments, the mechanics and rules, as opposed to the lore, should be
approached with a methodology aiming to preserve the action as the main priority. This is
essential for the game to work as it was intended by its creators. It is a prescriptive text, as
Malcolm8 states, the advice contained in an instructions manual is prescriptive once readers
have entered the pact, symbolised by breaking the seal, if they want the instrument to
perform its intended task. (Harvey). If the players want to play the game designed by the
company, they need to follow the rules, and for this to happen, the translator should preserve
the rules as they were designed in origin. The crunch in Dystopian Wars rulebook was not
difficult to translate, the rules and actions are written in simple, straightforward language.
However the game remains somewhat complicated to learn, a consequence of the bad quality
of the book in general, as we will see later on in the analysis.
On the other hand, the fluff of the source text was not particularly difficult to translate due
to the simple language and style. One issue with this style of writing was the reiteration of
adjectives. In p. 4 the adjective vast is repeated twice in a very short span, vast factories,
vast flying engines, and it felt unnatural to use the same word several times. In my
translation I used different words to avoid this repetition and to produce a more agreeable text
and lexical variety, inmensas fbricas, gigantescas mquinas voladoras.
3 Dystopian Wars: The Wargame
This section introduces Dystopian Wars, the wargame whose source text was translated
into Spanish. An explanation of the nature of this game is provided to secure a better
understanding of the rulebook and its translation.
7 Warhammer: The Empire, Games Workshop (2006) 8 Malcolm Harvey, Meta : journal des traducteurs / Meta: Translators' Journal, (2002) vol. 47, n 2, p. 177-185
-
9
3.1 Description of the wargame: An overview of its rules
Wargames were formally born in the XIX century as a form of training officers in the Prussian
army, using an umpire with real combat experience to determine the results. This format was
called Kriegsspiel, German for war game. This format was later adapted for civilian and
commercial use (Leeson 2015). Dystopian Wars, our object of study, is a tabletop wargame
published originally in English in the United Kingdom in 2012 by the company Spartan
Games. The revised 1.1 edition includes the current source text, which was translated in this
study. It should be highlighted that the source text has never been translated into any other
language. The game is set in the XIX century. According to the background story, a scientist
discovered a new element, Element 270 or Sturginium, which allowed for the rapid advance
of science and technology, contributing to the science-fiction of the setting. In addition to
this, the classical oppressive industrial atmosphere of the Victorian Age adds to the science-
fiction resulting in a particular Neovictorian steampunk aesthetic. Steampunk is a genre and
a cultural movement which can be described as retro-futuristic and prominently features
steam machinery and many other tropes of science-fiction with a Victorian, XIX century
flavour (Oxford Dictionary). Examples of this trend are the books by Jules Verne9 and H.G.
Wells, as well as the movie Wild Wild West.
In the game, two or more players fight against each other using armies of tanks, ships and
planes. Each unit in the game has a numerical point value proportional to their power. Each
player chooses one of the nations available and makes a list of units up to a limit of points
agreed upon beforehand. Units in the game have a set of attributes which defines features
such as firepower, a measurement of the potential damage they can inflict to other units;
movement, how much distance they can cover in a turn; hull points, how much damage the
unit can withstand before being removed from the game, etc. Players activate their units
taking turns. In their turns, they can perform a series of actions in sequence, moving,
attacking, boarding or any other. Victory is achieved when certain conditions are met,
typically when one side eliminates a minimum percentage of the other sides army point
value. The random factor in the game is determined by rolling a six-sided dice, abbreviated
D6. The number of dice rolled will depend on the attributes of the unit and the distance to
target. For example, if a ship has a firepower stat of 9, to determine the damage done to the
target, nine six-sided dice should be rolled. This is abbreviated as 9d6.
9 Not all of Vernes books can be considered steampunk, but an example is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870).
-
10
Therefore, understanding the background history and lore is important for the translator to
adapt the writing style of the fluff, to prepare the required resources and do proper terminology
research in this case, mainly naval and military vocabulary.
4 Text Translation Tools, Resources, and Method
This section describes the method and process of translation of the Dystopian Wars gaming
instructions book as well as the resources used for this purpose.
I received the English source text the Dystopian Wars game book (Glover y Walpole)
from the company Spartan Games10 (UK) in 41 small text files. Each file included one
book chapter, and some of them contained the table of contents, acknowledgements, and other
sections, such as the glossary at the end of the book. Each chapter was three pages long on
average, the longest chapter taking up to six pages. The total word count of the source text is
52,102 English tokens words. The Spanish translated version that I produced is 53,584 long.
4.1 Tools and Resources
The most useful tools for the translation task were cloud storage and a variety of dictionaries
and language databases. Cloud storage is a model of information storage where the digital
data is stored in logical pools, and files can be saved, allowing access anywhere and protecting
the files from conventional storage failure. As highlighted below, monolingual dictionaries
helped to understand words in context and bilingual ones provided handy translation
proposals.
I made extensive use of cloud storage services, such as Dropbox and Google Drive, with
a special preference for the latter. Google Drive has a web-integrated word processor, so that
I could work on the translation on any computer anywhere (e.g. in the library or on a
smartphone). The changes that I made to the text were saved in real time and I had access to
the files from any electronic terminals. In addition, Google Drive offers a downloadable
program that can be installed on any computer and it synchronizes the files with the server.
The service also preserves a file record in case of accidental data deletion or unwanted edition,
and can restore previous versions of any files.
Essential resources of a translator are dictionaries. I made use of a set of online dictionaries
to make my translation assignment. Wordreference is an Internet platform connecting users
queries and word searches to bilingual and monolingual reference dictionaries, such as
Collins. Apart from this option, Wordreference integrates an open-access forum where
everyone can raise language-related questions of any type. This option was of great use to
10 http://www.spartangames.co.uk/ (Consulted 15/05/2015)
-
11
resolve certain issues and clear some doubts concerning my translation for example, the
translation of the word ordnance, artillera or municiones, which led me to produce a
different translation. Linguee is a search engine that tracks online official documents based
on text-string or single-word searches of running words in real usage and context, such as
documents issued in European Union Parliament sessions and their corresponding official
translations. You can also consult full webpages for context. Linguee presents the search
results in two columns, one for the source language and the other for the target language. This
helped me quickly find parallel texts and their official translation texts. For example, when
looking up a military expression, combat air patrol, the platform retrieves results from other
wargames and a specialised think-tank paper.
Another valuable dictionary was the Diccionario Martimo Espaol, which provided
useful language information about nautical terms in the source text. This dictionary also
contains a really helpful bilingual English-Spanish, Italian-Spanish and French-Spanish
glossary. For instance, the English word broadside, is translated as andanada in the bilingual
glossary (Diccionario Martimo Espaol 1831: 706). The Oxford Thesaurus was exploited too,
as it offers broad thematic vocabulary, and provides synonyms to understand uncommon or
semantically obscure words. An example is the word tattoo, which appears in the source text
with the sense of a rhythmic tapping or drumming, a meaning that is entirely different from
the well-known markings of the skin.
Another useful source of information besides the dictionaries was the culture-popularizing
website Wikipedia, which supplies quick-and-easy-to-access information in a friendly,
summarized manner. I used Wikipedia to mostly find clarifying semantic and pragmatic data
on words and concepts that have various meanings and interpretations, which would
subsequently enable me to produce accurate and well-documented translation proposals and
adaptations. For example, I did not know the meaning of the word Oblast. A quick search in
Wikipedia assisted me in understanding the concept underlying the word and produce a proper
Spanish translation equivalent (see below). Another useful function of Wikipedia is the
possibility to switch from one article in English to its equivalent version in Spanish and vice
versa. Even though I am fully aware that Wikipedia is not an authoritative source, it normally
does offer accurate information provided by experts in subject- specific contexts. Therefore,
this source of information was used as a strategy to detect potential translation candidates and
proper translation equivalents.
4.2 Translation Process
The first step in each translation session involved opening a Windows Notepad file. I placed
it next to the paragraph of the source text that I was translating, which was a duplicate of the
-
12
original file, and was opened in a web browser on Google Drive. Then I would write out the
translated text in the notepad file, and after reviewing it, I would copy the translated text in
the original file in Google Drive, overwriting the paragraph in the duplicate file. This way I
was able to keep track of the progress and of the source and target texts simultaneously. This
method is simple but effective because it makes the translation process more fluent.
Whenever I encountered a serious translation problem, I left the original English version in
the translation to solve it later. Once the full translation was finished, a thorough and more
contextualised reading of the complete text was performed. I then went back over the
untranslated stretches of text, and translated them.
4.3 Text Translation Analysis
This section analyses and discusses the translation process of the Dystopian Wars gaming
book. As mentioned above, there are two main text types in this book: fluff and crunch, which
correspond to literary and legal texts, respectively. The analysis of both text types is largely
based on Newmark (1989) theoretical and practical translation principles and guidelines.
Comments and observations will be made on the major problems encountered during the
process of translation, how they were solved and the rationale behind the decision-making
for problem solving.
Below is a number of factors, aspects, and agents that Newmark (1988) suggests should
be taken into account when carrying out any translation task. These factors are considered in
relation with the translation of the Dystopian Wars game text.
a) First reading: this helps gain a first take and understanding of the text, the topic and
the context, identify the clearest translation problems, and think of potential resources
and strategies to solve them. Obviously, a first reading of the full Dystopian Wars
source text was done in order to get an overall impression and understanding of the
text and context and assemble the required research and lexicographical resources, as
Newmark (1988: 11) highlights.
b) Intention of the source text: the text to be translated might be written with an
underlying intention for example, hidden or nuanced criticism in a newspaper
article. In the case of Dystopian Wars, a tabletop game, the authors intention is
expected to be transparent and unpretentious, focused on explaining rules and
eventually, amusing players, as pointed out by Newmark (1988: 12).
c) Intention of the translator: in our case, the translators intention should be to facilitate
the understanding of the rules, game history and features of the game characters and
avoid ambiguities and misinterpretation of the rules.
-
13
d) Text type and style: the book in my translation assignment has two types of text, fluff
and crunch. The first is the literary text, which provides ambience and the background
narrative; the second spells out the rules. The literary fragments include many
adjectives and colourful vocabulary, and easily lends itself to a less restrictive
translation style, whereas the rule text is full of verbs and contains legal and technical
terms that should be translated as accurately as possible. This hybrid nature of the
book makes the translation a demanding, but at the same time, interesting endeavour.
e) The readership is the target public of the text. Newmark (1988:13) argues that the
translator had better try to assess the level of education, the class, age and sex of the
readership, and then, determine if these circumstances might influence the translation
in some way. In the case of Dystopian Wars, the readership is mainly teenagers and
young adults with previous experience in wargames. Many of them are stereotyped as
geeky or nerdy with a degree of general knowledge and education that is above the
average. Assuming the familiarity of the readership with tabletop games allows for the
use of common phrases and expression in wargames, such as the abbreviation D6 for
the rolling of dice.
f) The stylistic scale refers to the levels of formality, difficulty or generality, referring to
the level of technicality of the vocabulary, from simple to opaquely technical and
emotional tone of the source text (Newmark 1988:14). The essence of all of levels
should be preserved in the target text. As for the two text types in Dystopian Wars, the
level of formality should strike a balance between formality and colloquialisms. As
concerns the level of difficulty, there is no particularly difficult or complex
vocabulary, which means that the company has considered the readership and kept the
language popular and simple. The emotional tone should be absent in the rule
fragments, but it may appear warm and colourful in the literary fragments in the form
of, for example, profuse adjectives, as can be seen in this fragment of the introduction
of the Dystopian Wars rulebook:
It has made possible incredible metal alloys, fuels and propellants of
enormous efficiency
g) Attitude: in our case, the attitude of the author towards the topic of the text should be
non-existent. The author should not express an opinion because of the characteristics
of this book genre, which is not subject to opinion. Objectivity for particular text types
is underlined by Newmark (1988: 15).
-
14
h) Setting: this factor calls for the questions Where is the target language text going to
be published? and Does the client have any specific requests? According to
Newmark (1988:15), the translator should assess whether the readership is likely to be
motivated [], familiar with the topic and the culture, and at home in the variety of
language used. As mentioned above, the wargame market is narrow and the number
of users is not very high. Dystopian Wars and its rulebook are only sold in specialized
physical and online shops, and therefore, the potential readers will be very familiar
with the topic and setting of the game.
i) Quality of the writing: Newmark (1988:16) points out that the quality of the writing
has to be judged in relation to the author's intention. In Dystopian Wars, the authors
goal is to amuse its players by making them effortlessly understand the gaming rules.
In this regard, the measurement of the writing quality should be focused on how easily
the game is understood and played. From my experience in translating the original
Dystopian Wars rulebook, I argue that the quality of the writing of the source text is
low; not that the wording is particularly poor, but the rulebook is very confusing and
messy, hampering the learning of the gaming rules. The major deficiency is an
inadequate order of the chapters and an inappropriate sequence of presentation of the
rules to the reader, who may get demotivated. This is detrimental to the dissemination
and sales of the game because the main source for wargame marketing is the word of
mouth. In my opinion, the only solution to the problem would be to rewrite the book
from scratch, making a more sensible rearrangement of the chapter and rule
presentation.
j) Connotations and denotations: In the rules sections, the most important goal of the
writer is to convey the action as it is described, discarding any possible connotations
of the vocabulary used. The literary section of the source language text was written in
a popular style, but the authors personal style is not reflected on the text. To obtain
the same effect on the target text, I attempted to preserve this popular style and avoid
leaving any traces of my personal translation style.
k) Last reading: in the last reading, Newmark (1988:17) suggests that the translator
should note the cultural aspects of the source language text, underlining all
neologisms, metaphors, cultural words and institutional terms, proper names, technical
terms and untranslatable words. An account of these aspects for the translation of the
Dystopian Wars text is given in the following section.
-
15
5 Main problems
This section lists and addresses some of the main and most representative problems
encountered during the translation process of the English tabletop wargame text Dystopian
Wars and how they were solved. Problems arose that concerned (i) factors alien to the
translation of the source text; and (ii) the source crunch and fluff texts themselves (e.g.
semantic aspects and vocabulary).
Importantly, because of space restrictions, the complete translation of the Dystopian Wars
rulebook is not included in this study. Only the most illustrative examples featuring the
decision-making to solve the most relevant translation problems are presented and discussed.
However, the full translation is available to the reviewers of this paper on request via
email.
5.1 Main problem alien to the translation of the source text
The files that I first received for my translation assignment were plain text documents, free
of images from the original book. At the initial stage of the assignment, the absence of images
led to difficulties because the source text includes a great deal of references to pictures and
images. To solve this problem, I solicited a copy of the original book to the company, Spartan
Games, who agreed to send it out to me. But if the translation is performed before the
publication of the book, this could be problematic because the company might not have
created the visual support at the time of the translation.
5.2 Problems affecting the translation of the source text
Indirectly affecting the translation of the sematic and conceptual structure of the source text
was the lack of methodology and authoritative theory specific to the translation of wargames.
One of the reasons, as (Evans 2013) argues, is that many games are designed to target a wide
range of market users, leaving out unnecessary text on in-game elements and opting for
images. Because of lack of specialized literature and in order to develop a valid theoretical
framework for wargame translation, I had no other option but to rely on standard translation
theory (e.g. Newmark, 1988) as a general rule.
For specific passages of the text, and during my documentation period, I could find some
blogs run by translators who offer guidelines and advice on how to tackle the translation of
board games. In addition to Evans article, the information found on another translators blog
turned out to be really useful: This translator, Joseph Lambert, writes that some board games
are translated in a natural way and the translation hides any notion that translation has taken
place (Lambert 2013), so that players do not notice that the game originally comes from a
foreign country. As an example of natural and successful game name translation, Lambert
-
16
discusses the German game Kackel Dackel, which is called Doggie Doo in English and Bruno
Pup in Spanish. The common elements to be preserved in the translation of this name are
rhyme and alliteration. While this technique is common in games targeting children,
wargames have different target users, so that their names are not intended to rhyme.
Examples are Dystopian Wars, medieval fantasy wargame Warhammer, science-fiction
wargame Infinity and World War II wargame Flames of War. These games names evoke
conflict and violence, rather than innocent fun. Curiously enough, these original names are
most times left untranslated.
Another useful blog that I found is run by blogger Melissa, who deals with the translation
of a German board game called Agricola, designed by Uwe Rosenberg and published in
200711. Melissa encountered several problems which also occur in my translation of
Dystopian Wars. The first problem involves the highly specialized thematic language.
Agricola includes many words that come from the XVII century farming terminology. She
resolved the issue by using a very specific terminology dictionary. In my translation, I had to
deal with English military and naval vocabulary, which I translated based on the specialized
dictionary Diccionario Martimo Espaol.
A second major problem concerns the large number of overlapping terms belonging to the
same semantic field in the source text. In the case of agriculture, the author of the blog found
two words in German that have the same meaning and needed to be differentiated because
they have different functions in the game: Fleischer and Metzger. Melissa was creative and
translated these terms as Butcher and Meat-seller, respectively. In my assignment I
encountered a similar case with Ordnance and Gunnery, which both mean Artillera in
Spanish. In the game they have different functions, though. I came up with a creative solution
to discriminate the two terms: I used the term Armamento Pesado for Ordnance (this example
will be explained in detail in 5.2.2).
Problems directly affecting the translation process concern the style and wording of the
source text, or its semantics or conceptual structure. In the majority of cases, these problems
were solved by doing extensive research and finding creative solutions. The text-inherent
problems were classified into two different types: problems affecting the rules or crunch, and
problems affecting the lore or fluff. The explanations of the most remarkable and
representative examples of these types of problem and how they were fixed are given below.
11 http://boredgamegeeks.blogspot.de/2007/10/translating-boardgames.html (Consulted 18/12/2014)
-
17
5.2.1 Problems affecting the fluff
Problems that affect the fragments of fluff or lore are usually caused by specific culturally
charged or fantasy words. These problems are normally solved by coming up with creative
and imaginative solutions, considering cultural transferring. Below are some examples of the
most remarkable lore problems.
Faction names.
In the Dystopian Wars game are several factions, each usually representing one nation in the
games world. Players must choose a faction to collect, buy the miniatures representing the
models, and form an army. Logically enough, the faction names are recurrent words in the
game. They are often abbreviated into an acronym (e.g. FSA is short for Federal States of
America), or players use just one word of the full name for example, los lagartos is used
to refer to Hombres Lagarto in the wargame Warhammer. Other names are nicknames
referring to particular factions, as is the case for cabras to designate the faun Hombres Bestia.
Faction names should be translated into the target text as names simple enough, different
enough from each other and with a structure that easily lends itself to being abbreviated. With
as the example above, Federal States of America was translated as Estados Federados de
Amrica. The acronym would be EEFF, but FSA is shorter and easier to use even for Spanish-
language users; thus this acronym has been left in English in the Spanish target text. The
English acronym also helps establish parallel atmospheres between English- and Spanish-
language gamers, which promotes the internationalisation of the game.
Complicated unit names
There are two flying airships units in the game called gyro and rotor (Dystopian Wars, page
29). These two terms were problematic to translate due to the fact that the words themselves
seem to be incomplete or abbreviations, and there are no clues in the rest of the book regarding
the origin and meaning of these words. In this case I had to guess the significance of these
words: gyro come from gyrocopter or autogyro, a primitive form of the helicopter, and rotor
could come from rotorcraft, the broad term which encompass helicopters and autogyros. Then
I decided to translate gyro as autogiro and rotor as rotocptero, a word I invented for the
occasion, in this way the two words are sufficiently different but has a similar semantic
meaning, given that the two units function essentially in an identical way.
Country names in the games background story
-
18
Real names are generally simple to deal with because either they have a standard translation
(e.g. Prussian Empire is translated as Imperio Prusiano) or they preserve the linguistic form
in the target language (e.g. League of Italian States as Liga de Estados Italianos). However,
some fantasy or invented names pose a problem. When translating certain historical countries
that no longer exist, research had to be done to find the right translation; for these cases
Wikipedia became really handy. I searched for an article including the name of a country,
and then, toggled the language of the article into Spanish. For example, Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth turned out to be known, back in the past, as Repblica de las Dos Naciones
or Mancomunidad de Polonia-Lituania12. I opted for the second translation proposal because
it is more transparent and lets the player know which current countries the former nation
comprised.
Another example is Empire of the Blazing Sun, probably a wordplay of the nickname
Empire of the Rising Sun, the equivalent of real Japan in the game. This name was translated
as Imperio Del Sol Ardiente because its meaning stays true to the source language and because
it sounds very much like Imperio Del Sol Naciente, the Spanish nickname for Japan. When
translating country names, the general rule is to maintain the fantastical flavour of the original
name, and whenever possible, to try to give a nod to the target audience with familiar names
or play on words.
Another example concerning place names is the word Oblast, which is a geographical
division that belongs the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but is outside the Asian
continent. This word is barely known by Spaniards, and thus, I decided to translate it as regin
or provincia, specifying that this is the proper noun of an ex-Soviet region (regin rusa de
Alaska for Oblast of Alaska; in the games world, Russia conquered Alaska). In addition, the
game is set years before the making-up of the USSR, when the geographical divisions were
not called oblasts. This may be an error made by the writers or the word might be used
intentionally as part of the science-fiction setting.
Military terms
They are mainly categories of the units, such as frigate, destroyer, etc. Even though most of
military terms have standard equivalents in Spanish, some others do not, and thus, raise
questions to the translator. A clear case is the English term dreadnought, which designates a
British battleship built in 1906 with such a sophisticated design that it pioneered a new
12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Lithuanian_Commonwealth (English) http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rep%C3%BAblica_de_las_Dos_Naciones (Spanish) (Last consulted on 14/6/2014)
-
19
shipbuilding era, where battleships that bore a physical resemblance to the pristine HMS
Dreadnought were named after it: post-dreadnought battleships13. Although the term has
officially never referred to a specific military ship category, the compound has become very
common in popular culture, games and science-fiction environments to describe very heavy
vehicles, mostly ships. Several sources, such as the bibliographical sources of the Museo
Naval de Madrid14, were consulted to check the existence of an interlinguistic equivalent in
Spanish, to no avail. I also discovered that the word dreadnought is commonly used in the
Spanish version of many wargames instruction books, for example in Warhammer 40k15.
Moreover, it is a word complicated to pronounce by Spanish players. Therefore I decided to
use a naturalised version of the word, drednot, which shows the original pronunciation. This
way players will feel familiar with the term and relate the unit with the tradition of very heavy
vehicles.
Unit names
Each unit belongs to a class, that is, a type of ship (for example, Emperor Class Battleship).
A player can deploy several units of the same class and they will have identical attributes.
The name of every class normally appears in the language of the country that the name is
associated with. In the game, in addition to English, the language of the Kingdom of Britannia
and the Federal States of America, there are names in Japanese (e. g. Tsukuyomi class,
Kiyohime class, Tenkei class) and German (e. g. Gewitterwolke class, Seydlitz class, Metzger
class), corresponding to the Empire of the Blazing Sun and Prussian Empirerespectively.
There are more factions in the game written in different languages, but these four are the only
ones with their complete lists of unit listed in the source text. Nevertheless, there are few
names which do not correspond to the language of the faction that they belong to. This is the
case for Emperor Class Battleship of the Prussian Empire, since Emperor is not a German
but an English word (this may be a mistake made by the game company). Considering that
the original languages are preserved in the English-language source text, I decided to adhere
to this strategy and not to translate the unit names into Spanish. This way, the game becomes
more immersive to Spanish gamers and complies with the faction unit naming policy of the
source text.
13 http://www.nmrn-portsmouth.org.uk/dreadnoughts (last consulted on 14/6/2014) 14 http://www.armada.mde.es/ArmadaPortal/page/Portal/ArmadaEspannola/ciencia_museo/prefLang_es/ (last consulted on 14/6/2014) 15 http://www.games-workshop.com/es-ES/Dreadnought-de-los-Marines-Espaciales (last consulted on 14/6/2014)
-
20
5.2.2 Problems of crunch
The problems below were found in the fragments of the text known as crunch. These
problems differ from the fluff ones in that they could potentially disrupt the normal
development of the game if they are not solved properly. Moreover, these problems are not
caused by vocabulary or cultural issues, and need to be sorted out with practical solutions that
give priority to the actions rather than to literary creativity.
Measurement system
The measurement system is key to the general deployment of the game. For example, while
moving, the units can cover a certain distance on the game board depending on the movement
attribute of each unit and the die casting, which randomly constrains the units movement
scope. In addition, the weapons have a specific shooting range. The measurement system in
Dystopian Wars is the Imperial system. Only inches can be used in the game. An exception
is reference to feet in the recommendation about the size of the game table.
The Imperial measurement system was not adapted to the metric system in my translation
for various reasons. The primary one involves the rules governing the distance to cover on
the basis of the rolling of the dice. An example, extracted from the source text (Dystopian
Wars, 2007, page 37), is given in context (3):
(3) A model (the plastic miniature) affected by an Energy Vortex must move
1D6 directly towards its centre [].
In this case, the model affected by the energy vortex must move along on the board to
cover a distance that is randomly determined by rolling one six-sided die. The number given
by the dice equals the number of inches the model will move, in this case due to the nature of
the energy phenomenon, towards the centre of the vortex. If the Imperial measurement system
were adapted to the metric one, a more complicated formula would be needed to keep the
balance in the game, because 1D6 inches is not the same as 1D6 centimetres. An example of
an overly complicated adaption into Spanish is given in context (4), extracted from the
rulebook of Ejrcitos Warhammer: El Imperio (6th edition) to determine the shots fired by an
artillery piece.
(4) Tira el dado de artillera (...). Si el objetivo se encuentra a 30cm o menos,
el resultado obtenido divido entre tres (redondeando las fracciones hacia
arriba) indicar la cantidad de impactos (...). Si el objetivo se encuentra
a ms de 30cm, el nmero de impactos que le han alcanzado ser la mitad
del resultado anterior.
-
21
The dice here is a six-sided dice specific to the wargame Warhammer. In the original
English version, it includes numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10, and a special symbol to indicate that
the war machine has suffered a malfunction. This goes to determine the shots and to designate
a random distance, for example the margin of error of a catapult, hence its name. In Spanish
these numbers were changed to centimetres, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25cm. With this formula, apart
from being cumbersome , the eventual punctuation does not match the English one (e.g. a
dice roll of 20 equals 7 shots, not 8, and 25, the highest possible number in the dice rolling ,
equals 9 shots; therefore, this artillery piece is less effective in the Spanish version. This
mismatch may cause confusion to gamers and quarrels about the punctuation.
Another reason to keep the inches is that Warhammer, the most popular wargame
according to a recent survey,16 kept the Imperial system in its most recent edition, and a
Spanish wargame, Warthrone17, uses the Imperial system as well. Taking into consideration
that the potential readership of Dystopian Wars, as has been mentioned before, are regular
wargame players, they will be familiarised with the Imperial inches. In conclusion, the
Imperial measurement system was preserved in my translation.
Weapon types
Military Units in the game are equipped with a variety of weapons, which are classified into
two big categories: ordnance and auxiliary. Ordnance refers to primary armament, including
gunnery, rockets, torpedoes and bombs. Auxiliary weapons include ack ack (sic) and
concussion charges. The word ordnance was problematic to translate. According to the
Collins Dictionary, it designates gunnery, artillery or military equipment, and ammunition;
however, in Dystopian Wars it encompasses not only artillery, but also torpedoes and other
heavy weapons. This is why neither artillera nor armas de proyectiles would work as a
translation into Spanish. I opted to translate the term as armamento pesado, which makes up
a perfect tandem with armamento auxiliar, the Spanish equivalent of auxiliary armament, the
second weapon category. This way, armamento pesado includes artillera, and better features
the concept of heavy weaponry in the Dystopian Wars game.
Auxiliary weapons, concussion charges, are used to defend the unit from underwater
attacks, submarines, torpedoes, etc., as opposed to anti-air, which has the mission of
protecting the unit from rockets and airplanes (Dystopian Wars, page 66). Thus, the first
option was to translate it as cargas de profundidad, which is a direct translation of the English
16 http://www.cargad.com/index.php/2015/03/18/la-encuesta-del-miercoles-resultado-censo-wargames-2015-1-lo-mas-jugado/ (Consulted 18/03/2015) 17 http://www.avatars-of-war.com/esp/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=66 (Consulted 18/03/2015)
-
22
expression depth charges. In fact, the lexical unit depth charges is used in a different context
in a separate section of the rulebook, with the sense of safely detonating mines (Dystopian
Wars, page 66). This seems to be the game rulebook writers decision, who uses the term
concussion charges for a broader context because it is not exclusively used when attacking
submarines, thus leaving the more restrictive term depth charges to have a very specific,
exclusive meaning in the rulebook. All things considered, I opted for Spanish expression
with a broad meaning similar to the English one, cargas detonadoras. The literal translation
equivalent, cargas conmocionadoras, was also considered, but it was too long and sounded
unnatural and unfamiliar to Spanish natives.
Attributes of the units
Every unit has a set of attributes and military characteristics that condition and determine its
performance in combat (see Figure 1). These attributes are displayed in a graphic on the stat
card of each unit. In general, the objective here was to try to preserve the same letters of the
target text acronyms or provide very similar ones without repeating them. This was all done
with a view to ensuring easier acquisition of the rules by the Spanish players and to avoiding
confusion.
Figure 1. Attributes Card Sample of a Military Unit in Dystopian Wars
In what follows in this subsection I will address the most remarkable translation proposals
for unit attributes in my assignment. The first proposal concerns the English phrasal unit
damage rating (DR), which expresses the degree of endurance against attacks, i.e. the number
-
23
of impacts a unit can withstand in a single attack without suffering damage If the impacts
suffered surpasses this number, the unit loses one HP (hull point). This phrasal unit was
translated as resistencia al dao into Spanish because it stays true to the meaning of the source
unit and its acronym, RD, is simply the swap of letters in the English acronym. As a result,
the target language element hardly departs from the source one in their abbreviation. The
second lexical item is critical rating (CR). This stat attribute is linked to damage rating, and
denotes the top threshold of hits a unit can receive. Once the critical rating is surpassed, the
unit suffers a critical effect, which is randomly determined from the critical table by rolling
2d6 and applying the result from the list of crippling effects corresponding to the number
obtained, from 2 to 12 (for example, dice result: 3, shredded defences, effect: the unit loses
the ability to use anti air weaponry, Dystopian Wars page 85, this result leaves the unit
completely vulnerable to airplanes). The higher the damage and critical rating of a unit, the
higher the amount of punishment it can put up with. I translated critical rating as resistencia
crtica, dropping the sense carried by rating in the source lexical unit and bringing up the
sense of endurance (resistencia). This way the Spanish lexical unit is more illustrative and
true to the original than the literal translation equivalent, ndice de dao.
Movement (Mv) is the highest number of inches a unit can move on the table in its turn.I
first decided on desplazamiento, which implies moving along in space. However, despite
being a technically inaccurate translation equivalent (one can move without shifting in space),
movimiento is the most widely used Spanish choice in wargames. For this reason, I opted for
this term. Moreover, movimiento has the same abbreviation as its English equivalent
movement, that is, Mv. The third phrase is hull points (HP), which signals the degree of health
of a unit. When the hits received by the unit in one attack equals or exceeds the damage rating
but not the critical rating, the unit loses one hull point. When the hit exceeds the CR too, the
unit suffers a critical effect, usually crippling essential abilities of the unit. When the unit runs
out of hull points because of an attack, it is deactivated and ejected from the game. Hull points
were translated as puntos de casco, a literal translation that is a natural equivalent in Spanish
(in fact, we can speak of casco to refer to e.g. revestimiento o cubierta for missile casing) and
works for the three types of units: naval, land and flying. Other translation alternatives that
were considered were puntos de armazn and puntos de estructura, but they rather designate
elements of buildings, not of war or battle. Furthermore, since there are not infantry units in
this edition of the game, the Spanish translation equivalent cannot be argued to exclude
military units. The names of the rest of attributes were easy to adapt into Spanish and did not
pose any remarkable problems.
Model Applied Rules and General Rules
-
24
The model applied rules, abbreviated MARs, are a collection of rules/effects or skills that
only apply to some units. The name itself was troublesome to translate, since a literal
translation would not work. The translation equivalent proposed is reglas propias. This
category includes numerous rules, some of which have names that are occasionally difficult
to translate. An example is the terminological unit armoured topside In Spanish naval
terminology, topside means obra muerta (Diccionario Martimo Espaol 1831: 758), the part of
a ship above the sea level. Taking into consideration that in the game there are tanks and
airships, I decided to translate armoured topside as parte superior acorazada, which links up
to a similar rule term, armoured belly, translated as parte inferior acorazada. Armoured is
also used in the game to design certain land units, so I chose the Spanish translation equivalent
acorazada to avoid confusion.
Difficult to cope with was the ambiguity of general rules of the game, particularly when
considering the high degree of competitiveness of the players. Dystopian Wars is a
competition game, where there is only one winner and one loser. Therefore, players will often
attempt to gain advantage over their adversary by making biased interpretations of the rules
and taking advantage of ambiguous instructions (omissions, mistakes or contradictions,
ambiguity in the wording). With highly complex rules, the chances for vagueness and
loopholes in the rules to arise increase. I found no mistakes or contradictions in the rules of
Dystopian Wars, the explanations of these rules have been written in simple language, the
message is straightforward. Nonetheless the book in general is confusing because the rules
are presented in a chaotic way, for example mentioning advanced rules at the beginning but
not explaining these advanced rules until much later in the book. An example of this, in page
19 of the book, in the chapter game basics, appears this fragment:
A Prussian Empire Hussar Class Gunship with +1 to hit rolls 5D6 against an enemy
model.
But the concepts of attack dice, shooting, hitting and combat between units are not
explained until page 61, and there is nothing I can do as a translator without changing the
structure of the book. Ambiguous and unspecific rules normally lead to situations where one
player gains unfair advantage over his/her opponent. Furthermore, players usually have many
lengthy discussions over the duration of an average match as a consequence of overly
complex and ambiguous wording, as Luis in his blog mentions18, he measured the time
18 http://descansodelescriba.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/carrera-de-derecho-para-jugar-warhammer.html (Consulted on 20/6/2015)
-
25
players wasted arguing during several different games, often amounting up to nearly half the
regular duration of a common battle. He also made the accurate comparison of a wargame to
a law degree, thanks to the complexity and vagueness of modern wargames, indeed the
translator could approach the rulebook as if it was a legal text. Dystopian Wars suffers from
occasional dense paragraphs with complicated lists of rules and restrictions, for example, in
page 56:
ALL Counterattacks MUST be declared BEFORE you roll any dice. Each Attack can only be subject
to ONE Counterattack, however, a Counterattack from CAP may be declared in ADDITION to any
Counterattack from a model in its Parent Models Squadron. A model or Tiny Flyer Wing can only
Counterattack ONCE during any ONE Squadron Activation.
This is an example of bad writing and wrong presentation of the rules, this paragraph
dumps a large amount of items for the player to remember. Instead, a good rulebook should
present the rules and the restrictions gradually, in the order they appear in a real game. This
fragment illustrates as well the importance a single word can have in the overall balance of
the game: if the translator makes a mistake or forgets to translate the word BEFORE in the
first line, the phrase can be interpreted differently, that the counterattacks take place any time
before or after rolling the dice. This gap in the rules could lead players to make biased
interpretations favouring their own situations in detriment of their rival.
Despite improving the original writing in the English source text, the problems affecting
the presentation of the rules in Dystopian Wars cannot be fully solved with just an improved
translation into the target language, as I did. Rather, it really requires a new edition of the
source language book, providing a clear rewording and rearrangement of the linguistic
elements used to account for the rules of the game. This major reworking should be done by
the company Spartan Games.
Editing the source text involves proofreading and sufficient playtesting of the rules that
is, the rules need to be tested by playing the game before both the game and its rulebook are
launched to the market. Despite sufficient testing, mistakes usually remain in the published
text, and players try hard to find loopholes and ambiguities to exploit and take advantage over
their competitors. This issue is commonly resolved by publishing FAQs (Frequently Asked
Questions) lists, which helps gamers in the face of ambiguities and semantic gaps of the game.
These lists are usually put up on the website of the games company, including updates and
modifications of the rules. This poses another problem to the translator: should he or she
include the FAQ amendments in the translated version or simply translate the source text as
it stands? Including the FAQs has the advantage of presenting the updated version of the text
in the target language. They might, however, become out of date soon because the company
-
26
sometimes publishes newer FAQs, so that the players would be playing an obsolete version
of the game and would not know which changes should be applied to the translated version.
Translating the source text as it stands would produce a target text faithful to the source
version, but the players would end up looking up the FAQs online to play the updated version
of the game. In this case, the FAQs ought to be translated as well and they would be the same
version in every language the wargame has been translated. In the case that the company
decides not to translate the FAQs, players who are native of languages other than English
could consult the files online in the English original language and thus, would have to
understand and deal with a foreign language.
In my case, I asked the company whether or not I should include the FAQs including the
updated rules of Dystopian Wars19 in my translation. They asked me to produce the
translation modified according to the FAQs. The FAQs are commonly in the following
format, the page indicate where in the original text the change takes place, the players then
assume that the official text is the modified one:
TERRAIN CLASSIFICATION
Page 34 - Delete the term D6 from each entry in the list of Terrain.
In this example, I had to translate the section eliminating the term D6 from the source text
according to the FAQ, but curiously enough, despite the company telling me to include the
FAQs of the webpage, the text files they sent me had already the modifications which appear
in the FAQs.
As with the crunch, the translator must be very careful not to misinterpret any rules when
translating the FAQs, prioritising the semantics of the source text over the style.
6 Conclusion
There is an evident gap in the production and standardisation of theoretical models and
practical guidelines for the translation of tabletop wargame texts. To fill this gap and give
insights into this field of expertise, the present study analyses and discusses some of the main
and most illustrative problems encountered in the English-into-Spanish translation that I
made of the rulebook of the tabletop wargame Dystopian Wars. For this assignment, apart
from dictionaries and glossaries, I drew on assumptions from general translation theory
19 These FAQs are available on the games website at http://www.spartangames.co.uk/resources/downloads (The FAQs corresponding to the source text are no longer available because the first edition is gone obsolete after the release of the second edition of the game).
-
27
(Newmark 1988) and on procedural advice and suggestions given by wargame translators on
their subject-specific blogs online.
The main distinguishing feature of the textual support of a wargame is the combination of
two types of text, the fluff and the crunch. Their translation should be approached with
differing methods. The fluff should be translated preserving the literary creativity of the
source text, keeping an eye on style and rhythm. The crunch should translated foregrounding
the contents of the source text and putting every effort to remain true to the semantics of the
original message. Reasonably enough, the primary goal of wargames is having full
experience, which is mostly achieved if ease of expression and description of their rules is
guaranteed. Thus, when translating a wargame accuracy in spelling out its rules is pivotal. In
the translation of the Dystopian Wars rulebook, some instances of ambiguity caused by
grammatical and punctuation mistakes were identified. Special attention must be paid to
avoid transferring this ambiguity to the target language text. (a misplaced comma or word,
as we have seen before, can change the sense of a rule and produce an undesirable unbalance
in the game). Consequently, the professional wargame translator should be familiar with the
idiosyncrasies of board games, in general, and of wargames in particular. From my own
experience, being a regular wargame player crucially assists in gaining a full understanding
of the nuances and particularities of this game type, and thus, in identifying and correcting
common mistakes found in the source text. In summary, the wargame translator will face a
number of unique problems when translating the game, namely: the text files sent by the
company may lack the visual support of the final product; the absence of specialised theory,
culturally challenging words in the fluff of the book, for example the names of the units and
the names of the factions and countries, military semantic field; these problems are addressed
by the used of specific resources such as dictionaries; problems in the mechanic area of the
game, the crunch, for example the measure system and the general rules, was approach with
faithfulness and clarity as the main priority.
-
28
7 References
Baker, Mona. 1991. In Other Words: A Coursebook in Translation. New York: Routledge
Basnett, Susan. 2002. Translation Studies, 3rd Edition. Routledge.
Cintas, Jorge Daz. 2008. The Didactics of Audiovisual Translation. John Benjamins Publishing.
Ciscar, Francisco. 1830. Cartilla de Artillera de Marina. Madrid: Imprenta Real.
de Larramendi, Miguel Hernando. 1997. Pensamiento y circulacin de las ideas en el
Mediterrneo: el papel de la traduccin. Universidad de Castilla La Mancha.
Desconocido. 1831. Diccionario Martimo Espaol. Madrid: Imprenta Real.
Evans, Jonathan. 2013. Translating board games: Multimodality and play. JOSTRANS, the
journal of specialised translation 20: 1532.
Games Workshop. 2009. Warhammer 8th Edition. Games Workshop.
Garca, Dmaso Lpez. 1996. Teoras de la traduccin: Antologa de textos. Escuela de
Traductores de Toledo.
Glover, Julian y Andy Walpole. 2012. Dystopian Wars ed 1.1. Spartan Games.
Gobet, Fernand, Alex de Voogt y Jean Retschitzki. 2004. Moves in mind - The psychology of
board games. New York: Psychology Press.
Gonzlez-Aller Hierro, Jos Ignacio. 1985. El navo de tres puentes en la Armada Espaola.
Revista de Historia Naval 9: 45-76.
Harvey, Malcolm. 2002. Whats so Special about Legal Translation? Meta: Translators' Journal,
vol. 47, n 2: 177-185.
Lambert, Joseph. 2013. Games gone global: Connecting board games and translation.
JALTranslation. Source: http://jaltranslation.com/2013/10/23/games-gone-global-
connecting-board-games-and-translation.
Leeson, Bill. 2015. Origins of the Kriegsspiel. Article found on the Internet. Source: http://www.kriegsspiel.org.uk/index.php/articles/origins-history-of-kriegsspiel/3-origins-of-the-kriegsspiel (Last consulted 18/11/2014)
Melissa. 2007. Translating boardgames. Gone Gaming. Source:
http://boredgamegeeks.blogspot.de/2007/10/translating-boardgames.html. (Last
18/12/2014)
Munday, Jeremy. 2008. Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and applications, 2nd Ed.
Routledge.
N.N. 2009. The Routledge Companion to translation Studies. Routledge.
Newmark, Peter. 1988. A Textbook of Translation. Prentice Hall.
Nida, Eugene. 2001. Contexts in Translating. John Benjamins Publishing.
Ordez, Inmaculada Sern. 2011. La traduccin de videojuegos de contenido histrico, o
documentarse para traducir historia. TRANS. REVISTA DE TRADUCTOLOGA 15: 103-
114.
Pierini, Patrizia. 2007. Quality in Web Translation: An Investigation into UK and Italian Tourism
Web Sites. JOSTRANS, the journal of specialised translation. Source:
http://www.jostrans.org/issue08/art_pierini.php.
Rosenthal, Franz . 1975. The Classical Heritage in Islam. The University of California Press.
Sadeghi Ghadi, Alireza. 2010. All new theories and concepts about translation in new century.
Articlesbase. Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/print/1774052.
-
29
arcevic, Susan. 2000. Legal Translation and Translation Theory: a Receiver-oriented Approach.
University of Rijeka, Croatia.
Snell-Hornby, Mary. 2006. The Turns of Translation Studies. John Benjamins Publishing.
Stolze, Radegundis. 2013. The Legal Translators Approach to Texts. Humanities 2: 56-71.