Quote:
Originally Posted by ADan
Well, maybe subs would be faster, cheaper and better (arguably) but in this special case that would mean that at least ten percent of all of the lines wouldn't be real subtitles as they would have to say something completely different than the original German to get the jokes across. And those are a lot. Many of them linguistic jokes, too. Timing of puns comes to mind as well. So I can understand why a developer (or probably the publisher even more so) would prefer the whole shebang with emotional expression in the language of the targeted audience, with humor that's genuine to that language and with an opportunity to straighten out "mistakes" that have been made in the original
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I believe you are in the translation business and you're arguments are valid, but to both subtitles and voice overs. Both need careful and creative translation. However, I think subtitles are certainly cheaper to accomplish. And it is done in films and television shows all the time, so no need to worry about timing for that matter. It can and has been done time and time over. Even in mute adventures - like monkey island - with great success in my opinion.
You are however probably right about the US and UK customer because they are not accustomed to subtitles. But it would be widely accepted in countries where subtitles are more common. Maybe these markets could justify the development of a subtitled version. If successful the translation could be re-used for a full voice over.
