Thread by @Garyou_Tensei

1) Any translation experience is good experience, all other things being equal.

2) There are, however, better translation experiences than others, perhaps due to the quality of the source text, the presence of peers/mentors/audiences, the helpfulness of received feedback.

3) Game translation, manga translation and anime translation are three areas of creative translation that have been long-suffering from the Catch-22 of <needing experience to go professional, yet needing to go professional to get "legitimate" experience>.

4) Game translation (definitely game translation!), manga translation and anime translation all still seem to be short on translators, both in terms of numbers and talent ("quality), even for the more popular/lucrative language pairs such as JtoE in JtoX, and EtoJ in EtoX.

5) Recruitment savvy and pipelines for game (definitely game!) / manga / anime translation seem mostly chaotic and unpolished currently, perhaps due to active translation companies and internal translators being too busy, and definitely due to lack of industry-wide standards.

6) Fan translation in game / manga / anime translation could be said to be 6-1) a result (negative connotation), 6-2) a reinforcer of (negative connotation), and 6-3) a potential solution (faint hope) to the issue that is 5) <game/manga/anime translation career paths just suck>.

6-1) Fan game / manga / anime translation is a *result* (negative connotation) of 5) <translation career paths sucking> :
Aspiring/undiscovered/actually-professionally-viable candidates take longer than they should to find professional work or flows of work.

6-2) Fan game / manga / anime translation is a *reinforcer* (negative connotation) of 5) <translation career paths sucking> :
If fan translators are theoretically reducing the target market, the amount of professionally available work could theoretically be decreasing.

6-3a) Fan game/manga/anime translation = *potential solution*(faint hope)of 5)<translation career paths sucking>:
Given creator permission & ideally done solo & given full portfolio mentionability & official in-content crediting, fan translation work = music in the recruiting ear

6-3b) Fan game/manga/anime translation = *potential solution*(faint hope)of 5)<translation career paths sucking>:
Given creator permission & officially implemented, fan translation work could boost creator income and/or cultivate target language fandom/market

6-3c) Fan game/manga/anime translation = *potential solution*(faint hope)of 5)<translation career paths sucking>:
Given creator permission, fan translators could potentially draw on fan community goodwill and support to reach higher standards of translation/localization quality

7) ...My personal take is that

6) Fan translation in game / manga / anime translation is

6-3) a potential solution (faint hope) to >>>>> 6-1) a *result* (negative connotation) of >>> 6-2) a *reinforcer* (negative connotation) of

...5) <translation career paths sucking>.

8) Quandary: What sanity check could help turn every element positive?

9) My personal take on 8): Whether or not the fan translation initiative is an act of Giving or Taking.

10) Disclaimer: I've recently been agonizing over <creator-blessed fan game translation being caught in the AoE of (warranted) piracy stigmas for anime fansubbing and manga scanlation scenes>, so kindly bear with my tendency to proclaim fan game translation's relative innocence.

11a) Giving vs Taking sanity check: Game Translation:

Giver: Asks creator for permission, prioritizes creator vision/needs/constraints/decisions, forfeits copyright, respects criticism, welcomes alternate translations/translation efforts, helps promote game, helps sell game

11b) Giving vs Taking sanity check: Game Translation:

Taker: Doesn't ask creator permission, prioritizes own vision/needs/constraints/decisions, claims ownership, disrespects criticism, antagonizes alternate translations/efforts, cares little about game's target language sales

11c) Giving vs Taking sanity check: Manga Translation:

Giver: <Mostly same as Game Translation Giver>, translation featured in official feature/website, still forfeits copyright, helps on the lettering/design side of things, helps all language version receive more views

11d) Giving vs Taking sanity check: Manga Translation:

Taker: <Mostly same as Game Translation Taker>, translation featured in unofficial/piracy media/website, claims ownership, races competition at cost of quality, spreads/increases canonicty of mistranslations, monetizes

11e) Giving vs Taking sanity check: Anime Translation:

Giver: <Mostly same as Game Translation Giver>, translation featured in official target language episode (rare currently?), still forfeits copyright, helps figure out subtitle timing, helps target language fandom enjoyment

11f) Giving vs Taking sanity check: Anime Translation:

Taker: <Mostly same as Game Translation Taker>, translation featured in pirated torrent et al, claims ownership, races competition at cost of quality, spreads mistranslations, monetizes, decreases perceived target market

12)Disclaimer to earlier 10)Disclaimer: <bear with tendency to proclaim fan game translation's relative innocence>:

Many Givers and Takers are active in game/manga/anime translation. However, the latter two make Takers more prominent while the former makes Givers more prominent.

13) Being on the recruiting side of JtoE game translation, which entails encountering & comparing notes with many active translators and prospects involved in fan game/manga/anime translation, I often witness folks reluctant/struggling to leverage their fan translation portfolio.

14) ...If a translator or prospect is reluctant/struggling to leverage their fan translation portfolio out of the guilt of having Taken in the past, I read this as a drive to go professional and shift to a position where they can Give back, and see this VERY positively.

15) ...I've recently been encountering and talking more and more with game translator prospects in emerging markets and languages, where official local language translations can be rare or even nonexistent. They may soon be the very pioneers that start bringing that content over.

16) ...In a perfect world in the fan translator's and fan translator fan's eye, game/manga/anime content creators would be easy to reach and convince, supportive and appreciative of fan translation, and would be investing in the future workforce that helps them reach the world.

17) ...In a perfect world in the budget-strapped creator's eye, game/manga/anime translators would be networked hordes and clans of Giver fans who do global localization, LQA, PR and customer support with minimal creator input, yet along the creator's vision and preferences.

18) ...In a perfect world in the game/manga/anime publisher's eye, game/manga/anime fan translators would provide industry-average-or-better - to - industry-topping localizations at zero cost, a fraction of the professional timeframe, and with LQA and PR and support thrown in.

19) ...In a perfect world in the game/manga/anime translation company's eye, game/manga/anime fan translators don't touch any work that would be professionally localized, teach themselves to professionally viable levels and have rich portfolios of legitimate fan translation work.

20) ...How would/could/should they/you/we make this happen?