Ben Croshaw does not like "The Witcher".
That was an outcome you could pretty much see coming three years ago (and again), just because of the game's idiotic name. But this is one of the better Zero Punctuations nonetheless.
And this time there's an extra piece on the end of the review.
It's a bit rude.
24 January 2008 at 6:11 am
Given that he has flat out said that he absolutely hates reading in RPGs, I am completely unsurprised he has zero liking for the game.
24 January 2008 at 1:07 pm
Well, the original Polish name of the profession ("wiedźmin") is a neologism and IS difficult to translate. "A witching" (think "zergling") might have been better, but years ago, "a witcher" was chosen (and WAS the first thing I thought of, too). And considering that witchers have nothing to do with witches...
It may be an idiotic name, but sometimes, English is just not flexible enough. :( IMNSHO.
24 January 2008 at 1:10 pm
P.S. It works, of course, the other way around, too. Translating is far from being the easiest thing in the world. :)
25 January 2008 at 4:02 am
Why not just use "Wiedźmin" (knowing only English and Spanish with a tiny smattering of German and French, how the hell do you pronounce an accent over a Z?) as the product name, then? You could take out the accent or spell it phonetically, then just explain what it means in-game. It would go from a sad, ridiculous name that everybody mocks to a cool, mysterious exotic-sounding name that gets people interested.
It's like if a Spanish movie took a guy named Carlos and, in translating to English, changed his name to Charles. The dude is Hispanic, obviously it's Carlos, we're not retarded so don't treat us like 2nd-graders.
25 January 2008 at 4:03 am
Brief follow-up: Apparently there's a Polish movie called "wiedźmin", which has been translated as "The Hexer". That's a game I'd play too. Lazy bastards couldn't even do a Google search?
25 January 2008 at 6:50 am
They probably couldn't have called it The Hexer without getting sued by Id re the Hexen series. And practically every other witch-ish name that doesn't sound ridiculous, and several that do, has already been taken by a metal band.
I see no reason why you couldn't just use one of those band's names and get them to do the title tune or something, though. It's not as if Scandinavian epic-power-symphonic-thingummy metal doesn't already sound like a dark RPG theme tune most of the time.
27 January 2008 at 11:48 am
I quite agree, Dan. Inventing something new (but different) or using something old that sounds good would be the best. But the whole case is somewhat complicated. There was an English edition of Sapkowski's book released earlier and IIRC it used the "witcher" name then. I guess keeping the title was required to have some consistency, but... don't quote me on that. I'm just guessing.
There's going to be (maybe there already is) a new edition of the book(s) soon and with a new translation, but AFAIK it will use the same title. I guess the world will have to live with it. It's not a great name, I agree, but will probably have to do.
Slightly off topic... If you ever stumble upon said film, don't try to watch it. For your own good. :) I don't think any two people in the world are being loathed by Sapkowski's fans more than the director and (especially) screenwriter. Sapkowski wasn't interested in the whole process, so, sadly, he sold the rights to film "Wiedźmin" and called it a day.
@ Coderer: As for the spelling of "dź", try to pronounce "dg" in "bridge", but touching your palate not with the (almost) tip of your tongue, but with the area between it and the tongue's centre (if tongue's tip = 1 and centre = 3, you need to use the area number 2). The leading "w" should be pronounced as "v".
29 January 2008 at 1:39 am
Dan, do you regularly talk in Father Ted references, or am I seeing things?