Swedishguy
Deity
Hello, fellow civfanatics. Ive often wondered why video games seldom gets translated to swedish. My initial theory was that Sweden is simply too small. But I abandoned that theory when I realized that Sweden is a, what do we call it, a videogame nation. Them nerds in Stockholm are cranking out great quality games like crazy men. So, why is it that video games seldom gets translated to swedish? Its because swedish is simply lame. Hardcore swedish gamers prefer english over their mother language. Child friendly franchises such as The Sims and Zoo Tycoon gets translated into swedish, but thats it. Translating english games into swedish was pretty popular and widespread in the 21st century, however. To further strengthen my point, I present to you an article I read in swedish PC Gamer, which I translated into english for ye. It was under the retro part of the magazine, and was about the game Anders Limpars Proffs Fotboll, and which you north americans may recognise under the name Gazzas Super Soccer. Here goes:
Sometimes you encounter humour in computer games, and it becomes in some way extra fun if it was unintentional. It often happens when someone with great enthusiasm but small competence tries to translate video games into swedish. As an example the new version of Centipede that was released in 1999 where Giant centipedes causes terror and destruction in the fairy land Småland. [Småland is a landscape/province/state/whatever in southern Sweden. Swedishguy.] But what I was going to tell you about was this time when the developer Empire realeased the game Gazzas Super Soccer in 1989. Someone got the idea to translate it into swedish soccer, and as the games central person they chose Anders Limpar. Poor thing. The title is incorrect if one is nitpicky, because in swedish, apostrophes are not used that way, but it kind of told how the game was going to be. Anders Limpars Proffs Fotboll as such wasnt worth more than the package it was delivered with (practical to store other stuff in) but what made the game entertaining was the translators wrestling with the swedish language. It was not enough that there were errors everywhere, but the swedish letters made their best to complicate matters. There were swedish letters, but sometimes were they shouldnt be. It was also entertaining to see how the translator had fought with the names of the teams, some had simply too long names. Norrköping, for example. Get the scissor out and cut it down to Norrköp. Sundsvall are in the game, but who Sundsuall are we really dont know. All the short versions of teamnames such as IK, IFK BK and so on had been removed, except in one case: Malmö FF. There didnt appear to be spaces in the teamnames, however (computers were primitive in those days) so Malmö FF was granted the not quite charming name Malmöff. They had an easy time with the player names. At the package they bragged with swedish teames with their true colours which was basically true, but it wasnt very impressive when the players of the teams were named Player 2, Player 3 and so on. There were lots of enetertaining stuff throughout the whole game. For example you could play tournaments with sextyo fyrå lag, [The proper spelling is sextio fyra lag. Swedishguy.] and if you didnt want clubs such as Malmöff or Norrköp in the game, why dont you take something else, why not Djurgård(en)? Its not easy with the swedish language. We have weird letters and abstract language rules and sometimes it could be like baking parsnipbiscuits with boxing gloves. But it causes certain humour to, or what do you all say that lives in the fairy country Småland, or those who supports Malmöff?
-Ove Kaufeldt, PC Gamer number 124 April 2007
Sometimes you encounter humour in computer games, and it becomes in some way extra fun if it was unintentional. It often happens when someone with great enthusiasm but small competence tries to translate video games into swedish. As an example the new version of Centipede that was released in 1999 where Giant centipedes causes terror and destruction in the fairy land Småland. [Småland is a landscape/province/state/whatever in southern Sweden. Swedishguy.] But what I was going to tell you about was this time when the developer Empire realeased the game Gazzas Super Soccer in 1989. Someone got the idea to translate it into swedish soccer, and as the games central person they chose Anders Limpar. Poor thing. The title is incorrect if one is nitpicky, because in swedish, apostrophes are not used that way, but it kind of told how the game was going to be. Anders Limpars Proffs Fotboll as such wasnt worth more than the package it was delivered with (practical to store other stuff in) but what made the game entertaining was the translators wrestling with the swedish language. It was not enough that there were errors everywhere, but the swedish letters made their best to complicate matters. There were swedish letters, but sometimes were they shouldnt be. It was also entertaining to see how the translator had fought with the names of the teams, some had simply too long names. Norrköping, for example. Get the scissor out and cut it down to Norrköp. Sundsvall are in the game, but who Sundsuall are we really dont know. All the short versions of teamnames such as IK, IFK BK and so on had been removed, except in one case: Malmö FF. There didnt appear to be spaces in the teamnames, however (computers were primitive in those days) so Malmö FF was granted the not quite charming name Malmöff. They had an easy time with the player names. At the package they bragged with swedish teames with their true colours which was basically true, but it wasnt very impressive when the players of the teams were named Player 2, Player 3 and so on. There were lots of enetertaining stuff throughout the whole game. For example you could play tournaments with sextyo fyrå lag, [The proper spelling is sextio fyra lag. Swedishguy.] and if you didnt want clubs such as Malmöff or Norrköp in the game, why dont you take something else, why not Djurgård(en)? Its not easy with the swedish language. We have weird letters and abstract language rules and sometimes it could be like baking parsnipbiscuits with boxing gloves. But it causes certain humour to, or what do you all say that lives in the fairy country Småland, or those who supports Malmöff?
-Ove Kaufeldt, PC Gamer number 124 April 2007
