ever_1977
Greenhorn
First off, apologies in advance for people who aren't simplified Chinese players of the game. You've likely seen a lot from the simplified Chinese community these days and alas, there's going to be more to come.
This thread is not about what font the game should use for simplified Chinese or whether the translation is good or not. I know enough about game translation and translation in general to know that you can't satisfy everyone when you update translation and design like this. Personally I don't care about the translation as I use too many mods such that my Stardew Valley is always a mix between simplified Chinese and English. But then, I'm privileged enough to be able to know English well and not be bothered at all by it.
I'm posting this thread because in my opinion, Stardew's official Chinese translation team is actively hurting the loyal content creators and Stardew's simplified Chinese community...and I did not bold the words to exaggerate.
To this date, the Chinese translation team has not established any official spokesperson that understands and responds to player feedback in Chinese. Instead, all "feedback collection channels" are done by people or accounts who claim they "know the translation team but is not part of it." When the change of the Chinese translation was first released, the translation team apparently got in touch with a couple of top influential content creators/influencers in the simplified Chinese community, and asked them to help promote the Chinese translation and maybe collect or respond to user feedback. The result: people who dislike the new translation stormed to these influencers to express their discontent. The discontent deepens when they realized that the official translation team did nothing, not even gestures, to show that they are addressing these positions. Since the unhappy users can't find any official channels to access/talk to the communication team, they directed their anger to the content creators---who have nothing to do with the translation and thought they were just doing a favor (for free) to the Stardew team.
These are the content contributors who have posted hundreds to close a thousand of videos in simplified Chinese on the Stardew Valley game alone, who focus 80% or more of their contents on Stardew, and who have been doing this since 2020 and earlier. These are the same people who pulled all-nighters to stream and test out the 1.6 release, and are excited when they are finally contacted by someone from the "official Stardew team." Now, they are shoved out to receive all the criticism that should be directed towards the official translation team.
These people really don't deserve that.
And that's not a way to build a healthy community. It's especially sad because to me, Stardew has been nothing but a friendly community...In the simplified Chinese community, which I'm most familiar with, you see people getting hyper-emotional debating whether Ancient Fruit or Starfruit wine is the best way to earn money in the game---and yet they remain respectful with the people they argue with, and yet, they are able to make fun of themselves regardless.
And then onto the normal users...I'll be honest and say I really don't care which translation or font the game ends up using, so I also did not try to submit any feedback on the simplified Chinese platforms so I can't speak to my personal experience. However, I did hear from multiple users on multiple platforms that most of their suggestions aren't heard or even addressed on the forum. There is no poll despite repeated suggestion. The player feedbacks that the aforementioned content creators collected did not result in any meaningful response from the translation team. And, purely anecdotally (hopefully I'm not spreading misinformation), the most helpful feedback comes from a forum manager who does not fully understand Chinese.
When Stardew was released, the team likely did not expect a huge Chinese player community. Nor should the community be a priority of the team (especially given all the exciting new released of 1.6---a pleasant surprise for me as the game essentially helped me survive the COVID days). So I understand decisions to leave translation and font issues to a separate team and let who knows more handle everything. They probably should have handled everything...until they managed to make most of Chinese players feel that their voices are silenced, undervalued and left unattended to by the Stardew Valley team.
What's worst. I can't represent the community. I'm now posting these words that hopefully someone will read because I happen to know English. There are many people who care more and committed more to the game but can't have their voices fully delivered because they can't speak English as good. And I've witnessed disappointments and frustration amidst claims that nothing will change since they can't let ConcernedApe knows what's happening and what the community wants anyway. Regardless of whether what the community wants can and should be achieved, that's not a healthy way of communication culture between players and developers.
So. I'm not usually a vocal person in these discussions. And as stated, I don't really care about what translation or what font the game ends up using. But I'm very concerned that the official Chinese translation team and the larger Stardew team haven't understood what damages they are causing to what used to be a very healthy and supportive community.
Thanks for reading ;)
This thread is not about what font the game should use for simplified Chinese or whether the translation is good or not. I know enough about game translation and translation in general to know that you can't satisfy everyone when you update translation and design like this. Personally I don't care about the translation as I use too many mods such that my Stardew Valley is always a mix between simplified Chinese and English. But then, I'm privileged enough to be able to know English well and not be bothered at all by it.
I'm posting this thread because in my opinion, Stardew's official Chinese translation team is actively hurting the loyal content creators and Stardew's simplified Chinese community...and I did not bold the words to exaggerate.
To this date, the Chinese translation team has not established any official spokesperson that understands and responds to player feedback in Chinese. Instead, all "feedback collection channels" are done by people or accounts who claim they "know the translation team but is not part of it." When the change of the Chinese translation was first released, the translation team apparently got in touch with a couple of top influential content creators/influencers in the simplified Chinese community, and asked them to help promote the Chinese translation and maybe collect or respond to user feedback. The result: people who dislike the new translation stormed to these influencers to express their discontent. The discontent deepens when they realized that the official translation team did nothing, not even gestures, to show that they are addressing these positions. Since the unhappy users can't find any official channels to access/talk to the communication team, they directed their anger to the content creators---who have nothing to do with the translation and thought they were just doing a favor (for free) to the Stardew team.
These are the content contributors who have posted hundreds to close a thousand of videos in simplified Chinese on the Stardew Valley game alone, who focus 80% or more of their contents on Stardew, and who have been doing this since 2020 and earlier. These are the same people who pulled all-nighters to stream and test out the 1.6 release, and are excited when they are finally contacted by someone from the "official Stardew team." Now, they are shoved out to receive all the criticism that should be directed towards the official translation team.
These people really don't deserve that.
And that's not a way to build a healthy community. It's especially sad because to me, Stardew has been nothing but a friendly community...In the simplified Chinese community, which I'm most familiar with, you see people getting hyper-emotional debating whether Ancient Fruit or Starfruit wine is the best way to earn money in the game---and yet they remain respectful with the people they argue with, and yet, they are able to make fun of themselves regardless.
And then onto the normal users...I'll be honest and say I really don't care which translation or font the game ends up using, so I also did not try to submit any feedback on the simplified Chinese platforms so I can't speak to my personal experience. However, I did hear from multiple users on multiple platforms that most of their suggestions aren't heard or even addressed on the forum. There is no poll despite repeated suggestion. The player feedbacks that the aforementioned content creators collected did not result in any meaningful response from the translation team. And, purely anecdotally (hopefully I'm not spreading misinformation), the most helpful feedback comes from a forum manager who does not fully understand Chinese.
When Stardew was released, the team likely did not expect a huge Chinese player community. Nor should the community be a priority of the team (especially given all the exciting new released of 1.6---a pleasant surprise for me as the game essentially helped me survive the COVID days). So I understand decisions to leave translation and font issues to a separate team and let who knows more handle everything. They probably should have handled everything...until they managed to make most of Chinese players feel that their voices are silenced, undervalued and left unattended to by the Stardew Valley team.
What's worst. I can't represent the community. I'm now posting these words that hopefully someone will read because I happen to know English. There are many people who care more and committed more to the game but can't have their voices fully delivered because they can't speak English as good. And I've witnessed disappointments and frustration amidst claims that nothing will change since they can't let ConcernedApe knows what's happening and what the community wants anyway. Regardless of whether what the community wants can and should be achieved, that's not a healthy way of communication culture between players and developers.
So. I'm not usually a vocal person in these discussions. And as stated, I don't really care about what translation or what font the game ends up using. But I'm very concerned that the official Chinese translation team and the larger Stardew team haven't understood what damages they are causing to what used to be a very healthy and supportive community.
Thanks for reading ;)
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