ProZ.com translation contests »
26 translation contest: "Game on" » English to Swahili » Entry by James Wangui


Source text in English

Translation by James Wangui (#32299)

Computer games were, at one time, unified. We didn’t even have the term “casual game” in 1993, let alone the idea that a first-person shooter (then an unnamed genre) could be considered a “hardcore title.” There were people who played computer games, and people who didn’t. People who got way into golf or Harpoon or hearts or text adventures — those were the “hardcore” players, in that they played their chosen field obsessively.

When Myst and the CD-ROM finally broached the mass market, this ecosystem was disrupted. Myst had, Robyn Miller makes clear, been designed to appeal to non-gamers. It sold to them. Enthusiast magazines like Computer Gaming World couldn’t set the taste for the industry anymore: there were millions buying games who didn’t read these magazines. An entirely new breed of player. In this situation, what could be more natural than concocting an us-and-them formula? In a very real way, it was already true.

The great narrative of Myst is that the “hardcore” game press and playerbase lambasted it when it launched. Disowned it. A slideshow, they called it. Abstruse, idiotic puzzles; pretty graphics and not much depth. “Critics and hardcore game players universally panned it as a slide-show that had little actual gameplay interaction”, claimed PC Gamer’s Michael Wolf in 2001.That same year, a columnist for Maximum PC recalled Myst as a “tedious code-breaking and switch-throwing mess”, and saw its then-new remake realMYST as “a pointed reminder of why the press dumped on the original so heavily when it came out.”
Michezo ya kompyuta, wakati mmoja, ilikuwa imeshikamana. Hatukuwa hata na neno "mchezo wa kawaida" mnamo 1993, sahau wazo kwamba mpiga risasi wa kwanza (aina ambayo haikujulikana) inaweza chukuliwa kuwa "aina zito." Kulikuwa na watu ambao walicheza michezo ya kompyuta, na watu ambao hawakucheza. Watu ambao waliingia kwenye gofu au Harpoon au mioyo au vivutio vya maandishi - wale walikuwa wachezaji "ngumu", kwa kuwa walicheza uwanja wao waliochaguliwa kwa kupuuza.

Wakati Myst na CD-ROM mwishowe walibadilisha soko la molekuli, mfumo huu wa mazingira ulivurugika. Myst alikuwa na, Robyn Miller anafanya wazi, imeundwa kuwavutia wasio wachezaji. Iliwauzia. Magazeti ya shauku kama Michezo ya Kubahatisha ya Kompyuta hayakuweza kuweka ladha ya tasnia tena: kulikuwa na mamilioni ya wanunuzi wa michezo ambao hawakusoma majarida haya. Aina mpya ya mchezaji. Katika hali hii, ni nini kinachoweza kuwa asili zaidi kuliko kutunga fomula ya sisi-na-wao? Kwa njia halisi kabisa, ilikuwa tayari ni kweli.

Simulizi kuu ya Myst ni kwamba waandishi wa habari wa "hardcore" na mchezaji wa mpira waliiumiza wakati ilizindua. Iliikana. Slideshow, waliiita. Abstruse, puzzles ya ujinga; michoro nzuri na sio kina kirefu. "Wakosoaji na wachezaji wa mchezo mgumu ulimwenguni waliiweka kama onyesho la slaidi ambalo halikuwa na mwingiliano halisi wa uchezaji", alidai PC Wolf Gamer Michael Wolf mnamo 2001. Mwaka huo huo, mwandishi wa safu ya Maximum PC alikumbuka Myst kama "kuvunja nambari ngumu na kubadili -kuangusha fujo ", na kuona marekebisho yake mpya ya" MYST "kama" ukumbusho dhahiri wa kwanini waandishi wa habari walitupa kwenye asili sana wakati ulipotoka. "


Discuss this entry