The recent release of an English translation patch for the Dreamcast title Segagaga was supposed to be a moment of celebration, but sadly, it turned into something of a flash point in the ongoing debate about AI use in the translation community.
The team behind the project didn't disclose that the translation was based on an AI draft prior to release, and many fans pointed out that the quality was questionable.
The whole episode has triggered seasoned translator Hilltop to post a lengthy statement, in which the current 'AI goldrush' is addressed.
Calling it "the elephant in the room", Hilltop – who has localised games such as Racing Lagoon, Aconcagua, Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 and Mega Man Legends 2 Episode 1: Roll's Close Call! – explains how AI tools have changed the world of fan translations forever:
"AI feels like it was tailor made to “disrupt” the fan-translation scene. It can vibe code your translation tools for you. It can vibe analyse game data. It can vibe edit textures and audio. And of course, it can vibe translate for you. If you’re a solo programmer, no longer do you have to expose yourself to a public forum to ask for translators. No longer do you have to learn how to collaborate. No longer do you have to form bonds with people."
Of course, as the Segagaga debacle has confirmed, using such tools doesn't guarantee a quality end result.
"The quality will be bad, but who cares, right?" adds Hilltop. "I mean, it’s better than nothing, right? Someone else will clean up my mess when I upload the tools, right? In reality, that doesn’t happen. The moment has passed. It’s how the attention economy works."
The translator adds that people within the community dislike having to clean up machine-translated text:
"It does not save time or offer anything of value if every single line needs to be double-checked and re-translated and it reduces the optics of their job to that of 'text janitor.' Real translators have been kicked so hard by AI that you should not blame them for not picking up the sloppy seconds of a chatGPT translation patch. They deserve better."
Sadly, Hilltop believes it's going to get a lot worse now that these tools are available.
"Now that fan-translation can be done by one bored person who doesn’t have to commit very much time or effort, yeah you’re gonna see a lot of AI fan-translation patches," Hilltop adds. "Did you know that a patch for Bokura no Kazoku was released? I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t, because it’s an incomplete MTL that crashes 5 minutes in. That didn’t stop it from being released! Did that person get what they wanted out of this? I have no idea!"
On a similar topic, Hilltop also talks about how toxic the localisation community is right now, for related reasons:
"There has never been a time more hostile to localizers with the entire industry in chaos over being replaced with AI, uprisings against “wokealizers”, and every possible excuse to raise controversy where it doesn’t exist."
The post ends on as positive a note as is possible, with the translator assuring readers that "lots of projects" are cooking within the wider 'Hilltop Works' group:
"I have been vibrating with anticipation for people to finally experience the wonder that is Rowdy Princess since we announced it. I’m working on another PS2 game where I’ve added a bonifide high-falutin’ 60FPS option that makes the game sing. I’m also far from the only person translating without MTL. Please follow people like SnowyAria and Cargodin and Aquagon and many others. There’s a tendency to describe a game as being translated by 'the fans' without crediting the actual people who did it. Look up who translated the patches that you’ve played and show them how much you appreciate them because a lot of them don’t feel very appreciated right now."
If you'd like to support the amazing work Hilltop is doing, head over here.