BA thesis on The Witcher 1 - help needed

[ganja-chan]

BA thesis on The Witcher 1 - help needed

Hello everyone

I'm sort of new here, so if I placed the topic in the incorrect forum or made any other mistake, mods - feel free to do what you have to do in such cases.

Anyway, I'm here because I'd like to ask you for help. I'm writing a BA thesis (in Applied Linguistics) on the localization of The Witcher 1 game (comparison of English and Polish versions) and would gladly use the following:

1) Dialogues from the game, preferably either in text format (hey I know it's HOURS of work, I'm looking through the .bif files and I've barely finished chapter 1 this week...) or as videos (with subs). I would be grateful if they were in English as well as in Polish (I'm using the EE btw - in the .bif files there are often several versions of the same dialogue, which suggests that most of them were changed)

2) Help with dialects - this one's for native speakers. Game characters speak different dialects and if anyone had a list of the dialects appearing in the game (preferably with the names of people who use them), I would kill for it. Again, preferably both in Polish and in English.

3) Maybe someone has a log on what exact changes were made to the game in the EE? (I mean, some kind of a list of more important dialogues or sth like that?)

4) If anyone had any nice materials on the names of places, monsters, potions etc. I would be glad too

5) Also, materials about references to Polish culture are welcome.

So if anyone feels like helping me, I'd be really grateful. Of course, you can send me also things that were not mentioned above but that you think I could use in my thesis - you're all welcome Moreover, I hope to prepare a little e-treat for anyone who helps! (though I hope that if you help you do it out of the goodness that is in every human being!!! )

Thanks!!

 

[Corylea.723]

The developers might possibly have the things you want, but those of us who are just fans inhabiting the forum don't. To contact the developers, you could try sending a PM (personal message) to this forum's Community Manager, MM360, or you could go to the Support page, scroll down to the bottom, and click on the "Contact us" button.

You can get XML files of the dialogues; such files would have the lines for the dialogue in every language the game comes in, labelled by language. But getting them is cumbersome. You get them by opening a dialogue in Djinni, then choosing the menu item that says "Export to XML." Doing this one dialogue at a time is a LOT of work, and it's still not exactly in plain text format, though it is a lot closer to plain text.

There's a TON of dialogue in The Witcher, and I think the size of your sample set may be too unwieldy for a bachelor's thesis. I suggest that you narrow your focus and pick a single CHAPTER of The Witcher. Chapter 1 is the most self-contained; Chapter 3 -- since it takes place in the rich part of town, the poor part of town, and the swamps -- probably contains the broadest variation in accents.

Here's an example of what a dialogue exported to XML looks like.

Spoiler

Geratl, jak się czujesz?
You're not too rusty, though your movements aren't as sure as they were.
Your fighting's not bad, but your movements aren't as steady as they once were.
How do you feel?
Geralt, jak się czujesz?
Wie geht es Euch?
Comment vous sentez-vous ?
¿Cómo estás?
Come ti senti?
Как ты себя чувствуешь?
Jak je ti?
Hogy érzed magad?