Final Project - MMORPG
The final project for my current class (Systems Analysis and Design) is to “upgrade” a fictional company’s systems. The instructor’s suggestions were systems for inventory tracking, help desks, employee time management or payroll but other suggestions could be made.
It is a group project and we are a group of three. I actually had the first idea while sitting in the project management seminar at the ATA Conference. I thought it would be nice to “globalize” a company. I was thinking of a company with a few software products who are English only that wants to enter a global market. I think this appealed more to me than to my group mate - no surprise.
Luckily, I know he is a gamer - also no surprise considering he is a male Computer Science major in his early twenties - and the other idea was to have a fictional game development company that wants to add an online multiplayer environment (not MMORPG, but along those lines) to an existing game.
Today, I spend some time looking into server requirements and I was in awe by some of the stats I found. It seems like some of the games, for example WoW (World of Warcraft) have a HUGE user base. I knew some games were popular, but some of the head lines simply floored me. From the News section of WorldofWarcraft.com “In its first 24 hours of availability, the expansion sold over 2.8 million copies to become the new fastest-selling PC game of all time [...]“. According to the Wiki entry, they have more than 11 million monthly subscribers, “with more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and about 5.5 million in Asia” and with a peak of almost a million players online at primetime.
Anyway, our fictional game will be quite a bit smaller than that and require less server power and bandwidth though for a mock analysis, it wouldn’t really matter.
Trados customer service (or customer service in general)
Since it just came up on the Trados mailing list again, I just like to post my rant here too.
A lot of people complain about how bad Trados is and even more, how horrible their customer service is. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have had my share of issues with Trados and their service, but in all honesty - it’s the same at almost every other company.
I think one big part of the Trados support issues is that most translators need and use Trados 8 to 10 hours a day and that many rely on Trados for their livelihood. At the same time, many people are not willing to pay for support (Trados PSMA costs 20% of the product cost). Has anyone ever looked up how much support people make? Last time I checked, even jobs labeled “Support Specialist” (ie. not call center) earned well under $40,000 a year. If you know a lot about computers and if you have the required experience, do you want to listen to customers on a support hotline 8 hours a day for that money? Yeah, me neither…
Here are some of my past support experiences:
- Comcast: their service is horrible and I dread having to call them. Every now and then you get someone who actually knows their stuff and the conversion is pleasant. Most times, they don’t know anything, read of solutions from a script and put you on hold forever.
- Best Buy: the bulb of our fairly new projector blew after 90 days even though it was supposed to last 3000 hours on eco mode. Since projectors are fickle little things, we had actually purchased the extended support warranty for $180. We wrapped up the projector and went to the close by Best Buy to get the bulb exchanged. Well, not so much. They said we have to go home and file the claim online. We could also call support; the number is also on the web. Say what? So we went back home and I called customer support. I talked to someone who had absolutely no clue and kept asking me for the screen size of my projection TV. I kept telling her it is a PROJECTOR not a REAR PROJECTION TV, and she gave up and connected me to someone else. That someone else told me, that the bulb shouldn’t blow that fast (Duh!) and I should better contact the manufacturer because it is still under their warranty. We ended up having to send the projector back to Optoma (UPS insured for $60) and “just” two weeks later, we had our device back. And that was service we actually had paid for.
- Dell: I just had one brief encounter trying to change an order for a monitor after it all of a sudden showed “out of stock” with a delivery time of 4 weeks. My call was routed all over the world. One call I just had to hang up because I could not understand the person and apparently, he couldn’t understand me either because my request to transfer the call was ignored. One woman I talked to said she was from the Philippines, another one probably from India. They were trying to be helpful and they were nice, but their scripted answers are just a waste of time. If I have a problem bad enough that I can’t solve it, their script most probably can’t and I get the dreaded “You have to format your hard drive” answer.
- KIA: my husband’s remote key was in really bad condition. The buttons were punched through and the door release didn’t work. So, for his birthday I took his car, went to the KIA dealer and asked if I can get a new remote key. The guy looked it up and said they have one key - costs around $80, but they can’t cut it. He sent me to a locksmith that they had a deal with to get it cut. After that I have to get back to get it programmed. So I paid for the key, went to the locksmith who cut it for free and went back to the dealer. They sent out a guy (reeking of last night’s party) with a little computer who clearly didn’t know what he was doing. First, he couldn’t find the location to connect the computer to the car. Once he found that he started punching the keys while quietly cursing. After ten minutes, he said it doesn’t work and that it is the car’s fault. I asked him what to do now, and he said I have to get the car repaired - and with that he turned around and left me standing there. I went back in trying to explain that this key is basically worthless to me now, since the remote opening function was what I was looking for. Now, since it was cut I couldn’t return it, and since they couldn’t tell me what was wrong, the repair cost was “undetermined”.
- Airlines: I don’t believe I have to get into this - do I? I haven’t had a trouble-free flight for at least 5 years. In those 5 years, I have been stranded over night in Manchester (New Hampshire), Dallas, and in Chicago. They have lost my luggage on the way to Germany; I have missed flights because of delays. I was on standby even though I had a ticket in Philadelphia, I spent hours sitting in a plane that wasn’t moving or circling the tarmac and of course I had plain old delays. And you know what? I don’t even travel much!
Now, I have to add some positive notes, the customer support at T-Mobile (my cell phone provider) and Medion (for my laptop) have been pretty good. T-Mobile has the friendliest support staff, and I am not talking the usual fake support friendliness but people who are cordial and who actually are able to crack a little joke every now and then.
In the end, I am happy that I don’t have many computer problems, and that I can solve most of my computer issues myself. At times, I actually enjoy doing so and playing computer surgeon, but I know it is not for everyone. But if that is the case, you may have to pay someone.
Fake Germans on TV
I just saw an old episode of Frasier, and it got me upset 
Why can’t they find real German actors to play German? There must be a ton of real Germans in the movie/TV industry to cover small parts. This is the “Bavarian fencing instructor” of Maris:
Weirdly, I can’t really identify the accent, but more Eastern Europe I think.
Freelancer translators vs. translation agencies
While I am my company’s in-house translator, I am also our “in-house agency” for European languages. I am exclusively working with freelance translators. I am always wondering, if I just got extremely lucky with my translators or if that’s just the way it is.
My pros:
- I like to know I get the same translator every time
I guess that is one of the most important points and something you know if you are a translator and probably learned if you are working in the business long enough. I have worked with agencies before, and I have received varying quality even in the same field, which is unacceptable - I get better quality
It’s somewhat implied by the above bullet. IMHO, it’s a simple fact that repeat business increases the quality. Our translations are kinda sorta the same - about colors. I am sure a lot of things have to be looked up, but if everything goes to the same person - as they learn about our business, the value of their translation for us increases. - I get fast response and turn-around times
It is just nice to know that I can count on fast replies and that I can get small translations back fast - usually within a day for < 100 words and those one sentence translations are returned almost instantly. If not, I almost know they are not at their desk and will reply when they are back. Honestly, email is generally a very fast and reliable medium. Please don’t ask me to confirm every email - and that works both ways. I believe it is safe to assume that you receive my emails and I have received your emails - It is less formal
Usually, I can send out translations with just a couple of sentence. We need no purchase orders, I never need to specify dates (unless it is super urgent), formats, payment mode etc. I send an email with the file and the word count and if I know/care about, the desired return date. I don’t expect a reply unless it can’t be done within a reasonable amount of time (and “reasonable” depends on the size of the project) - I get bilingual files
Bilingual files allow me to have a TM which saves me money on translation work. I don’t think it is a problem since I always work with the same people, so I don’t have a TM created by dozens of different translators - It is cheaper
Of course it is, we are cutting out the middle man. I know that agencies offer services, but usually I don’t need those services - so why pay for them?
Interestingly, I believe that many of the things that are advantageous for me, are also advantageous to them:
- They deal with the same “PM” every time
They learn my style and they know what I expect and it saves them the time to set guidelines every time - They get fast response
Just as much as I appreciate a fast reply, they probably appreciate fast responses to their questions and inquiries the same - It is less formal
I am pretty sure this goes both ways - just as I hate to waste time, you can spend your time on better things that replying with the “Thank you for your inquiry. I appreciate your business and ….” - They don’t have to format files
When working with Trados and Word, Trados can do a horrible number on your files and the formatting. I often find I am spending hours on formatting files, so I believe I save money on “words”, and the translators can spend their time translating instead of fixing bad MS Word format. Since I just want the bilingual file back, that part is all taken care of on my end - It is faster (as in more words/hour)
Just as I get better and more consistent translation, it becomes easier to do translation in topics you know in-depth. Not having to research brandnew topics saves a lot of time. Yeah, it is interesting to learn new things but it is also nice to have a “safe haven”
What is your experience with in-house translators? Do you prefer working with agencies or in-house clients? Why? What are your expectations when working with a direct client vs. working with an agency?
I am #6
Wow - I just thought I google myself again (and no, I am usually neither this vain nor that conceited) and guess what? Thanks to all of you, I climbed from #43 to #6 within a couple of days. I hear so much about people trying to get a better search engine positioning, it’s not that hard