Games

honestly I was penning a defense of this on "this work fundamentally relies on specific presentation and double meanings" grounds but I realized midway through typing it that it's a very silly problem because the solution to this is:

• hire someone fluent and proficient in both languages, someone with Spanish literature degree would be the type of person you’re looking for here
• have them act as an Official Liaison between you and the localization company
• ask in abstract "can you convey this, is there things we can do with this idea" with the company
• get your Official Liaison to proofread it and describe what they are reading in detail to you and also loop them in on it and ask them if there’s anything they can think of that they could be doing to make the translation utilize its language better.
• if you're still uncomfortable rubber-stamping a translation you can’t read, call it the Toby-Supervised Semi-Canon Spanish Translation or something. You know how to disambiguate where needed! If people still say "well I want a canon translation," that's where you can comfortably draw the line and say "it is my personal creative philosophy to not rubber-stamp things I cannot understand" because at that point it is pedantry.

the second, more PR-centric solution to this flare-up (aka, if your art brain still freaks out at the first option) is to toss money at the fans who localized your game for free, like "Sorry, I'm really really really not comfortable releasing my art in languages I can't understand, it's a personal creative neurosis. I really appreciate what you are doing, I just cannot officially rubber-stamp a translation, but here's some funds roughly-derived from the steam sales in LatAm countries you helped bring my game to. Thank you." It will, to adopt a cynical outlook, immediately create backlash to the backlash and temper future reactions. Crisis averted, people don't attribute your creative neuroses to racism. Just be sure to also be like "no, don't harass them please, it's highkey my bad and I wanted to make amends because I was being stubborn, it makes me feel worse if you take this out on them" if you want to at least somewhat avert the rabid counterswing of anglophone fans that is the price of this option.

I think it's a bit silly on both sides, it's not like unofficial fan translations are an invalid way of playing a game (e.g. playing Mother 3 in English), but it’s more silly on Toby's side because it's not a binary choice and you can take steps to preserve your integrity to the best of your ability while broadcasting I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE WORDS HERE THIS IS NOT EXACTLY CANON. I can empathize with his reservations as someone who has her own creative-control neuroses, but you have to recognize that it’s going to rub people the wrong way if you refuse to support their language.