Feedback talk:Matthew Medina

the undeciphered Asuran banner

Does it mean this? . gata el ya gya.. balas ya

. the cat and gya.. bullets and

Got it almost^^(spanish translation), I guess it means the charr with guns in gw2. Death Sligher 19:02, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

I took a more literal route and tried coming up with what each character on the banner looked like in a Latin based alphabet (English). I came up with Line 1 zya shea iadi yal and Line 2 o zya valxil yal. Since the banner pertains to an item associated with golems, I assume either zya or yal translates to "golem" because both words are repeated --Rolin 02:24, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Due to the other two letter-for-letter translatable languages (Old Ascalonian and Kryta) - especially the later - not having a complete similarity (or even half-way) with a latin-based alphabet. I don't think it would be all connected to the most similar looking letter. Also, considering Matt's comment before about how the asura language is not something "earthlings" would understand, I would say that even furthers that idea. -- Konig/talk 03:25, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

I wonder if his comment on asuran "mathemagical formula" is a clue. Wish he would drop another blatant hint/help for us. --Ravious 12:02, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

I just took what they looked like because of this, "while the letters do translate to English characters, those characters will still look and sound like gibberish". The characters looks slightly like Alt-codes (i.e. §, Ø, ¥) which I often use in place of letters. changing them to alt codes made changing them to letters easier. Even if I'm wrong, the part about the 2 words repeating has to be of some importance. Rolin 12:58, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Hi guys. Sorry, I've been gone from the wiki for so long. I haven't dropped any clues or hints about this for three reasons. 1. Back when you guys were first working on trying to translate the banners, we were still not ready to disclose that we were going to have languages in Guild Wars 2 as an optional feature, so I didn't want to say anything until we announced that. But that probably wouldn't have mattered too much because 2. The asura banners are so ridiculously obscure and unrelated to the GW world (and I really apologize for that) that the only real way that I could really think to help you out would be to give you the answer, but if I gave you the answer, you'd have a significant chunk of the asura language pre-translated, which would spoil the language for GW2, and 3. Because I've just been really preoccupied learning how to go from being an artist, which I've spent the better part of 17 years doing, to being a content designer. So, I know you've all been hoping to translate the banners, but I hope that you guys can wait a little longer. Trust me, you aren't missing out on anything. When GW2 ships, and you guys have figured out the alphabet in the first week, you'll probably go back to those banners, translate them, and go..."Uh, MATTHEW, WTF?!?!11". So, here I am, apologizing in advance.--Matthew Medina 15:41, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

I'm even more wanting to translate these banners. Unrelated to GW? So it would be like a trivia/reference to something in reality/another fictional tale? That's what I get from it, at least. -- Konig/talk 18:04, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

The translation of the old banners is: o kwa tanzim wan, kwa umsa laji wan! Some people on the GW2 sub on Reddit got it.

Skill icons

Does your job include being allowed to mess with the skill icons? I work with the game's icons for a variety of purposes, from improving them with texmod (example, explanation) to... well, that's about it, actually. Anyway, if you didn't know, a few months/years/whatever ago, ANet released "skill card packs" (here) consisting of gloriously high-resolution skill icons... with a positively atrocious JPEG compression. Ordinarily, I could live with that as I have "legitimately acquired" a tool to remove JPEG artifacts in photoshop (also acquired through entirely legitimate business practices), but that skill pack is actually missing a lot of icons: all icons available only in PvE as well as any no longer actually in the game, to be specific. I've been talking to some of the artists, but they've completely ignored my plea. ;_; Would it be too much to ask for you to wrap up all the skill icons in a .7z or something and upload them somewhere for me? I use them purely to inject in the game via texmod and upload onto the wiki here, not for my legitimate business fronts or anything else like that. Oh, it'd be real nice if you used .png or a similar lossless format, too. I recommend using 7zip to compress them after that, the "Ultra" level has an extremely favorable compression ratio for .png files with a very manageable processing time. Mediafire is the preferred hosting agent, since they don't bug you about stuff like most do, but Rapidshare works just as well. —Jette 10:20, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

good luck getting a answer she hasnt talked on this page now for 1month:(. 62.133.217.232 10:08, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

she? :P -- Konig/talk 21:21, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

SHE?!?!?! X-D --Matthew Medina 15:42, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

Maybe that's what I get for playing all female characters in game. ;-) --Matthew Medina 16:06, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

GuildTron?

Nice Tron reference. Not sure how many people caught it, or apparently could be bothered to comment on it. 42 - talk 06:41, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Not sure if you followed

But thanks to Regina's hints and replies of which she transfered from you, we think we've translated the Krytan language - missing a few letters though - and we've been looking into the Talmark runes (and some people have found said runes used elsewhere - from Kryta to the Shiverpeaks to the Battle Isles). So I was wondering if you can give a confirmation if that translation is right and we didn't just botch it up somehow using words of the exact same letter coordination. And if the Talmark runes translate into something not gibberish.
Oh, and thanks for listening to my request. It clearly made a lot of people happy to have the challenge of translating runes. :) -- Konig/talk 18:51, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

And on a language-related note: I was wondering if you can comment on this, as I haven't gotten anything from Bobby Stein and Regina called you the "language expert" over on Guru, I figured that you could help me out with the Kurzick language. :) -- Konig/talk 18:58, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

From what I can tell, the languages are just a glyph-encoded Caesarean cipher. Brute force it, it shouldn't take but five minutes. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Jette (talk).

Yeah, you guys definitely nailed the New Krytan alphabet. I have been following what you all are doing on the forums, and apart from some understandable confusion in telling apart some letters from screenshots or when they are blurred by the texture resolution, you are all right on the money with your translations. Regarding the Talmark runes, that IS Old Krytan, but it will remain a mystery. Primarily because we don't want to expend a lot of energy going back to old assets and making sure they "mean" something - that's one of the reasons why, in my blog, I mentioned how Old Krytan fell out of favor because it was such a difficult language to learn. Here's an example of what I mean. Let's imagine two Old Krytan glyphs: By themselves, one sounds like "AH" and the other sounds like "MUH". When you combine them to make a simple word, depending upon their order, you could either create the word "ACH-MEH", or if you reversed their positioning you would have the word "MIH-YEH". Completely unintuitive, yes? But that is deliberate. ;-) Working backwards then, the "sounds" of New Krytan will only loosely match up to their Old Krytan counterparts. The thinking is that they took the "sounds" of old Ascalonian (which are also the sounds of the common language) with the visual style of Old Krytan. Although we are not planning to explore Old Krytan as an alphabet, I would at some point like to explain WHY it was designed that way. --Matthew Medina 16:05, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

*saddened* I was hoping to learn the mystery of the Talmark runes finally! q_q You're only making Old Krytan more interesting, you know. If you keep this up, you'll HAVE to have it translatable, unless you want rabid fans plowing down your office looking for the answers. >.> <.< -- Konig/talk 18:04, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

Just noticed this now. The address of that office please? @Matthew: you'd better get a restraining order in effect pretty soon! ;P Titus The Third 18:21, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

Curious about a few runes

I was looking through an old compilation of runes found throughout Prophecies from the GWO lore forums and I couldn't help but wonder if there is any lore behind the non-translatable runes? Specifically, the runes seen here, here, and here along with what looks like Egyptian hieroglyphs throughout the Crystal Desert. Any chance you, having been called the "language expert" would know/be able to find out/tell us something about them if there is something behind them? Like, for the ones from the Crystal Desert, who they belong to (Margonites? Forgotten? Elonians?) and so forth. Or merely if they'll be delved into in GW2. Thanks in advance! -- Konig/talk 00:34, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

I don't have information on all of the symbols and runes that you've linked to, but I will do my best to explain the ones I am aware of. The three Ascension glyphs (along the with others in that "style") are just ancient pictographs of the three areas you need to unlock to gain access to Augury Rock (Elona Reach, Thirsty River and Dunes of Despair). It would be safe to assume that the same forces who created Augury Rock/The Hall of Ascension created the "key" for unlocking it and the symbols that go with it. For the Eye of Janthir, some of those are just magical symbols with no lore attached, but the "flowing" runes etched into the protection glyph are of Mursaat origin. The last image of the plaque on the deity statues, I'm sorry to say, is just really, REALLY old art that somehow survived from the Beta days, which makes it somewhat interesting in its own right. :-) --Matthew Medina 18:08, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

Very interesting... Mursaat glyphs in gw1 o.O Now I gotta do some research and texture extractions then go update the Languages of Tyria page. Thanks for the response! -- Konig/talk 21:06, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

Curious now if the runes on the confessors' outfits (and the WM costume) are of mursaat origin as well now... -- Konig/talk 21:11, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

quick question

If it's not too much of a hassle, can there be a list created that contains all voice actors? I've created a project for GW1 but certain voice actors will never be found like Jora. Her voice is stunning but no one knows who exactly it is. I know, it's a couple hours to a couple days of extra work but it sure makes it easier in the long run! :) So, if it's not too much to ask, can you see if there is a "master list"? - Lucian Shadowborn 05:23, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Loreish Question

Since you have been on GW Since 2003 I have to ask do you remember hearing about what purpose if any the pulsating dishes in the ice cave with the statue of Lyssa in the area Mineral Springs had. Where they part of some removed quest like the Ancient weapon in the Crystal Desert or something similar? SajuukKhar 8:39, 14 Feburary 2011

Correction to the comment above: Dishes, not disks; Lyssa not Melandru. And I would also like to know this but it'll probably be akin to the druid spires in Talmark Wilderness or either of the two wizard's tower (the one in Kryta or one in pre-Searing). -- Konig/talk 17:51, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Ahh you are right. I wrote that after staying up for well over a day so my mind wasn't thinking right. I have fixed and corrected my previous statement. Also IIRC the Wizards tower in Kryta is supposed to come back in GW2 so if it has a chance so do these other things I suppose. SajuukKhar 1:19 15 Feburary 2011