Guidelines for globalization and localization. Is there a need for language restriction?

A few weeks ago, we shared Microsoft’s Guidelines for globalization and localization in our Twitter feed, which you can find here: https://twitter.com/MediaL0C/status/530688809697296384. 

Whilst I agree with most of the guidelines and recommendations, I have my reservations about others. For instance, some of the recommendations are quite obvious and every developer should take them into account, such as making sure to use the correct formats for numbers and dates, support international units and currencies, and display the fonts correctly. To some people, things like accents can be an annoyance, but they are extremely important. For instance, a little tilde on the “n” is the difference between “I am 3 years old” (Tengo 3 años) y “I have 3 anuses” (Tengo 3 anos) in Spanish.

But even these small, obvious changes need to be applied with caution is some cases. To give you an example, customers would expect to see their currency, with the correct number formats, displayed if they were to buy an app in the store. However, if they were playing a game whose story is based in the US and a character is buying something in a store or a bar, it would seem odd if the currency were anything other than USD. As always, it’s all about the context.

It goes without saying that things like cultural references, images, brand names, etc. need to be thoroughly researched before entering a new market, so I won’t go into much detail about that. You can read more on that here: http://medialoc.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/what-is-culturalisation-and-why-should.html and http://medialoc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-cultural-dimension-in-games.html.

What struck me about Microsoft’s guidelines is the fact that they recommend avoiding colloquialisms, metaphors and technical jargon. They are indeed the hardest things to translate, but should professional translators not be able to convey them? I believe they should.

Let me explain myself. A lot of the time, this type of language is right at the core of the product and forms its very soul and essence. Let’s say we have a game or an app packed with puns, metaphors and humour. Should we not respect that, and convey them in a way that will be understood by the target audience and have the same effect on them? Why should the product be altered, so that it becomes less humorous and therefore loses part of its appeal? I am all for adapting the product to the target market, but always in a way that recreates the effect and purpose of the original. Jokes cannot be translated literally, instead a professional would find an equivalent in their target language which, in literal terms means something completely different, but appeals to the consumer in the same way the original product did and, in this case, makes them laugh.

The same applies for technical jargon. If a product is targeted to the general public, it should not contain a lot of technical terms in any language. However, if it’s targeted at a very specific segment of users who understand the jargon and use it on a daily basis, then the right translator should be used, who can understand these terms and knows their equivalent in the target language. Scientists wouldn’t expect to read dumbed down texts just because they are translations, they would expect these texts to use the same style and jargon as texts written in their own language.

In my opinion, it’s all about context and effect, recreating the purpose of the original product in the target language; and the more invisible the translator is, the better. Culturalisation implies adapting the product to suit the needs of the target market, so that it’s just as appealing as it was in the original market, not altering the very essence of the product and turn it into something that it is not.

The cultural dimension in games localisation

As translators and interpreters know, it is very important to bridge the gap between cultures. In certain disciplines, the meaning and the effect that the text has on the reader is far more important than the words. This is especially true of localisation, which has been defined as the “adaptation of a product, application or document content to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific target market” (Ishida & Miller: 2005).

In the specific field of games localisation, this adaptation goes well beyond the words. As we all know, different cultures perceive things in different ways so, if a product is to be successful, it’s important to make sure that it adapts to the target markets, as the picture below amusingly shows. In fact, at least 50% of the revenue in games comes from localised versions (Chandler: 2006), which shows why localisation efforts should not be underestimated.

A while ago, I had the pleasure of witnessing a very interesting presentation by Melissa Clark-Reynolds, Founder and CEO of MiniMonos, a company which provides a virtual world for children in which they can create a monkey avatar, socialise with other monkeys and play minigames. She spoke of how sometimes they release minigames adapted to their local markets. One interesting example was a minigame which involved monkey poo, as can be seen in the following pictures.

                         

This type of minigame would have never worked in the Australian or New Zealand markets, for instance, where children are not as obsessed with their digestive system as they are in the UK. Despite speaking the same language, the cultures in these countries are different and being able to adapt to British “tastes” (if we can call it that in this case!) proved an extremely effective strategy, making this one of the most successful minigames for the company in the UK.

Another company in the world of online gaming, Zynga, famously decided to enter the Chinese market a couple of years ago. They rebuilt the game Farmville and, although the Chinese version is quite similar to the original Farmville, there are some changes that reflect the preferences of this target market. For instance, some changes were made to the colour palette and the plots of farmland are larger than in the original version.  And some new crops were also introduced, as can be seen in the picture below:

                                    

These crops, like the ginseng or the Caterpillar fungus, reflect the kind of crops that would grow in the region.

All this has huge implications for the games localiser, who must not only be a master of the written word, but also become a language consultant, and provide advice to clients when they come across something that could cause a potential issue in the target market.

Some time ago, I was working on a Japanese game for a portable device. The title included a minigame in which the characters had to compete to finish a big bowl filled with some type of alcoholic drink. The first one to finish it won the game, and the characters were depicted quite obviously drunk, and then complaining about having a headache the morning after. I had been told that the age rating of the game was 3+, so I immediately identified a problem and warned the client that a drinking minigame was going to be problematic in the target market, especially for such a young audience. All the translators discussed the problem as a team and we developed an idea to turn the drink into some sort of sugary potion and change the text so that the characters got a sugar rush instead, as children often get when having too many sweets. That saved the client a lot of time and money by not having to edit the game, and they were very grateful.

Other times, this cultural dimension can appear in the form of cultural references within the games themselves. For instance, in World of Warcraft there is a trinket called the Six Demon Bag, and its description text reads “Blasts enemies with the power of wind, fire, that kind of thing!”. This is a reference to the movie Big Trouble in Little China, in which Egg Shen’s describes the contents of his Six Demon Bag using the same words. In these cases, it’s important for the localiser firstly to identify the reference, and secondly, to look for the equivalent, that is, the official version of the movie in the target market (whether it’s dubbed or subtitled), and use the same wording in order to achieve the same effect that the original version of the game aims for.

Another important cultural aspect is related to characterisation. Many games contain fantasy characters such as orcs, wizards, fairies, but also pirates, gangsters and similar. The localiser will need to be familiarised with the way those creatures or characters speak in the target language and follow the conventions. It could be possible that an equivalent accent might need to be found in the target language to portray certain stereotypes or, lacking that, the use of certain interjections, expressions or pet phrases. Rude language and swearing can be particularly tricky because, whilst the effect on the player has to be maintained, cultural sensibilities also have to be taken into account. Some languages and cultures are more accepting of this type of language than others.

Of course, all this doesn’t mean that the content always has to be adapted. Sometimes aspects of the source culture have to be kept in order to maintain a certain local flavour. It wouldn’t make much sense for a game clearly based in New York, where the city is central to the story, to have characters speaking with a very marked regional French accent, for instance. However, both localisers and developers need to be aware of these issues and use their skills and expertise to ensure that the localised product meets all the requirements and needs of the target market if the product is to be successful. After all, this is a business, and the better the quality of the localisation, the higher the potential for revenue.

What you need to be a games localiser

It's been a while since my last post, but as usual the summer period has been extremely busy. In the past I've talked about general translation issues, and today I thought it was about time to explain a little bit more about what MediaLoc does: games localisation. Therefore I decided to reproduce an article I have written especially for those interested in knowing what you need to get into this industry. Hope you like it!

Getting into… GAMES LOCALISATION

Have you ever wondered why everyone seems to like their Xbox 360 or PLAYSTATION®3 so much? Games used to be a kids’ domain; however, nowadays companies are constantly branching into new markets and releasing products that defy the traditional definition of a videogame. Most of you will have seen the adverts about “games” that you can sing along to, that keep you fit and even help you cook! Whilst games might still not be everyone’s cup of tea, this expansion, which is taking place across many foreign markets, means that there is plenty of work out there for translators interested in the field.

However, games localisation involves much more than translation, and linguists working in this area need to be aware of certain technical and legal issues that might not necessarily apply to other fields. To start with, games companies are extremely protective of their products, and this means that often the translator has to work without having seen the product at all, despite having signed any necessary confidentiality agreements. It is not uncommon for the translator to only know the title of the game and the platform it will be played on. Sometimes, if they are lucky, they might get a few screenshots of the characters or the menu screens.

This lack of information becomes an acute problem when attempting to translate strings composed of a single word, with no context at all. Aside from the usual problems of gender and number, and whether a word is a verb or a noun (“pause”), certain terms will have completely different translations depending on the context; for instance, “wheel” in a racing game could refer to the steering wheel or to one of the four rotating wheels of the car.

Another common problem that games translators have to face on a daily basis is the lack of space on screen, meaning that in particular occasions they cannot exceed a certain number of characters when translating, which in screens such as the menus can be extremely challenging. And to this challenge you have to add the fact that games translators have to branch into other fields, such as translation of scripts and subtitles. Most localised games these days are dubbed, subtitled or both, so it is also important to have the necessary skills to carry out this type of work.

Other issues that need to be taken into account include the use of TRCs, placeholders and concatenation. TRC stands for Technical Requirements Checklist and it refers to a list of terms or “authorised names” that the translator must strictly follow; they include terms such as the names of the platforms and peripherals and in many cases the terms are copyrighted, so it is imperative to use the approved translations.

Placeholders are also very common in games localisation and can pose endless problems. For instance, even the simple sentence “You have won a %d” will have to be translated slightly differently in many languages depending on the gender of the object that “%d” is replaced with, as in “You have won a car”.

Concatenation can be even trickier. In the games localisation industry, it refers to combining several separate strings to form a sentence. Using a similar example to the one in the previous paragraph, the translator could find themselves having to translate the following table:

ENGLISH	SPANISH
You have won a	Has ganado una
gold	oro
silver	plata
bronze	bronce
coin.	moneda.

When combining them, the results will be “You have won a gold coin”, “You have won a silver coin” or “You have won a bronze coin”. However, it is clear that this syntax is not going to work in many languages. For instance, in Spanish “Has ganado una oro moneda” is incorrect; “oro” should appear at the end and be preceded by a preposition: “Has ganado una moneda de oro”. Since the syntax has been programmed into the game and cannot be altered, in a case like this it would be useful to translate the first string as “Has ganado una moneda de” and leave the last cell empty, or just with a full stop. However, this is only a very basic example and challenges of this type can be much more difficult to solve.

Any translators wishing to work in the games localisation field should be able to tackle all these issues and also start familiarising themselves with the games and the associated terminology used in them. Some of the most common terms can vary from one company to another, or between different platforms and consoles, so it is very important to become aware of these differences. Similarly, it is not uncommon for games translators to specialise in a few genres; the style and terminology can vary widely and, whereas some games contain a lot of technical information (for instance, car specifications in racing games), others use a very flowery language that will put the translator’s creativity to the test (role-playing games, or RPGs, with long and complicated stories).

It is also helpful to find a job in-house within a game company.  Even though the industry is fairly young, most translation companies specialised in this area will hardly consider translators without game experience. Obviously, it helps to be an avid gamer, but working for a game company also provides an excellent perspective on what type of issues you will have to face as a freelancer.  Some companies, such as Blizzard and NCsoft have in-house translation teams, and most of the others have localisation testing departments, which check all the text once it has been implemented in the game.

In terms of tools, it is not necessary to have specialist software, as most of the work comes in Excel or even Word format. However, using TM software can be very beneficial due to the sheer number of repetitions and the need for consistency within the games, which can sometimes surpass the 100,000 words mark.

There has not been much written about games localisation to date, but those interested in the field could benefit from reading the “Game Localization Handbook” by Heather Maxwell Chandler (2005). It provides a comprehensive description of the games localization process and will be undoubtedly helpful for anyone thinking about branching out in this industry.