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The Translation of Realia and Irrealia
in Game Localization
Silvia Pettini
First published 2022
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2022 Taylor & Francis
The right of Silvia Pettini to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-43232-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-07354-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-00193-5 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003001935
Typeset in Sabon
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Translation and Globalization: The Case of Video
Games 1
1.2 Aims, Scope, and Structure of the Book 3
1.3 Summary 9
Notes 9
References 197
Gameography 225
Index 227
Figures
Tables
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
My gratitude goes to all the people who have supported this project, both
consciously and unconsciously. First, I would like to thank Professor Stefania
Nuccorini and Professor Serenella Zanotti for their generous contributions
of time, ideas, and suggestions. I thank them for sharing their knowledge
and for having accompanied me during the research process in their distinc-
tive, special manner: both caring and authoritative, an extremely rare com-
bination. The joy and enthusiasm they show for their work were contagious
and motivational to me, even during tough times.
My grateful thanks go to Professor Miguel Bernal Merino and Professor
Carmen Mangiron, for their time, interest, and insightful comments on
my research, as well as for their kind support during my research stays in
London and Barcelona. Their pioneering works aroused my interest in game
localization and their great expertise contributed to the study presented in
this book.
I would also like to thank Electronic Arts, and especially Anneta
Mitsopoulou, for their open-minded and far-sighted approach and for their
constant willingness to answer my questions.
My sincere thanks go to the publisher and the editors Elysse Preposi,
Helena Parkinson, and Ruth Berry for being very supportive. I would also
like to thank both the anonymous reviewers for their insights and sugges-
tions, and my friend reviewers Anna Connealy, Joanna Fallon, and Anna
Rita Gerardi for improving the quality of my manuscript.
And last but not least, my deepest gratitude goes to all my beloved fami-
lies: my parents and sister, my partner, and my friends, for their understand-
ing, patience, and encouragement during all the stages of this project. Thank
you very much.
1 Introduction
DOI: 10.4324/9781003001935-1
2 Introduction
Japanese, and particularly English, the latter as either native and/or work-
ing language.
In order to grasp the worldwide spread of video gaming, the US
Entertainment Software Association (ESA) yearly statistics give an insight
as to how it has evolved since the early beginning and has become perva-
sive in today’s society. For the purposes of this book, since US English is
the source language of the video games in the corpus used for this research,
it seems interesting to briefly outline the impact of video games on US
society.
According to the 2020 Essential Facts about the Computer and Video
Game Industry (ESA 2020, 3), as “the leading form of entertainment” video
games are an integral part of American culture: the US players represent
a diverse cross section of the American population spanning every age,
gender, and ethnicity. In detail, as the report suggests (ibid., 4–5), 75% of
Americans have at least one video game player in their household, with a
total of 214.4 million US game players, of which 79% are aged 18 or older.
Gamers are 59% male and 41% female, with an average age range of 35–44
years. Moreover, video games are a strong engine for economic growth,
which has generated $35.4 billion in revenue in 2019.
As regards Europe, the continent has alone over 40 different countries
and languages, but the biggest game markets are Germany, the UK, and
France (NewZoo 2020b). These three European nations come in at number
five, six, and seven, respectively, on the ranking, behind China, the USA,
Japan, and the Republic of Korea on a global scale. The list then comprises
Canada at number eight and, finally, Italy and Spain coming in at number
nine and ten, respectively (ibid.).
Accordingly, it comes as no surprise to learn that the standard set of tar-
get European languages for video games is commonly referred to as “FIGS”
(French, Italian, German, and Spanish), an acronym which was coined in
the1980s and still represents “the minimum default group of languages that
most games are translated to” (Bernal-Merino 2011a, 14–15). However,
the number of target languages for major games now routinely exceeds ten,
including both European and Asian languages (Hasegawa cit. in O’Hagan
and Mangiron 2013, 60).
Although considered as secondary markets at the global level, Italy and
Spain are rapidly growing game consumption areas where full localizations
(see Chapter 2) are becoming more and more common (Maxwell-Chandler
and O’Malley-Deming 2012, 45). Publishers usually opt for either partial
or full localization on the basis of the target locale significance and the pos-
sible return on investment. The inclusion of Italian and Spanish into the
FIGS group from the beginning of the industry’s consolidation, and recent
favorable trends, testify to the importance of these target locales, as shown
by the data provided by national associations such as the Italian Interactive
Digital Entertainment Association (IDEA) and the Spanish Video Game
Association (AEVI).
Introduction 3
According to IDEA (2021a), 16.7 million Italians played video games
in 2020, accounting for 38% of the population aged between 6 and 64.
As regards gender, 56% of Italian gamers are male and 44% are female
and as concerns the most significant age groups, 24% of players are aged
between 15 and 24, 22% between 45 and 64, and 19% between 25 and
34. Moreover, in 2020, the Italian game market recorded €2.179 mil-
lion in revenue, with a 21.9% increase compared to 2019, and 82% were
generated by purchases of software, of which 43% is digital content and
includes console and PC games. As to genres, the bestselling video games
for console platforms belong to action (27%), sport games (16%), adven-
ture (12%), shooter (11%), and role-playing (10%), whereas the most
successful genres for PC are action (23%), strategy (17%), adventure
(16%), shooter (15%), and role-playing (14%). Moreover, as the IDEA
census (2021b) reports, in Italy there are also about 160 game develop-
ment companies and informal teams, with over 1,600 people employed in
the industry. The geographic dimension of these companies covers most
regions, but the areas with more concentration include Lombardy, Lazio,
Emilia Romagna and Sicily.
As regards Spain, according to AEVI (2021), the number of players
in 2020 totaled 15.9 million, representing 42% of the population aged
between 6 and 64, of which 54% are male and 46% are female. As con-
cerns the major age groups, in Spain 25% of players are aged between 25
and 34, 23% between 15 and 24, and 15% between 35 and 44. In terms of
revenues, in 2020 the Spanish game market amounted to €1,747 million, of
which 55% was generated by purchases of online software. As to genres, the
most popular video games for console and PC belong to action and adven-
ture (34%), sport games (13%), and role-playing (12%). Furthermore,
about 9,000 people are employed in the industry in Spain and although
game studios are mostly based in the areas of Madrid and Catalonia, the
number of companies is constantly increasing across the country.
These data confirm that Italy and Spain are historically more consumer
countries than producing ones, although it is clear that the video game land-
scape is evolving day by day. In the future, this might also affect localization
practice and research as far as Italian and Spanish could be both source and
target languages and this seems to paint extremely interesting scenarios for
both scholars and professionals.
Notes
1 Fictionalism is meant only as a high degree of fictionality and represents a work-
ing term which relates to realism, the other end of a continuum, with no refer-
ence to philosophical notions of the same name, and together with realism it
represents one of the two sides of the same coin, namely the game world, as will
be discussed in Chapter 3.
2 See, for example, Ranzato’s literature review (2015, 53–59).
2 Game Localization
and Translation
2.1 Introduction
The study of video games has seen a surge of interdisciplinary academic
interest since the late 1990s and the areas involved are many and diverse.
Nowadays, the “new medium” and the related cultural, social, and eco-
nomic phenomenon identified as gaming are self-sustained research
topics in Game Studies, “an interdisciplinary domain, with scholars ana-
lyzing games from diverse perspectives, such as anthropology, sociology,
psychology, narratology, semiotics, cultural studies, genre studies, media
studies, and computer studies, to name but a few” (Mangiron 2017,
76). Fundamental readings in this sense are, for example, the works by
Aarseth (1997, 2001), Egenfeldt-Nielsen et al. (2016), Jenkins (2006a,
2006b), Juul (2005), Kerr (2006), Newman (2008, 2013), Rutter and
Bryce (2006), Wolf (2001, 2008, 2012), and Wolf and Perron (2009a,
2014). Video games and gaming are also explored with a focus on lan-
guage in disciplines like Education and Language Learning in particu-
lar (see Gee 2003, 2004, 2007, Gee and Hayes 2011, Lombardi 2013,
Peterson 2013, Prensky 2001, 2006, Reinders 2012, Thomas 2011),
and Linguistics (see Ensslin 2012, 2014, Ensslin and Balteiro 2019, Iaia
2016a), among others.
As regards Translation Studies, the game localization practice went
mainly unobserved until the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the first
papers on this new phenomenon were published by professionals working
in the field. In the last decade, as Mangiron (2017) demonstrates, research
on game localization has gained impetus and the number of books, journal
articles, book chapters, undergraduate, masters, and doctoral dissertations
aiming to shed light on this relatively young area of study has increased
considerably.
The following paragraphs mention only some of the many authors
who have published their works on game localization and contributed
to consolidating it as an established research domain. However, it seems
important to underline that the following list may hardly be considered as
truly representative of the existing and/or potentially available literature
DOI: 10.4324/9781003001935-2
Game Localization and Translation 11
on game translation and localization, due to a number of reasons: first,
the difficulty in accessing unpublished works, like conference presenta-
tions, undergraduate, masters, and even doctoral theses (see, for example,
O’Hagan and Mangiron 2013, 26–39); secondly, the limitations in read-
ing works written in languages other than English, Spanish, and Italian,
i.e. this book author’s working languages; the awareness that research
might be, but possibly will never be, published due to the obstacles in
accessing materials and information on localization practice in general.
As pointed out by Bernal-Merino (2008b, 2015), Muñoz-Sánchez (2011),
Mangiron (2017), and O’Hagan and Mangiron (2013), most localization
vendors and most mainstream game developers and publishers are unwill-
ing or unable to provide scholars with access to authentic game texts
or localization-related data, which are necessary in Translation Studies.
This means that researchers must resort to other very time-consuming,
and somehow limited activities to study video games. In this sense, as
Mangiron advocates (2017, 86), “academia-industry partnerships would
be beneficial to overcome this hurdle” and, more importantly, would be
advantageous to both.
Going back into the existing literature on the topic, first, special atten-
tion must be paid to three comprehensive and ground-breaking books,
which have paved the way to systematic research within what might be
labeled as Game Localization Studies: Maxwell-Chandler and O’Malley-
Deming’s The Game Localization Handbook (2012), written by two
professionals who adopt an industry-oriented perspective; O’Hagan
and Mangiron’s Game Localization: Translating for the Global Digital
Entertainment Industry (2013) and Bernal-Merino’s Translation and
Localization in Video Games: Making Entertainment Software Global
(2015), which conceptualize the subject as a translational phenomenon.
Moreover, there are other recent monographs which contribute to enrich
the landscape, since they offer a more language-specific approach to the
subject, as happens with publications in Spanish like Localización de
videojuegos: Fundamentos traductológicos innovadores para nuevas
prácticas profesionales by Méndez-González (2015a), Localización de
videojuegos by Muñoz-Sánchez (2017), and La traducción de videojue-
gos by Granell, Mangiron, and Vidal (2017), or because they explore the
phenomenon from or in connection with another scientific perspective,
as in the case of Video Game Translation and Cognitive Semantics by
Sajna (2016).
However, before discussing the literature in detail, it is worth highlight-
ing that many sources can be found online, because game localization is a
young and dynamic field that is driven by technology, led by market forces,
and influenced by popular discourses on video games and the Internet con-
tinuously offers fresh evidence of the lively interest surrounding games as
translatable content for global entertainment. On the contrary, academia
has been slow in giving due attention to translational issues concerning
12 Game Localization and Translation
game localization. Indeed, according to O’Hagan and Mangiron (2013,
102):
Broadly speaking, this has probably been due to the lack of respectability
that video games have always suffered from, because of a number of fac-
tors such as the general perception of games as entertainment of little or
no importance, or the debate about their presumed detrimental impact. As
Newman (2013, 5) explains:
First, video games are (still) very often seen as being a children’s medium.
This means that they are easily and readily denigrated as trivial – some-
thing that will be “grown out of” – and demanding no investigation.
Second, video games have been considered as mere trifles – low art – car-
rying none of the weight, gravitas, or credibility of more traditional media.
Facing the challenges posed by the emergence of further new areas of local-
ization such as game localization, along with rapid developments in an
increasing range of new media facing the need for globalization, the disci-
pline of translation urgently needs to address the current gap between indus-
try and academia in the conceptualization of localization and translation.
(ibid., 102)
•• both European text, which is read from left to right, and Arabic text,
which is read from right to left;
•• various formats of dates, numbers, times, and currencies;
•• characters and diacritics across languages; this means that the game
code should support at least the Unicode system which can display
more than 65,000 unique characters (Asian ones included);
•• international keyboard layouts;
•• different ethnicities and nationalities to customize the player’s avatar;
•• video standards, i.e. both National Television Standards Committee
(NTSC) and Phase Alternating Line (PAL), if the game is for consoles,
in order to be properly displayed on monitors;
•• cultural content, i.e. culture-specific references like the name of a popu-
lar movie star or TV shows should be limited, unless they are essential
to the story or gameplay. “If the game remains as culturally neutral as
possible, it is less noticeable to an international gamer that the game was
developed primarily for a specific demographic” (Maxwell-Chandler
and O’Malley-Deming 2012, 7).
As regards the user interface (UI) in particular, for example, since the trans-
lated text is about 20 to 30% larger than the source text (Maxwell-Chandler
and O’Malley-Deming 2012, 5), it is important that it is designed to avoid
text display problems such as overlapping and truncated text, which can
be really misleading. This is possible by using icons with universal meaning
or by designing UIs to be scaled up or down according to the size and the
length of the text.
In summary, the objective of internationalization is to make users “feel
that the game was made specifically for them, and that they are getting the
same gaming experience as the source language users” (ibid., 4).
Moreover, it seems worth underlining that internationalization does not
affect only technical issues, but also involves sociocultural and sociopoliti-
cal considerations in preparing the source game. In particular, the “cultural
content” point listed above could be read as an example of the tendency
toward generalization and cultural flattening in internationalization, which
provoked some translation scholars’ criticism based on the ideas of “global
sameness” and “death of cultural difference” (Pym 2004, 37). This question
is particularly relevant here because of three reasons. First, contrary to what
one might think, video games “are cultural products often imbued with spe-
cific cultural traits, even at the level of the conceptualization of game design
itself” (O’Hagan and Mangiron 2013, 91). Second, “cultural peculiarities
may turn out to be the very attraction of the product even in international
markets” (ibid.), as usually happens for Japanese titles. Lastly, but more
Game Localization and Translation 23
importantly, culture-specificity expressed by realia and irrealia is the focus
of this book and so the cultural dimension of video games, of their locali-
zation, and the process of culturalization proper will be explored in-depth
further in this chapter and the following.
For translation analysis purposes, partial and full localization are evidently
the most interesting areas since the first level (no localization) does not
provide phenomena to be investigated and the second one (box and docs)
only involves the translation of paratext such as packaging and manuals.
In contrast, partial and full localization offer TS scholars plenty of room
for investigation concerning, for example, subtitling and dubbing. On the
24 Game Localization and Translation
basis of the levels above, it comes as no surprise to learn that dubbing is
part of full localization only, since this costly and time-consuming trans-
lation modality implies setting up recording sessions, hiring professional
voice actors, often celebrities, matching facial animations with lip-syncing,
processing the sound files, etc., in order to deliver a quality target ver-
sion. Indeed, full localization is mainly reserved for flagship titles, known
as “AAA games”, like the games included in the corpus that this book
examines.
In particular, it seems worth specifying that in game localization, the
re-voicing in the form of dubbing is commonly referred to as “voice-over”
(O’Hagan and Mangiron 2013, 163). Although this represents a clear point
of contact between audiovisual translation and game localization, it must
be said that the use of dubbing and subtitling modes in this field “is gen-
erally not well informed by the body of knowledge available” thanks to
Audiovisual Translation Studies scholars, “and AVT norms are clearly not
adhered to”, as O’Hagan and Mangiron complain (ibid., 163–164). An in-
depth contrastive analysis of dubbing, subtitling, and voice-over in video
games and in other audiovisual products is beyond the scope of this work
but represents a very significant area for future research (see, for example
Mejías-Climent 2018a, 2018b, 2018c).
To conclude the discussion about localization levels, it seems worth
briefly mentioning here some details about the three games in the corpus.
As regards the scope of their international distribution, which refers to the
number of target languages each game was translated into, where European
FIGS are default (meaning French, Italian, German and Spanish), they are
nine for Medal of Honor Warfighter (FIGS plus Japanese, Korean, Polish,
Russian, and Turkish), 11 for Battlefield 4 (FIGS plus Chinese, Czech,
Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, and Russian), and seven for Mass
Effect 3 (FIGS plus Japanese, Polish, and Russian), but localization levels
vary. As far as Italian and Spanish are concerned, they all present full locali-
zations except for Mass Effect 3, which has been partially localized into
Spanish. Since Battlefield 4 is the most recent game for release, the higher
number of target languages seems to confirm US publisher Electronic Arts’
and, by extension, the game industry’s tendency to expand the borders of
their localization practice.
The whole process of localization generally includes three phases: plan-
ning, production, and post-production (Maxwell-Chandler and O’Malley-
Deming 2012, 10–12). During the planning phase, based on historical sales
data, the company determines which level of localization is appropriate
for each target locale and performs internationalization, thus making next
phases smoother. Localization usually starts in the production phase and it
means translating, integrating, and testing all contents, generally referred to
as “assets” in the industry. Once the game code has been localized, in the
post-production phase the process affects other localization items such as
manuals, packaging, and demos with the final aim of creating a localization
Game Localization and Translation 25
kit which contains relevant information about the project, as well as the files
and contents to be translated.
In more detail, the stages of the localization process are linked to four
major steps: the game assets’ organization, translation, integration, and test-
ing (ibid., 68–69) and each of them involves specific roles (ibid., 87–89).
First, all the assets are organized so that the text and context are clear
for all translations. This means creating a glossary, adding time codes to
the voice-over script, and creating a master sheet with all the in-game text,
in order to ensure linguistic consistency in the game. A proper organization
of game assets is essential for the whole process: they can be placed in a
centralized language-specific directory in the game code and each can then
contain subdirectory folders for asset types, i.e. audio, art, cinematics, and
text. Three members of the localization staff are usually in charge of organi-
zation tasks: (1) the associate or assistant producer, often called localization
manager, who is involved in all aspects of localization and represents the
main point of contact between the development team and the localization
staff since s/he provides all task, budget, and staff estimates, s/he organ-
izes all the materials to be sent to translators, s/he manages all functional-
ity testers and engineers, etc. The localization manager works with the (2)
localization coordinator, who in turn serves as liaison between translators
and linguistic testers, s/he helps to develop the localized versions, organizes
translations, and manages the linguistic testers. Finally, there is an optional
resource called (3) production coordinator who may be needed to assist the
localization manager.
The second step in localization is translation: all assets need to be trans-
lated, and also proofread and edited. The length of the translation process is
usually estimated on word count, which can range from 30,000 to 500,000,
and even more than one million in the case of some massive multiplayer
online role-playing games (Bernal-Merino 2015, 171). This step requires
at least one translator per language, be they in-house or freelance, for the
whole duration of the project, although big games actually call for the work
of a translation team per language. Additionally, other staff members may
include a casting director, voice actors, and a sound engineer to record
and process the localized voice-over files, if full localization is performed.
Sometimes, translators are also in charge of integrating the assets and assist-
ing linguistic testers.
Once translated, all assets need to be integrated into the game builds
and the third step begins. This means replacing the source assets with the
target ones. The task can be manual or automated, the former is more time-
consuming, error-conducive, and bug-provoking, and performed by either
the development team, namely an engineer, or by the external localization
vendor. As far as text assets are concerned, original strings are usually sent
to translators in Excel spreadsheets with separate columns per language and
tags assigned to each row of text. This way, a simple parser created by the
developer can integrate translated strings into the game engine files, thus
26 Game Localization and Translation
avoiding dangerous cutting and pasting (Maxwell-Chandler and O’Malley-
Deming 2012, 200). The game engine then determines the correct text to be
displayed based on what the game tag indicates. Accordingly, as regards the
overall method, a two-way process exports the source text into a multilin-
gual spreadsheet and then imports the strings in the target language back
into the game. Automated integration is preferable to manual work because
“the longer it takes to integrate assets and create localized builds, the longer
testing is delayed” and this “will negatively impact the overall localization
schedule” (ibid., 202).
Finally, localizations need to be tested and enter Quality Assurance (QA),
since the QA department is involved. This fourth step can be one of the
most time-consuming because it must be performed on two concurrent
levels: functionality and linguistic testing, each consisting of several test-
ing rounds. Moreover, testing time increases with the number of languages
involved, game size, gameplay mechanics, etc. Functionality testers notify
all design, art, or engineering bugs in the game code, while linguistic test-
ers check all the language assets in the game to make sure that there are no
incorrect translations, grammatical errors, typos, and incorrectly displayed
text, namely overlapping, misspelling, truncations, etc. “Every piece of text
in the game has to be checked, along with all the voice-over and cinematics”
(ibid., 237). Obviously enough, as regards staff, in addition to functionality
and linguistic testers, this phase requires engineers and production people
to fix both types of bugs (ibid., 87). As for linguistic testers in particular, as
also Maxwell-Chandler and O’Malley-Deming (ibid., 237) point out, they
should be native speakers of the target language who can best understand
the co-text and context of the translations and comment on whether the
target text fits with the look and feel of the game. They are often part of the
same group of translators, so that they are already familiar with the “lan-
guage” and tone of the game they are testing.
2.4.3 Localization Models
The game industry mainly shows two different procedures as regards locali-
zation agents, i.e. who performs the localization process, and when, depend-
ing on games’ international launch. First, as regards time models, the release
of the localized versions can follow either a simultaneous shipping model
or a post-gold one. Second, as to actors involved, publishers may carry out
in-house localization or they may outsource it to a professional language
service provider. Nevertheless, sometimes in-house localization and out-
sourcing co-exist in major publishing houses, which opt for either one or
the other depending on single games or franchises.
If the original game and localizations are distributed on the same date
in different territories, the process follows the so-called “sim-ship” model,
which means that localization runs in parallel to game development, thus
posing a number of issues for translators who work on an incomplete and
Game Localization and Translation 27
unstable text. Obviously enough, simultaneous shipment is the goal of most
developers and publishers and is indeed becoming more and more com-
mon. This is mainly due to marketing reasons: the short shelf-life of video
games, the possibility of avoiding gray market imports and pirate copies
from other countries, the benefit of building a sense of community among
gamers, allowing them to discuss the game on specialized forums or play
online internationally, if online playing is included, and the advantage of
exploiting a single but usually massive global marketing campaign to gener-
ate more publicity and engagement, especially for big-budget games.
In contrast, a post-gold model means that localized versions are shipped
after the original game, the time lag ranging from a few months to a year.
As regards the process, localization is performed on a finished game and this
means better working conditions for translators.
Generally, as Maxwell-Chandler and O’Malley-Deming (2012, 47)
explain, “the publisher ships the European versions with the English version
and staggers the ship dates of the Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Hebrew
versions”. This way, since English and FIGS languages cover most of the
USA, Europe, and South America, publishers make sure that these versions
are simultaneously available on the game’s international launch date. As
regards the other regions, such as Russia, Korea, and Japan, localized ver-
sions tend to appear a few months later because third-party licensors, who
are in charge of translation, integration, and testing, work on the final prod-
uct. According to O’Hagan and Mangiron (2013, 60), the ideal simultane-
ous shipment is already a standard for most Western companies. On the
contrary, although the approach is changing, Japanese publishers usually
release the original game first on the domestic market, a North American
localization some time later, and finally European versions thus using US
English as a pivot language.3
With the in-house model, localization is performed “under the super-
vision of the developer or the publisher in their premises” (O’Hagan and
Mangiron 2013, 116). It means that the developer, who has got a localiza-
tion department and a steady group of in-house or freelance translators, is
also responsible for localization into different languages and coordinates the
project from beginning to end. Translators work under the direction of the
localization coordinator, who serves as a trait d’union between them and
the developers. More importantly, since localization usually starts when the
original game is finished, translators have full access to the product: they
can play it, familiarize themselves with the storyline, characters, and game-
play. It is a longer process on the whole, as opposed to outsourced localiza-
tion, but it results in better quality because translators can rely on a solid
knowledge of the game. Thus, the QA process turns out to be smoother for
specialized game testing vendors.
On the contrary, when localization is outsourced, an external specialized
localization vendor is commissioned to perform the process. Outsourcing,
although costlier, is currently the most widely used model in the industry.
28 Game Localization and Translation
The vendor selects the translators and arranges all necessary phases accord-
ing to the game’s localization level, such as voice-over for example, if full
localization is selected, and sometimes they are also in charge of QA.
From the point of view of translators, since the outsourcing model is
often linked to simultaneous shipment, the job is much more complicated.
They work on incomplete and unstable texts, subject to last-minute changes,
because the product is still under development. They are not allowed to
play or even see the game and they generally translate a spreadsheet with a
series of unconnected text strings belonging to different parts of the game
with little or no co-textual and contextual information. Unfortunately, this
may influence the quality of translation especially if we consider that video
games are multimedia texts based on the simultaneous use of different semi-
otic channels, where the synchronization between text (written, subtitled,
voiced-over), images, and sound is paramount. For this reason, game trans-
lation is often described as “blind” (Dietz 2006, 2007): it requires language
professionals to rely on their intuitions and game literacy to provide “the
most flexible” solutions possible, so that they can be suitable for different
contexts (O’Hagan and Mangiron 2013, 119).
In terms of localization models, the international distribution of the three
games included in the corpus followed the sim-ship model: Medal of Honor
Warfighter (2012) was released on October 23 in North America and on
October 25 in Europe; Battlefield 4 (2013) was released on October 29 in
North America and on October 31 in Europe; Mass Effect 3 (2012) was
released on March 6 in North America and on March 9 in Europe.
Moreover, as regards localization agents, Medal of Honor Warfighter
was translated by a small localization vendor into Italian and by a freelancer
into Spanish, while audio localization was performed by another company
in both languages. Battlefield 4 was translated and voiced-over by a mul-
tinational localization vendor in Italian, while in Spanish it was translated
by a freelancer and audio-localized by another company. Mass Effect 3 was
translated in both Italian and Spanish by a multinational localization agency
which also performed the audio localization in Italian.
2.4.4 Localization Assets
The scope of localization, which generally depends on the game type and
size, is another important factor in publishers’ decision-making process.
This means to determine the quantity of the game assets to be localized
in the project: the number of words to be translated, the number of voice-
over lines to be recorded, the number of art and graphic assets to be modi-
fied, etc. According to Maxwell-Chandler and O’Malley-Deming (2012,
53), game assets can be classified into five groups, namely (1) text assets
in-game, which represent the bulk of translatable elements and include all
texts displayed in-game like narration, tutorials, installer strings, help files,
and error messages; (2) art assets, also including game logo and in-game
Game Localization and Translation 29
language embedded textures; (3) audio assets in-game, which basically
refer to voice‑over files; (4) cinematic assets, representing all movie-like
sequences, both pre-rendered and created in-game, and (5) printed mate-
rials, such as the packaging and the manual. This subject will be further
discussed in Section 2.6 with special attention to the consequent multitextu-
ality translators deal with in game localization.
Nick Carter glanced again at the newspaper story. No man could have
read more keenly between the lines. No logician could have deduced more
significant points from its apparently trustworthy statements.
“You may not see anything in it, Chick, but I do,” he replied, after a
moment. “Some one, either Dillon or Carney, though very probably both of
them, has been lying. These statements won’t stand washing.”
“That’s the stuff, chief,” said Patsy. “Put them through the wringer and
squeeze out the dyestuff. What do you make of it?”
“Here is one point,” Nick replied. “Carney claims to have been walking
only a short distance behind Dillon when the assault was committed. It’s a
hundred to one in that case that the thugs would have seen him, or heard
him. They were exercising caution and must have been on the lookout to
avoid arrest, as well as to attack Dillon at a time and place precluding
interference. They surely would have seen or heard Carney, therefore, if he
was only thirty yards behind Dillon, and they would have known that he
most likely would rush to his assistance.”
“Sure thing, chief,” declared Patsy. “There’s no getting around it.”
“Naturally, then, they would have postponed the assault, if revenge was
their only incentive. That would have kept until another day.”
“That’s right, too, chief.”
“It’s long odds, then, that Carney is lying,” Nick continued. “In view of
his running away, moreover, instead of waiting to see how badly Dillon was
hurt, as most men would have done under such circumstances as Carney
describes, he very probably was hiding with the thugs and was in league
with them. That’s more in line with his character, as here stated.”
“There is something in that, Nick, after all,” Chick said, more seriously.
“I begin to think you are right.”
“Assuming that I am, Carney evidently has determined not to betray his
confederates,” Nick went on. “He sees a loophole for escape in this story he
has told, and he is going to stick to it. He knows the lawyer who pursued him
cannot disprove it, having seen only the three men running away after the
assault.”
“That appears to be obvious, Nick, at least.”
“But Carney may have still another motive,” Nick added. “He is known
to be a thief. The assault may have been made with intent to rob. In spite of
Dillon’s assertion to the contrary, moreover, the thugs may have robbed him
of something.”
“But he would know it in that case, Nick,” said Chick. “What possible
object could Dillon have in concealing the fact?”
Nick smiled a bit oddly.
“Suppose he was robbed of something which he does not dare admit
having had on his person?” he said inquiringly.
“Gee whiz!” cried Patsy quickly. “You are thinking of the portfolio,
chief.”
“That calls the turn, Patsy,” Nick replied. “Let’s see what further warrants
that idea. It is a significant fact that this assault was committed last Friday
evening, that on which Garland was robbed of his portfolio.”
“That’s right, too, by gracious!” said Patsy, with increasing enthusiasm.
“Gee! I’ll bet we have struck the trail.”
“But how could the portfolio have come into Dillon’s hand?” Chick
demanded skeptically.
“As well ask, Chick, how could it have been disposed of in the touring
car, if that is where the theft was committed, as appears most probable,”
Nick replied. “We know that Verona Warren occupied the seat with Garland,
on which he had placed his portfolio. She is the one person who, in spite of
Garland’s relations with her and evident faith in her, chiefly warrants
suspicion. I got at that readily enough through the elimination process.”
“That is true, Nick, I’ll admit.”
“Let’s look a little deeper, then,” Nick continued. “We know nothing
definite about Verona Warren, and there may be something under the
surface. She may not be all that is supposed, judging from her relations with
Garland and with Senator Barclay’s daughter, who should be above
suspicion, of course, and naturally not distrustful of her intimate friend, this
Warren girl.”
“I get you,” Chick nodded.
“It would have been possible, no doubt, for Verona Warren to have had
the dummy portfolio concealed under her cloak, or some outside garment,
when she went with Miss Barclay to the railway station,” Nick went on. “It
would have been much more difficult, as well as risky, however, if she
succeeded in substituting the dummy and getting the other, for her to have
retained both portfolios in the car. They are about fourteen inches square and
an inch thick.”
“I admit that, Nick, also.”
“Naturally, then, she would have got rid of the one she had stolen. That
could have been done, perhaps, by stealthily handing it to some one who
passed near the touring car before it started, unobserved, in the stir and
confusion outside of the station. Or it might have been done by dropping it
from the moving car at some point agreed upon, where a confederate was to
be waiting to pick it up.”
“You certainly are figuring out a very clever job, all right,” remarked
Chick, laughing.
“Gee whiz! it listens good to me,” said Patsy, with an expressive shake of
his head. “I’ll bet money to marbles that it hits somewhere near the truth.”
“Let’s see what more we find in support of it,” continued Nick, glancing
again at the newspaper. “A disguise said to have been worn by one of the
thugs was found near Dillon’s body after the assault.”
“What do you deduce from that?”
“Why was it torn from the face of the thug?” Nick questioned
argumentatively. “How could that have occurred? There surely was no great
struggle, if Dillon was struck down so quickly that he could not identify, nor
even determine the number of his assailants. There was no reasonable
occasion for one of the thugs to have lost his disguise, nor to have left it
there, even if it was torn from his face. He could easily have picked it up
before he fled.”
“Sure thing, chief,” Patsy again agreed. “I see what you are coming to, all
right.”
“We can come to only one conclusion, Patsy.”
“That Dillon himself was the man who wore the disguise?”
“Exactly,” said Nick. “It is easy to see how it may have been torn from
his face, or displaced when he fell to the sidewalk. That further appears in
that it was found near his body.”
“But why was Dillon in disguise?” Chick persistently questioned.
“If he was the man who was to relieve Verona Warren of the stolen
portfolio, he very likely would have been in disguise,” Nick pointedly
answered.
“By Jove, there’s some truth in that!” Chick quickly allowed. “If you
have sized him up correctly, he might, indeed, be a traitor to his country and
in league with others to steal these government plans.”
“That’s the very point, Chick. He may be in league with the foreign spies
mentioned by Chief Welden and suspected to have come here with that very
object in view.”
“But who were his assailants? How could they have known he had the
plans?”
“They may have seen him with the portfolio,” suggested Patsy.
“But how could they have known what it contained?”
“Gee, that’s so. They might have known, Chick, all the same.”
“Furthermore,” Chick added, “Makepeace, the lawyer who pursued them,
ought to have seen them get away with the portfolio, if that was really the
case.”
“Not necessarily,” Nick objected. “They were well away before
Makepeace saw them and started after them. He probably saw only the backs
and rapidly moving legs of the two who escaped. He might not have been
able to see in the darkness of the evening what either of them was carrying.”
“By Jove, this makes a curious case of it,” said Chick. “If you are right,
then, the plans have been stolen from the original thieves, Verona Warren
and Captain Dillon, and now are in the hands of other crooks.”
“That would be about the size of it if, as you say, I am right,” Nick
replied. “But that word ‘if’ is just as big as it ever was, or ever will be. I may
be all wrong. There may be no connection whatever between the assault
upon Captain Dillon and the theft of the governmental plans. The
circumstances seem to warrant my theory, however, and it’s up to us to find
out whether it is correct.”
“Gee! I should say so!” cried Patsy. “It looks to me like the real thing.”
“It would prove of vast advantage to us, of course, if the plans are in the
hands of ruffians who cannot readily understand them, or appreciate their
vast importance,” Nick added. “It might enable us to recover them before
they can be traced and secured again by the original thieves, who are
undoubtedly able to turn them to the worst possible use.”
“We may be too late.”
“You mean?”
“They may already have begun negotiations to recover them, and
possibly have succeeded,” said Chick.
Nick gazed thoughtfully at the floor for a moment.
“I don’t think so,” he then said decidedly. “That is to say, Chick, I don’t
think they have succeeded. The thugs who have the plans, and who evidently
were out to get them at some little risk, must have some idea of their
character and value.”
“That’s true, of course.”
“Naturally, then, while they might enter into negotiations, perhaps, they
would not be likely to let go of the plans until they have craftily learned
from whom they can get the biggest price for them. In other words, they
would hold off to find the highest bidder.”
“That seems reasonable, too, assuming them to be the type of thugs this
newspaper article indicates.”
“How would it do, chief, to try to open negotiations with them through
the press, pretending to be persons interested in getting the plans?” asked
Patsy, eager to be at work on the case.
“That already may have been done, or Carney may have been approached
during his imprisonment, with a view to getting in touch with his
confederates,” Nick replied. “I must find out about that.”
“At once?”
“I have time for a call at the city prison before dinner,” Nick nodded. “In
the meantime, have a look through the newspapers for any personal, or other
advertisement that might possibly refer to this matter. I will return before six
o’clock.”
CHAPTER V.
It was only five o’clock when Nick left the hotel, no longer in disguise,
and he hastened through E Street to his destination. He found a police
sergeant in the outer office, a stranger to him, as was he to the sergeant, but
who politely informed him that Captain Hardy, with whom the detective was
well acquainted, was in his private office.
Nick walked in without the ceremony of knocking.
A portly, full-featured man with close-cut gray hair turned from his desk
to see who had entered.
“Hello, Hardy,” said Nick, approaching him. “I cannot see that you have
lost an ounce since we last met.”
“Well, by thunder!” Captain Hardy sprang up and extended his hand.
“Buy herrings, Hardy, instead,” laughed Nick, while they shook hands.
“You’ll get more for your money.”
“Well, well, I’m delighted to see you,” replied Hardy, placing a chair near
his own. “You look like a four-time winner, Nick. Sit down. What brought
you to Washington?”
“The morning limited,” smiled Nick. “I have been here only a few
hours.”
“I am pleased with so early a call,” said Hardy, producing a box of cigars
from his desk drawer. “But I know you too well, Carter, to flatter myself that
it’s a purely social one. What can I do for you?”
“You become keen with age, Hardy, like a good blade,” said Nick, more
seriously. “This is between us, mind you.”
“That goes without saying.”
“There was an assault committed here last Friday evening on Captain
Casper Dillon, a retired army officer. What do you know about it?”
“Have you seen to-day’s papers?”
“That is where I got my information. I wish to know what you can add to
it.”
“Nothing,” said Captain Hardy. “They tell the whole story, so far as I
know, or any one else appears to know.”
“The man arrested, Tom Carney, is still in custody?”
“Yes. His case was continued until to-morrow. It will probably come up
in the afternoon session.”
“Has he received any mail?”
“No, not a piece.”
“Any visitor?”
“Only his lawyer.”
“I infer from the newspaper story that Carney is a bad egg,” said Nick.
“Am I right?”
“He’s a bad egg in a small way,” Hardy nodded. “He is somewhat of a
ruffian and has twice been convicted of stealing. But he is not what I
consider a dangerous crook. He has no great ability.”
“He may have been associated with some one who has,” said Nick
suggestively.
“I cannot say about that,” was the reply. “I lately have heard very little
about Carney until this affair came off.”
“Have you the disguise found on the scene of the assault?”
“Yes.”
“May I see it?”
“Certainly.”
Captain Hardy arose to bring it from the outer office.
Nick also arose and accompanied him as far as the door. When it swung
open and Hardy went out, a man was passing through the outside office on
his way to the street.
He was well built, well dressed, a man apparently about forty years of
age. He was smooth shaved, with strong features, evincing mental power,
nerve force, and bulldog tenacity. He was a man at whom one would turn for
a second glance, as if impelled by some subtle magnetic emanation from the
other.
Nick Carter saw him, and he saw Nick.
Their gaze met suddenly and lingered for a moment, but the face of
neither changed by so much as a shadow. Nick knew this man, but he
instantly suppressed any sign of recognition.
If the other knew Nick, or apprehended recognition, he had equal
command of his feelings. Even the light in his keen, cold eyes underwent no
change. His firm stride did not falter for an instant. He walked out to the
street, stepped into an automobile, and, without a backward glance, he was
rapidly driven away.
Nick resumed his seat and examined the disguise presently brought in by
Captain Hardy. It was a combination beard and mustache of dark color. The
lining was considerably soiled, so that a trade-mark on it was hardly
discernible.
“I cannot make it out,” Hardy remarked, when Nick took a convex lens
from his pocket through which to examine it. “It looks like a foreign word.”
“It is a foreign word,” said Nick. “This disguise was made in Vienna.”
“What does that signify? Anything of importance?”
“I know of nothing,” said Nick evasively, placing the disguise on the
desk. “I merely wanted to see it. By the way, Hardy, did you see the man
who just went through the outer office?”
“Yes, certainly.”
“Who is he?”
“Some one the sergeant admitted. He has charge out there. The man was a
stranger to me.”
“But not to me,” said Nick significantly.
“What do you mean? Who is he?”
“Did you ever hear of Andrew Margate, better known across the water as
Andy Margate?”
“I don’t think so, Nick,” said Hardy. “What about him?”
“He is as keen, clever, and dangerous a crook as could be found on two
continents,” Nick said impressively.
“The devil you say!”
“Devil is right!” Nick replied dryly. “Margate is a veritable genius for
crime. He is a marvel of versatility and perverted ability. He is the one crook
most feared in Europe to-day, where I supposed he was, instead of in this
country. He seldom ventures over here.”
“You appear to know him very well, nevertheless,” smiled Captain Hardy.
“I have his photograph, several of them, and his criminal record,” Nick
replied. “I knew him instantly, Hardy, though we never had met before. I
hardly think he knew me, though I am not sure of it, for he is a type of man
who would not betray it. He is said to have nerves of steel and the courage of
a tiger. Have you seen him here before?”
“No, never,” said Hardy. “Is he wanted by the European police?”
“Quite likely, I think, but I have received no notice to that effect.”
“Why didn’t you arrest him on suspicion?”
“I have nothing on him, Hardy, nor any wish to get myself in wrong,”
Nick evasively replied, not inclined to state his true reason for not having
interfered with Margate. “Ask your sergeant what he wanted. One moment.
Make no explanations. This must go no farther.”
“I understand, Nick,” nodded Captain Hardy. “Trust me to be dumb. I’ll
call Foley in here.”
He turned to his desk and touched an electric bell. The summons was
answered almost immediately, and the sergeant seen by Nick in the outer
office entered the room.
“You rang, chief?” said he respectfully.
“Yes, sergeant,” Captain Hardy replied, turning toward him. “Who is the
man who left here a few minutes ago?”
“Well, I don’t know his name, chief,” said Foley. “He brought a note from
Mr. Brigham, the lawyer who is looking after Carney’s case.”
“What did the man want?”
“He only wanted to deliver a message to the prisoner from the lawyer,”
Foley explained. “The lawyer could not come himself, so he sent the man
with a note.”
“You allowed him to see Carney?”
“I did, sir.”
“Did you think you were taking no chances, Foley, in doing so?” Captain
Hardy inquired.
“Well, sir, I thought I made sure it was all right,” said Foley, coloring.
“How so?”
“I telephoned to Brigham’s office, sir, and asked him whether he had sent
the man.”
“What did Brigham say?”
“He said that he had, sir, and that it was all right,” said Foley. “So I let
him go in and take the message. I would have admitted the lawyer, sir, so I
supposed it was all right to admit the man he had sent.”
“Very good,” nodded Captain Hardy. “That’s all, Foley.”
The sergeant touched his cap and withdrew.
“Well, Nick, what do you say to it?”
“Who is Lawyer Brigham?” Nick inquired. “What standing has he as a
lawyer?”
“Well, not the best,” smiled Hardy. “He is somewhat of a shyster, Nick, if
the truth were told.”
“It may be all right, then, or it may be all wrong,” said Nick.
“What do you mean?”
“Andy Margate is, as I have said, a very keen and crafty fellow,” Nick
explained. “It is probable that he is a friend of Carney and that he engaged
the lawyer in his behalf. He may have paid Brigham for the letter to insure
him a brief interview with Carney, or he may have fooled him into giving it
with no felonious intent. It really is not material. One fact is obvious,
however.”
“Namely?”
“That Margate had some communication of his own for Carney.”
“What do you advise doing, in that case?”
“Nothing, Hardy, on your part,” said Nick. “I think I see my way clear to
doing all that should be done, in so far as this incident is concerned. Who is
the judge before whom Carney will appear to-morrow?”
“Judge Greeley.”
“Where does he reside?”
“I will find you his address,” said Captain Hardy. “I haven’t got it in my
head.”
Nick accompanied him to the outer office, where they consulted a city
directory.
Twenty minutes later Nick alighted from a taxicab in front of the jurist’s
residence. He found Judge Greeley at home, to whom he introduced himself,
confiding the occasion for his visit and his reasons for the request he was
about to make in regard to the case of Carney.
It seems needless to say that the request was readily granted, the nature of
which will presently appear.
CHAPTER VI.