Translating games into a new language is an extremely challenging and demanding task. This orbits around translating every relevant content of games into different languages. The content includes game dialogues, dialogue box content, menus, subtitles, and a lot more text-based elements. The translation of audio files including audio, voice acting, and sound effects is also an integral part of it. The translation of games has become vital due to the fact that the gaming industry is one of the world’s most promising industries reaching a new milestone with every passing day. The revenue generation has never been this quick and rapid in other fields.
Gaming translation services help to pave a smooth way for game developers and owners to crack the global market and reach a wider audience. Translation of the games into multiple languages has become a practice that everyone acknowledges is mandatory. It is also crucial to make the games accessible to players all across the globe. As the game offers a different perspective to the game players, taking care of cultural implications is extremely crucial. Violating the cultural aspects or overlooking the need to make gaming content culturally coherent can invite unforeseen circumstances. This can lead to controversies and conflicts, and such factors can make the relevant authorities block your game for the infuriating content that it contains.
Translation is a demanding profession overall. It is way more than the conversion of text from one language to another. It asks for insight and a knack for gaming text, technical aspects of a game, and cultural appropriateness. Translators need only to be good at games and gaming language but also need to be aware of the culture of the target audience to ensure they offer content that culturally fits with the target market.
Here are a few factors considering which vigilantly can help to take care of cultural elements in a better way overall.
Hiring translators with a deep cultural understanding
This goes without saying that the team of translators who are going to work in gaming translation should be good with language skills as well as should also have a detailed knowledge of the target culture’s customers, traditions, and values. This knowledge helps them to curate content that strikes the right balance with target audiences culturally. When people are able to connect on cultural grounds they are more inclined to explore your games, increasing downloads.
Considering humor element
Humor is an important and inseparable part of culture. Every culture has a different humor quotient that they practice and ensure that no one crosses the line by making fun of something that is offensive in their region. It is a culture-specific facet. Moreover, this varies with regions. What they find funny in the USA can be offensive in for instance Asian countries due to totally opposite cultural practices in both regions. Hence, translators need to verify the cultural and humorous factors while offering their services to translation companies. They should ensure they opt for a way to translate jokes and puns that are not offensive or carry an ill intention in the target culture.
Relatable references
Another cultural factor is references. Video games have references that contain popular culture references from movies, TV shows, and music genres among others. These references can be difficult to translate while reserving the cultural content. Many times players are not familiar with the target culture. Translators need to localize the references considering the cultural implications from the target region and also need to make sure that the gaming content does not include any such reference that turns out to be controversial in the target market.
Significance of symbols
Symbols and significances with certain colors can also vary with the regions and can be culturally specific. Translators need to be culturally aware of the symbols that are common in the intended region. They should have a sound knowledge about good and bad omens as well. Red color, for instance, is considered a color that brings good luck in China. Whereas in many other countries, people associate red color with danger. All the details about the good and bad vibes in regions should be shared with the translators. They should also be able to understand the elements with certain character designs, UI elements, and the details about the level designs.
Providing as much context as possible
The game developers and owners in order to contribute to a culturally coherent translation should ensure that they lock in a professional translation agency for this technical task. They should further ensure that they provide their translators with the relevant context as much as possible. Getting contextually rich context helps translators to understand the content better. Also, they can contribute to quality translation that is more accurate and consistent. The context of the game’s setting, story, characters, and gameplay content helps in bringing accuracy. A better insight into the context of the games and text makes translators better equipped to translate the game. They do it in a way that is not only accurate, and authentic but also represents a sound feeling of the culture of the target region.
Conclusion
Gaming translation is a challenging and technical field of translation. It asks for relevant skills and strong gaming knowledge. Also, culture plays a pivotal role in connecting with the target audiences rightly. It is important to consider certain practices to ensure the gaming translation has been translated correctly in accordance with the relevant culture.
