Though Covid-19 denigrated the socio-economic fabric of the entire world, it catapulted an unprecedented boom in the video gaming industry. It was not a mere increase in the number of gaming players, but rather the advent of multiple localization services, especially Chinese Game localization services.
The Advent of Gaming Localization Firms During COVID-19 Pandemic
With the advent of Chinese App localization services, the need for localizing gaming applications rose exponentially. This led to an increase in profits and sales, something which is an antithesis to the COVID-19 era.
The fact that people were trapp in their homes due to lock downs, led to a natural incline towards activities that could cure their depressions and help them pass their time. If you look at some of the statistics shared by some reports, the time spent by people on video games increased by 35%. People who never had any sort of inclination towards video games started to show an interest in them. This interest was not only shared by the first world countries but rather is a universal one.
With different communities belonging to different cultures, ethnicity and speaking different languages, the need for localization agencies also became prominent.
Many people assume that video localization is similar to other translations. This narrative could not be more wrong. The process of video game localization requires a different set of skills that can only be found in translators who themselves are professional gamer. Plus, they should have a solid background in translating software applications. Because the text embedd within a video game can only be understood properly by the game publisher who has developed that video game.
Contours of Video Game Translation
It’s very hard to find those experienced video game translators, hence, professional language agencies, such as Chinese game localization services, spent a lot of time and resources to obtain those professional translators with the required skill set.
Talking about the skillet, game translators should have prior knowledge of the mechanics of the video game. Along with that, there is a linguistic element as well. The translator should know the target culture and what are the linguistic elements over there. Moreover, it is the responsibility of the translator to remove any offensive content from the video game, during the localization process.
Following are some of the elements that are incorporated in the process of game localization;
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Literary:
One of the requirements of game localization is to be accurate in your translations as far as the gameplay is concerned. It’s imperative for the translators to know what the story line is before he starts to translate. The background of the characters in the video game and what their contribution is to the situation at hand should be obvious to the translator.
Some of the most renowned world games in the world owe their origin to books or history. Hence, it is almost mandatory on the part of translators to possess a piece of deep knowledge about the origins of video games. This will give them a better understanding of the story line and where the characters are coming from. And will eventually produce better-translated content as well.
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Technical:
There is a fundamental difference between technical translation and non-technical translation. And the difference is pertaining to the translator rather than the content. The person needs to be well equipped with technical lingo and specialize terminologies. Hence, there is a reason why a lot of Chinese translation services hire translators that have a deep understanding of the mechanics of the game.
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Marketing:
Apart from software localization, there is another discipline of marketing, which also needs to be localized for the target market. Usually, a lot of Chinese game localization services take the initiative of using the same technical translation team. that they used for software localization, for marketing translation as well.
This strategy may work sometimes. But largely it encapsulates the same enthusiasm that a gamer feels and looks for in-game. If professional gamers are the ones responsible for translating the marketing and advertisement content as well, chances are that. they will be able to write a persuasive message and capture the attention of another gamer in after ways because they will know what the other gamer looks for.
Conclusion
The purpose of every localization agency is to deliver a good user experience. No matter how good a translation is technically, but if it fails to deliver fun and a good experience vis-a-vis the video game, then the purpose is defeated.
In the pandemic, we learned one thing, that humans never cease to entertain themselves. Regardless of what the medium of entertainment is, the end result is almost the same. With globalization, almost every community is connect with the global world in one way or form. In this article, we discussed that how video games have become a source of connection for the world community. And Chinese app localization services have utilized this opportunity to enable the localization of software and gaming applications.
