User:Kawther Al Hatmi

Games Localization

Video games industry has become a global phenomenon. It provides entertainment for a huge segment of people all around the world. Therefore the developers of these games seek to satisfy all customers by providing them with the best experience. It is true that the huge development in Technology make the communication process easier and faster but one thing still consider a barrier which is language especially because most of these games are produced in English or Japanese. Here appears the need for Translation. Translation in turn, has witnessed a huge development and has become Technology-driven sector. The presence of Audiovisual Translation with its different modalities helps to meet the technological needs such as game localization. Games developers often opt to localize their games in order to meet the market needs. The practice of Game Localization, however; starts very lately and it is under development.

Games Subtitling

The very first attempt of Games Localization starts by Subtitling. The dialogue between characters and the captions on the screen were subtitled either within the same language (Intralingual Subtitling) or to another language (Interlingual Subtitling). This practice was not following the formal subtitling norms as the number of lines was more than three lines and the reading time was not up to standards. Over years, this type of subtitling and the violations of subtitling norms in this sector become so popular and used in almost all the subtitled games.

Games Dubbing

Video games tend to be more interactive these days. They are designed in a way that enables the players to interact with the characters in the game. This is way the dialogue becomes spoken instead of written, which raises the need for dubbing instead of subtitling. Just like subtitling, dubbing for video games is different and even more challenged than dubbing for films and other audiovisual contents. The characters in games often speak very fast and sometimes their voice is not clear. This makes the dubber task even more difficult.

Translation considerations

The faithfulness for the original dialogue or text in video games is not number one priority while doing subtitling or dubbing. A lot of words will be sacrificed because what matters the most is providing the player with a version that includes the same level of entertainment with the help of subtitling and dubbing. In Games Localization, the tendency is to use the same taboo words and dirty language that are used in the original game without filtering them, because developers want their players to have the full experience of playing the game as in its original version.

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