Localization of Digital Games: The Process of Blending for ... - CiteSeerX

Localization of Digital Games: The Process of Blending for the Global Games Market

ALEXANDER THAYER AND BETH E. KOLKO

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he process of localizing digital games can be significantly different from the process of localizing productivity software; although many of the issues can be discussed in similar terms, the game industry carries with it a series of

unique challenges. The term digital game itself requires some clarification. Kerr (2002) defines digital games as “games on a number of different digital platforms … [that] include a wide number of digital game genres” (p. 10). As Kerr notes, “Digital games combine and extend many different media (video, audio, text, graphics) and both borrow and parody existing forms of entertainment just as early radio, television and film did before it” (p. 10). As the Internet has changed the ways in which companies interact with clients, and the ways in which countries interact with each other, localization has become an area of specialization for members of the technical and professional communication and software development industries. Large software companies increasingly regard localization as an essential activity; localization managers who guide the process of making a software application usable for different cultures are a growing component of the workforce.


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Currently, the localization process remains best understood within the world of business software applications, where it supplements translation as it adapts user interfaces, menu items, and iconographies for cross-cultural markets. However, the range of products that serve an international audience is demanding a wider view of localization processes, including considering how entertainment products such as digital games can be situated in the larger localization discussion.

LOCALIZATION, INTERNATIONLIZATION, AND GLOBALIZATION Hoft (1995) defines localization as “the process of creating or adapting an information product for use in a specific target country or specific target market” (p. 11). Internationalization and globalization, two other terms often used in conjunction with localization, imply initially different software design principles. Internationalization— commonly understood as the process of enabling a software application to be localized easily for many different countries—implies a need for changing a product, although in generalized ways that can serve a wide audience. Globalization—defined as the process of creating a software application that is generally usable, without additional modification, by nearly anyone around the world—is an integral part of early design processes; globalization implies a more generalized product from the initial stages of development, a product that can be meaningful in a variety of contexts without necessitating translation or localization work. Hoft includes the term information product in her definition of localization, but this term increasingly seems too restrictive. When she wrote her definition, the bulk of the software market was comprised of typical software applications, such as the Microsoft


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Office suite of tools. But not all software applications support productivity goals, and the existing definitions of localization have become too narrow to cover every instance. In fact, localization processes have not kept up with the popularity of entertainmentfocused computer applications, with the most conservative estimate showing nearly $7 billion of sales in the U.S. in 2002 (“Game players” 2003). This growth is compounded globally; for example, the total gaming revenue in South Korea was about $2.8 billion for 2002 (“The rise of Korean games” 2003). Technical communicators have explored the localization of traditional software applications from a variety of perspectives. Our goal in this article, however, is to compare the localization process for applications that facilitate productivity to that for digital games (a broad term that refers here to console and computer games). We hope this comparison initiates a conversation regarding the increasingly important technical communication work associated with the game industry.

LOCALIZING A PRODUCTIVITY APPLICATION In essence, the point of using a term such as productivity to describe software applications is to differentiate between work and play. The term productivity application is defined here as any software program that is primarily designed to facilitate work, whereas digital games primarily facilitate play. For example, Microsoft Word is a productivity application because its purpose is to provide word-processing capabilities. Microsoft Hearts, on the other hand, is a simple digital game based on a card game and does not directly facilitate work.


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Within the realm of software development, the process of localizing a productivity application is well defined (see Hoft 1995; Uren, Howard, and Perinotti 1993; Taylor 1992). Traditionally, this process is defined in the context of productivity applications; however, a different set of issues exists when the application to be localized is a digital game, such as Mortal Kombat or Grand Theft Auto. Digital games require a different approach to the localization process, but although many games are released around the world, there is almost no scholarship on digital game localization. This lack of attention is surprising in light of the sales figures of games such as Diablo and Diablo II, which together have sold over 6.5 million copies worldwide (“Diablo II” 2001). Diablo II sold over 4 million copies within a year of its release, a sales mark that rivals popular productivity applications. To begin establishing a framework for a discussion of digital game localization, it is useful to first consider the standard elements of software localization in the context of productivity applications. The following sections discuss the standard elements of software localization: the user interface, the purpose and content of the application, and the cultural and legal issues associated with the localization process. User interface issues When a productivity application is localized, the menu names and contents, the help system, and even the icons might be translated or modified to meet the needs of users in another country. Essentially, the localization process involves months of work that typically occur toward the end of—or after—the application development cycle. Certain countries are identified as prime targets for localized versions of the software, which is


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frequently released in the “source” country first and in the “target” countries a few months later. Often, the product documentation and graphical user interface (GUI) are handed off to localization specialists and translators after the initial version of the application is ready for beta testing or for public release in the country for which the application was developed. Ideally, the localization process begins earlier in the development cycle, although this ideal is difficult to maintain given the typical time-tomarket strategy of most current software publishers. The process of localizing the GUI includes translating the words within the menus, dialog boxes, and other textual elements. These translations must be tested to ensure that they meet the size constraints of the visual elements; different languages require different percentages of expansion. For example, when designing an English-based GUI that will be translated into German, the software developers must account for the fact that German words require more space than their English equivalents. The number of words required to achieve equivalence of meaning between languages also affects the cost of translation; language translation typically costs more when more words are required because translation fees are frequently based on word count (Zvalo 2002). The localization team that modifies the GUI of a productivity application must understand the source and target cultures relatively well. For example, to translate menu text from a certain source language (English) into a target language (Portuguese), the localization manager must know whether the product will be sold in Portugal or Brazil (where they speak Brazilian Portuguese). This manager must also find individuals who are fluent in both the source and target languages, which can be extremely challenging if the application is being translated from Korean into Polish, for example.


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Finally, developers can simplify the localization process by following certain software design rules, such as eliminating idioms and jargon from menu choices, or creating GUI elements that resize dynamically based on word length. These GUI localization requirements are quite different from those of digital games: Productivity applications have many dialog boxes, error messages, and other elements that are absent from most games (or that are integrated into the game play experience). Productivity applications also include more detailed online help systems than most digital games, and these systems must be translated along with the GUI. Finally, productivity applications must support text input in the target languages, which becomes a significant issue when the target language is a double-byte language such as Japanese, Korean, or Arabic. (In single-byte languages such as English or French, each character requires one byte of computer memory, whereas in double-byte languages, each syllable requires two bytes of computer memory.) The issue of presenting doublebyte languages is a serious concern for applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel; although some digital games face the same input issue, many games are based solely on controller input, such as a joystick, mouse, or simple keyboard commands. The GUI localization process is certainly much more complex than what is outlined here, but this brief discussion provides an overview of major issues. In many cases, there are no direct comparisons possible between the GUI elements of a productivity application and those present in a digital game, which is one reason why new localization guidelines for digital games are required.


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Narrative and content issues In general, productivity applications lack a central storyline or narrative (two terms that are used interchangeably here). There is no “plot” behind Microsoft Word; the application itself has no inherent story to be told. Users do not read about the epic history of Word before they sit down to compose a letter. Essentially, Microsoft Word offers a relatively blank slate to its users even as it bases its interface assumptions on specific cultural attitudes. Certain elements within Word guide users in their quest to write documents, but users do not need to “stay in character,” so to speak. The program functions as much like a blank slate as possible, and any text-based input is allowed. With productivity applications, the interface facilitates work in the absence of a storyline, so there is no necessity to translate or localize a narrative. This is not to say that a directive storyline is essential to all games or that the presence of such a storyline constructs play at all times. Indeed, some games include significant freedom to explore the game world. In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, for example, the player is free to wander around the cities doing whatever seems fun at the moment. The player can pick up or drop at will the central narrative, told through a mission-based storyline. Even games that simulate reality to a certain degree (such as The Sims or Black & White) still center on a basic storyline with inherent goals that the player must attempt to complete. However, despite the freedom to follow or ignore the story at any given moment, such digital products still need to have the overall storyline localized when they are marketed globally.


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Comparing productivity applications and digital games requires a flexible notion of goals and what constitutes progress towards those goals. Productivity users define progress in their own terms when they are writing a document, entering data into a spreadsheet or performing similar tasks. But with digital games, the games themselves define the users’ progress. In general, digital games keep their users informed of their overall progress toward a software-defined goal, whereas productivity applications facilitate their users’ goals as seamlessly as possible. This concept of progress is a key difference between Super Mario Bros and Microsoft Word, for example. Some games push the boundaries of game-defined progress: The Sims, Civilization, and other simulation games offer more freedom to work within the constraints of a system toward no specific ultimate goal. The nature of the goals determines the type of help system that is required. Given the open-ended character of productivity applications, the help functions for these programs must also be somewhat open-ended because they must facilitate an unknowable number of goals. Developers cannot know all the possible ways in which people will use an application; thus, the help for many productivity applications is relatively indefinite regarding intentionality. For example, an index search for the word object within the online help system of Microsoft Word 2000 reveals 163 entries. It becomes the task of the user to determine which of these entries is relevant to that user’s specific goal. However, when the software defines the user’s goals, the help functions must facilitate those specific results. This difference is best illustrated by a comparison between a


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digital game tutorial and a productivity application tutorial, each of which is a central user-support element for its genre. Digital game tutorials guide players through game elements to teach them the rules and game boundaries. For example, the game Half-life begins with a basic training component that teaches players how to run, jump, and use specific weapons. However, this tutorial does not show users how to complete the game or use every weapon they will encounter. These aspects of the game are left up to each user to discover and master. The goal of a digital game tutorial is fundamentally different from productivity application tutorials because they teach the basic controls but they do not guarantee success within the game. Games are open ended and are meant to challenge users to find novel ways to meet the stated goals; thus, their tutorials provide basic information but do not demonstrate how to win the game. The purpose of a productivity application tutorial is to provide a specific path to success with regard to using that application, such as the ability to save a document. This functionality should be presented as directly as possible, as any ambiguity will confuse users. While a certain amount of intentional confusion is prevalent in digital games, it is a bad idea to confuse users of productivity applications who simply want to complete their work. Just as productivity applications facilitate work, their tutorials facilitate a transfer of knowledge from the developers to the users that enables those users to complete their work. Users of productivity applications have their own goals, and the purpose of the tutorial is to help them meet those goals.


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From a localization perspective, the different natures of these two types of tutorials mean that different localization processes are required for digital game tutorials and for productivity application tutorials. The former might be intentionally vague in certain areas to preserve the secrets of the game, whereas the latter should be concrete and specific about how to use the application. Importantly, what constitutes “sufficiently vague” for a digital game tutorial can vary depending on culture, particularly because preexisting cultural knowledge that can allow users to extrapolate from a bare-bones help approach will differ based on context. In addition to the interactive tutorials included within digital games, many user-written walkthroughs are available on gaming Web sites. In fact, there are hints, tips, walkthroughs, and other forms of help for nearly every digital game, and much of that content comes from the users rather than the game publishers. The emergence of this form of user support within the gaming community echoes the growth of user-to-user support among productivity applications. For example, Microsoft and Apple both provide compensation to certain expert users who monitor newsgroups and forums, providing assistance for people who have specific software and hardware questions. Instead of squelching this relatively informal environment within which users help one another, these companies have elected to encourage peer-to-peer assistance. Of course, the market for books that describe certain products or technologies remains strong despite the newsgroups and forums, just as the market for printed game guides and trade magazines has flourished over the past 15 to 20 years. These forms of information are important to consider when any application is localized. Peer-to-peer assistance will be different in other countries; it is up to the localization manager to


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determine how the user communities in each target country will interact with one another. Cultural and legal issues The information posted on corporate-hosted, user support forums flows both ways: from the company to the user, but also from the user to the company. Apple and Microsoft are responsive to cultural concerns with their software, and particularly to the potential legal issues that a software application might raise. In fact, applications that are significantly insensitive to certain countries can be prohibited in those countries (“Microsoft’s geopolitical product strategy team” 2000). The complexity of skills needed for effective localization speaks to the need for greater involvement by rhetoricians and technical communicators in the digital games industry, particularly in communicationdependent areas like localization. When designers include culturally insensitive images in an application’s GUI, their decision reflects a failure of the design process. A culturally appropriate GUI requires significant investment in re-coding to implement effective localization. For example, some software manuals and tutorials, and even some interfaces (such as Adobe Acrobat), use a disembodied hand to direct attention toward a certain action or interface element. However, showing a disembodied hand is considered insulting in some cultures. The better choice is to show an entire person performing the action, although including an entire person removes focus from the action itself. Similarly, cultural stereotypes are frequently encountered in GUIs that use U.S.-specific images. The image of a U.S.-style postal box to represent “e-mail,” for example, poses


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problems in many countries and can indicate the cultural bias of the GUI designer. A stereotypical mailbox in the US looks different than a stereotypical mailbox in Malaysia or the Netherlands, to give only two examples. Sears, Jacko, and Dubach (2000) point out a similar interface issue: “British users confuse [the Macintosh ‘trash’ icon] with a postal box” (p. 243). Localization managers must catch such errors before they become a part of the GUI in the source language; the process of globalization helps prevent these sorts of stereotypical ideas from entering a software application in the first place, ultimately lowering the cost of localization. The patterns of globalization followed within productivity application teams can serve as important models for localization managers working in the games industry.

INVESTIGATING THE DIGITAL GAME LOCALIZATION PROCESS As the importance of the digital game genre has increased, so has the need to differentiate between localizing digital games and localizing productivity software. As discussed above, within the realm of productivity software, localization is defined as translating the text and graphics of a user interface. Sun Microsystems (n.d.) provides a representative example by defining localization as “the process of adapting software for specific languages or regions.” These applications have a simpler set of issues that need to be considered during the localization process. By comparison, for many digital games, the storyline, overall theme, and characters of the game must be recreated for other cultures. When the storyline aspects of a game must undergo significant revision for other cultures, the process is known as blending (Kennerly 2001). Blending is a category of digital game localization; the blending process


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is more detailed and time-consuming than the typical localization process, and it is potentially more costly than simply translating the user interface elements. Blending involves writing a new game narrative for a target culture, a narrative that will be more comprehensible than the original within that culture and that will hopefully ensure greater sales of the game. Blending might also involve the creation of new graphics to support the new narrative, although such rework depends on the depth of the changes to the narrative. Not every game undergoes a significant amount of blending. In some cases, such as the Harry Potter series of games, the storyline remains the same for other cultures because the story itself is the reason why people play the game. The process of blending is specific to digital games. Productivity applications such as Microsoft Word do not require this form of localization because there is no central narrative to change within these applications. Stated differently, there is no need to change the basic purpose of Word for other cultures because the need to compose information is the fundamental core of the program and remains a consistent process around the world. The purpose of certain digital games, however, can require a fundamental shift between the source and target cultures to find an audience within the target culture. For example, the game EverQuest is based on Norse mythology and elements of role-playing games that may not be compelling to audiences in other countries, particularly those countries that already have successful games based on their own cultural mythologies.


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Some digital games that have been developed in a specific country can successfully retain deeply embedded cultural aspects of that country while still achieving commercial success in another market. The example of the U.S.-developed Crash Bandicoot and its ultimate success in Japan is a compelling case for a significant localization effort that combines original cultural elements with country-specific elements. The U.S. version of the game positioned the Crash character as somewhat similar to Sega’s successful Sonic the Hedgehog, but with more attitude (“Sonic history” n.d.). However, the Japanese press predicted catastrophic failure for Crash Bandicoot prior to its Japanese release; the media thought the “game had a rather American feel to it,” which would lead to poor sales in Japan (Turner 2002). The Crash Bandicoot development team agreed with that assessment and redesigned the game for the Japanese audience. In terms of the character’s appearance, they changed Crash’s voice and they made him look less threatening and more like the main character from Starfox, a highly successful Japanese game from Nintendo. In addition, “the localization team lowered the game’s overall difficulty … and added aku aku messages (hints) to help players along” (Turner 2002). Finally, the development team used two TV commercials, a series of manga comics, and other advertising tactics to familiarize the Japanese public with the Crash character (Turner 2002). The Crash Bandicoot development team ultimately proved the Japanese media wrong: “Crash Bandicoot went on to sell 900,000 units in Japan” (Turner 2002). The sequel was even more successful, and as a worldwide franchise, the Crash Bandicoot series of games sold over 10 million copies (“Time line” n.d.). According to Bill Gardner, former president of Capcom, a new game title such as Crash Bandicoot would need to sell “


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200,000 or more” copies before the game would begin to earn money (“Exclusive: Interview with Capcom” 1997). Obviously, this particular game franchise is a massive success, in part because Japanese game players embraced the character and continued to enjoy playing as Crash in game after game, but also because the development team recognized the Western nature of Crash Bandicoot and made the modifications necessary for the game to be successful in another culture. As this example demonstrates, the Crash Bandicoot development team needed to modify their product for a different culture, yet the exact process of modification was dependent on the characteristics of the software. Clearly, for that game to succeed in the Japanese market, the localization effort had to produce a new game, one that hundreds of thousands of Japanese people would purchase and play repeatedly. But their choices and design processes did not follow any particular prescribed industry standard for localization. In other words, they got lucky and crossed a major hurdle successfully. Indeed, many games that are developed today are sold overseas to recoup their initial production and marketing costs. As Shuhei Yoshida, vice president of product development for Sony, pointed out at the 2002 Game Developers Conference, “If a game is only suitable to sell in one region of the world, the developer is much less likely to make their money back and turn a profit” (Turner 2002). In fact, the majority of the games produced today do not bring a positive return on the investment required to develop them, yet more successful localization or blending efforts could change that trend. Many game-publishing companies operate on the “90/10” principle, which states that 90% of the games will lose money while the remaining 10% will ensure profitable results (Wixon 2003). Therefore, just as motion


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pictures are released in multiple countries to garner higher box office sales, digital games are released as widely as possible. And because corporations such as Sony, Microsoft, and Electronic Arts are established in many different countries, they are able to manufacture and distribute games around the world in a cost-effective manner; smaller publishers must rely on Internet distribution to make their games available to the world. The business of localizing games has grown significantly over the past several years. As consoles (such as the Nintendo GameCube) and personal computers have become standardized around the world, the potential for a homogeneous set of games for these platforms has increased. Computer games that are developed for the Microsoft Windows platform can be played on any suitably equipped PC anywhere in the world. Similarly, any PlayStation 2 (PS2) game can be played on any PS2 console, as long as the region controls within the console are disabled (serious gamers often choose to disable these controls so they can play every possible game). Bearing in mind the financial need to go global, localization and blending strategies for digital games are as important as the localization process for productivity applications. However, many novel factors affect the localization process for digital games, creating a complex terrain for marketing efforts. For example, some countries have specific laws regarding the amount and types of violence that can be shown in a game, a phenomenon that is not unique to digital games but that does make them different from other genres of software. Other countries have strict ratings rules that determine whether a game can be sold to people under the age of 18; if a game receives an “18” rating, its sales might be


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significantly reduced because a significant portion of the gaming market in any country is under the age of 18. The publishers of many digital games have had to make changes simply to market to their target audience, the kind of changes that Microsoft would never even have to consider for a title like Word. Before marketing their product in some countries, for example, Sierra Entertainment, the publishers of Half-life (an extremely successful game title) had to replace human characters with robots and change the display of blood in the game so that it appears green rather than red as part of a shift away from violence against human beings—all to satisfy the differential in ratings standards around the world. These complexities provide the framework for understanding how localization for digital games demands a new level of engagement than that for productivity applications. The process of localizing a digital game can be broken into three levels of increasing complexity and cost. The latter two levels encompass some of the more complex localization issues that are faced by game developers; it is these stages that provide both the greatest difference from productivity localization and the greatest challenge for technical communicators considering how to make software relevant to a global audience. 1. Basic localization The game retains its original GUI and icons, leaving only the text to be translated. 2. Complex localization The GUI and icons must be translated along with the text.


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3. Blending The story itself is rewritten, and the graphics are recreated to match the requirements of a different culture. Basic localization Basic localization recapitulates the characteristics of localization processes for productivity applications. With digital games, basic localization focuses on translation of text within the game and leaves the GUI and icons the same. For a game to be effectively localized with just this minimal amount of work, early in the development process the designers must consider the importance of internationalization of icons and other GUI elements. Basic localization can also be sufficient for simpler games that use common user interface elements or project a minimal story (such as Tetris or Solitaire) into the act of play. Complex localization As previously mentioned, the process of localizing a productivity application focuses on the user interface and the functionality of the underlying code in the presence of the target language. For some applications, the issues associated with successful localization are related to the engineering of the code and the interface, and possibly the translation of the interface elements. For example, certain icons bear culturally-specific meanings and must be redrawn or remapped depending on the target locale, and word length differences across languages might necessitate different word choice in the original text. Because most single-player digital games limit player input to character names, the GUI typically consists of descriptive text that has been translated into the target language. Aside from in-game options, menu systems that resemble productivity applications are


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rare within digital games. Player-to-player chat is a basic element of network-based games, although some games bypass the need to type comments and rely on voice communication between players. However, for those games that do include text-based chat, the GUI must be able to handle the special characters of the target language keyboard. Prior to the explosion of computer game popularity, the vast majority of digital games were console games. These games typically retained their original GUI, leaving only the text to be translated. One reason for this reliance on basic localization practice is the limitation of user input with a game console. For example, the original Nintendo control pad had the equivalent of four arrow keys (which provided a total of eight possible directions), two action buttons, a Start button, and a Select button. Compare this control set with the tremendous flexibility of a computer keyboard: Console games needed only to account for a small number of possible player actions, but as computer games have become more complex and interactive, they have begun to include a massive range of possible controls. Even so, the games industry has not kept pace with these changes by developing localization standards for gaming applications. Finally, many digital games include special hardware (such as the control pads that are associated with consoles) that distinguish them from productivity applications (which rely on the mouse and keyboard alone) and that requires localization. The GUI capabilities also tend to be more advanced in computer games because the range of control is greater. A keyboard and mouse have a much larger range of control than a joystick with several buttons; console controllers lack enough buttons to compete with the detailed game control that is available to PC users. Therefore, console games


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might be expected to require less localization effort compared to computer games that have more control and more potential GUI feedback. For many digital games, the process of complex localization is good enough, particularly when the narrative of the game remains the same (as in Harry Potter or in sports games). Even so, the complex localization processes of changing the user interface, the icons, and the text can require months of work, particularly when the game is intended for release in several countries and in several languages. Typically, digital games lack significant quantities of text, which is a good thing. As Rollings and Adams (2003) point out, “If everything onscreen is displayed as text, your localization team will soon run into a lexicographical nightmare trying to resolve the issues that come up with localization” (p. 180). Text translation is also an issue when the target language is double-byte, such as Korean or Arabic: The characters in these languages require more memory space than singlebyte language characters. In their discussion of digital game localization, Mulligan and Patrovsky (2003) list the most common target languages for digital game localization, a list that includes languages that use both single-byte and double-byte character sets (p. 122). As Lee (2003) points out, Unicode is the best choice for all text that will be translated into other languages because this character formatting standard offers simple conversion into both single-byte and double-byte languages (p. 383). (Unicode is a standard method of encoding characters regardless of platform, program, or language.)


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Blending Blending is the localization process that game publishers follow (or should consider following) when they want to release a complex game with a culturally-specific narrative in a new country. Publishers often have two options with new game releases: retain the narrative and simply translate the user interface details as well as possible (basic or complex localization), or rewrite the narrative to be more familiar to the players in another country (blending). The concept of blending is potentially contentious among game developers who do not distinguish among levels of localization difficulty; however, blending is a useful distinction because there is no analogous term for productivity applications, and it highlights the unique challenges associated with the global gaming industry. Clearly, it is easier and cheaper (in the short term) to avoid the blending process. Indeed, cost is one of the primary reasons why digital game interfaces are localized but the narrative is not. However, some modern games have developed storylines that are complex enough to spawn relatively successful motion pictures: Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, and even Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II led to movies. Some of these games might require reconsideration of the narrative based on the target audience. Can Asian game players identify with the British heroine Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, or would they prefer a different character? It is difficult to answer this question prior to the release of a game; some stories are interesting to all people or are easily modified to fit a given cultural context (such as fairy tales), while other stories are culturally-bound and are typically less interesting in other cultures.


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Developers can avoid reworking the narrative of a game if the narrative is relatively simple, as in the original Donkey Kong. In this game, the titular antagonistic ape has kidnapped the player’s girlfriend, forcing the player to complete an obstacle course to get her back. This narrative is simple enough to avoid the need for blending. Developers can also avoid changing more complicated game narratives if they are universally understood, or if the game is based on a world-renowned persona or sport (such as James Bond and basketball, respectively). For example, Harry Potter games are popular worldwide because they are based on the narratives taken from the best-selling books. As the player of these games, one controls Harry Potter’s actions as while progressing through the narrative of the game. In this case, the game is based on the international appeal of an existing franchise; developers retain the Harry Potter narrative because the character and the story sell the game. By contrast, if the narrative or purpose of a game is not internationally known, game developers must either modify the narrative or run the risk of alienating their audience and producing an international market failure. For example, the online game EverQuest is quite popular in the U.S., yet this game is relatively unpopular in South Korea and China. Online gaming in these countries focuses more on a game called Lineage. These two games are similar in many ways, but the narrative of each game is completely different: EverQuest is based more on Anglo-Saxon mythology, while Lineage is styled after Asian dynastic history. There are other potential reasons why Lineage has millions of South Korean players and EverQuest has only thousands, although our conversations with Asian gamers confirm that the storyline is a major reason why they choose not to play EverQuest.


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Even a puzzle-driven or clue-based game like the Monkey Island series can be culturallyspecific to such an extent that cross-cultural markets are unlikely. In the Monkey Island games, players move through the world discovering clues and piecing together a puzzle presented as a narrative. But the cultural capital necessary to know that something is a clue is in fact culturally-specific, and requires a kind of cultural reasoning that might not transfer. Just as colloquialisms, idioms, and slang do not translate well, the culturallybound elements of a digital game might also become incomprehensible upon translation. For example, at one point in The Curse of Monkey Island, the main character picks an Ipecac flower. The character must eventually combine the flower with pancake syrup to create Ipecac syrup in order to escape from a dangerous situation. Although the prospect of creating Ipecac syrup might be amusing to an American audience, this joke would be difficult to include in a translated version of the game without replacing the Ipecac syrup with the target culture’s equivalent. There is another phenomenon that can occur with respect to the success of a game in multiple countries. Sometimes a game is so culturally specific that it becomes interesting to members of other cultures primarily because of its differences, or otherness. For example, popular console games such as Dead or Alive 2, Shenmue, and Tekken retain a significant amount of their national character even after localization. For the U.S. audience, part of the charm of Dead or Alive 2 comes from the soundtrack and the character comments that are spoken in Japanese by default. These games require only basic localization (such as the translation of the Japanese text into English), in part because the audience wants to experience the original flavor of the game. Importantly,


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the game development community lacks concrete guidelines on how to determine whether a game requires modification of culturally-contextual elements. The stakes are considerable. When basic localization fails, the digital game can become a joke rather than a success. For example, the English introduction to the game Zero Wing featured the villain (named Cats) proclaiming that “all your base are belong to us!” In this case, the publishing studio probably lacked the financial resources to ensure an accurate content translation. This mistranslation became the source of an international Internet fad that ultimately received mainstream press coverage (“Story of ‘All your base’” n.d.). All of this attention was the result of a localization failure, which turned public attention away from the quality of the game play to the failure of the translators. Zero Wing was a market failure in every respect, which helped force the game publisher out of business soon after the game’s release (“Story of ‘All your base’” n.d.). The relative failures of Zero Wing in the U.S. and of EverQuest in Asia underline a fundamental issue at stake in the digital gaming industry: When is a game narrative so unfamiliar or uninteresting to another culture that blending is required? Narrative and content issues While the storyline of a productivity application could be described as the success of the user in whatever tasks he or she is attempting to accomplish, the storyline of a digital game ensures that all users attempt to accomplish the same general task: win the game. Even in games that include significant branching within the narrative of the story, the goal is still to complete the game. There is no equivalent sense of completion with a productivity application; as a user of Microsoft Word, you never “complete” the application. The tasks you assign to yourself provide


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you with a sense of completion or of having met your goals. Digital games define your broadest goal for you; productivity applications empower you to set your own goals. This difference is important because the goal of a digital game is culturally bound. Certain digital games might construct different goals depending on the morals, laws, and cultural taboos of the target country. The game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City recently received significant criticism for one of the in-game missions that the player must complete. In this mission, the goal of the main character is to kill all the Haitian gang members in a certain area of Vice City; the character is provided with a gun and incited to “kill all Haitians” (“Grand theft auto” 2003). The publishing firm, Take-Two Interactive Software, removed the phrase from the game after the Haitian community in the U.S. protested. Obviously, this in-game goal would require revision for other world markets as well; the same game includes an Asian part of town that might generate criticism from substantial digital game markets such as South Korea and China. Despite the publicity of that particularly egregious game, there are some game developers who show a great deal of cultural sensitivity. For example, the South Korean game Legend of Darkness is an excellent illustration of the blending process. A team of South Korean developers originally created this massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) for release in their own country. These developers created a uniquely Korean game in terms of the animation style and anarchic social environment, elements that might not result in a successful game for the U.S. market. Therefore, the U.S.-based development team created a new game called Dark Ages. Aihoshi (2002) describes Dark Ages in the following terms:


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the game is not merely a localization produced by implementing the English language. Instead, it replaces its forebear’s gritty lawlessness with a distinctive emphasis on roleplaying, intricate political systems and organized religions, intertwining them with elements of Gaelic and Lovecraftian horror. Even a few years after its initial U.S. release, Dark Ages remains a relatively popular MMOG, while other, less culturally-sensitive games have fizzled in the competitive MMOG market. Cultural and legal issues Games such as Half-life and Return to Castle Wolfenstein demonstrate how narrative and content issues dovetail with cultural and legal issues that affect the game industry. As stated earlier, the developers of Half-life replaced the human enemies in Half-life with robots so the game could be sold in countries with strict laws regarding media-related violence. Return to Castle Wolfenstein includes a similar shift from human to robotic enemies, but for the German audience the presence of Nazi paraphernalia also proved objectionable. German law forbids the inclusion of any Nazi symbolism in media products such as movies and video games. These changes affect more than just the visual elements of the game; the storylines themselves shift from a battle against crazed humans or Nazi soldiers to soulless robots, making these titles examples of a kind of storyline blending. The German gaming market is lucrative enough to force such changes: Even after millions of Germans had already purchased the original version of Half-life, the robot-based version of the same game sold over 50,000 copies, a sales figure that likely produced a profit despite the added expenses of revision (“Game trivia for Half-life” 1999).


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Indeed, one of the most challenging aspects of localizing a game involves knowledge of culturally-specific stereotypes. Some issues are simple to discuss once the legal code of a given country is known, such as the ban on Nazi iconography in Germany. But many other cultural taboos are more difficult to uncover or worse yet, are different depending on the cultural background of the observer. In his interview with Puha (2001), game localization expert Ben Wibberley stated that “the English have a particular stereotypical view of the Spanish which is completely different to … how a German might view them.” It is quite difficult to translate the content of a game that playfully mocks certain cultural stereotypes; retaining the humor is important, but amusing rather than offending the players is tricky. One recent game named Big Mutha Truckers highlights this issue: “Whether trucking as the beer-bellied Earl, the toothless Cletus or the other cardboard characters, the action in the game centers around hauling goods from one place to another while causing as much roadside damage as possible” (Thomas 2003). The British game development firm Eutechnyx Limited created Big Mutha Truckers for global release, including the U.S. Because the game is set in “Hick State County, in the Deep South of the USA” (“Big mutha truckers” n.d.), it is possible that some U.S. game players will be offended. The blending process can alleviate some of the issues related to stereotypes and their presence in games. By changing the story within a game, the developers can simply avoid the stereotype issues associated with the original storyline. For example, a game that involves the split of one country into two rival countries might require some revision for a Chinese audience. Or a game such as Big Mutha Truckers might need to be


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toned down for release in the southern states of the U.S. Unfortunately, because the blending process is typically more expensive than basic localization, many game developers cannot afford to modify the storyline in a substantive way. Of course, sometimes the changes in a storyline are too substantial and the game loses its original appeal. The previous example of the MMOG Dark Ages is a success story, but a later version of this game (named Shadows of Temuair) failed with U.S. gamers. Shadows of Temuair placed more emphasis on freedom of choice and expression: There are [players] who just want to go around and kill whatever they want in whatever manner they choose. Therefore, [Shadows of Temuair] was created with those players in mind. Here, you do not have to worry about being arrested for Heresy—or any other crime. (Aihoshi 2001) Ultimately, Shadows of Temuair disappeared from the MMOG scene in the U.S.; its failure is surprising, particularly in light of the continuing success of Dark Ages. This example demonstrates the balance of familiar and foreign cultural elements that the blending process requires; changing the narrative of a game can lead to success or failure in other countries depending on the depth and substance of the changes. Levels of acceptable violence constitute another area of legal and social concern for game developers. Game ratings are still relatively new in the U.S., or at least their recognition as worthwhile measures of game violence is a recent development. In the U.S. a cultural debate is raging, both in the media and throughout the legal system, over the purpose and quality of video game ratings. The Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) established the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to determine the ratings of


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video games, much like the Motion Picture Association of America determines film ratings. But according to White (2003), the IDSA has not “been willing to make public the criteria used to arrive at the ratings.” Most recently, the ESRB has responded to criticism from parents by expanding their “content descriptors” list to include four specific violence types: cartoon, fantasy, intense, and sexual (Entertainment Software Rating Board 2003). Although the legal debate over digital game violence and ratings is ongoing in the U.S., some other countries in which digital games are popular have already issued rulings and passed laws with regard to digital game violence. Bryce and Rutter (2002) point out that “Within Europe and elsewhere a range of both mandatory and voluntary systems of game certification have developed to regulate game content and themes by offering guidelines on the appropriateness (or otherwise) of content” (pp. 246-7). Among European countries, Germany has the most stringent anti-violence laws for digital games. Even as the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) rating system replaces nearly all existing European rating systems, Germany will retain its own, more detailed, and more legally binding system (“New pan-European age rating system” 2003). The German rating system publishes an index of games that “can’t be sold to anyone under 18, displayed in stores or advertised on television, in newspapers and in most magazines” (Pham and Sandell 2003). This sort of legislation, with “fines of 50,000 euros … for each violation and jail terms of up to one year” (Pham and Sandell 2003), forces most digital game publishers to invest in localization rather than run the risk of having their games added to the dreaded “index.” Some examples of past changes include switching human enemies to robots (as in Half-life), or changing the color of


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blood from red to green. These changes are necessary to make games marketable in Germany and avoid registration on the index, a fate similar to NC-17 movies in the U.S. (these films receive limited release and typically make far less money than R-rated movies). Games sold in South Korea must also follow strict ratings guidelines that affect the ability of a game to sell more copies. The Korea Media Rating Board (KMRB) is nearly as stringent as the German ratings board in terms of preventing youth exposure to violence in games. Unlike Germany, however, South Korea maintains no index of games that cannot be sold to anyone under the age of 18. According to Park (2001), “Games containing extremely violent or obscene content are not given any [rating], and [are] not allowed to be sold in Korea.” One of Kerr’s (2002) interview subjects, a game developer in Ireland, described the situation in the following terms: we actually have four versions of the [game] in Korea, we have the localised version, the non-localised version and [for] each of them we have the low violence version and the over 18 version. The low violence [certification] requires no blood.” (p. 38) Some game developers approach the issue of how much violence to show by including controls in the games themselves. Some games allow users to turn off blood or foul language, but thematic content—such as whether the victims of violence can be human—require more substantive revision during the localization process.


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GUIDING THE DISCUSSION OF DIGITAL GAME LOCALIZATION This investigation is written in the spirit of initiating a larger discussion about digital game localization, blending, and the unique issues related to these ill-defined processes. The rapidly growing world of digital games poses a number of opportunities and challenges for programmers, designers, and technical communicators. The localization processes for games require a series of steps that exceed known localization processes for productivity applications. In addition to demanding significant internationalization efforts and attention to cultural elements of design, the practice of localizing games requires attention to narrative as well as laws in other countries. As the German releases of Half-life and Return to Castle Wolfenstein demonstrate, digital game developers must modify their creative visions when they shape those visions into global products. Technical and professional communicators are well trained in the process of shaping technical knowledge and expertise into a product that is appropriate for cultures around the world. And as more attention is given to digital games, technical and professional communicators can help game developers and localization managers codify the digital game localization processes into a useful body of knowledge. In particular, the task of blending domestic and imported cultural elements within a game requires significant market knowledge, as well as a keen sensitivity toward intercultural communication. By assisting in the creation of blending guidelines, technical and professional communicators can participate in the development of internationally successful digital games.


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REFERENCES Aihoshi, Richard. 2002. “Dark ages: Medenia interview.” RPG vault. http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/380/380942p1.html. ———. 2001. “Shadows of Temuair interview.” RPG vault. http://rpgvaultarchive.ign.com/features/interviews/temuair.shtml. Big mutha truckers. n.d. Eutechnyx.com. http://www.eutechnyx.com (accessed Aug. 12, 2003). Bryce, Jo, and Jason Rutter. 2002. Killing like a girl: Gendered gaming and girl gamers’ visibility. In Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings, ed. Frans Mäyrä,. Tampere: Tampere University Press, pp. 243-256. “Diablo II: Lord of destruction shatters sales records worldwide with over 1 million copies sold.” 2001. GamesFirst! http://www.gamesfirst.com/articles/diablo2_sales.htm. Entertainment Software Rating Board. 2003. Computer and video game ratings to offer unprecedented content detail. http://www.esrb.org/downloads/changes6_26_03.pdf. Exclusive: Interview with Capcom. 1997. Ign64.ign.com. http://ign64.ign.com/articles/061/061244p1.html. Fernandes, Tony. 1995. Global interface design. Chestnut Hill, MA: AP Professional.


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Game players are a more diverse gender, age and socio-economic group than ever, according to new poll. 2003. TheESA.com. http://www.theesa.com/8_26_2003.html. Game trivia for Half-life. 1999. Moby games. http://www.mobygames.com/game/trivia/gameId,155/. Grand theft auto to drop “kill all Haitians” dialogue. 2003. Associated Press (10 December). [Online]. Available: http://www.lexisnexis.com/universe. Hoft, Nancy. 1995. International technical communication. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Kennerly, Dave. 2001. Re: Korea, was [MUD-Dev] [News] NCSoft + Richard Garriott. Message posted to http://www.kanga.nu/archives/MUD-DevL/2001Q2/msg01059.php. Kerr, Aphra. 2002. Loading … Please wait. Ireland and the global games industry. STeM working paper no. 1. Dublin, Ireland: STeM, Dublin City University. Lee, Jay. 2003. Leveraging relational database management systems to data-drive MMP gameplay. In Massively multiplayer game development, ed. Thor Alexander. Hingham, MA: Charles River Media, Inc., pp. 372-384. Microsoft’s geopolitical product strategy team helps prevent worldwide geographical, political and cultural issues from becoming international incidents. 2000. Microsoft PressPass. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2000/Dec00/12-06gps.asp.


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Mulligan, Jessica, and Bridgette Patrovsky. 2003. Developing online games: An insider’s guide. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders Publishing. New pan-European age rating system for computer and video games to provide assurance for parents across Europe. 2003. PR newswire European (24 April). http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=101256. Park, Byung-ho. 2001. How to market in Korea: Small country, large market for PC games.” http://www.gdconf.com/archives/2001/park.doc. Pham, Alex, and Scott Sandell. 2003. Nudity in games OK, but blood verboten in Germany. Los Angeles times (9 June). http://www.latimes.com/chi030609videogames,0,643457.story. Puha, Thomas. 2001. Eurospeak: Localizing games for the European market.” Gamasutra. www.gamasutra.com/features/20010403/puha.htm. Rollings, Andrew, and Ernest Adams. 2003. Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on game design. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders Publishing. Sears, Andrew, Julie Jacko, and Erica M. Dubach. 2000. International aspects of World Wide Web usability and the role of high-end graphical enhancements.” International journal of human-computer interaction 12:241-261. Sonic history. n.d. http://www.sonicunited.com/history.php?history=1991. Story of “All your base.” n.d. http://www.planettribes.com/allyourbase/story.shtml.


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Sun Microsystems. n.d. Internationalization and localization defined. International language environments guide. http://docs.sun.com/db/doc/8066642/6jfipqu55?a=view. Taylor, Dave. 1992. Global software : Developing applications for the international market. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, 1992. The rise of Korean games. 2003. Korea game development & promotion institute. http://gameinfinity.or.kr/en/sub2_1.php. Thomas, D. 2003. Mac fans get reason to rejoice: “EverQuest” rewards dedicated players. The Denver post (15 July): F-6. Time line. n.d. http://www.naughtydog.com/crash/crash/timeline.htm. Turner, Ben. 2002. Shuhei Yoshida: Innovating in the 128-bit era.” GameSpy.com. http://www.gamespy.com/gdc2002/yoshida/index3.shtm. Uren, Emmanuel, Robert Howard, and Tiziana Perinotti. 1993. Software internationalization and localization : An introduction. New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold. White, Daphne. 2003. “Trapped in the matrix of unreal ratings systems.” The Washington post (25 May): B-5. Wixon, Dennis. 2003. Usability in games: Is it fun yet? or How the Usability and Playtest Group at Microsoft Games Studios helped make HALO great.” Presentation at the University of Washington, 10 January.


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Zvalo, Peter. 2002. Official bilingualism has its costs—and opportunities. Writer’s block. http://www.writersblock.ca/spring2002/busword.htm. ALEXANDER THAYER is a recent graduate of the technical communication master’s day program at the University of Washington. His current research interests include museum spaces and their representation on the Internet, cross-cultural Web site design, and the social and international design aspects of video games. He has several years of technical writing experience, and he has presented at professional communication conferences on topics ranging from the creation of spoken documentation systems to the future of documentation for handheld devices and the use of computer games as mediators of new technology. Contact information: [email protected]. BETH KOLKO is an associate professor of technical communication at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on rhetoric, technology, and culture, and her current research projects are concerned with cross-cultural applications of information and communication technologies. She currently leads a National Science Foundation grant measuring the effect of the Internet on society in Central Asia, and she also leads a research group on digital games. She is the editor of Virtual publics (Columbia University Press, 2003) and co-editor of Race in cyberspace (Routlege, 2000), and the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters. Contact information: [email protected]

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported in part by National Science Foundation ADVANCE Cooperative Agreement No. SBE-0123552.


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ABSTRACT Digital games are a global, multibillion dollar industry, yet few standards exist for the localization of games for different cultures. By contrast, the process of localizing productivity applications follows a relatively well-defined set of guidelines, with which many technical communicators are familiar. The localization processes for digital games, however, can follow one of three levels of complexity, none of which are formally articulated. In this article, we focus on the most challenging and most potentially effective form of digital game localization, known as blending. Blending involves the alteration of the central storyline of a game to make the game more successful in other countries. We believe that technical and professional communicators should learn more about blending, digital game localization, and their place within the burgeoning game industry. Manuscript received 12 April 2004; revised 15 July 2004; accepted 16 July 2004.


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