Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Video game translation'

Localisation is the process of taking a product and adapting it to fit the culture in question. This usually involves making it both linguistically and culturally appropriate for the target audience. While there are many areas in video game translations where localisation holds a factor, this study will focus on localisation changes in the personalities of fictional characters between the original Japanese version and the English localised version of the video game Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and its expansion Heavensward for PC, PS3 and PS4. With this in mind, specific examples are examined using Satoshi Kinsui's work on yakuwarigo, role language as the main framework for this study. Five non-playable characters were profiled and had each of their dialogues transcribed for a comparative analysis. This included the original Japanese text, the officially localised English text and a translation of the original Japanese text done by myself. Each character were also given a short summary and a reasoned speculation on why these localisation changes might have occurred. The result shows that there were instances where some translations had been deliberately adjusted to ensure that the content did not cause any problematic issues to players overseas. This could be reasoned out that some of the Japanese role languages displayed by characters in this game could potentially cause dispute among the western audience. In conclusion, the study shows that localisation can be a difficult process that not only requires a translator's knowledge of the source and target language, but also display some creativity in writing ability to ensure that players will have a comparable experience without causing a rift in the fanbase.

Os videogames são hoje uma das formas de entretenimento mais populares em todo o mundo. Muito desse sucesso só foi possível graças à tradução, a qual, por meio de versões localizadas para os mais diversos idiomas, contribuiu decisivamente para que os videogames alcançassem um número cada vez maior de mercados e chegassem a milhões de lares ao redor do planeta. Esta dissertação, de caráter eminentemente historiográfico, tem por objetivo examinar a relação entre a tradução/localização e os videogames desde seu início até os dias de hoje. Além disso, pretende também, por meio da análise de alguns jogos, traçar um panorama acerca de como se dá esta relação sob o contexto brasileiro, abordando as características e especificidades que a localização de games tem apresentado no Brasil ao longo do tempo. A análise desses jogos está fundamentada sob duas perspectivas: a) uma perspectiva histórica, em que se buscará situar as épocas em que foram lançados às etapas de evolução dos videogames e sua relação com a tradução/localização em cada momento; e b) uma perspectiva descritiva, em que se realizará uma análise dos aspectos acerca da tradução/localização observados nesses jogos, fundamentada sob as bases teóricas utilizadas nesta dissertação: o conceito de domesticação/estrangeirização (Venuti, 1995), a teoria funcionalista do Skopos (Vermeer, 1986) e o conceito de Gameplay Experience (Souza, R.V.F., 2014).
Video games are today one of the most important forms of entertainment worldwide. Much of this success was only made possible due to translation, which, through localized versions into various languages, contributed decisively for video games to achieve a growing number of markets and reach millions of homes across the globe. This dissertation, of an eminently historiographical nature, aims to examine the relation between translation/localization and video games from their beginning until the present day. Furthermore, it also intends, through the analyses of a number of games, to provide an overview on how this relation works under the Brazilian context, addressing the characteristics and specificities that video game localization has been showing over time. The analysis of such games is founded upon two perspectives:a) a historical perspective, which will seek to situate the times when they were released to the stages of evolution of video games and their relation with translation/localization in each moment; and b) a descriptive perspective, which will undertake an analysis of translation/localization aspects observed in such games, founded upon the theorical basis utilized in this dissertation: the concept of domestication/foreignization (Venuti, 1995), the functionalist Skopos theory (Vermeer, 1986) and the concept of Gameplay Experience (Souza, R. V. F., 2014).

The market of videogames has been growing more and more int the last years, reaching a revenue of more than 91 million dollars on a global scale. But while videogames enter the lives of more and more people, some companies choose to cut some languages from their internationalization projects. The project described in this dissertation analyses the case of Torment: Tides of Numenera, trying to discern the reasons that brought the developers to cut the Italian translation for the game, aiming to find how this choice has influenced the experience of Italian gamers. To this aim, the dissertation is organized in four main chapters. Chapter 2 examines the general characteristics of videogame localization, its polysemiotic nature and the added level of complexity given by the fragmentation typical of software syntax. Chapter 3 presents the details that compose the game’s identity: its genre, its predecessor and the world in which it is set. Chapter 4 contains the analysis of the actual localization project, including the technical, linguistic and textual issues faced during translation. Chapter 5 focuses instead on the reaction of the Italian public to the lack of a localization, both among the professionals of the sector and among the players. Finally, the project results are discussed, highlighting why the same reasons that bring a developer to cut the localization, also speak to the importance of a translation for the experience of Italian-speaking gamers.

West of Loathing è un gioco di ruolo in cui i personaggi sono figure stilizzate inserite in un ambiente di gioco simile a un Old West americano caricaturato. Nonostante per sua natura condivida caratteristiche con gli altri RPG, West of Loathing si discosta da essi e dal genere grazie alla sua carica umoristica, incalzante e coinvolgente. Disseminato di giochi di parole, modi di dire e battute, West of Loathing è un perfetto oggetto di studio dal punto di vista della transcreation. La sua traduzione supera la nozione di localizzazione in sé e per sé per lasciare spazio alla creatività e alla fantasia, delle quali si analizzeranno vari esempi nel presente lavoro di tesi. La tesi si compone di tre parti principali: dopo una breve introduzione (1) sui videogiochi in generale, la prima parte (contenuta nel capitolo 2) esamina in dettaglio il genere RPG e i motivi per cui West of Loathing vi appartiene, distanziandosi allo stesso tempo grazia alla sua comicità; la seconda parte (capitolo 3) esplora la teoria alla base della localizzazione e della transcreation, e il rapporto di dipendenza reciproca tra umorismo e videogiochi; la terza parte (4) è incentrata sugli estratti più importanti e umoristici della traduzione, la quale si trova in appendice.

Since the 1960s, the video game industry has experienced an exceptional growth, and is currently a mainstay of the international cultural scene. The globalization of video games has led publishers to invest in the accessibility of their products in foreign markets, consolidating game localization as an independent sector. Since the beginning, video games have been marked by a dualism between professional and non-professional, both in programming and in translation. This dissertation focuses on two different aims: on the one hand, it tries to illustrate the process of professional game localization, highlighting both difficulties and strategies; on the other hand, the amateur contribution in the translation of video games is analyzed, drawing attention to the difference with the professional sector in terms of skills and methods. To this end, the semi-professional localization of some assets of the role-playing videogame The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was carried out, which was then compared to the translation produced by an Italian amateur translation group, the Italian Translation Project. The comparison showed that non-professional and professional translation are based on different principles: in the first case, the goal is to favor the understanding by the user, and the lack of expertise is balanced by the knowledge of video games; in the second case, the aim is to create a natural text in the target language, which favors not only comprehension but also the transmission of certain feelings. The two ways of confronting the text result in the contrast between a formal (amateur) and a dynamic (professional) approach, each one leading to certain terminological, syntactic and stylistic choices.

Over the last thirty years, the practice of game localization has become more and more widespread and has started to attract a growing academic interest. However, the translation of humor in games has received little scholarly attention, despite the fact that humor is a fundamental component of games and can be a difficult area to translate. In this view, the thesis is aimed at identifying and classifying the main types of humor in games and the way in which their translation from English into Italian has been tackled, highlighting how the interactive nature of games may affect translation. As the audiovisual features of games are incredibly varied and cannot always be assimilated to the established categories of audiovisual translation, the thesis also discusses how the various audiovisual modalities of games can have an impact on localization. Then, it examines three popular games that are particularly suitable for this analysis, as they feature plenty of humorous dialogues and situations: The Secret of Monkey Island (1990), Day of the Tentacle (1993) and Discworld (1995). The thesis pays particular attention to instances of humor based on cultural elements, as they are especially likely to cause disruptions in a translated text. The research looks at how often humor is intrinsically based on culture-specific references and analyses how translators deal with them. This issue appears particularly relevant in the case of games, as unfamiliar references can most easily damage the user’s experience. The final part of the thesis discusses the retranslation of games. By comparing the old and new translations of two games in the corpus, the thesis aims at seeing if and how translation choices have changed across time. As one of the retranslations was made by fans of the game, the thesis also aims at giving insight into the phenomenon of fan translation.

This dissertation treats the reception, performance, and mediation of myth in video games. Myths are included in video games as variants in relation to other myth-variants. This study does not focus on contemporary myths per se, but rather modernized forms of myths modified for a contemporary audience of players, users, and consumers who participate in video game culture. Different video games involve and invoke different mythologies. Thus, different theories about myths are drawn on to extrapolate meaningful applications in the world of each video game. Some case studies involve the creative uses of depth psychology, the hero pattern, otherworldly journeys, mythic-epic story structures, and/or explorations in specific mythological themes and motifs. Pluralistic, folkloristic, and close cross-cultural comparison is exercised on a case-by-case basis— pace universal and wide-range comparativism—to effectively account for comparison and context. Case studies include single-player video games involving different sub-genres, online multiplayer video games, and a massively multiplayer online game that includes field work reports and analysis.

The descriptive process and meta-theory that I propose stem from the playfulness that myths presented in video games afford: first, interpretatio ludi is the general process of transposing mythological traditions and systems into dynamic and playable models, or the invention anew of mythological systems tailored to a particular video game world and genre. Players virtually participate in myths as voyeurs, voyagers and (sometimes) builders. This raises important questions regarding artificial and emergent mythmaking occurring on the side of either player response, from the developers, or from instances of co-creation between both. I also present the “agonistic theory of myth” to account for the inherent and pervasive tendency of contestation between myth-variants, myths of divine conflict, and theories about myth(s).

A critical review of scholarship on myths and games is also included. This dissertation proposes that mythological studies and game studies can pursue significant collaborative research trajectories. The overall aim of this study is to develop a critical media-conscious approach to myths, and a myth-conscious approach to media.

Keywords: myth, video games, mythmaking, mythology, game studies, play, lore, virtual worlds, world-building.

The rapid advances of technology brought forth significant transformations in the world, including at the level of society, changing how people communicate with each other. Computers and mobile devices already have a well-established place in our lives, not only as means of keeping in touch, but also as instruments able to provide something for which humans have always had a craving: entertainment The present dissertation is concerned with probably one of the most popular forms of entertainment available worldwide, namely video games, and with the linguistic processes that contributed to their transformation into the global phenomenon they are today: language translation and localization, with a particular focus on wordplay, one of the most frequently encountered challenges in translation.

This thesis seeks to introduce the concept of role language in translation in the context of video game localisation. There is very little written on the subject of role language in translation from Japanese to English, and none which pertains to role language in video games. There is also a seeming deficiency of reliable literature regarding the product of translation in video game localisation, analysing what was done and what effects it may have had on the finished product. By analysing the particular role language profiles of selected characters from Bokujō Monogatari: Hajimari no Daichi for the Nintendo 3DS, this thesis hopes to serve as a stepping stone towards a new area of video game localisation. Eight non-playable characters, four male and four female, were analysed to create their respective role language profiles. Four scenarios were chosen for each character: the first and last heart event, the love confession and the married life sequence. The translations of each of these scenarios were analysed, along with how the respective characters were linguistically portrayed. The study found that although many characters were found to retain most of their original linguistic profiling in translation, there were instances where misconception of the source text could have been a factor. The translations where this rather than a different linguistic profile altered the character’s perception, the translations were often ST-oriented. In translations where the characterisation had been unaltered, predominantly it seemed the result of a critical distance from the ST and willingness on the translator’s part to take creative liberties. Role language is an integral feature of Japanese popular fiction, and it would seem that the fictional realms of video games are no exception. Although this thesis has studied only a limited sample, it would not be entirely out of line to draw the initial conclusion that to take a step back from the source material and instead focus on conveying a perception of a character rather than follow the written script, seems to result in a character portrayal in the target text similar to that in the source text.
Denna uppsats ämnar introducera översättning av rollspråk som en del av spellokalisering. Det finns inte mycket skrivet om rollspråk i översättning från japanska till engelska, och inget som åsyftar rollspråk i spel. Det finns även en märkbar brist på studier som behandlar översättning som slutprodukt inom sammanhanget spellokalisering. Genom att analysera utvalda karaktärer från Bokujō Monogatari: Hajimari no Daichi till Nintendo 3DS och hur deras respektive rollspråksprofiler ter sig i översättning, är förhoppningen att denna uppsats ska tjäna som ett första steg mot ett nytt område inom spellokalisering. Åtta karaktärer, fyra manliga och fyra kvinnliga, valdes ut och analyserades för att bygga deras respektive rollspråksprofiler. Fyra videoklipp valdes ut per karaktär, första och sista hjärte-händelsen, kärleksbekännelsen, och livet som gifta. Översättningarna av dessa analyserades, tillsammans med hur de respektive karaktärerna framställdes språkligt. Studien fann att trots att flera av karaktärerna i stort behöll sina ursprungliga språkprofiler i översättning, fanns det tillfällen då källtexten kan ha missuppfattats. Översättningar där detta snarare än en annorlunda framställning av karaktären var skillnaden, visade sig ofta vara mer källtextsorienterade. I översättningar där karaktäriseringen tedde sig likartad, verkar det vara resultatet av ett kritiskt omdöme och avstånd från källtexten tillsammans med översättarens villighet att ta sig friheter med källan. Rollspråk är en väsentlig del i japansk populärlitteratur och populärkultur, och det verkar inte som att spel i sammanhanget skulle vara något undantag. Trots att denna uppsats endast har analyserat ett begränsat urval verkar det inte helt omöjligt att kunna dra en första slutsats där att ta ett steg tillbaka från källtexten och istället lägga fokus på att förmedla en uppfattning av en karaktär, snarare än det skrivna manuset, mycket väl kan leda till en karaktärisering i måltexten som är mer lik samma i källtexten.

Uppsatsen utgör en explorativ studie av ämnet romhackning, en översättningsrelaterad verksamhet innefattande den av entusiaster utförda översättningen av tv-spel. Studiens tre syften är att kartlägga hur romhackning som fenomen ser ut i Sverige, hur svenska romhackare tenderar att arbeta, samt att granska de översättningar som tillkommit. Studien undersöker också om transkreation, en friare form av översättning vanlig inom tv-spelsöversättning, förekommit inom svensk romhackning. Tre metoder används: granskningar av webbsidor tillhörande grupper av svenska romhackare, intervjuer via e-post med individer verksamma inom romhackning, samt provspelningar av slutförda spelöversättningar i syfte att granska deras spelbarhet. Romhackare befinns oftast vara organiserade i form av olika grupper och fenomenet att i Sverige under den inledande halvan av 2000-talets första decennium ha varit förhållandevis utbrett för att år 2010, då studien utfördes, ha minskat betydligt i omfattning. Svenska romhackares arbetsmetoder befinns likna de som används av romhackare i andra länder, och visar sig i flera avseenden påminna om de arbetsmetoder som används av professionella spellokaliserare. Översättningarna som producerats har uteslutande haft engelska som källspråk, även om spel med japanska förlagor också förekommit. Översättningarna förefaller i många fall ha uppvisat en omfattande källspråksinriktning och i vissa fall innehålla språkliga misstag som negativt inverkar på spelarens förståelse av skeenden och uppgifter i spelvärlden. Transkreation tycks ej ha förekommit bland svenska romhackare, troligtvis på grund av att många av dessa betraktat en översättnings kvalitet som ”god” om den hållit sig förhållandevis nära källspråket. Det visar sig dock inte vara möjligt att uttala sig om huruvida romhackningsfenomenet 2010 permanent upphört att förekomma i Sverige.

This paper looks at the practice and history of video game translation, with the goal of expanding the definition of translation. Video game translation is a complex process that incorporates a number of aspects from other types of translation, such as literary, audiovisual, and software translation, to form a dynamic whole. As a new medium, video games also present their own challenges to translation in the form of interactivity, technology, non-textual and extra-textual elements, audience involvement, and new business practices. Even though video games are a relatively new medium, the practice of translating them has undergone drastic transformations over the years. A case study of the various official translations of Final Fantasy IV provides a brief overview of this development to help the reader get a complete understanding of the video game translation process. The paper concludes by arguing that the different sign systems present in video games are integral to the player’s understanding of the game, and should be considered as aspects that can be translated. Parallels are also drawn between the translation process and the medium of the video game, to show that different approaches to translation can provide the audience with a more holistic view of a work.

This paper analyzes the appropriateness of the localization practices utilized in the Japanese video game series Final Fantasy and Pokémon. Its argument is informed by survey responses from players of both series. Immersion, the ability of the player to remain in the game-world without distraction, is believed to be an important goal for successful localization. In this paper, the appropriateness of the localization of the Final Fantasy series is judged based on player immersion and enjoyment. This study finds that immersion is not essential to player enjoyment and therefore is not essential for a successful localization. In regard to the Pokémon series, the appropriateness of the heavy alteration and censorship of elements in the American localization is analyzed via player response to the changes. This localization practice proves to be appropriate and an effective model for future localization of Japanese video games targeted toward children in America. In addition, this paper explores immersion in Pokémon strategy guides released in America and Japan. The aim of this thesis is to expand the dialogue on Japanese video game localization for America and to display successful, creative localization practices which can also be utilized in other media.

Master of Arts
Department of Modern Languages
Melinda Cro
Many recent video games feature complex narratives that contain increasing amounts of written and spoken language. There has thus been growing need for them to be localized into other languages; that is, translated and adapted for markets where languages other than the video game’s language of development are spoken. While the localization process shares many similarities with other projects of translation, because the primary goal of a video game is to be entertaining, video game localization teams are allowed certain creative liberties in translating video games in order to maximize entertainment for players in target markets. Non-literal translation techniques, including transposition, modulation, equivalence, and adaptation, are used to avoid mistranslating in-game language. However, Mangiron and O’Hagan identify in their 2006 analysis of the English localization of Final Fantasy X certain “transcreation” techniques that are used by localization teams in order to make video games more entertaining for players in other markets. These transcreation techniques include the addition of linguistic variation, the re-naming of in-game terminology, the re-creation of wordplay, “contextualization by addition”, and the deliberate use of regional expressions. These transcreation techniques not only serve to make the localized version of a video game more entertaining for a target market, but also make the gameplay experience more original for players in these markets. This study will analyze non-literal translation techniques and “transcreation” techniques in the French localization of BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode 2 to determine how these translation techniques may be used to maximize entertainment and to create a more original gameplay experience for francophone players, followed by a discussion of how video game localizations may be implemented in second language acquisition contexts for the purposes of exploring certain L2 linguistic and cultural phenomena.

碩士
東吳大學
日本語文學系
105
With the development of globalization, the demands for the games that support multiple languages are increasing. In recent years, smartphones and tablets have gone more and more popular, so people are more likely to play the games developed on them. It also means that translations of the games play an important role . Improper translations may lead to unwanted game experience and lousy game quality, and have a negative effect on the sales of the game. 　Improper translations often have something to do with the cultural differences between the translator's and the game makers'. Therefore, it's a challenge for the translators that what to translation strategy to take to minimize the rate of incorrect translations when translating such contents to ensure that players have the best game experience 　In this thesis, we take the game "Tales of Berseria" for example to study what the translation strategies are taken when contents involving the knowledge of the culture of the game makers' in the process of a game are being translated into Chinese, so that we can figure out the rules that should be followed during the translation process. 　This thesis is organized as follows: Section 1 explains the motive, purpose, method of this study and the research restrictions; Section 2 introduces the existing related works of the study; Section 3 studies the background of a game as well as the process of it being translated into Chinese; Section 4 analyzes the translation strategies applied to a game; Section 5 collects and organizes the data that's analyzed in Section 4 and shows the translation tendency in different cultural elements; Setction 6 contains the conclusions of this study and future works.

Celem niniejszej rozprawy była próba porównania odbioru wzrokowego pełnej i częściowej lokalizacji językowej wybranej komputerowej przygodowej gry akcji z odbiorem oryginalnej wersji językowej tej gry. Celem rozprawy była także próba przedstawienia wyników krytycznej analizy dotychczasowych rozważań i badań nad lokalizacją językową gier wideo, w szczególności gier komputerowych, jakie zostały przeprowadzone na gruncie translatoryki, a także uwag pochodzących z praktyki translacyjnej. Wyniki krytycznego oglądu literatury przedmiotu uzupełniłem o wyniki własnych badań eksperymentalnych wykorzystujących metodologię okulograficzną. Translatoryka podjęła kwestie związane z procesem tworzenia nowych wersji językowych gier wideo na początku XXI wieku. W tym samym czasie wprowadziła ona też do swoich metod badawczych metodę okulograficzną. Jak wynika z przeprowadzonej analizy dostępnych publikacji naukowych, nie wykonano jednak dotąd udanej próby połączenia tych dwóch zagadnień w ramach jednego projektu badawczego. Zrealizowany przeze mnie projekt badawczy, w ramach którego przeprowadzono eksperyment okulograficzny miał na celu analizę uwagi wzrokowej na obszarze napisów dialogowych, nakładek oraz ekranów dodatkowych w pełnej angielskiej, częściowej polskiej oraz pełnej polskiej wersji językowej gry Shadow of the Tomb Raider u osób mających duże lub bardzo duże doświadczenie z grami wideo, ale różniących się między sobą poziomem kompetencji translacyjnych i translatorycznych.
The present thesis is aimed at comparing visual perception of full and partial language localization of an action adventure computer game juxtaposed with the perception of its original language version. Another objective of the thesis is trying to critically analyse the results of theoretical considerations and experiments addressing language localization of video games, especially computer games, by translation-studies scholars and remarks by translation practitioners. The results of this critical analysis of the literature on the subject have been supplemented with the results of the experiments utilising eye tracking methodology carried out by the author of the thesis. Translation scholars raised the questions regarding the process of creating new language versions of video games at the beginning of 21st century. At the same time, eye tracking methodology was added to the spectrum of translation-studies methods. As it has been discovered while analysing the available scientific publications, no successful trial of combining the two issues within one research project has been conducted to date. Consequently, the research project described here included carrying out an eye tracking experiment and has been aimed at analysing visual attention at the area of dialogue subtitles, overlays and additional screens in the full English, as well as partial and full Polish language versions of the Shadow of the Tomb Raider game among subjects having vast and very vast experience with video games, who differed from one another with the levels of translation competence and formal university translation training

The center of this thesis proposal is a translation of the first book of AUGUST Software’s Eustia of the Tarnished Wings 穢翌のユースティア, a 2011 dark fantasy visual novel. As visual novels are practically unknown in English or Japanese academic writing, this thesis will provide an introduction to the medium’s history, as well as common display and organizational formats of the medium; a literary overview of Eustia of the Tarnished Wings and its characters and themes of choice and sacrifice; and a discussion of translation methodology and goals pursued in the accompanying excerpts. The translation presented consists of selected excerpts from the Prologue of Eustia of the Tarnished Wings, introducing the main characters, the floating city-state of Novus Aether, and the uneasy social climate of the city. Presented scenes are selected on the basis of plot or thematic relevance or translational interest, as well as scenes that are necessary to contextualize plot or character developments discussed in the critical introduction. This thesis will serve as an introduction to a developing medium that has been overlooked by most academics in the field of Japanese popular culture, as well as a look at the utilization of choice mechanics and branching story structure to In addition, it will present a personal methodology of and approach to translation as related to Eustia’s many and varied characters, social strata and situations, and maintaining individual and consistent voices for different characters and a first-person narrator in fiction.

The goal of this thesis is to examine the changing influence and role of the audience in the localization of Japanese video games. I examine the history of Japanese video game translation, honing in on Japanese Role-Playing Games, including the influence of Nintendo of America’s polices and how they shifted from translating games to localizing games. I also explore the shift in which the internet and social media has allowed for increased interaction between localizers and fan bases. This can allow for localizers to have a more in-depth knowledge of the expectations of the intended audience of the video game, but has also further fueled the debate of whether or not localization constitutes censorship. Lastly, I do a close analysis of two long running game series and how they are adapting to the new changes with the introduction of social media.

Dissertação de Mestrado em Tradução apresentada à Faculdade de Letras
Este trabalho elencou e analisou as diferentes maneiras de manifestar identidade(s) e qual a sua relevância e o seu uso na localização de jogos. O estudo tem dois objetivos principais: (i) refletir acerca das ‘novas’ formas de manifestar identidades locais em virtude da revolução tecnológica da década de 90; (ii) analisar o uso destas ‘novas’ formas de manifestar identidades, na escolha vocabular, durante o processo de localização de jogos. Para tal, foi feita uma pesquisa que contou com leituras atualizadas acerca da localização, enquanto processo tradutivo, e das identidades no âmbito das tecnologias e dos videogames. Foram feitas, também, entrevistas a profissionais atuantes na área da localização de jogos e a gamers. Por fim foi feita uma análise sucinta da localização de dois jogos com a finalidade de ratificar as análises feitas em teoria. Observou-se que o processo de localização, no âmbito dos videogames, é executado para adequar o conteúdo de jogos para um determinado público-alvo e o uso consciente das identidades, como recurso na localização de jogos, melhora a jogabilidade e aumenta a imersão do jogador. O que pôde ser inferido desta pesquisa é que o conhecimento das manifestações identitárias linguísticas e linguísticas digitais e, consequentemente, o seu uso são expedientes necessários para uma localização de jogos que atinja o seu objetivo. Conclui-se, portanto que as manifestações identitárias são utilizadas no processo de localização de jogos para gerar acessibilidade, identificação e representatividade entre jogo e jogador.
The present study aimed to list and analyze the different possibilities of expressing identity (ies) and what are its relevance and its use in games localization. The study have two main objectives: (i) reflect on the 'new' ways of manifesting local identities due to the technological revolution of the 1990s; (ii) analyze the use of these 'new' ways of manifesting identities, in vocabulary choice, during the process of game localization. In order to do this, a research was conducted that relied on updated readings about localization, as a translation process, and about identities in the context of technology and videogames. Interviews were also conducted with professionals working in the field of game localization and gamers. Finally, a succinct assessment of the location of two games was carried out in order to confirm the analyses made in theory. We have observed that the localization process, within video games, is executed to tailor game content to a certain target audience and the conscious use of identities, as a resource in game localization, enhances gameplay and increases player immersion. What could be deduced from this research is that knowledge of linguistic and digital linguistic identity manifestations, and consequently their use, are necessary expedients for a game localization that achieves its goal. In conclusion, therefore, identity manifestations are used in the game localization process to generate accessibility, identification, and representativeness between game and player.