Video Game localisation tools: a user survey
Résumé
The video game industry is a rising sector since its birth in the 70s and, like any sector linked to new technologies, undergoes constant development and emphasises productivity. Therefore, it is paramount to focus on the ergonomics of CAT tools, terminology databases or specialised corpora to define specific solutions to simplify the translation process. Video game localisers must face a wide variety of multimedia assets while continually adapting the content both at a non-textual level and a cultural level as “playability and immersion are the main goals of video game translation” (Bushouse 2015: 12). Another characteristic of the field is that they are forced to “work in a double-blind process (no audiovisual context, no text linearity) that is bound to produce more linguistic and culturalisation mistakes” (Bernal-Merino 2013: 119).
This paper presents the cross-analysis of the results of three online surveys created in the framework of a PhD thesis. The article completes the results published in the journal Critic under the title Video game localisation: a user survey for localisers and linguistic testers (Rivas Ginel 2021: 1-26). The first survey was created to collect data about current business practices in localisation and digital tools’ usage. The second survey was designed to identify linguistic bugs in order of frequency and their causes. The final survey’s purpose was to collect technical data necessary for the development of a comprehensive tool adapted to localisers’ needs.