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开发者谈为什么说本地化是游戏剧本创作的关键一环

发布时间:2020-08-10 09:24:14 Tags:,

开发者谈为什么说本地化是游戏剧本创作的关键一环

原作者:Marie Dealessandri 译者:Willow Wu

2020年四月,LudoNarraCon大会聚集了来自世界各地的资深本地化人员,他们探讨了本地化和游戏剧本创作之间的关系,以及译者如何成为写作链中的一环。这两方合作越紧密,你游戏的本地化效果就越好,最终在国外获得积极反响的可能性也就越大。

本地化仍然是一个不太受重视的领域,一些开发人员认为它就是游戏开发完成后的简单翻译工作。

但值得注意的是,“翻译”从一开始就不是一项“简单的工作”。即使是小文本量也可能需要数小时的努力,因为除了词语的翻译之外,还需要表现出正确的语气和气氛。如果涉及到俚语,或者特定的文化知识点,这个努力就要翻好几倍。再加上技术方面的限制,你应该就能领悟到为什么本地化比大多数人想象的要复杂得多。

兼顾文化和语言的特色是一个挑战,并且本地化可能会对游戏世界产生至关重要的影响。这一精彩的谈话环节探讨了“叙事游戏如何通过本地化推动现实文化的发展”——嘉宾有Fabio “Kenobit” Bortolotti、Anthony Jauneaud、Vladimir Konoplitsky以及Natalia Nesterova。

因此,无论你是刚踏入行业,试图在本地化领域做出一番成就,还是一位资深作家,希望在本地化环节中参与更多,我都建议你把这篇文章看完。

好翻译的标准是什么?这是嘉宾们讨论的话题之一。这个话题是由来自Riotloc公司的Vladimir Konoplitsky提起的,他已经在这个行业工作了13年,是一位经验丰富的本地化工作者。

本地化工作者应该更有针对性地调整内容,使其更适合目标受众,还是说应该忠于原有的内容?

“我想到的例子是《魔戒》,我们有好几个版本的俄语译本,其中最广为人知的是一段带有浓厚俄罗斯民间色彩的传说故事,翻译得非常优美。完全感觉不到原版英语的痕迹。他们把名字翻译并进行了改动,所以这些名字听起来就像是俄罗斯民间故事里的角色。措辞很有诗意,非常适合用来讲述老故事。

“这种做法仍然还有争议——有的人支持,有的人反对。所以译者们究竟应该怎么做?他们应该对原作的风格、角色、内容进行适当改编,让它更贴近这边的文化吗?还是应该更注重保持‘原汁原味’,即使目标语言国家的用户会在理解上遇到困难?”

《死亡搁浅》就是一个很典型的例子——或者任何一个小岛秀夫出品的游戏。你是要翻译所有角色的名字呢(他们的名字都有含义)还是在所有语言版本中保留Deadman(亡人)这个称呼?就比如说法语版本吧,这些名字还是英文的。这是不是最合适的做法,我们无法直接下结论,具体还是要取决于项目本身的情况。

Last Day on Earth: Survival(from pockegtgamer.biz)

Last Day on Earth: Survival(from pockegtgamer.biz)

“我认为这很大程度上是取决于你的目标受众,”俄罗斯本地化专家Natalia Nesterova说道。“《魔戒》是一个奇幻故事,许多孩子和青少年都喜欢,也许这就是译者脑中所想的。如果你翻译的是一本关于军事史的书,你就不必对原文进行调整,让它看起来就像是用你的语言写的,因为你显然是在为了解相关历史的人做翻译。

“基本思路就是要了解你的目标受众,首先要倾听他们的声音。即使是同一个国家,也有不同的用户群组。你得知道自己的目标受众是谁。”

如果做法得当,全面化的本地化效果也可以非常出色,Nesterova表示她最喜欢的《指环王》译本就针对俄罗斯读者进行了大量改编。但并不是所有的嘉宾都同意,他们认为这种做法可以说是过时了。就比如说最近《魔戒》法语译本,译者们已经不再改名字了。

“如果它是2020年制作的翻译,那绝对要被否决,”本地化资深人士Fabio “Kenobit “Bortolotti说。“如果是在1960或者70年代,没有网络的时候,这或许还是个可以理解的选择。这不一定是最理想的本地化方案,但方法得当的话你还是能交出一个令人拍手叫绝的作品。”

最好的办法就是跟原版创作者保持紧密合作,这样他们就可以跟你分享思路,怎样才能更好地表达意思,然后分析你的目标市场,看看这些人通常都喜欢什么。

“根据我的经验,当译者能够直接跟原作者交流,或者至少能够跟他们保持紧密合作,往往就能收获令人满意的成果,”Bortolotti继续说道。“也许有80%的内容,作为翻译你是能够自己搞定的,没有什么模棱两可的地方,你知道这里讲的是什么。

“但有20%是需要原作者来支援的,或者是帮助你理解发生了什么,或者是帮助你解决翻译难题——比如双关语不能准确地翻译成目标语言。你得确保自己有办法跟原文作者取得联系,以便能够更好地呈现他们的创作。

“如果开发者不仅愿意真正地与译者合作,还愿意分享他们的叙事设计思路,作为译者的你就可以决定优先级、风格,然后你就可以提出更有针对性的问题。”

目标语言中没有对应的翻译该怎么办?

本地化充满了挑战——保持原汁原味还只是冰山一角。正如Bortolotti所谈到的,有些词语、表达,甚至整个概念在你的目标语言中是不存在的。中性代词就是一个很典型的例子。

虽然英语中有一个非常实用的“they”,但是像法语、西班牙语、意大利语这些很浪漫的语言中是不存在这种代词的。近些年法语和西班牙语中已经出现了“they”的替代词,但就法语而言,这类词的使用频率还是很低的。

说到意大利语,Bortolotti提到了之前他为Chance Agency工作室的游戏Neo Cab做的本地化工作,强调本地化者必须为不存在的词语解释概念。

“在意大利语中,如果遇到模棱两可的情况,通常默认为阳性代词。但这完全不符合Neo Cab的创作想法。游戏的背景设定是在不久的将来,因此我们可以想象,在20年后的意大利,像中性代词这样的东西是会被创造出来并使用的。因此,我们试图提出一个可能的解决方案,针对意大利语的性别问题快速地写了一 篇小论文,还有我们的潜在解决办法。

“我们问原作者:你觉得这样行吗?他们点头了。他们只需要在游戏中增加一个额外的字母,也就是 ‘schwa’,反过来的‘e’(ɘ)就可以了。通过与开发人员的合作,我们可以换个方式,从游戏世界入手。这并不是译者的个人发明,而是跟开发者和编剧们一起研究出的应对方案。”

这引发了一场更为复杂的辩论——本地化人员是否应该对游戏中的敏感话题加以修饰?把不适合当地用户的内容隐藏起来,这是本地化人员的责任之一吗?还是说他们应该借此会让更多人接受某些内容?

“比如说吧,就在几年之前,如果你想在俄罗斯发行一款实体游戏,其中有涉及到性取向的话题,那可能直接会被政府封杀,” Konoplitsky说。“我记得之前在玩万智牌的时候,有一张卡牌上有两个男性角色,英文版的文字说明表明了他们是恋人。在俄版中,文字说的是友情,他们是非常亲密的朋友。我可以想到,这或许是本地发行商做出的改动。如果直接发行原版内容,游戏可能会受到强烈抵制,有些国家在特定话题上确实比较保守。”

Kate Edwards在最近的GDC演讲上也深入探讨了文化化这个话题。她解释了为什么文化化跟本地化一样重要,要如何处理敏感话题,让游戏被更多地区、国家接受。

这些方法因国而异,Bortolotti表示他从来不担心他的“权限”问题。

“我最主要的任务就是呈现作者的观点——不管它们是什么,有时可能会触及敏感话题,但我真的不认为本地化人员应该有选择的余地,除非是非常危险的事情,”他继续说道。“但我从来没有遇到那样的事。我觉得你有责任把游戏当作一个艺术作品来呈现,所以你不能删减,也不能修饰任何东西。”

Nesterova表示她的状况有所不同,因为她是把俄文译英文,然后其他人把英文当作源语言再翻译成欧洲、亚洲国家的语言。

“所以我的同事们都是以我的工作为基础进行翻译的。”她解释说。“我不能对原内容做任何修改。我可以做注解,但我绝对不能改动原来的东西。”

特殊词汇和口音要怎么处理?

本地化的另一个挑战是适当表现出特定时代或特定地区的说话方式。地方口音往往会让人联想到某些特征——这意味着在源语言中,为角色的选择口音实际上是会影响用户对角色的认知。如果目标语言中没有对应的口音类型或者特殊词汇,你要怎么表达原文的意思?

“如果某个角色用的是一种非常奇特的俚语,是这个国家和这个时代的典型特征,那你用本地的俚语代替它,最后呈现出来的会让人感觉是另一个角色,”Konoplitsky说。

这也是为什么我们需要全方位的处理,而不仅仅是在翻译的某一方面。

“不是单独改变这个角色,而是改变整个环境、整个游戏世界,这个角色应该和谐地融入你所改编的环境中,不显得突兀。”Nesterova指出。

对于这个话题,Bortolotti举了一个由他翻译的游戏:Lucas Pope开发的《奥伯拉丁的回归》,强调了本地化有时确实很费精力。

“这个游戏的年代、环境设定都很明确——十九世纪、一艘隶属于东印度公司的帆船。所以角色们说的是旧时代的语言,并且还有一种非常特殊的表达方式——水手用语。这是一个非常艰巨的挑战,你不能用现代的语言表达去翻译,但同时又得确保玩家看得懂。

“所以,你要做的是了解目标语言在那个年代的表达方式,翻译成那种风格。我们阅读了那个年代的书,还看了当时的意大利文译本。然后,为了保证翻译的准确性,你还必须做一些研究——关于水手用语。

“通常一个下午就能完成的翻译量,那次我花了整整一个星期才完成。跟团队讨论想法是非常有帮助的,因为有时候其实你已经抓到了正确的思路,只是被困在脑中,需要有人帮你一把。所以你需要跟别人讨论你的想法,听听他们的感受:能明白我的意思吗?理解起来有困难吗?当然,能够向原作者提出非常具体的问题也是很重要的。正如Nate所说的,你不只是在改变角色,你只是在为整个故事奠定基调。

你需要多费一些心思调整,因为,就比如你选择了错误的口音,你最终可能会塑造出一个跟原作者意图不符的角色。叙事设计师、编剧同时也是本地化协调员的Anthony Jauneaud讲到了一些关于日本游戏翻译成法语的例子。

“大阪人通常都比较热情奔放,他们的说话方式与日本其他城市的人相比有非常明显的区别,”他解释道。“不知道为什么,GameCube上的一款类似《真·三国无双》风格的游戏《超战斗封神》(Mystic Heroes),其中一个说着大阪方言的角色被本地化人员塑造成了一个带有浓重法国南部口音的人,这实在是太搞笑了,因为这种口音非常罕见,通常会被看作是一种很傻气的说话方式。”

大多数讨论嘉宾都认为口音在幽默、卡通情景中通常都能产生很好的效果——比如《辛普森一家》中的校管Groundskeeper Willie,他的口音会根据观众所在国家而改变——但在其它情景下应该避免这么做,因为口音是很难本地化的。

但是,如果原作设定是叙事中不会透露很多关于角色的细节信息,那口音确实是一个增加内容深度的好方法,也就是在不增加文字量的情况下暗示更多信息。

总体而言,口音处理方法因国家/地区而异,你越了解目标语言以及相关的文化,你就越清楚什么样的做法是最合适的。比如美国不同地区的口音是被广泛接受的,而在法国的各类媒体节目中,地区口音是很少出现的。

“我喜欢把所有东西翻成意大利语,这是我的目标语言,选择用词汇来传达文化内涵,而不是用口音,”Bortolotti说。“此外,你得意识到你是一名翻译,不是演员——你无法直接掌控这些口音的实际表现方式,这就像是赌博。

“我的观点是,当开发者真正去思考本地化问题(而不是把它当成事后的一个加工程序)、真正投入精力与译者沟通、合作,最终得到的成果可能会好非常多,令所有人都更加满意。”

本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao

During LudoNarraCon 2020, a panel featuring experienced localisers from around the globe explored the relationship between localisation and writing, and how translators can (and should) be seen as another link in the writing chain. The closer these two aspects work together, the better your game’s localisation will be, ultimately improving its chances to perform well abroad.

Localisation remains an underestimated field, with some developers seeing it as a simple work of translation thrown in at the end of the development cycle.

But it’s worth noting that “translation” is never a “simple work” to start with. Even a small text can require hours of effort, as the tone and atmosphere need to be properly conveyed in addition to the actual words. That effort is multiplied by ten when slang is involved, or a specific cultural reference is added. Add technical boundaries to the mix due to the medium, and you can start understanding why localisation is a much more difficult endeavour than most people think.

Juggling cultural and language specifics is a challenge, and localisation can result in important changes in a game’s world. This excellent LudoNarraCon talk explored how “narrative games evolve real life cultures through localisation” featuring contributions from Fabio “Kenobit” Bortolotti, Anthony Jauneaud, Vladimir Konoplitsky, and Natalia Nesterova.

So whether you’re a localiser only starting in the industry, a young studio trying to navigate the tumultuous waters of localisation, or a veteran writer wanting to be more hands-on in the process, this article is for you.

What is the criteria of a good translation?

One of the topics touched upon by the panellists was the underlying principles of good translation in games. This was first raised by Riotloc’s Vladimir Konoplitsky, a localisation veteran who’s been working in the industry for 13 years. Should localisers adapt the content more precisely so it fits the target audience, or should it remain true to the original?

“The example that comes to my mind is we have many translations for the Lord of the Rings in Russian for example,” he said, highlighting something that applies to many countries outside of Russia, and is often a source of controversy among Tolkien fans. “One of the most famous one is a very beautiful translation that sounds absolutely like a Russian folklore tale. It doesn’t sound at all like something written in English, by an English writer, about their folklore. It has names translated and adapted so they sound like Russian-style folklore names. It has very poetic wording, typical for old tales.

“Should the translator convey the original style even if it won’t be as understood in the country?”

“It’s still controversial — there are people who love it and there are people who hate it. So what should the translator do? Should they adapt the creation, its style, its characters, to something closer to their community, to their culture? Or should they be [truer to] the original, and convey the original style even if it won’t be as understood in the country?”

A good example in games would be Death Stranding — or any Hideo Kojima game really. Do you translate the characters’ names, which all have a meaning, or does Deadman remain Deadman in every language? For the French version, for instance, the names were kept in English. There is no direct answer to whether or not this is the right approach — it has to be tailored for each project.

“I think that really depends on your target audience,” Russian localisation expert Natalia Nesterova said. “For The Lord of the Rings, it’s a fairy tale, many kids and teenagers love it, and perhaps that’s what the translator had in mind. If you translate a book on military history, you don’t have to adapt it to make it like it was written in your language, because you’re obviously translating it for someone who understands the origins.

“The basic idea here is to understand your target audience, listen to them in the first place. Even within a nationality there are different groups of people. You have to know who you’re writing for.”

Full localisation can be excellent if done right, with Nesterova saying that her favourite Lord of the Rings translation is actually heavily adapted for Russia. Not all the panellists agreed though, as this can be seen as a dated practice. In recent Lord of the Rings translations in French, for example, translators have moved away from adapting names.

“The thing is, if that’s a translation made in 2020, that’s a big no-no,” said localisation veteran Fabio “Kenobit” Bortolotti. “But maybe in 1970 or in 1960 without the internet, that might have been a very understandable choice. That might not be the best localisation solution, but you can do a hell of a job if you do it right.”

The best way to approach this is to work closely with the writer of the original script so they can tell you what they think makes more sense in their context, and analyse your target market to see what they usually prefer.

“In my experience, the best things happen when the translator is able to work directly, or at least with a very close connection, to the actual writer,” Bortolotti continued. “There is maybe 80% of any translation that you can do on your own as a translator because there is nothing ambiguous and you know exactly what’s going on.

“But there is a 20% where you need an input from the writer, either to understand exactly what’s going on or you have a very difficult [part] — maybe a pun or something that does not translate exactly into your target language. You need to be able to talk to whoever wrote the text in order to better represent their vision.

“Whenever the developers are willing to actually not only work with the translators, but also share what’s important about their idea of narration, you as a translator can decide on priorities, on a style, and you can then find better questions to ask them.”

How to approach things that don’t exist in your target language

Localisation is riddled with challenges — how close you remain to the original is only the tip of the iceberg. As Bortolotti touched upon, there are words, expressions, and even entire concepts that will possibly not exist in your target language. A common example is gender neutral pronouns.

While English has the very useful “they”, lots of Romance languages such as French, Spanish and Italian simply don’t have this option. French and Spanish alternatives to “they” have been invented in recent years, but only used marginally as far as French is concerned.

In Italian, Bortolotti explained that he also had to find an alternative for his recent work on Chance Agency’s Neo Cab, highlighting the necessity for localisers to come up with concepts for words that don’t exist.

“In case of ambiguity, in Italian, you usually just default to the male [pronoun]. This would have been a huge betrayal of [Neo Cab's] vision. But because the game is set in a kind of near future, we could imagine at least that, in Italian, in 20 years, something like gender neutral pronouns will be invented and used. And so we tried to come up with a possible solution and we wrote a very quick paper on the gender nature of the Italian language and what our potential solution [was].

“We asked the writers: would this work for you? And they said yes. They just had to implement an extra character in the game — which is the ‘schwa’, the upside down e [ɘ] — and it worked. By working with the developers, we were able to turn what looked like an impossible challenge into a world-building occasion. It was not an invention of the translators, it was a solution found together with the developers and the writers.”

This led to a wider debate about whether or not localisers should speak up about in-game topics that are sensitive in their own countries. Is it their responsibility to hide things that are not adapted to their local audience, or should they use this opportunity to push for some ideas to be more widely accepted?

“Until a few years ago, for example, if you wanted to publish a game physically in Russia and you had sexuality as a topic in it, it could be just banned by the government,” Konoplitsky said. “I remember playing Magic: The Gathering, and there were two male characters [on the cards] and the caption in the English versions said they were in love. In Russia, it was replaced with friendship, like they’re very [close] friends. And I can imagine that maybe the local publishers were afraid that if they didn’t smooth this, they would have backlash, because some countries are less developed in certain topics.”

This debate was largely explored by Kate Edwards in her recent GDC talk about culturalisation, which we covered on the GamesIndustry.biz Academy. She explained why culturalisation matters as much as localisation and how to navigate sensitive themes so your game can reach wider markets.

This approach does change from country to country, and Bortolottinoted how “privileged” he is that he’s never had to worry about it.

“I feel a huge responsibility on representing whatever the view of the writer is, and sometimes it happens that it might touch upon a [sensitive] topic, but I don’t really think that’s your choice [as a localiser], unless it’s something very dangerous,” he continued. “But it never happened to me. I think you have just a responsibility to represent the game as a work of art and so not to cut any corners or even smooth anything.”

Nesterova pointed out that she’s in a different position as she translates games from Russian to English. Then, from her English, the games are translated into various European and Asian languages

“So my colleagues base their translations on my work,” she explained. “So I just don’t have the right to cut any corners. I leave comments for them, I explain things in the comments, but I just can’t cut anything.”

How to approach peculiar lexicons and accents

Another aspect of localisation is properly conveying the speech of a specific era, or a specific region. Local accents are often associated with specific characteristics — meaning that choosing the accent of a character in the original language actually has consequences on how this character is going to be perceived. So how do you convey the same meaning when you can’t use the same accent or lexicon in your target language?

“[If a character] has very peculiar slang that is typical for this very country and this very age, and if you replace it with the local slang, you just will get another character in the end, just from the way they speak,” Konoplitsky said.

Which is why changes need to be made across the board, and not only on one aspect of the translation.

“You don’t change this isolated character; you change the whole environment, the whole world of the [game], as this very character should fit naturally in the thing you adapt,” Nesterova pointed out.

Bortolotti had a specific example on this topic, from when he worked on the translation of Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn, highlighting just how much work goes into localisation sometimes.

“That’s a game set in a very specific time, the East India company, in a very specific setting, which is a sailboat. And so you had language from an old era, and a very specific language — the language of the sailors. And that was a huge challenge, because you can’t just use the modern language and you still need to be understandable.

“So the thing you do is you try to translate it the way it would have been written if it was written back in the day, but in your target language. We read books about the time, and read the Italian translations of books around that time. Then you also have to start doing some research, if you want to get a job done right, about the very specific language of [sailors].

“It took me a full week to do the work I usually could have done in an afternoon. It’s very helpful to have a team to bounce your ideas [off], because sometimes you find the solution but it’s in your head. So you need to bounce the idea off someone else to see: do you get what I mean here? Is this easy to understand? And of course, it was very important to be able to ask very specific questions to the writer. You’re not just changing, as Nate was saying, the character, you’re just setting the tone for the whole story.”

You need to go the extra mile to get the tone right because, if you choose the wrong accent for instance, you may end up with a character that is different from the author’s intention. Narrative designer, writer and localisation coordinator Anthony Jauneaud noticed this about some translations of Japanese games into French.

“People from Osaka usually are a bit bullish — there’s something very different in their speech [compared to] other Japanese cities,” he explained. “And for some reason, for a Dynasty Warriors game on GameCube which was called Mystic Heroes, they translated the characters speaking with the Osaka [dialect] with a very thick south of France accent, which is just hilarious because that accent is very rare and it’s usually seen as a dumb accent.”

Most of the panelists agreed that accents in general work well in humorous, cartoonish settings — such as the janitor in the Simpsons, Groundskeeper Willie, who has a different accent depending on which country you’re watching — but otherwise should be avoided as they can be very difficult to pull off.

However, in a setting where the narrative doesn’t reveal a lot of details about the characters, accents can be a good way to add a bit more depth and say a bit more about them without adding words.

Overall, the approach to accents is different from country to country, and the more you know about your target language and culture, the more you’ll know what approach fits best. Accents from the different parts of the US are widely accepted for instance, while you will very rarely see local accents in any type of French media.

“I usually like to just translate everything in Italian, which is my target language, and communicate all of the cultural connotations with a choice of words more than with the accent,” said Bortolotti. “Also, as a translator you’re not an actor, and you have no direct control on how that accent will actually play out, so it’s always kind of a gamble.

“My takeaway from this is that whenever the developers really think about localisation and don’t think of it as an afterthought, and actually put some effort to communicate and work with the translators, the results can be so much better and more fulfilling for everybody.”

(source: gamesindustry.biz


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