作者：Tristan Donovan

“所有你的基地，是属于我们的”式的翻译可能只是从前的情况了，但本土化仍然是游戏开发中不受待见的一项工作。

Kate Edwards是IGDA（游戏邦注：国际游戏开发者协会）游戏本土化团体的主席。她指出：“业内许多人仍然不太理解‘本土化’。不少人仍然认为本土化可以留到最后再做，但是，这部分工作在游戏开发周期中的份量不会少于写代码或设计。”

但随着游戏覆盖全球玩家的压力渐大，本土化开始显出它的重要地位。Sandra Pourmarin是育碧蒙特利尔工作室的本土化部门经理，当她于8年前加入工作室时，本土化部门的地位更近似于测试部门，而不是开发团队。

她谈到：“所有本土化工作都是独立的，是作为提供给开发团队的一种服务。现在，本土化项目经理直接对制作人负责，与开发团队处于同一地位。这是巨大的进步。”

开发商和发行商不再把本土化当作纯粹的翻译，因为他们开始更多地考虑将游戏推向世界各地。

Edwards认为：“所有人都认为本土化就是翻译语言，虽然大部分时候是这样的，但不全是这样。文化转换——考虑符号、环境、服装等任何非语言物品的使用，也是本土化伞形结构的很大一部分。”

所以开发商和发行商如何确定他们的国际化吸引力达到标准呢？为了找出问题的答案，我们请教了曾参与制作《暗黑3》、《刺客信条》和《辐射3》的本土化行家们。

1、提供明确的游戏情境

Irene Panzeri是本土化工作室Synthesis主管，曾参与《暗黑3》和《荒野大镖客》的本土化工作。她的建议是，因为游戏通常是在完成后才开始翻译的，所以任何文本或对话提交给本土化工作室时必须附带关于游戏情境的详细信息。

“不同语言有不同的语法规则。在英语当中，‘you’是单复数同形，但在法语中，单数是‘tu’，而复数是‘vous’，且动词要相应地改变。要知道角色对着多少人说话对翻译者来说是个常见的难题。”弄清楚带有多个意思的单词也很重要，她补充道：“比如，‘aim at the tank’是指描准一种燃料的容器还是一种军事工具？”（游戏邦注：“tank”在英语中既指“坦克”，也有“燃料桶”的意思。）

刺客信条：启示录(from gamasutra)

2、尽早展开本土化工作

尽早让本土化团队开始工作可以缓和高压时间的头疼。Pourmarin举例说明：“比如，《刺客信条：启示录》的本土化团队很早就和开发团队合作，确实使工作进程更顺利了。”

“如果我们发现某个内容可能有问题，我们可以提早准备，想出应对的办法，而不是在项目末期才匆匆忙忙地解决它。

比如在《刺客信条》中，我们有一个镜头必须避开一些裸体画面，因为在某些国家这是不允许的。能在开发过程中提早发现这个问题是很重要的。如果到项目的后期才发现这些问题，可能就没有时间适当地解决了，这会增加额外的成本、破坏游戏品质。”

3、关注时事

文化态度不是固定不变的，时事可能改变一款游戏的接受度。“当我本土化《My Weight Loss Coach》时，比利时产品经理提出不可以使用‘pedometer’这个词，因为那阵子在比利时发生了多起‘pedophilia’案件（恋童癖案件），这两个词的拼写太接近了，所以要用另一个词替换它。”Pourmarin表示育碧依靠它的国际办公网络和外部本土化合作伙伴来发现这类局部热点问题。

Kate Edwards是游戏文化咨询公司Englobe的创始人，她同意时事可能影响游戏接受度这一观点：“1990时，《帝国时代》的游戏盒上有一个日本武士，韩国零售商不想上架，因为那时候日本和韩国正为日本海的竹岛/独岛问题闹纠纷。但我认为如果游戏是现在发行，应该不会遇到这样的问题。”

4、推行本文冻结方法

为了控制翻译成本和开发时间，瑞典发行商Paradox Interactive（游戏邦注：《Divine Wind》和《Europa Universalis》的发行商）强行削减游戏文本的翻译时间。Linda Kiby是Paradox的副制作人，她提出：“当我们冻结文体后，我们才将文本文件发给翻译者。”

“因为我们想让我们的游戏更容易修改，所以我们将所有文本存成CSV文件（游戏邦注：CSV是一种纯文本格式，用来存储数据，数据的字段用逗号隔开），因为这是最更于修改的方法，这也意味着我们可以直接把完成的译文粘贴到文本文件中。但是，如果文本送交翻译后，有人改变了什么，或移掉一句话，就会产生混乱了，这就是为什么冻结文本这么重要。”

5、翻译者应该提问题

因为外部翻译代理没有在游戏本身的情境之下阅读文本，所以如果他们没有提出问题，就应该敲警钟了。这是Omar Salleh的看法。他是西班牙一个名为Tragnarion工作室的游戏总监，该工作室开发过Mac第三人称射击游戏《Scourge: Outbreak》。

scourge outbreak(from gamasutra)

“我曾遇到，有些人拿到文本后说一切正常，直到他们完成翻译我们都没有听到任何问题。当时我们也没有想太多，但游戏测试时，我们才发现本土化后的文本从语法上说是正确的，但与游戏的风格并不符合。”

6、尽早发现文化方面的问题

Edwards建议，开发商必须尽早考虑文化方面的本土化工作，因为有些问题不可能在开发末期解决。“我检查《辐射3》，看这是否能被印度市场接受，然而，双头突变牛导致游戏不能进入印度市场，因为印度法律是保护牛的。”

Edwards解释道：“这些法律指的当然是现实中的牛，但是法律反对伤害真牛这个规定太敏感了，所以看到虚拟的牛被突变、可以吃等等，这也会变成敏感问题。”

“我们确实讨论了这能不能修改，但那时候游戏已经完工了，所以值不值得花钱让游戏在印度发行就成了问题。在最后关头，唯一能做的事就是继续发行，为可能产生的反应作好准备。”

7、提供角色的传记

Synthesis工作室音频总监Ambra Ravaglia认为，关于游戏中的角色的传记对本土化工作室来说，是极其有用的，如果他们是游戏的外语声优的话。

她解释道：“知道你要扮演的角色、他们的年龄、相貌、心情等等，是非常重要的，因为那意味着我可以选择一个我能驾驭其情绪的角色，并正确地反映那个角色。”

这比本土化语言更加重要，因为本土化语音常常比文本翻译更复杂。例如，苏格兰口音与美国口音相比，德国人能接受的口音应该是什么？在这种情况下，理解角色能够帮助本土化团队找到最为外语玩家接受的口音。

不同国家的演员之间的不同也很重要，Ravaglia指出：“在游戏中，一位25岁的美国水军通常有很低沉的声音，但低沉的意大利声音很少听到，所以我们得留着声音更低沉的演员扮演更年老的角色——所以，我们25岁的水军的声音只好年轻一些，高昂一些了。

8、与游戏粉丝合作

Paradox Interactive利用粉丝的热情为翻译添彩。Kiby提道：“游戏测试版的玩家很高兴能参与我们的翻译工作，他们通常比专业的翻译者还好，因为他们知道游戏和文本出现的情境。”

“因为他们是粉丝，如果他们提出改进意见，其他粉丝更可能赞同他们的意见。我们相信他们的判断。但是，我们不会让他们处理大量文本，主要是文本中的小段落和查看翻译的风格。毕竟，你不可能发8000条文本给志愿者，让他们在三周以内查看完。我们只想让粉丝们开心一下。”

9、连接意识

“在制作《Scourge: Outbreak》时，我们一开始犯了错误，将短句剪成语块，然后分别保存文本，所以代码会在多人模式下将他们串起来，产生像‘<Player 1> captured <Team 2′s> flag!’（<玩家1>获得<队伍2>的旗帜!）这样的短句。但这意味着这些单词的翻译脱离了情境，游戏引擎串联它们的方式可能在英语中行得通，但在西班牙语或其他语言中就行不通了。所以我们不得不返回查看所有这类信息，这样在其他语言中才不会产生像‘Captured <Team 2′s> <Player 1> Flag’（获得<队伍2的><玩家1>旗帜）这样的短句。”

10、指定文化监督人

Edwards的理由是：“在游戏开发的某个阶段，游戏的基本世界和角色已经到位，你开始用其他内容填充游戏世界，让它更加真实完整。正是在这个阶段，大量文化方面的问题出现了，这是因为创意人员的交差日期很紧张，他们只能想到什么就用什么，所以无意识地使用了某些很老套或文化上很敏感的内容。”

解决这个问题的办法是指定团队中的一个人负责把关内容，防止这些内容产生麻烦。“就像在漏洞追踪系统中制作一个漏洞类型，指定的监督人可以标记这些东西，在开发过程中追踪它们是否产生问题。任何负责把关文化内容的人都必须提问题，比如“这个符号的来源是什么”、“这个灵感来自哪里”或“配音中的这个外语单词实际怎么说？”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

10 Tips: Localization

by Tristan Donovan

The days of “all your base are belong to us” style translations might be thing of the past, but localization is still one of game development’s Cinderella specialisms.

“A lot of people in the industry still don’t understand localization very well,” says Kate Edwards, chair of the IGDA’s Game Localization Special Interest Group. “Many still think of it as something done at the end, but it is as much a part of the development cycle as coding or writing or designing.”

But as the pressure for games to connect with a global audience grows, localization is starting to shed its afterthought status. When Sandra Pourmarin, localization manager at Ubisoft Montreal, joined the studio eight years ago, localization was closer in status to the testing department than the development team.

“All the localization resources were on a separate floor and worked as a service to the development team,” she says. “Now the localization project manager is under the direct responsibility of the producers and we’re on the same floor as the team. It’s a huge improvement.”

Localization is also starting to show that it’s about more than translation as developers and publishers start to think more about how their games will go down in different parts of the world.

“Everyone perceives localization as language and for the most part it is but that is not all localization is,” says Edwards. “Culturalization — thinking about the use of symbols, environments, costumes, everything that isn’t language — is also part of the big umbrella of localization.”

So how can developers and publishers make sure their international appeal is up to scratch? To find out we asked the localization pros who have worked on games such as Diablo III, Assassin’s Creed and Fallout 3 for their helpful hints.

1. Make the context clear

Games often get translated before they are finished, so any text or speech handed over to the localization studios needs to be accompanied with detailed information about the context, says Irene Panzeri, content lead at localization studio Synthesis which has worked on titles such as Diablo III and Red Dead Redemption.

“Languages don’t share the same grammar rules. In English ‘you’ is both plural and singular, but in French the singular is ‘tu’ and the plural ‘vous’ with the verb changing accordingly.

Knowing how many people a character is talking to is a common dilemma for translators.” Clarifying words with dual meanings is also important, she adds: “Does ‘aim at the tank’ mean aim at a fuel container or an armored vehicle?”

2. Let localization in early

Getting the localization team involved as early as possible can reduce crunch time headaches says Pourmarin. “With Assassin’s Creed: Revelations the localization team worked with the development team on localization earlier and it really smoothed the process,” she says.

“If we are aware of specific content that might be a challenge we can prepare for that and come up with options for how to address it rather than trying to do it in the rush time at the end of the project.

“For example on Assassin’s Creed, we had cameras that needed to move to avoid showing some nudity that would be a problem in some countries. Being able to identify that early in the process is very precious. If you arrive late on a project with those issues there might not be time to tackle them properly and that will result in additional cost and harm the quality of the game.”

3. Current events matter

Cultural attitudes aren’t fixed and current events can change how a game will be received. “When I was localizing My Weight Loss Coach for the DS, a product manager in Belgium raised a flag about the use of the word ‘pedometer’ because there had just been a lot of pedophilia cases in Belgium, and it was felt the word was too close, so we replaced it with another word,” says Pourmarin, who says Ubisoft uses its network of national offices and external localization partners to help spot these kinds of topical concerns.

Kate Edwards, founder of game culturalization consultancy Englobe, agrees that current affairs can affect how games are received: “Back in 1999, Age of Empires had a Japanese samurai on the box and Korean retailers didn’t want to put it on the shelves, because at that time Japan and Korea were at the height of one of their rows about the Takeshima/Dokdo islands in the Sea of Japan. But I think if you released that today there wouldn’t be the same problem.”

4. Impose a text freeze

To keep translation costs under control and development on schedule, Paradox Interactive, the Swedish publisher-developer behind the Divine Wind and Europa Universalis games, sets and enforces a cut-off date for changes to in-game text. “At a certain point we have a text freeze, which is when our text files get sent to the translators,” says Linda Kiby, associate producer at Paradox.

“Because we want our games to be moddable, we put all our text in CSV files, as that is the easiest way of allowing people to do that, and it also means we can just paste the finished translation into the text files. But it also means that if anyone changes anything or removes a line after the text is sent for translation that can create chaos, which is why the text freeze is so important.”

5. Translators should be asking questions

Since external translation agencies don’t get to see the text within the context of the game itself, alarm bells should start ringing if they aren’t coming back with questions says Omar Salleh, game director at Tragnarion Studios, the Spanish developer of the XBLA, PSN and Mac third-person shooter Scourge: Outbreak.

“I’ve worked with some who took the text said everything was fine and we didn’t hear back until they were done,” he says. “We didn’t think too much about it at the time, but when playtesting the game with the localized text we realized that while the text was grammatically correct, it didn’t really fit the style of the game.”

6. Be aware of cultural issues from day one

Developers need to think about culturalization early on because some issues just can’t be fixed at the end of development, says Edwards. “I was asked to review Fallout 3 to see if it would be compatible with the Indian market, and because of the two-headed mutant Brahmin bulls, it was not going to be viable because India has laws that protect cows from harm.

“Those laws pertain to real ones, of course, but if it’s sensitive enough that there is a law against real cows being harmed then it is going to be sensitive to see a virtual one that is mutated and can be eaten and all that,” says Edwards.

“We did discuss whether this could be changed, but the game was done at that point, so it was a question of whether it was worth spending all that money to release the game in India. The only other thing you can do at that late a stage is to go ahead with release, and plan for the reaction it might get.”

7. Provide biographies for characters

Biographical information about in-game characters is extremely helpful for localization studios if they are casting actors to perform in-game speech in a foreign language, says Ambra Ravaglia, lead audio director at Synthesis.

“It’s important to know the characters you are going to cast, their ages, their looks, their moods and so on, since that means I can choose an actor who can manage those emotions and correctly reflect the character,” she says.

This is all the more important because localizing speech is often more complex than text translations. For instance, what would be the German equivalent of a Scottish accent compared to an American accent? In such cases having an understanding of who the character is helps localization teams figure out what accent would be most appropriate for a foreign language audience.

The differences between the actors in different countries also matters, says Ravaglia. “A 25-year-old U.S. marine in a game usually has a deep voice, but deep Italian voices are rare, so we have to keep back deeper-voiced actors for the older characters — so our 25-year-old marine would have a younger, higher voice.”

8. Work with your fans

Paradox Interactive draws on the enthusiasm of its fans to polish its translations. “Our beta testers are happy to help on the translations and often they are better than the professional translators, because they know the games and the situations in which the text is going to be used,” says Kiby.

“Because they are fans, and other fans will agree if they think something could be improved, we trust their judgement. We don’t use them for whole masses of text, though; it’s more for shorter sections of text and checking the flavor of the translation. After all, you can’t send volunteers 8,000 lines of text to go over in three weeks, and we want them to have fun.”

9. Beware of string concatenations

“While making Scourge: Outbreak, we initially made the mistake of cutting phrases into chunks, and storing text separately, so the code could string them together in the multiplayer mode to create phrases like ‘<Player 1> captured <Team 2′s> flag!’,” says Salleh. “But that meant these words were being translated out of context, and the game engine was stringing them together in a way that might make sense in English, but not in Spanish or any other language. So we had to go back through every message of this type, so that we didn’t end up with Yod- speak like ‘Captured <Team 2′s> <Player 1> Flag! The’ in other languages.”

10. Appoint a cultural watchdog

“There’s a stage in game development where you’ve got the basic world and characters in place, and you then start backfilling it with additional content to make the world more real and complete,” says Edwards. “It’s during this stage where a lot of culturalization problems get added, because the creative folk are up against a tight deadline and just use what comes to mind so they might, without intending to, insert stereotypes or culturally sensitive content.”

One way to deal with this is to make one individual on the team responsible for watching out for content that might cause trouble. “Create a bug type in the bug tracking system so they can flag up these things and track what’s happened to them in development,” she says. “Whoever is responsible needs to ask questions like ‘Where did that symbol come from’ and ‘What was the inspiration for it’ or ‘What do the foreign language words in the soundtrack actually say?’”（source:gamasutra）