Forums > General Chatter > Challenges In Chinese Video Game Translation

Translators are aware that translating text isn't an easy task. The translation of Chinese games for the Western market is more difficult because English and Chinese differ in language structure, culture, and use of the language.

Chinese Video Game Market

No matter if you live in Hong Kong or Tapei, one may observe that there's a rise in the number of video games translated in China. The original language of these games can vary. Still, they are primarily English or Japanese, and it is evident that game makers are likely to target the substantial Chinese game market.

Localizing Video Games For The Western Market

However, the games produced in China are introduced in the Western market, too. It's not just an issue of making many versions of the Chinese game, shipping the games across Europe or America, and then being offered on the Western market. The games have to be translated as well as localized.

Josh Dryer, a Beijing-based game translator, and localizer assert that Chinese gaming companies have been targeting the west since they've been around. "I work for the Chinese gaming company or an operator in the western market who has a license agreement with the Chinese game company in the past,' Dryer claims.

"It's not always easy to determine who performs the translation. There are often other parties involved, like large Video game translation services.' According to Dryer, translating Chinese games is different from translating Chinese texts. One must incorporate cultural nuances and intricacies to convey the message to the audience effectively.

Limited Space Available In Translation of Chinese Into English

Chinese translation into English is usually limited due to the limited space available. English is a longer one than Chinese. For instance, two Chinese characters, "下载," are equivalent to eight English characters; if these Chinese characters were initially displayed on a web-based button, the English translation might not be appropriate.

Budget Constraint

Dryer mentions that the budget is a further constraining aspect. Before this, Chinese games were often translated by local, cheap university students with a degree in English rather than professional translation. In addition to the short time allocated for translation, this significantly affected the quality of translations.

Lack of Clarity

According to Dryer Dryer, the process of translating Chinese to English is also affected due to the lack of clarity in the Chinese language.找绿衣强盗, for instance, roughly translates to 'Find the Green-Clad Bandit". However, it doesn't specify the exact number of such characters to be located.

The Actual Issue Stems From Chinese Culture

These are just minor translation issues. The issues stem from the Chinese culture embodied in the game primarily created in China called the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG). Before they are introduced to the world outside of China, the storyline of these fantasy-based martial arts games like the Wuxia games and the Age of Wushu often has to be changed.

Chinese Gamers vs Western Gamers

For instance, Chinese gamers tend to be more interested in the romantic aspect of MMOs than western players. Imagine that you come across a man and he'll read poetry, such as 'peach blossoms floating to the ground in the spring breeze and the sun gently gliding through the trees, and you'll wonder what is the guy talking about? ?'--but it could be a famous Han dynasty poem which is something that a Chinese player could grasp, and an American player might be thinking "what on earth is he talking about?"

This isn't to say that Chinese gaming companies have put their growth efforts down to a standstill. They have a lot of money to invest and can use it to expand their market because the Chinese market is already filled with games. This is supported by studies conducted in recent times that have demonstrated that the Chinese have become bored of Chinese games and have been acquiring from Chinese Western-based games firms. Hence, the need for Chinese translation services has become more prominent.

The Current Issue

The issue now being asked is what Chinese game companies will expand to the west. It is unclear how most Chinese games have proven successful in the west. Additionally, it's unclear what kind of audience the Chinese intend to appeal to. In addition, the MMORPG game market has already become overflowing with western-style games, making it challenging to create a base of players geared towards Chinese games of this kind of game.

Whatever their "game plan" is, Chinese companies will pursue expanding their market. If they remain focused on localization as they go about it, the Western world will be able to prepare for a significant Asian rivalry.

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed some of the challenges faced by professional translation services during the process of Chinese Video game translation.

If you are a game publisher wanting to cater to the needs of the Chinese market, then you need to incorporate the cultural and linguistic complexities within the localization process. This is a step that a mediocre translation services company might forget to follow. But if you want to become the best, then you need to take into consideration the little nuances during localization.

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