Локалізація відеоігор як перекладознавча проблема

Abstract

У статті розкрито особливості локалізації відеоігор як особливого виду перекладу. Подано короткий опис основних періодів розвитку локалізації відеоігор. Здійснено дослідження зв'язку локалізації відеоігор з перекладознавством. Проаналізовано жанрову класифікацію відеоігор та типи текстів, які функціонують в межах цього контенту.

The article reveals the peculiarities of video games localization, which is considered to be a special type of translation. It provides a description of four major periods in the history of video games localization. The relation between video games localization and Translation Studies is explored. It is defined that video games localization is a burning issue within the framework of Translation Studies and yet there is no clear and common point on it. For the video games localization to be adequate and meet its aim as well as the expectations of the target audience, it is necessary to pay attention to the genre of the video game. It is defined that the most widespread genres of video games are action games, adventure games, driving games, puzzle games, role-playing games, simulations (nurturing simulation, strategic simulation, romance simulation, instrumental simulator), sport games, strategy games. The majority of video games require the translation of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of words from the beginning of the project to the end. Within these products, there are different textual types, each of which has its own characteristics and purpose. Dealing with a multimedia product, translators also face challenges of a multimedia nature. Within the same project, they have to deal with a wide variety of issues, such as reproducing the oral quality of dialogue in writing for subtitling and pop-up dialogue windows, lip-synching for dubbing, space and time constraints for subtitling, the number of characters per subtitle, UI constraints, etc. The following video games text types are defined: manual, packaging, “readme” files, official websites, dialogue for dubbing, dialogue for subtitling, UI (user interface), graphic art with words.