Terminology in Game Localization: Guidelines for Terminological Standardization in Video Games

(University of Salamanca, Spain)

Abstract: Since the beginning of the rise in what refers video game translation, it was a common practice that several video games of the same franchise were translated by a different translation team depending on the product. This leads to what we call an “overtranslation” of terms in source language to the target language. The video games analyzed in this ongoing research consist of a large terminology with no official database. Therefore, the goal of this research is the creation of a terminological glossary from some products of the same video game franchise and after that, to create some guidelines for the terminological standardization in video games localization. We made a list of several terms extracted from the games. For each term, we created a terminological chart. We discovered that many terms were translated in a different way depending on the game, which shows the lack of terminology standardization. In order to avoid so in the future, it is necessary to elaborate a terminological database which ensure the proper translation of terms, so as to preserve the already official translations. We consider the standardization and support of terminological databases as something essential, especially in such a specific field as video games. This would benefit professional translators to make a correct use of terminology. Therefore, we strongly recommend that companies and professionals consider what is exposed here in order to translate a product as complex and complete as a video game.

     Key words: database, guidelines, localization, standardization, terminology, video games