japanese house design game
recently nintendo made some big statementson their localisation practises, in particular, for xenoblade chronicles x and the upcomingxenoblade chronicles 2. in these statements, nintendo of america'scompany president, highlighted how there are a simple collection of words that they useto define how they tackle localisation - these being "cultural relevance" and "understandingof the ratings and ratings implications". now, the rest of the article explains hownintendo likes to try and keep in mind what can be seen as offensive outside of japanand explains that this is the reason that games like xenoblade chronicles x had variouschanges made to them. they also comment that the original japanesecreators work with the localisation teams
during this process and have their full consent. for example, monolith studio's ceo tells astory about xenoblade chronicle x's breast slider, a character creation feature thatyou may recall was removed outside of japan. to quote:"there was a discussion about the breast slider. jokingly, i said, ‘well would it help ifwe had a crotch slider for the male?’ obviously it was a joke, but [nintendo] respondedobviously it’s not gonna work out. i do realize there’s a cultural differencebetween what japanese people think and what the rest of the world thinks.†you may have notice that both company presidentsmentioned the different countries' cultures,
with reggie also using a term called "culturalrelevance". now, censored gaming has spoken about somethingsimilar in the past and felt that now would be a good time to a take a full in-depth lookat a popular term that's used today in the video game industry... this term being "culturalization". for this video my main source will be takendirectly from the international game developers association, which is a non-profit professionalassociation for over 12,000 video game developers worldwide. i'd like to draw your attention towards aguide that the organisation has made publicly available from 2012, titled "best practicesfor game localization".
the intro reads:"this is the second draft of a “best practices†or “how to†guide for the translationand culturalization of video game content. it is a compilation of suggestions by peoplewho have had years of experience in the field, all members of the igda game localizationsig. the aim is to help new-comers learn the trade,as well as to offer insights into tricks and tips that even more experienced localizationstaff can adapt and apply to their future projects." so right of the bat, notice the use of theterm "culturalization". scrolling down to the contents, you'll noticethat localisation is only one of these categories
and that the guide begins and devotes a wholesection to "culturalization". the localisation section goes into the typicallocalisation work that you'll be most familiar with. it describes aspects such as translation,voice recording and the quality assurance process and outlines various best practises,like making sure there is at least one editor for every 3 translators when tackling asianlanguages and for every 4 translators with european languages. it appears to be a pretty helpful guide andit offers an interesting look at what goes on behind the scenes when localising our favouritegames.
however, back to culturalization, the websitegamingindustryiq has a really precise straight to the point definition for this industryterm. to quote:"more recently, the term ‘culturalization’ has risen in popularity. more than simply translating the game, thisis the science of inspecting dialogue, imagery – even actions, for things that may causeoffense to particular markets or cultures." recalling nintendo's earlier comments, thissounds very much like the process that was described there and how their approach tolocalisation also aims to adapt any possibly offensive themes for other cultures.
bringing things to the guide again, now, whilstwe could go through all of the pages here, somebody recently tweeted me this summary,highlighting some specific points of interest. "culturalization ensures that gamers willnot be disengaged by a piece of content that is considered incongruent or even offensivein the game’s environment." "cultural mistakes often prove to be costlyfor game developers and publishers – not just the loss of potential revenue but thegreater effects of negative public relations, damage to corporate image, and strained relationswith the local government. in the worst-case, a local government maynot only ban the game but take more direct action against the company, including detainmentof local personnel for questioning and even
incarceration." the guide goes on, talking about differenttypes of "problematic content" and you may have already read a little faster and on tothese yourself. let's fast forward through the guide thoughand onto some specific examples taken from popular games. page 26 contains "appendix 2 - culturalizationexamples" and one of the biggest games mentioned is perhaps capcom's resident evil 5 from 2009. the guide reads:"even before its release, this title generated significant negative publicity due to itsperceived racism.
in the game, the clean cut, white caucasianprotagonist is seen roaming through a village in sub-saharan africa and gunning down unarmed,obviously impoverished african villagers. while the publisher capcom was quick to showthat the african villagers were infected zombies, the stark imagery of a white man killing blackvillagers evoked powerfully negative imagery. notions of the “great white hunterâ€, the“dark continent of africa†and so forth quickly came to mind for many people. while the developers had a clear rationalefor the conflict within the game’s context, the backlash provided ample reason for a publisherto pause and question if mimicking that kind of negative imagery is appropriate."
i'd just like to highlight again that thisis a guide direct from the international game developers association on "best practicesfor game localization". this is just one of many possible examplesof what could be seen as "offensive" content and with the evidence presented here, alongwith statements such as nintendo's on their localisation of xenoblade chronicles, it seemsthat some localisers are incorporating aspects of culturalization into their localisationwork. i invite you all to research this yourself. all sources will be contained in the descriptionand this is a very real industry term that you can easily google yourself.
but let's not finish there. let's take one more look at the guide anda few conclusions that it makes. under the culturalization section is a summarystating: "create the game you want to create, but don’tforget the global, multicultural audience who will be participating in your vision,and hopefully enjoying it without any cultural disruption. well-executed culturalization within a developmentcycle isn’t turnkey; it takes time to implement successfully. however, the benefits to a company’s contentquality, government relations, and public
image amongst local gamers will prove to bea valuable long-term investment." additionally, at the very end of the guideis this final conclusion. "this is a living document that will continueto be updated as needed. while this isn’t intended to be the definitiveguide to game localization, it is meant to be the groundwork that will inspire peopleto adapt the concepts to their project’s needs, and boost the overall quality of gamelocalization worldwide." whilst culturalization isn't a new term tocensored gaming, in response to recent events, i feel now would be an appropriate time toreally start to using this industry standard term where appropriate.
for example, instead of mentioning "localisation"in some cases it could be better to talk about "culturalization" and this is something youmay start to notice in future videos. as always, censored gaming is committed tocreating the definitive resource for censorship, as well as coverage of things seen as relatedto the "censorship discussion" as a whole. culturalization, the removal of things perceivedto be offensive during localisation, is seen as very much a part of censored gaming's missionstatement. and so any changes made to past, present andfuture games due to this reason is something you'll be sure to be able to find reportedright here on censored gaming. until next time, thank you for watching.