Nevertheless, the question “should video game translators be gamers” pops up once in a while in various communities, most recently I saw it asked on Linkedin, where a lot of people provided valuable input. Still, when reading this questions, I think of answers involving the Pope being Catholic and something about a bear in the woods. Try this one: “Should legal translators have a background in jurisprudence?” Or: “Do you consider it important for a medical translator to know what s/he is doing?”

I might exaggerate here a little bit, forgive me. Our work as game translators is not nearly as important as the output of our colleagues in the medical field. We do have an educative responsibility, especially when translating for children, but this one might deserve a post on its own.

So the answer to the somewhat rhetorical question is: Yes, please!

Now for the twist: Should gamers be video game translators? Very often indeed!

Every day somewhere on this planet, a group of fans of a particular game get together to localize it into their language. These people work for free, are highly motivated and will not stop until their localized version has been peer-approved and reached gold status. It will take them a lot longer than a team of professionals and the localization won’t be as good. But sometimes it can be even better because they do not care if the translation of some obscure Japanese game will take them two years.

I for example enjoy a good football manager simulation, and by football I mean soccer. The best game in this genre is Football Manager, developed by SI and published by Sega. Due to licensing issues, the game must not be distributed in Germany, where competitor FIFA Manager controls the market and holds the valuable DFL license. So no German version, even if you live in Canada, where none of this should matter.  Anything football related, I enjoy playing in German, the language I grew up in, played football in, usually lost matches in. Enter a bunch of guys. Every year they translate the new version of Football Manager into German. This is my shout-out to them: Though your translations are sometimes clunky, your file is naturally not supported by the developer, difficult to install and crashes my game once in a while, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Keep up the good work.

No more muzak

We did not have bad times but none of the to us so familiar Resident Evil feeling ever came up. First of all: What happened to the typewriter rooms? It used to be such a relief to open a door, be greeted by muzak and the opportunity to save your progress, only to realize that you have no ribbons left. No saving for you! Now there are checkpoints, good old, boring, predictable checkpoints.

You call that a zombie? Srsly?

I have killed my share of zombies. I have watched my share of zombies killing humans and eating their flesh, which makes the killing of said zombies so much more enjoyable. Zombies are slow, dumb, ugly and go “ARRRRRGGH”, mostly with their hands stretched out to grab some delicious human flesh. In this game, we have none of that. The mobs are fast and use all sorts of weapons. Okay, the chainsaw dude was kinda cool. Ugly they are. Zombies, they are not.

Too many shinies

I like achievements and trophies, they are a neat and somewhat recent addition to the gameplay (and to my word count when I translate and bill). In RE5, there are all sorts of things to look out for: some sort of emblem to shoot and collect, gems on the walls to sell and upgrade you weapons and of course containers to break, gasoline barrels to shoot (boom) and apparently power relays you can also shoot in order to kill you enemies with the current (we never found any though). This all leads to conversations like this:

Wife and backseat player: “There is something shiny.”

Awesome me who just headshotted some scary guy: “Where?”

“It was there, to the left.”

I have a look around.

“To the left, you moved.”

I move 2.5 degrees relative to my original position to the left.

“STOP MOVING.”

I stop moving.

“Now I can’t see it anymore.”

I ponder my actions. To move a little or not too move a little? It could be sweet shotgun ammo. It could be a stupid gem. It could be that I am more afraid of my wife at this point than of any fake zombie.

Some swear by the elegant wackiness that is Final Fantasy, others insist on the rules and regulations laid out in Dungeons & Dragons and brought onto the screen in games such as Neverwinter Nights. Then there are the Germans – and their obsession with an unnamed hero in the Gothic series.

Even though Gothic II (widely hailed as the best installment of the series) sold more than 100 000 copies, the games are barely known outside of Europe. This is one of the reasons I included Gothic in my Games to know category.

Gothic is a somewhat frugal game. The player can’t customize his or her character – no green-eyed elves with silver hair here. We all start with the same nameless hero. There is no class selection either – if you want to play a mage, you will have to make the correct decisions in the storyline in order to join a faction of wizards. If you prefer a hunter/ranger type, spend the learning points you get when you level on dexterity and your archer skill. If you want to get lots of loot such as shiny armor and big swords with gems on them, go play Diablo. In Gothic, gear is rare, so rare that upgrading your equipment is, when it happens, something you tweet about.

Gothic is also difficult for casual players. The combat system is accurately described with “a steep learning curve.” Don’t even get me started on the inventory and its non-existing filter or sort functionality. So why should you know or try Gothic? The answer is simple: Immersion. All dialog is voiced. The in-game music is both appropriate and beautiful. The stories are dramatic. You will experience excitement, grief, joy and blood lust – or you will throw the mouse against your screen and uninstall after 15 minutes. I suggest you download a trial version first.

Please note: I recommend you try either Gothic 2, which was released in 2002 and is now sold for as little as 5 Euro, or you choose Risen, of which you can download a trial. Stay away, far away from Gothic 3 (2006), which killed the series like George Clooney killed Batman. Since the disaster of Gothic 3 (a bug is a bug is a bug), Developer and Publisher had a divorce, and each are releasing successors of Gothic. Risen is one of them, a game very much in the spirit of Gothic. Risen has been localized into EFIGS, or should I say EFIS, and into Russian. The other Gothic successor will be Arcania: A Gothic Tale.

Half-Life was developed by Valve Software and released in 1998. In the tradition of Doom and Quake, Half-Life is an FPS (First Person Shooter). A drastic upgrade of the Quake graphic engine enabled players of Half-Life to experience then unknown environments. A number of scripted scenes, also new to the genre at the time, intensified this.

Half-Life has influenced the gaming world in numerous ways. Its multiplayer sequel, Counter-Strike, is still played in many gaming leagues today.

Terms to know

Gordon Freeman. Protagonist. Numerous references in other games.

Barney. Describes an NPC the player can team up with.

How to get it

Half-Life can be picked up for around 10$ US at your game store or online here.