Bears, the Pope and amateur game translators

It’s kind of nice to see the industry grow up. I have been localizing video games for more than five years, a German language professional for almost 20 and a gamer for about 30 years. Our approach to localizing has changed quite a bit since then (if you are waiting for the obvious example, you will be disappointed). Just to give you an example: While it was Excel files not too...

Where have all the zombies gone?

When you work in video game localization, you should play a game once in a while, or so I hear. So the beautiful wife and I picked up Resident Evil 5 (not the German version though) and I exchanged my translating tools with the PS3 controller. Having played all previous installations of this adeptly called “survival horror” title, we were looking forward to some nicely...

Play to stay in touch

So how do you stay in touch with your mother tongue and culture as a translator living abroad? The answer comes easy to me: I play MMOs! I do all the other things my unfortunate colleagues do, those who don’t localize video games but translate business reports or medical examinations. O how I pity them. I watch German TV. I have German friends. I visit Germany and am surprised as...

Yes, I know who the bases belong to

Do this: The next time someone mentions “All your base are belong to us” to you as an example for a badly localized video game, ask him or her what the game was called. Then ask when it was released. Then ask if he or she has more current examples for badly localized video...

Unknown games, possibly funny stuff and a louse

1. Not every great game makes it across the ocean (pcgames.de) A popular topic when gamers from different cultures, countries ore continents are sitting together with a cup of coffee: How come a game such as Anno 1404 is so popular in Germany while nobody knows of it in the US? Nice compilation by German magazine PC Games, no need to speak German, just click through the gallery. 2....

O Tannenbaum: Interjections in video game localization

The other day I was proofing a dialog script translated by a German colleague of mine and had to smile a little when I saw that he translated “woah, hang on” with “brr, warte mal”. It happens quite often that excellent translators stumble over interjections and onomatopoeia. It usually means they were not as addicted to comic books in their youth as I was. Very...