Translating game achievements : Case study of The Long Dark and Spyro the Dragon

Abstract

Though localisation in general and video game localisation in particular is increasing in popularity as a subject of research within Translation Studies, it is still a recent phenomenon, and there are many subjects and perspectives in it left to explore. One such subject is the translation of video game achievements, which currently remains completely unstudied. It is the purpose of this thesis to fix this research gap to the extent it is able.

Because of the lack of research on the subject in Translation Studies, much of the background of this thesis comes from the domains of Video Game Studies and gamification research. While achievements are a particularly popular topic of research in gamification, translation has not been taken into account in any of that research.

This thesis aims to examine features of achievement translation by comparing the source and target achievements of the games The Long Dark and Spyro the Dragon and classifying the translation strategies used in them. The results are then discussed and analysed. As the scope of this thesis is limited, generalisations apply mainly to the material of this thesis, and observations about achievement translation can be made only tentatively.

The thesis finds that overall, there is no large difference in translation strategies between these two games and that the translators have adopted different global translation strategies for different structural parts of the achievements, translating certain parts freely and others very literally. The restricting effect of achievements’ internal structure is also discussed because the visual element of an achievement sets limits to the translator’s ability to translate freely.