GLOC Game Localization 24/7

During Gamescom 2011, we had a pleasant chat with the legendary Andrea “Giopep” Maderna from videogame.it about game localization. Finally, here is the full English translation. Enjoy

Localization, the process that transfers a videogame’s contents from its original form to a target language, constitutes a fundamental step in reaching out to the audience in the most widespread way. This is especially true in a country such as Italy, where entertainment is rarely enjoyed through subtitles and/or original voice acting. The localization field is populated by some big agencies, as well as individual freelancers and small dedicated teams who do all the hands-on work in translating content. In between announcements and events at Gamescom 2011, we managed to interview Matteo Scarabelli, a spokesperson for the very active translation team GLOC. Here are some interesting details about their work.

Videogame.it: Let’s start from the beginning: who are you, what is your specialization, and what do you exactly do at GLOC?

Matteo Scarabelli: My name is Matteo Scarabelli, I’m a translator and I’m part of the specialized translation team GLOC.it (no idea how it’s pronounced… I usually type it) [ed. note: it’s pronounced “Gee-lok”]. We… Well, we translate. We translate videogames. Which means that we get written documents for a specific videogame and we strive to transform them into something that the Italian audience would understand.

Videogame.it: Do you handle videogames exclusively?

Matteo Scarabelli: Yes, we only work with videogame content, although we may have to deal with related material in exceptional circumstances. We have translated other kinds of software in the past, but honestly we don’t think we’re willing to repeat the experiment.

Videogame.it: How may members are there in the team?

Matteo Scarabelli: The “core team” has three members, although we are considering including a fourth. We also have half a dozen occasional freelancers, who work with us on a more or less regular basis. Of course, it depends on the volume of work we get: as long as translation and proofreading can be managed by the core team alone, we don’t seek any external help.

Videogame.it: Do you work in an actual office space, like we do at Videogame.it, or are you based in different locations and communicate with each other through the Internet?

Matteo Scarabelli: This is actually one of our strengths: one of us lives in Japan, another in Italy and the third in the United States. Thanks to different time zones, we can work 24/7 and someone is always available to answer calls. As a matter of fact, we all use the same email address and the same Skype account. We are essentially one three-headed translator who never sleeps. This idea was born a few years ago, when Alain, the Japan-based team founder, started receiving more work than he could manage by himself. Rather than subcontracting tasks, he decided to create a team of “equals.” I’m using quotation marks here, because Alain is still in charge of complying with quality standards and handling all the financial matters. He’s almost always the one who does the final proofreading for all assignments before delivery to the client.

Videogame.it: So, the text goes through internal proofreading before being submitted, even if it’s translated by a freelancer?

Matteo Scarabelli: Yes, always. There are always at least two levels: translation by one person and proofreading by another. If we can fit in an extra proofreading step, that’s always welcome… especially when dealing with high-profile or challenging projects. Unfortunately, I can’t mention any titles. Our job is more secretive than Fight Club…

Videogame.it: So, you absolutely can’t mention any games you worked on?

Matteo Scarabelli: No, unfortunately. Our field of work is dominated by Non-Disclosure Agreements. I shouldn’t even mention the localization agencies we work with, so I’ll keep it generic.

Videogame.it: Right, you work with localization agencies. Do you ever deal with game publishers directly?

Matteo Scarabelli: We usually work with agencies, but we also happen to deal with publishers directly for smaller tasks, which happens with freelancers as well. On general principle, our profile is closer to a freelancer than an agency, therefore we work with agencies.

Videogame.it: You mentioned work volumes: what is the average volume for a high-profile title, considering all due exceptions?

Matteo Scarabelli: Volumes are calculated as word counts in our field. An average game with not too much dialogue –such as a fighting game– has between 70,000 and 100,000 words. That is more or less the amount of text in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which is not the longest book in the series. The longest one is actually Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is almost double the length… That’s enough, I’d say I’ve well proven my nerdiness. Anyway, this kind of word count usually pertains to fighting and racing games. I can’t mention any names, but I think the idea here is clear. Or, to be more specific, let’s examine a series that doesn’t exist anymore: the flight simulator Falcon included a game manual that would have made the U.S. Air Force envious. Even nowadays, some simulation games retain this approach, so we also have to translate a huge manual. If we move on to more dialogue-heavy games, such as RPGs… it gets a lot worse! We keep getting new material to translate, so it feels like the game never ends. Back in the day, we knew we were done when a game was released, but now we also have an endless stream of downloadable content. Every project is followed by a number of smaller projects that are assigned to the same translation team, as much as possible. This is done because the team already know the game, so they can both maintain stylistic consistency with the previous material and work faster.

Videogame.it: Can you mention some of the obstacles and accidents that may happen while translating a project?

Matteo Scarabelli: There are plenty. Sometimes we may have a misunderstanding with a client regarding instructions and small details: it could take some time to understand a project and match the right style. We start with a heavily adapted translation but, depending on the project, a client may require us to keep the translation closer to the source. It’s a trial-and-error process. Then you have queries, the questions sent to a client to clarify the context of a sentence or some elements that may be unclear when isolated from the game itself. Clients are usually fast at answering, but sometimes there’s no time for it. Even with an urgent project (i.e. one that is due within a week) we still need a couple of days to identify the problems and ask queries, which means we get our answers after the delivery. And this is not the worst that could happen. Last spring Alain was unable to work due to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, so we had to manage projects with one man down, which was not easy! That was my personal initiation into understanding how much work is required when getting text from a client, organizing it, splitting it between several translators… all things that Alain usually handles. It’s a number of small tasks that amount to a lot of work when all piled together.

Videogame.it: Many games are created in Japan, then translated into English and finally assigned to several international translation teams. Do you ever have to work on low quality English text as a result of a poor initial translation?

Matteo Scarabelli: Yes, it sometimes happens. So many things happen that seem to be straight out of Google Translator. But, even more so, I can’t mention any examples. [laughs]

Videogame.it: And, of course, gamers who buy a game and are faced with a poor text just blame  it on the translators, without knowing that there may have been previous issues. Shame on the illiterates who translated the game! But there’s a lot behind appearances…

Matteo Scarabelli: Definitely. First of all, there are several steps. As you mentioned, many games are developed in Japan, so we get text that has already been translated into English with a heavy cultural adaptation. But that’s not a bad thing at all for us! Japanese-to-English translators are usually very accurate, as far as I’ve seen. Because they are targeting a wider slice of the market, they have more time and resources and can follow the standard procedure as suggested by localization “gurus:” study the game for a week, play it, familiarize yourself with it… That would be wonderful –a wonderful utopia, if you will–, but that’s not how things work for smaller markets such as Italy and most of the European countries. Spain is maybe different, due to the size of Central and South American markets, but there are still some significant language differences between Spanish-speaking countries. Anyway, the Italian market is not big enough to justify that kind of procedure. English text translated from Japanese is usually excellent, but in rare occasions we have to fix some issues. In other cases, a translation may have been rushed or even done by a developer or two who think their grasp of English is better than it actually is.

Anyway, our work doesn’t end with us –what we submit is not the final text. It is then reviewed by the client and by localization testers, who polish it and adapt it to the flow of the game. For example, when we translate subtitles we only have a vague idea of their actual length limits, because we don’t know how long they’ll stay on screen. They may have to be trimmed down or simplified or, as the opposite, they may end up staying on screen long enough to allow to reintroduce previously cut segments.

Videogame.it: Sometimes gamers get the impression that the Italian adaptation of particularly violent or vulgar games –such as Saints Row: The Third– has been toned down. Is that wrong?

Matteo Scarabelli: To answer your question I need to make a brief introduction: before we start translating a text, we always perform a statistical analysis to isolate the most common words and expressions. This allows us to create an extremely useful glossary, especially when dealing with projects containing over 100,000 words. Now, I remember working on a small 5,000 word project whose most common word was “f*ck,” recurring over 70 times. The second most common word was “f*cking.” In that specific case, we strived to preserve the crudeness of the source. The problem, however, is that crudeness is perceived and expressed very differently across cultures: English is a sort of Lego language, where you can build anything starting with short modules. In that case, you can throw a “f*ck” here and there and the results will always be satisfying. The Italian language, however, uses longer phrases that often clash with length limits: in order to achieve the same impact given by a simple “f*ck,” you may have to use several more words. In addition to this, we also have limits and instructions coming from above.

Videogame.it: It’s also worth mentioning that age ratings change depending on the country. What is considered 7+ somewhere could be regarded as 14+ somewhere else…

Matteo Scarabelli: Yes, there are some differences between PEGI and the ESRB. There are also weird contradictions: violence is not acceptable for a specific age tier, but racial slurs are allowed, even if common sense would suggest that they shouldn’t be… But yes, translations are generally milder than the source, just because all that cursing would sound almost like a parody in Italian. It would be so over the top that it would completely lose its impact. You mentioned Saints Row, but I think that series has a different set of problems. I’m not familiar with the third installment because it hasn’t been released yet, but I played the second one and I noticed that it was chock full of untranslatable slang expressions. When facing something like that, the best bet for a translator is to rewrite the text.

Videogame.it: Let’s talk about technical details: what kind of files do you use, Word or Excel?

Matteo Scarabelli: The basic format is Excel. We usually get huge Excel spreadsheets, but sometimes we get other formats, too. For example, game manuals are usually translated in multi-column Word files. Of course it depends on a client’s personal preferences, but yes, I’d say that the standard format is Excel.

Videogame.it: Is assisted translation software common in your line of work?

Matteo Scarabelli: Sometimes it’s mandatory: some clients require certain tools for certain projects. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen very often. It’s certainly useful, but it requires a certain degree of text cleanup before starting to translate.

Videogame.it: Is text cleanup done by the client?

Matteo Scarabelli: If they ask that a certain translation tool be used, they clean and convert files before sending them to translators. If using these tools is a translator’s choice, it’s up to them to clean the files and convert them back to the original format before delivery. In general, it’s always useful to check and clean up files to avoid font overlapping, hidden text wrapping, and other such inconveniences. You only have to learn this stuff once and then it will be second nature. Assisted translation tools can be extremely useful, especially in a highly specialized field such as game localization: they allow you to expand the glossary for recurring and official terminology, they even check your translation and highlight the occurrences when the same term has been translated differently. In short, they are a precious tool to ensure consistency and they can also speed up the translation of tedious recurring sentences such as “Your character is wounded/mildly wounded/severely wounded.” Another useful aspect of assisted translation software is that it allows you to import platform-specific glossaries as issued by console makers and ensure total consistency of the translated text.

Videogame.it: Right, there’s a number of official terms that have to be written in a specific way.

Matteo Scarabelli: Yes, they have to be written exactly as specified, with the trademark symbol in the right position, with or without blank spaces, with upper or lower case… There are registered names for consoles, controllers, peripherals, buttons, online options and much more, and everything needs to match, otherwise the game could be rejected! Even though there are three or four more checks before the game is released, translators have to be extremely careful when dealing with platform terminology, because it’s such an important aspect of our job. We even have to fix these terms in those cases when the developer has neglected to do it. It may sound trivial, but the right spelling for PlayStation 3 has no spaces and the ® symbol right before the number: PlayStation®3. When dealing with a sensitive matter such as registered trademarks, it’s extremely important to comply with the manufacturer’s regulations.

Videogame.it: How did you get your job and what would you recommend to anyone who wants to work in game localization?

Matteo Scarabelli: My career is particularly atypical, since I have a degree in physics. But I’ve always had an interest in languages. I used to work at a bookstore where a translation agency bought new dictionaries, so I took advantage of the contact and introduced myself. If anyone is interested in pursuing the same career, I salute their decision: it’s definitely an interesting choice. Since specialization in a particular field comes later on, they would have to start off translating anything and everything: MP3 player manuals, contracts for the Czech Republic railways… I’ve personally done all this! As for the basic skillset, I recommend reading, reading, and then more reading. And then some more. Reading in Italian, which is the target language, is especially important. The main objective when translating text is not understanding the source –billions of terabytes on the Internet can help decode even the most obscure slang terms. The real challenge is finding the right way to express the same idea in your language. And, as long as you’re translating an MP3 player manual, that’s not a big issue. Things change, however, when you have to deal with a more literary text –and modern games are closer to literature than to the old “press X to jump.”

Videogame.it: It’s also important to have a broad mind, since games can literally explore any topic…

Matteo Scarabelli: One of the requisites in our job description reads “Must know everything.” Or, at least, you should be ready to learn anything. It requires dedication, but the most important thing is to be knowledgeable in your native language, to be well spoken and well written. Which brings us back to listening and reading. As for everything else, the Internet is full of translators’ portals where you can find contacts, showcase your talents and try your hand with a translation agency. It’s still a meritocracy: if translators are good at what they do, they will get assignments. It takes a little luck to get noticed at the beginning, but from then on it’s all about word-of-mouth. If you’re good, clients will seek you –if you’re sloppy, clients won’t use you. Besides, it’s a job that will never go out of fashion: it would be like not translating novels anymore. Without a proper translation, it’s impossible to enjoy entertainment. Even at my level of English knowledge, I may still miss some of the nuances when I read novels in their original language. This is even more true when it comes to the general audience, which is not necessarily composed of translators. Thankfully so, otherwise we would be out of work!