User generated feedback and content is more and more becoming evident on the web. If, for example, game users are requesting access to games in their own language the game company has to find the money to localise the game. More recently this has involved crowd sourcing initiatives as a way of trying to resolve the time consuming job of localising something so intricate as a video game. Video games, like all software products, have found their way into international markets through localisation techniques.

 

The crowd sourcing solution as one of the game localisation tips

The localisation and translation of video games present obstacles for the translation experts. This includes fragmented texts which appear to have no contextual relationship to the events occurring in the game. In spite of the use of standard localization tools and screenshots localisation specialists and translators really need assistance from the crowd sourcing community which are the video game players.

 

Crowd sourcing in the area of game localisation typically refers to games’ players who have a particular interest in the area and who are then eager to take part in crowd sourcing tasks in the absence of any financial incentive. From doing this they will get a better quality localized update of their most loved games. The benefit of game localization and crowd sourcing is that the games’ players know more about the game than any professional translator is likely to do.

 

The World of Warcraft

The World of Warcraft is undoubtedly a popular game which arouses a mystic magical feeling with a group of heroic make believe characters. The game attracts no less than 100 million devoted players and the textual matter amounts to around 6 million words. When trying to localise this game into different languages there were many errors with some being quite serious.

 

Following an intense inspection of the game’s translation in Spanish by a native speaker of the language, it was discovered that about 86% of the translation mistakes reported by games users were quite valid. This sort of localization feedback was very useful and was responded to promptly by the localisation and game development team.

 

This has proven that crowd sourcing as one of the game localization tips provides feedback on a games product is a great way to ensure that any localisation efforts are rewarded by providing an accurate translation of the unfolding plot in a game like The World of Warcraft.