Cafe de Taishin

長い休みですね。
弊社は29日から4日までです。
独身貴族くんと同様、年男になってしまいました・・・。
良い年になりますように！！！

２００６年、いろいろとお世話になりました。
２００７年はうり坊のように突っ走りますか！！！来年もよろしくお願いします。

なりさんへ
お元気ですか？こちらの仕事の進展が全くなく、申し訳ないです・・・。

なり様、あけましておめでとうございます。　（コメントは昨年より頂いておる事を知りつつ、年明けにと思いまして！）　長い休み期間いかがお過ごしでしたでしょうか？　私はコタツの力に負けて伸びておりました。。　今年も宜しくお願い致します。

ホーチ民様、あけましておめでとうございます。　是非ともうり坊の様に突っ走っていきましょうっ！！　　　
お互いにいい年にしましょうね！！

Because of innumerable region, territory or country cultural specific reasons, a video game, already released in some places and that looks perfectly acceptable in one territory could be rejected as the devil incarnate somewhere else. This is a good reason to thin that localization - unlike just straight translation - is necessary for games.

That said, these facts raise an important questions: when does localization go so far that it becomes censorship? And is that something one should accept?

Let's take a recent example, I'll use the newest installment in the Yakuza series. Yakuza 3 - an imported Japanese PlayStation game - was recently released in the US. A lot of gamers complained because some scenes and important elements of the games where changed when the game made it to US.

Now the question is: do all of these elements actually required to be changed? Isn't that just based on a stereotype that American gamers tend to be more religious and concerned about nudity and violence? I assume that someone purchasing the third installment in a game series would normally have a pretty good idea as to what kind of content they were getting into, especially with a series such as Yakuza, which is relatively well-known. The games even receive ratings similar to films, giving the consumer an even better idea of what the game in question contains.

Now if you look at it, most gamers actually are adult and will absolutely not care to find certain elements. In fact, their absence may come as a huge disappointment for them and alter their gaming experience. So should developers think a little more about what public they are targetting, or just assume anyone may buy the game by accident, and thus edit it?.

Video game translation is an important process to bring games to new people, and shouldn't be taken that lightly.

Due to innumerable cultural elements that a specific to a place or territory, a video game which is considered absolutely fine in one region might be disregarded as the devil incarnate once released in a new territory. This is a good reason to thin that localization - as opposed to translation- is extremely important for computer and consoles games.

However one seemingly simple yet relatively deep and complicated question has always bothered me: when does localization go so far that it becomes censorship? And to what degree should this sort of censorship be tolerated?

As a recent example, Yakuza 3 on PS3 shows well how thin the frontier between censorship and localization can be. Almost immediately, it came under fire for the huge cuts it suffered at the hands of Western localizers. Apparently, a significant chunk of the cut scenes, minigames, and events were removed from the US release, deemed "inappropriate" for American audiences.

I assume that someone purchasing the third installment in a game series would normally have a pretty good idea as to what kind of content they were getting into, especially with a series such as Yakuza, which is relatively well-known. The games even receive ratings similar to films, giving the consumer an even better idea of what the game in question contains.

Most of gamers are reasonable adults who just want to enjoy the game as it is, instead of playing an edited, censored version of it. So please, developers, think of gamers first when you are localizing your games.

Video game localization shall always be respectful of gamers.

Hey guys, it's Dan from Italy I'm fond of English studies and Cartoons. I work for a game translation company.