Recently Nintendo made some big statements on their localisation practises, in particular,
for Xenoblade Chronicles X and the upcoming Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
In these statements, Nintendo of America's company president, highlighted how there are
a simple collection of words that they use to define how they tackle localisation - these
being "cultural relevance" and "understanding of the ratings and ratings implications".
Now, the rest of the article explains how Nintendo likes to try and keep in mind what
can be seen as offensive outside of Japan and explains that this is the reason that
games like Xenoblade Chronicles X had various changes made to them.
They also comment that the original Japanese creators work with the localisation teams
during this process and have their full consent.
For example, Monolith Studio's CEO tells a story about Xenoblade Chronicle X's breast
slider, a character creation feature that you may recall was removed outside of Japan.
To quote: "There was a discussion about the breast slider.
Jokingly, I said, ‘Well would it help if we had a crotch slider for the male?’
Obviously it was a joke, but [Nintendo] responded obviously it’s not gonna work out.
I do realize there’s a cultural difference between what Japanese people think and what
the rest of the world thinks.”
You may have notice that both company presidents mentioned the different countries' cultures,
with Reggie also using a term called "cultural relevance".
Now, Censored Gaming has spoken about something similar in the past and felt that now would
be a good time to a take a full in-depth look at a popular term that's used today in the
video game industry...
this term being "culturalization".
For this video my main source will be taken directly from the International Game Developers
Association, which is a non-profit professional association for over 12,000 video game developers
worldwide.
I'd like to draw your attention towards a guide that the organisation has made publicly
available from 2012, titled "Best Practices for Game Localization".
The intro reads: "This is the second draft of a “Best Practices”
or “How To” guide for the translation and culturalization of video game content.
It is a compilation of suggestions by people who have had years of experience in the field,
all members of the IGDA Game Localization SIG.
The aim is to help new-comers learn the trade, as well as to offer insights into tricks and
tips that even more experienced localization staff can adapt and apply to their future
projects."
So right of the bat, notice the use of the term "culturalization".
Scrolling down to the contents, you'll notice that localisation is only one of these categories
and that the guide begins and devotes a whole section to "culturalization".
The localisation section goes into the typical localisation work that you'll be most familiar
with.
It describes aspects such as translation, voice recording and the quality assurance
process and outlines various best practises, like making sure there is at least one editor
for every 3 translators when tackling Asian languages and for every 4 translators with
European languages.
It appears to be a pretty helpful guide and it offers an interesting look at what goes
on behind the scenes when localising our favourite games.
However, back to culturalization, the website GamingIndustryIQ has a really precise straight
to the point definition for this industry term.
To quote: "More recently, the term ‘culturalization’
has risen in popularity.
More than simply translating the game, this is the science of inspecting dialogue, imagery
– even actions, for things that may cause offense to particular markets or cultures."
Recalling Nintendo's earlier comments, this sounds very much like the process that was
described there and how their approach to localisation also aims to adapt any possibly
offensive themes for other cultures.
Bringing things to the guide again, now, whilst we could go through all of the pages here,
somebody recently tweeted me this summary, highlighting some specific points of interest.
"Culturalization ensures that gamers will not be disengaged by a piece of content that
is considered incongruent or even offensive in the game’s environment."
"Cultural mistakes often prove to be costly for game developers and publishers – not
just the loss of potential revenue but the greater effects of negative public relations,
damage to corporate image, and strained relations with the local government.
In the worst-case, a local government may not only ban the game but take more direct
action against the company, including detainment of local personnel for questioning and even
incarceration."
The guide goes on, talking about different types of "problematic content" and you may
have already read a little faster and on to these yourself.
Let's fast forward through the guide though and onto some specific examples taken from
popular games.
Page 26 contains "APPENDIX 2 - CULTURALIZATION EXAMPLES" and one of the biggest games mentioned
is perhaps Capcom's Resident Evil 5 from 2009.
The guide reads: "Even before its release, this title generated
significant negative publicity due to its perceived racism.
In the game, the clean cut, white Caucasian protagonist is seen roaming through a village
in sub-Saharan Africa and gunning down unarmed, obviously impoverished African villagers.
While the publisher Capcom was quick to show that the African villagers were infected zombies,
the stark imagery of a white man killing black villagers evoked powerfully negative imagery.
Notions of the “great white hunter”, the “dark continent of Africa” and so forth
quickly came to mind for many people.
While the developers had a clear rationale for the conflict within the game’s context,
the backlash provided ample reason for a publisher to pause and question if mimicking that kind
of negative imagery is appropriate."
I'd just like to highlight again that this is a guide direct from the International Game
Developers Association on "Best Practices for Game Localization".
This is just one of many possible examples of what could be seen as "offensive" content
and with the evidence presented here, along with statements such as Nintendo's on their
localisation of Xenoblade Chronicles, it seems that some localisers are incorporating aspects
of culturalization into their localisation work.
I invite you all to research this yourself.
All sources will be contained in the description and this is a very real industry term that
you can easily Google yourself.
But let's not finish there.
Let's take one more look at the guide and a few conclusions that it makes.
Under the Culturalization section is a summary stating:
"Create the game you want to create, but don’t forget the global, multicultural audience
who will be participating in your vision, and hopefully enjoying it without any cultural
disruption.
Well-executed culturalization within a development cycle isn’t turnkey; it takes time to implement
successfully.
However, the benefits to a company’s content quality, government relations, and public
image amongst local gamers will prove to be a valuable long-term investment."
Additionally, at the very end of the guide is this final conclusion.
"This is a living document that will continue to be updated as needed.
While this isn’t intended to be the definitive guide to game localization, it is meant to
be the groundwork that will inspire people to adapt the concepts to their project’s
needs, and boost the overall quality of game localization worldwide."
Whilst culturalization isn't a new term to Censored Gaming, in response to recent events,
I feel now would be an appropriate time to really start to using this industry standard
term where appropriate.
For example, instead of mentioning "localisation" in some cases it could be better to talk about
"culturalization" and this is something you may start to notice in future videos.
As always, Censored Gaming is committed to creating the definitive resource for censorship,
as well as coverage of things seen as related to the "censorship discussion" as a whole.
Culturalization, the removal of things perceived to be offensive during localisation, is seen
as very much a part of Censored Gaming's mission statement.
And so any changes made to past, present and future games due to this reason is something
you'll be sure to be able to find reported right here on Censored Gaming.
Until next time, thank you for watching.