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Translating gender in video games: A queer phenomenological analysis
Abstract
This article investigates the role of localization in the representation of different gender and sexuality profiles in video games. Using Sara Ahmed’s queer phenomenology as a methodological framework, it analyzes the ideological and cultural limitations that restrict the rewriting of minority sexualities and genders when the original versions are transferred to other languages. The article begins by considering the generative capacities of translation as an agent that can discursively construct the subject, before focusing on the implications of localization for the shaping of identities from a phenomenological perspective to describe what conditions may lead to the appearance of translated queer paradigms in video games. The theoretical approach is applied to selected examples and conclusions for the practice of localization and its academic study are drawn.
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La presente investigación aborda el tratamiento del lenguaje no binario en los productos audiovisuales actuales y su traducción. Para ello, partiremos del concepto de hospitalidad de Derrida y su aplicación a los Estudios de Traducción para entender la configuración de las identidades no binarias como una contradicción discursiva. En la paradoja que describe Derrida, asumimos que para aceptar y recibir al Otro hemos de leerlo en su extrañeza, como algo diferente. Aplicaremos este aparato teórico al uso del lenguaje no binario en productos audiovisuales para estudiar cómo la traducción se convierte en un espacio de reflexión en el que analizar la construcción de identidades de género que no encajan en el paradigma binario aún imperante. Tomaremos algunos ejemplos para observar el modo en que las reescrituras audiovisuales permiten visibilizar o, al contrario, ocultar nuevas manifestaciones del género en la pequeña pantalla.
From its humble beginning in the 1970's, the video games industry has flourished and become a worldwide phenomenon. Although most games are developed in Japanese and English, the globalisation of popular culture and the desire to expand to new markets have led most producers to localise their games into many target language versions. This has brought about the emergence of a new field in translation, game localisation, which combines elements of audiovisual translation and software localisation. This paper looks at the specific features of game localisation which give it its unique nature. It examines the priorities and constraints associated with translation of this particular genre, which relies heavily on imagination and creativity to deliver a satisfactory game experience. Using as a case study the best-selling PlayStation series, Final Fantasy, examples are presented to illustrate the challenges game localisers face, focusing particularly on linguistic and cultural issues.
In response to the growing research interest in game localization within and also outside Translation Studies, this book aims to inform readers about this specialized and dynamic professional area of practice. As well as seeking to stimulate further scholarly interest in this sub-domain, the book attempts to address the practical need of the industry for the systematic training of translators and local-izers, informed by contemporary translation theories. The game localization sector will benefit from well-structured resources for the training of new translators who may have competence in areas other than games, and thus need a specific focus on the gaming domain. Game localization is a dynamic field that is driven by technology, led by market demands and influenced by popular discourses on games, and therefore most up-to-date information sources can be found online, as we note in our literature review. However, it is time-consuming to find reliable online resources directly addressing pertinent issues relevant to specific training needs. Similarly, it is still relatively rare to come across the topic analyzed in the context of Translation Studies. In our observation, translation and localization issues have been peripheral in game-related topics addressed in academia, for example in Game Studies, and are often treated casually in an ad hoc rather than a systematic manner. This has led us to conclude that there is a need for a reliable and coherent monograph dedicated to conceptualizing this new sub-domain. To this end, this book is designed to serve as an introduction to the topic of game localization in Translation Studies. We have endeavoured to keep a balance between theoretical and practical dimensions in order to be relevant to target readers both in academia and in the industry. One of our ultimate goals is to use the subject of game localization as a launch pad from which to explore new horizons of Translation Studies by addressing the impact on translation of technological developments. In particular, localization and audiovisual translation (AVT) face a constant erosion of their mutual boundaries due to technological advances, although they are currently treated as separate domains within Translation Studies. Positioned as intermediaries in the globalization of an increasing range of digital media, these two domains are converging, as exemplified by the practice of game localization. Finally, building on the importance of the links between the
El proposito de este articulo es plantear una forma etica de traducir la llamada literatura hibrida, basada en el tercer espacio de Homi Bhabha y en el cosmopolitismo de Appiah o Delanty. Se plantea un modelo traductologico nuevo que puede ayudar a traducir de forma mas etica la literatura hibrida, una literatura que se aproxima a la etnicidad mediante un uso muy peculiar del lenguaje y que saca a la luz las asimetrias de la sociedad contemporanea. Esta nueva manera de traducir puede tambien contribuir a que los traductores se enfrenten mas conscientemente a los nuevos retos locales y globales de nuestra era.
Humor has always been a relevant element in videogames. However, as games have turned into more complex and narrative-driven products, the use of humor has gained momentum and nowadays parallelisms can be established with the case of films and TV shows, where comical situations are frequently an essential part of the storyline. Therefore, the adaptation of puns, rhymes, riddles and irony is an important component to be addressed in any videogame localization process. Humor is one of the many features included in modern titles, providing a real challenge for translators and localizers and bridging the gap between videogames and audiovisual translation, where the adaptation of jokes has already been approached by academia and the industry alike. Videogame localization is a thrilling sector in which more and more agents are getting engaged in order to develop top quality products that can be effectively adapted and sold into different markets. Although the game industry provides outstanding figures in terms of revenues and growth (according to the Entertainment Software Association, the number of American households playing videogames accounts to 72% and the expenditure in videogames software and hardware exceeded $ 25 billion last year), videogame localization has not called the attention of many researchers and the number of training programs or courses intended to raise professionals in the field is still scarce. Although some issues in game localization have already been addressed by several authors, other elements included in the games -like the use of humor and irony-still have to be explored. Today, videogames have become multimodal and multidimensional products that rely not only on sophisticated technical features with impressive graphics and original soundtracks; indeed, current games are heavily narrative-driven and they are designed on the basis of complex stories and well-developed plots, with round characters and detailed settings. All these elements combined aim to create a seamless product which is appealing and amusing to players from all over the world.
Els videojocs han crescut fins a convertir-se en una indústria d’entreteniment global. Aquesta globalitat no s’hauria aconseguit sense els esforços de transferència lingüística que fan que els jocs, independentment de l’origen que tinguin, arribin als jugadors en la seva llengua i contextos culturals. Malgrat la importància crucial que té la traducció, el seu valor no es té en compte en els estudis sobre videojocs, ni tampoc en els estudis de la traducció. Posant un èmfasi especial en la multidimensionalitat i en la multimodalitat dels videojocs, aquest treball defensa que la recerca sobre videojocs des de la perspectiva dels estudis de la traducció no sols serà profitosa per a la indústria dels jocs sinó també per als mateixos estudis de traducció, atès que obre noves vies de recerca.
An examination of subversive games—games designed for political, aesthetic, and social critique.
For many players, games are entertainment, diversion, relaxation, fantasy. But what if certain games were something more than this, providing not only outlets for entertainment but a means for creative expression, instruments for conceptual thinking, or tools for social change? In Critical Play, artist and game designer Mary Flanagan examines alternative games—games that challenge the accepted norms embedded within the gaming industry—and argues that games designed by artists and activists are reshaping everyday game culture.
Flanagan provides a lively historical context for critical play through twentieth-century art movements, connecting subversive game design to subversive art: her examples of “playing house” include Dadaist puppet shows and The Sims. She looks at artists' alternative computer-based games and explores games for change, considering the way activist concerns—including worldwide poverty and AIDS—can be incorporated into game design.
Arguing that this kind of conscious practice—which now constitutes the avant-garde of the computer game medium—can inspire new working methods for designers, Flanagan offers a model for designing that will encourage the subversion of popular gaming tropes through new styles of game making, and proposes a theory of alternate game design that focuses on the reworking of contemporary popular game practices.
Video games have developed into a rich, growing field at many top universities, but they have rarely been considered from a queer perspective. Immersion in new worlds, video games seem to offer the perfect opportunity to explore the alterity that queer culture longs for, but often sexism and discrimination in gamer culture steal the spotlight. Queer Game Studies provides a welcome corrective, revealing the capacious albeit underappreciated communities that are making, playing, and studying queer games. These in-depth, diverse, and accessible essays use queerness to challenge the ideas that have dominated gaming discussions. Demonstrating the centrality of LGBTQ issues to the gamer world, they establish an alternative lens for examining this increasingly important culture. Queer Game Studies covers important subjects such as the representation of queer bodies, the casual misogyny prevalent in video games, the need for greater diversity in gamer culture, and reading popular games like Bayonetta, Mass Effect, and Metal Gear Solid from a queer perspective. Perfect for both everyday readers and instructors looking to add diversity to their courses, Queer Game Studies is the ideal introduction to the vast and vibrant realm of queer gaming. Contributors: Leigh Alexander; Gregory L. Bagnall, U of Rhode Island; Hanna Brady; Mattie Brice; Derek Burrill, U of California, Riverside; Edmond Y. Chang, U of Oregon; Naomi M. Clark; Katherine Cross, CUNY; Kim d'Amazing, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology; Aubrey Gabel, U of California, Berkeley; Christopher Goetz, U of Iowa; Jack Halberstam, U of Southern California; Todd Harper, U of Baltimore; Larissa Hjorth, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology; Chelsea Howe; Jesper Juul, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts; merritt kopas; Colleen Macklin, Parsons School of Design; Amanda Phillips, Georgetown U; Gabriela T. Richard, Pennsylvania State U; Toni Rocca; Sarah Schoemann, Georgia Institute of Technology; Kathryn Bond Stockton, U of Utah; Zoya Street, U of Lancaster; Peter Wonica; Robert Yang, Parsons School of Design; Jordan Youngblood, Eastern Connecticut State U. © 2017 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
The following chapter surveys a number of ways in which video games may be studied from the perspective of multiculturalism in a way that benefits both video game studies and studies in multiculturalism. It strives to locate the multicultural perspective of study with regard to the general field of video games research, stressing the cultural status of video games and the centrality of the notion of multiculturalism to their functioning. It familiarises the reader with an existing model for studying video games with cultural diversity in mind, and provides a brief review of two important sources that provide information on the current state of video game research: The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies and a selection of texts from DiGRA’s digital library. In so doing it strives to highlight both the diversity of perspectives already taken on the multicultural aspect of games and their functioning in culture, and the pressing need for further research.
Heteronormativity is a hegemonic social system of norms, discourses, and practices that constructs heterosexuality as natural and superior to all other expressions of sexuality. Heteronormativity is based on a dichotomous understanding of complementary gender roles, and a belief that sexual relations should be relegated entirely to the private sphere. Homonormativity, then, refers to the belief that sexual minorities can and should conform to heteronormative institutions and mores in order to achieve greater acceptance into dominant society. Homonationalism is the granting of rights to homonormative sexual minorities within a nationalistic, ideological framework. Homonormativity is criticized because those who can assimilate into heteronormative structures and conform to the congruent gender roles receive more rights and privileges than those who do not or cannot assimilate. Queer scholarship explores how heteronormativity and homonormativity are implicated in the continuing discrimination against sexual and gender minorities.
Michael Cronin looks at how translation has played a crucial role in shaping debates about identity, language and cultural survival in the past and in the present. He explores how everything from the impact of migration on the curricula for national literature courses, to the way in which nations wage war in the modern era is bound up with urgent questions of translation and identity. Examining translation practices and experiences across continents to show how translation is an integral part of how cultures are evolving, the volume presents new perspectives on how translation can be a powerful tool in enhancing difference and promoting intercultural dialogue. Drawing on a wide range of materials from official government reports to Shakespearean drama and Hollywood films, Cronin demonstrates how translation is central to any proper understanding of how cultural identity has emerged in human history, and suggests an innovative and positive vision of how translation can be used to deal with one of the most salient issues in an increasingly borderless world.
Translation and Conflict demonstrates that translators and interpreters participate in circulating as well as resisting the narratives that create the intellectual and moral environment for violent conflict. Drawing on narrative theory and using numerous examples from historical and contemporary conflicts, the author provides an original and coherent model of analysis that pays equal attention to micro and macro aspects of the circulation of narratives in translation, to translation and interpreting, and to questions of dominance and resistance. The study is particularly significant at this juncture of history, with the increased interest in the positioning of translators in politically sensitive contexts, the growing concern with translators' and interpreters' divided loyalties in settings such as Guantanamo, Iraq, Kosovo, and other arenas of conflict, and the emergence of several activist communities of translators and interpreters with highly politicized agendas of their own, including Babels, Translators for Peace, Tlaxcala and ECOS. Including further reading suggestions at the end of each chapter, Translation and Conflict will be of interest to students of translation, intercultural studies and sociology as well as the reader interested in the study of social and political movements.
An Introduction to Game Studies is a core textbook for game studies as an academic discipline, and is the comprehensive guide to the field. It introduces the student to the history and character of games studies as an analytical study of games in culture, and then moves to provide an overview of games as signifying and dynamic cultural constructs. This book shows how to analyze games by introducing the core analytical concepts in the contexts of games and game cultures of four periods. It covers the prehistory of games, the 70s, 80s, and 90s and also contemporary developments. Students will be introduced to both the theoretical core and the essential genres and classics of the subject.
An exploration of the way videogames mount arguments and make expressive statements about the world that analyzes their unique persuasive power in terms of their computational properties.
Videogames are an expressive medium, and a persuasive medium; they represent how real and imagined systems work, and they invite players to interact with those systems and form judgments about them. In this innovative analysis, Ian Bogost examines the way videogames mount arguments and influence players. Drawing on the 2,500-year history of rhetoric, the study of persuasive expression, Bogost analyzes rhetoric's unique function in software in general and videogames in particular. The field of media studies already analyzes visual rhetoric, the art of using imagery and visual representation persuasively. Bogost argues that videogames, thanks to their basic representational mode of procedurality (rule-based representations and interactions), open a new domain for persuasion; they realize a new form of rhetoric. Bogost calls this new form "procedural rhetoric," a type of rhetoric tied to the core affordances of computers: running processes and executing rule-based symbolic manipulation. He argues further that videogames have a unique persuasive power that goes beyond other forms of computational persuasion. Not only can videogames support existing social and cultural positions, but they can also disrupt and change these positions themselves, leading to potentially significant long-term social change. Bogost looks at three areas in which videogame persuasion has already taken form and shows considerable potential: politics, advertising, and learning.
This article explores the issue of gender and computer games by looking at the growing population of women in massive multiplayer online role-playing environments (MMORPGs). It explores what are traditionally seen as masculine spaces and seeks to understand the variety of reasons women might participate. Through ethnographic and interview data, the themes of social interaction, mastery and status, team participation, and exploration are considered as compelling activities female gamers are engaging in online. Given that these online games often include a component of fighting, the issue of violence is discussed. Rather than seeing this group of players as an anomaly, this article explores how focusing on the pleasures women derive from gaming might lend a more complex understanding of both gender and computer games. Finally, a consideration of how design is affecting this emerging genre is explored.
Broadly interested in the agents and institutions that structure social imaginations and subjectivities by mediating which images are available to what audiences to imagine through, this paper specifically considers the power at play when intermediaries—in this case, video game localizers—filter the images and narratives that are sold and marketed to global consumers, and the way these mediating processes in turn are both produced by, and productive of, (cultural) imaginings. This paper also discusses the way that localization practices—while often framed by a discourse that positions cultural differences as both incommensurable and easily and discretely bounded by the borders of nation-states—typically involve a nuanced negotiation of contradictions, dilemmas and interests.
This article explores the notion of assemblage for computer game studies. Drawing on this framework, the author proposes a multifaceted methodological approach to the study of games and the play experience. Drawing on user-created mods (modifications) in the game World of Warcraft and an analysis of a raid encounter there, a discussion is undertaken about the relationship between technological artifacts, game experience, and sociality. Primary to the consideration is an argument for the centralizing the interrelation of a variety of actors and nodes when analyzing lived play in computer games.
Video games localisation is an emerging type of translation that has deserved very little attention from a translation studies perspective to date. This article discusses what is involved in video game localisation, what assets need to be localised, what the different localisation models are and what translator competence is required in order to localise video games successfully. It also emphasises the need to encourage the study of this new discipline and the training of translators who have the skills and competence required to face the challenges posed by this new translation field.
What is video game culture, however? What does it mean to have a culture defined by the consumption of a particular medium? Moreover, what are the implications of defining this culture in a particular way? While there has been a great deal of ink split on video game culture, the actual definition of the term is often treated as common sense. Unpacking the discourses surrounding "video game culture" allows us to see the power dynamics involved in attributing certain characteristics to it, as well as naming it "video game culture" as such. This has implications for how video games are studied and is connected with how culture is studied more broadly. By critically examining how video game culture has been defined in both press and academic articles, this paper illuminates how this definition has limited the study of video games and where it can move.
The Work of Representation
- Hall
Steven Universe. Your Magic Mind and Body
- Sugar