The gaming industry is making waves in today’s date. It has been a long time since translation has become a permanent part of the gaming industry. So now when a new game is launched, soon after its launch its translated versions hit the market. And in many cases, translation is embedded in the original version of the game. So video game translation services work with the game developers and games are translated the right way.
Even old games that were developed before gaming translation became mainstream are translated so that gamers all around the world have access to games. Translation effectively removes the linguistic and functional barriers that gamers face while playing games that aren’t in their language.
The gaming translation industry is an ever evolving industry with the inculcation of new trends. Recently a new phenomenon has made its position in the industry, game translation marathons. These marathons have multiple benefits which we are going to discuss in this read today. So let’s talk in detail about how game translation marathons are taken as a business and how the gaming industry capitalizes on that. Other than that, we will also discuss how these marathons affect full-fledged game translation agencies.
Game Translation Marathons
As the name suggests, game translation marathons are game translation competitions conducted among students and sometimes groups of students. The main goal of these competitions is to test the caliber and ability of students. Universities conduct these competitions to test whether students are learning the right way or not. These Competitions are a way to test whether students are focusing on the theory of game translation and applying that to the actual work.
This is just like experiments that students do in science labs after they have learned the theory. Objectives of such experiments are firstly to test what students have learned and secondly, whether the experiments are feasible to do or not.
Similarly, the goal of these game translation marathons is to test what students are learning in class. Not only are students tested as gaming translators but also proofreading and editing are done by a separate group of students. After this editing and proofreading judges, who are gaming translators working in the industry, check the translated game for bugs and mistranslations.
How Game Translation Marathons Are Taken As A Business?
In the start, very few games went under the process of translation which wasn’t a burdenizing task on translators. However, it was and is still costly for small game developers to translate their games for global audiences. Translation is not a cheap task at all and with the demand of game localization, consulting a game localization agency has become important. And this game localization is more of an expensive task.
So to minimize this cost of investing in localization and translation agencies, game developers vouch for universities that are conducting these game translation programs. By conducting such competitions, not only do students get to learn the practicality of the task but also gaming companies get the task done.
Students who take part in such marathons are surely beginners in this task but are completely aware of the delicacy of the task. This is why these students are the perfect fit for translating at least those which aren’t AAA games.
Some students of Middlebury Institute took part in a game translation marathon and successfully translated the game, “Not Enough Time”. In this marathon, students from both game localization and translation programs were added and that made the results better.
Is the Job of Game Translators in Danger?
The above given example of a game translation marathon is just one instance. Many universities and colleges that teach translation programs have added these marathons to their programs. This surely enhances concerns for the jobs of professional game translators. Imagine you are good at something and even have the certifications and qualifications for that task but still someone younger in experience from you gets the job.
You will definitely feel threatened by what you do, despite the fact that you do it accurately and flawlessly. This is the same fear hovering over the game translation industry where gaming translators feel insecure about their jobs.
Feeling insecure is kind of natural when an amateur gaming student takes your job. But believe us there is nothing to be afraid of when you are a certified and experienced gaming translator. It is because huge gaming developers such as Tencent, Roblox, Game Science, Rockstar Games, etc., never give the task of translation to these inexperienced gaming translators.
So as long as you are certified game translations having experience of many years working in the industry there is nothing you can get afraid of.
Final Words!
To sum up, game translation marathons are a new way of getting games translated at a lower cost. Other than that, they are the best way to test the skill and ability of future game translators. It has become a business these days where gaming companies invest less in translation and translating their games from such inexperienced translators.