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Hi ho everybody, Jennifer here. For anybody who didn’t make it to October 2nd’s meeting and wishes they had, or for those who did and want to relive it all over again, we have this handy-dandy recording. And if that’s not enough, there are slides too! We had a great time talking about translation, rebranding, redubbing, and all the other things that happen when a game is repackaged for the great wide yonder of foreign markets. It can be tough for the motherland to cut the apron strings, but she knows it’s a necessary sacrifice if her baby is to grow up strong, happy, and internationally profitable.
“Früher war ich auch ein Abenteuerer, aber dann habe ich ein Pfeil ins Knie bekommen.”
In the process of researching for the talk, I turned up oodles of links, way too much information to cram into the discussion, so allow me to upend my collection onto your metaphorical desk. Enjoy the mess.
Legends of Localization (side-by-side comparisons of select retro Japanese games with their English counterparts)
A similar analysis of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Voice comparisons: Half-Life, Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear Solid 4, Mass Effect 2 in French (go to 5:37), German (3:41), English (3:53), and Italian (1:26)
Audio Atrocities, an ever-expanding compendium of the worst voice acting games have to offer. Consider yourself warned.
Kotaku: The Surprising Ways Japanese Games Are Changed for Americans and companion article Found in Translation
And proof it’s not just me who finds Pokemon names oddly pharmaceutical: Sporcle: Drug or Pokemon?
An Inside Look at Video Game Localization (Thaís Castanheira, Gengo Translation Services). In Part I, she talks about assisting with the Portuguese version of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. In Part II, she gives tips to developers on how not to muck up the localization process.
Generations and Game Localization (interview with pro localizers/translators Alexander O. Smith, Steven Anderson, and Matthew Alt in Eludamos)
Official blog of LAI (Language Automation, Inc.)
PAX East 2011 localization panel
22 Tips for Better Game Localization (Epic Sound Audio Production)
Localization for Game Development (Joseph Stankowicz)
The big cheese in the world of localization studies is arguably Miguel Bernal-Merino, professor of media translation at the University of Roehampton in London. Seriously, he shows up everywhere: A Brief History of Game Localization, On the Translation of Video Games, Localization and the Cultural Concept of Play, Challenges in the Translation of Video Games
Things by people who are not Señor Bernal-Merino:
Creating Cross-Cultural Appeal in Digital Games (Mark Chen et al., slides of a presentation given by UW’s Digital Games Research Group)
Unleashing Imagination with Restricted Translation (Carmen Mangiron and Minako O’Hagan, The Journal of Specialized Translation)
Game Localization Management: Balancing Linguistic Quality and Financial Efficiency, (Michaela Bartelt-Kranz, Trans)
Cultural Localization: Orientation and Disorientation in Japanese Video Games (Francesca di Marco, Revista Tradumàtica)
Videogame Localization and Thing Theory (Jon Corliss, Columbia University)
Localization of Digital Games: The Process of Blending for the Global Games Market (Alexander Thayer and Beth E. Kolko, Technical Communication)
Pokemon, Localization, and Cultural Odor (Chris Bubb, Post Bubble Culture, a College of William & Mary blog on contemporary Japanese culture)
Hey all–we’re fast approaching the end of the term, and as everyone’s schedule explodes with finals and other various projects, we’ll be winding down Think.Play activity. But fear not! This coming Wednesday is still a play night, where we’ll be partaking in party favorites such as Rock Band, Mariokart, and Super Smash Bros. The following week (the week of finals) will be a movie night, where the first Pokemon movie will be playing for your enjoyment.
To wrap things up, I’ll leave you with an image that I feel accurately represents our collective pre-finals week state of mind.
This past Wednesday we discussed the use of sound in games, from soundtracks to sound effects. The focus was on games that used noises instead of words to allow players to communicate, such as Journey and Don’t Starve.
Journey allows players to communicate only through randomized chirping sounds. The jury is out on whether this is the most adorable form of player interaction.
Was the lack of direct player communication a good or bad game design decision? Most felt that it helped endear players to the game by creating a sense of uniqueness, while some thought that it made it somewhat frustrating in a multiplayer setting.
Soundtracks were also discussed, as well as their significance to setting a certain ambiance in a game. The Elder Scrolls series by Bethesda was a popular example of how a soundtrack could help change the tone of a game. What is it about the Morrowind soundtrack that makes it sound more fantastical, while the Skyrim soundtrack brings to mind an epic adventure, considering that many of the songs are the same? Compare for yourself:
Morrowind Theme:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWuNf4gxwuM&w=420&h=315]
Skyrim Theme:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-_g8NZr1tA&w=560&h=315]
Other topics covered were Deep Sea, a game that removes your sense of sight and forces you to rely on the sounds you hear to navigate through the terrain, and fan-made, game-centered music. For anyone interested in fan-made music, check out Miracle of Sound on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/user/miracleofsound) for some interesting tributes to popular video games.
Hey all!
Jon here. Last night Think.Play met and had it’s first discussion based meeting since all of the craziness began a few weeks ago. The good news is that it went really well!
We started off thinking about what a game is and isn’t. We spent a great deal of time coming to a consensus on some universal traits that make something a game, and what we came up with was pretty interesting. You can find our list of game-traits within the slides that were used during the talk.
Freedom Bridge was one of the ‘games’ we played. Was it fun? Sort of. Does that make it more or less of a game? Certainly not.
One of the more interesting distinctions that the group hovered around was the difference between simulations and games. Simulations can occur within games, but a simulation running by itself lacks interactivity, a trait that we decided was a pre-requisite for something to be a game.
Overall it was a fun night, and it is good to be back in the swing of things. Remember that, if you would like to lead a discussion, or you have an idea of some discussion(s) you would like to see happen, let the Steering Committee know. Until next time!
Hey all, Laura here.
The last couple of weeks have been tough, and the schedule has been understandably jumbled. As we try to sort things out, there will be deviations from the events listed on the calendar. Below are the events that have pretty solid scheduling:
Wednesday, May 15th: Patrick and Jon discuss the question “What makes a game a game?”
Wednesday, May 22nd: Tessa will look at sounds/music and their role in video games.
We’ve had a couple of play days in a row, so the next few meetings will be discussion-based. As event dates change, the schedule/calendar will be updated here. The group will still meet at 7:00 pm on Wednesdays, at Knight Library in Room 101.
Hey all! Jon here, and today I want to give you a quick update about recent Think.Play happenings.
Last Wednesday was a play day commemorating Mega Man’s 26th anniversary. Eder felt that Capcom didn’t celebrate the Mega Man franchise enough last year, so we continued the party by playing the X series on Gamecube, Mega Man Legends on PS2, and Mega Man 9 and 10 on the Wii U.
This, but 26 of course.
The week before that, Iris Bull helped us explore the possible close relationship earnings management has with games. We also talked a bit about how debt free expenditure in games simulates and perhaps perpetuates the masculine defined existence of financial institutions. Very interesting stuff!
I’ll let you be the judge of this pictures relevance.
That was my quick recap of the last two weeks. Join us next week where we will be looking at where the game industry is heading in the near future.
There has been a lot of discussion recently about the possibility of starting a competitive Pokemon league here at UO, and last night it really hit a critical mass. I just wanted to post a few resources that I like to use in my Pokemon training, with the thought that they might be useful to y’all.
One major caveat: training competitive teams can be complicated; sure, we can all get that pretty easily. But it can also be hugely time-consuming. . . which, given the hours I know that we currently collectively spend playing Minecraft, also isn’t such a big deal.
But here’s the thing: much of what is written on competitive Pokemon assumes that you’re playing at the absolute edge of what is possible. Pokemon boils down to numbers and strategy. High-level competitive play emphasizes strategy by assuming maximized numbers. That’s all well and good when an online simulator lets you choose whatever numbers you want, but the real game doesn’t make it so easy. So when you’re studying strategies and etc., my advice is to keep the emphasis on the fun. Do what seems fun and it’ll all work out.
Smogon University is, according to the website, “the most comprehensive and accurate online resource for competitive Pokémon battling.” Enjoy being overwhelmed.
Bulbapedia is an encyclopedia about Pokemon. Generally useful for playing the games, and particularly useful for tricky tasks like figuring out moveset logistics, breeding chains, locations, all sorts of stuff useful in competitive battling.
Pokemon Showdown is a slick little online battle simulator that runs in your web browser, no download needed. One sweet feature for those at all knowledge levels is the ability to lurk and watch other trainers battle live. Very cool!
There are tons more resources out there for sure. If you’ve got a favorite, share it in the comments!
Just a quick post w/ some info about the games we played last night:
Cave Story is available for all sorts of Nintendo platforms. It’s also on Steam, which is awesome. The original release is still freely available for PC, and fans have created a Mac port. I vastly prefer the original graphics and sound, so naturally I recommend enabling those options if you purchase it for a console or through Steam. If you want to grab the free original, you can find links on our Game Now page.
Super Meat Boy is available through Xbox Live and Steam. Kiss your thumbs goodbye.
VVVVVV is on the web, on Steam, and downloadable through the DS store.
I Wanna Be The Guy is a free game available for the PC. Download it at your own peril. Links can be found on our Game Now page.
Fall term is here, classes have begun, and Think.Play is back in the swing of things. Last week we teamed up with UO Libraries and campus Event Services to host some gaming goodness at InterMingle. Big City Gamin’ seriously represented, providing prizes to the top three finishers in our N64 Smash tournament, including a cool $100 to the winner. Serious stuff! Many thanks to Big City for stepping up and helping to make the night a blast.
We’re all winners! (Some of us just win sweet prizes more often than the rest.)
Our first regular meeting of the term (Wednesdays, 7pm, Knight Library rm. 101) was last night. I was happy to lead a lively discussion about a few ideas and concepts that, for me, are fundamental to approaching the discipline of Game Studies: representation, algorithm, abstraction, and diegesis. I’m not going to try to reproduce the discussion here, but here’s a link to my slides if you’re into that kind of thing. The bottom line is that I was incredibly pleased: Think.Play really brought it, engaging with and productively challenging topic after topic over the course of the 2+ hour meeting. Thoughtful, inspiring stuff indeed.
I do want to add in some bits that aren’t in the presentation linked above, as when the discussion shifted to resources I stopped slinging slides and switched to web browsing. These are just a few things that I think students trying to find a way to synthesize an interest in Game Studies with the realities of their major requirements should know about:
Also, here’s a link to a piece I mentioned, by Adam Tendler about John Cage and gamification, titled Purposeless Play. Even if you’re not familiar with Cage, do yourself a favor and click through: Adam has done meticulous, fabulous work embedding several video and audio files to elucidate his thoughts. Also, check out Adam’s live performance of Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano, available as a free download here.
Preparing a piano
Here’s the Deep Sea video that we watched:
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/17299509 w=500&h=382]
Deep Sea (v 2.0 Audio) from Robin Arnott on Vimeo.
And last but certainly not least, you can go play Lim here.