浅谈游戏翻译中的文化保留与转换

Video Game Translation: Transfer the Same Player Experience to a Different Culture

视频游戏(video game)自上世纪七十年代初诞生,至今发展不过半个世纪,已风靡全球。目前市场上大多数游戏的原始语言为英语或日语,因此,海外市场的需求促进了游戏本地化产业兴起。游戏本地化最重要的一环便是翻译,它不仅涉及语言转换,还有文化的转换与取舍。这里的文化除了传统意义上的地域文化,还包括游戏世界本身的虚拟文化。直到近年才有学者将游戏翻译融入翻译研究领域之中。该文结合作者的翻译经历,旨在分析游戏翻译的特点以及文化因素和译员理解对本地化后的游戏产生的影响。

With a short history of no more than half a century, video game has won great popularity. Because most video games are English or Japanese, the demand from overseas markets prompts the rise of game localization industry. Game localization is largely concerned with translation. It is a process of linguistic as well as cultural transfer. Only until recently was game translation incorpo-rated into Translation Studies. The chief aim of the present work is to investigate the features of video game translation, especially how cultural influences and translators'understanding affect a localized game. Suggestion for game translators is they need to fully understand both game world culture and the target regional culture.