An exploration of linguistic preferences in the Chinese Malaysian gaming community: Stardew Valley as a case study

IF 0.7 3区 文学 Q3 COMMUNICATION
Arista Szu-Yu Kuo, Zheng Ci Lai
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Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study aims to examine Chinese Malaysian gamers’ perceptions and attitudes towards translated in-game Chinese texts, and their linguistic preferences in video game localisation. An online survey, based on a Stardew Valley case study, was conducted to collect quantitative and qualitative data from this presumably bilingual or multilingual gaming community. Among 75 Chinese Malaysian gamers, the majority preferred playing games in Chinese, while over a quarter favoured English. The translation quality of a game influenced their decisions to play more than whether the game version was original or localised. Over half of the respondents preferred the official Simplified Chinese localised version to the fan-made Traditional Chinese version; however, preferences reversed when presented with actual examples. This implies that the official Simplified version of Stardew Valley has limitations in aligning with gamers’ linguistic habits, leading nearly half of the respondents to express a desire for a version catering to Chinese Malaysian gamers’ linguistic needs for in-game communication.KEYWORDS: Game localisationuser perceptionlinguistic preferencesChinese MalaysianTranslation quality Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsArista Szu-Yu KuoArista Szu-Yu Kuo is an assistant professor of Translation Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research interests focus on the intersection of translation quality, audiovisual translation, and translator training.Zheng Ci LaiZheng Ci Lai obtained his Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Chinese and a minor in Translation at Nanyang Technological University. He is an avid video game player who also likes studying video games. He is currently working in the game localization industry as a Localization Expert.
马来西亚华人游戏社区的语言偏好研究:以《星露谷》为例
摘要本研究旨在探讨马来西亚华人玩家对游戏中中文翻译文本的看法和态度,以及他们在电子游戏本地化中的语言偏好。基于Stardew Valley的案例研究,我们进行了一项在线调查,从这个可能是双语或多语言的游戏社区中收集定量和定性数据。在75名马来西亚华裔玩家中,大多数人喜欢玩中文游戏,而超过四分之一的人喜欢英语游戏。比起游戏的原版或本土化版本,游戏的翻译质量更能影响他们的游戏决策。超过一半的受访者更喜欢官方的简体中文本地化版本,而不是粉丝制作的繁体中文版本;然而,当看到实际的例子时,他们的偏好就会相反。这意味着《星露谷》的官方简化版本在迎合玩家的语言习惯方面存在局限性,导致近一半的受访者表示希望该版本能够满足马来西亚华人玩家在游戏内部交流中的语言需求。关键词:游戏本地化用户感知语言偏好中文马来语翻译质量披露声明作者未报告潜在利益冲突。作者简介郭淑玉郭淑玉是新加坡南洋理工大学翻译研究专业的助理教授。主要研究方向为翻译质量、视听翻译和翻译培训。郑慈来毕业于南洋理工大学,获中文(荣誉)文学士学位,辅修翻译专业。他是一个狂热的电子游戏玩家,也喜欢研究电子游戏。他目前在游戏本地化行业担任本地化专家。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Translator
Translator Multiple-
CiteScore
1.20
自引率
14.30%
发文量
22
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