Why would anyone play that in Finnish? : A qualitative study on Finnish players experiences on Finnish translated games
Rahkola, Jenni (2018-06-06)
Why would anyone play that in Finnish? : A qualitative study on Finnish players experiences on Finnish translated games
Rahkola, Jenni
(06.06.2018)
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This thesis aims to discover what kind of elements Finnish players find distracting in Finnish translated video games as Finnish translations of video games are generally viewed negatively amongst Finnish players.
This goal is achieved through a qualitative study in which a small group of active Finnish players each play a Finnish translated game of their own choosing and mark down any element in the translation which they find distracting. The resulting data is classified according to the participants’ comments on why they find the elements distracting. The categories are then analysed and potential causes behind them and solutions to them are discussed. The participants were also asked to out a questionnaire to gain further insight into their experiences partaking in the study and about Finnish translated games in general.
As the entire study is based on a subjective feeling of something being distracting, it is evident that most of the discovered distracting features are subjective in nature as well. However, a number of them were also the kind of features, which are bound to distract the target audience be the translated product a book, movie or video game. Such features include poor use of the Finnish language and incorrect translations. Majority of the participants thought positively of the translated games they played but none of them were particularly enthusiastic about playing games in Finnish in the future.
Due to the subjective nature of many of these distracting features, proposing any definite solutions is difficult. In most cases, however, adding quality assurance methods, and pre-localization steps such as familiarization or by adding player feedback to the localization process would likely have had a positive effect on the translated games. One large proponent here is likely also the participants’ degree of exposure to Finnish translated games: becoming more accustomed to Finnish translations in video games would likely make the Finnish language appear less out-of-place in video games.
This goal is achieved through a qualitative study in which a small group of active Finnish players each play a Finnish translated game of their own choosing and mark down any element in the translation which they find distracting. The resulting data is classified according to the participants’ comments on why they find the elements distracting. The categories are then analysed and potential causes behind them and solutions to them are discussed. The participants were also asked to out a questionnaire to gain further insight into their experiences partaking in the study and about Finnish translated games in general.
As the entire study is based on a subjective feeling of something being distracting, it is evident that most of the discovered distracting features are subjective in nature as well. However, a number of them were also the kind of features, which are bound to distract the target audience be the translated product a book, movie or video game. Such features include poor use of the Finnish language and incorrect translations. Majority of the participants thought positively of the translated games they played but none of them were particularly enthusiastic about playing games in Finnish in the future.
Due to the subjective nature of many of these distracting features, proposing any definite solutions is difficult. In most cases, however, adding quality assurance methods, and pre-localization steps such as familiarization or by adding player feedback to the localization process would likely have had a positive effect on the translated games. One large proponent here is likely also the participants’ degree of exposure to Finnish translated games: becoming more accustomed to Finnish translations in video games would likely make the Finnish language appear less out-of-place in video games.