Fan translations have been around since the birth of video games, and have made many games accessible to different audiences. It was a very common practice, especially back in the 80s and 90s. Fan translations played a key role, especially for titles that were never officially localized for certain regions. Over time, the practice evolved, moving from small groups of enthusiasts sharing text files to large communities. Today, fan translations are still alive and have a widespread use, however, they raise some very important questions. In this blog we’ll take a look at the main issues with fan translations, and the challenges related.
Quality Issues
One of the first things that comes to mind when discussing fan translations is quality. While many fan translators are passionate, they often lack the resources and expertise needed to produce a high quality product. Professional game localization teams follow established processes and use dedicated tools to ensure the translation is consistent and accurate. This includes creating glossaries, style guides, and terminology databases, which help maintain a unified tone and language throughout the game. Fan translators, working without these tools, can struggle with consistency, leading to translations that feel incomplete or not cohesive.
Ethical Concerns
There are also ethical issues sometimes related to fan translations, especially when large studios with the capabilities and resources to afford professional game localization services rely on them. While fan translators may be happy to contribute, this raises questions about fairness and exploitation. Games are commercial products, and their creators and publishers profit from their success. Relying on unpaid fan work, especially when the resources for video game localization exist, can feel like taking advantage of the community’s goodwill. There’s also the issue of recognition. Fan translators rarely receive formal acknowledgment or credit for their work.
Technical Challenges
As localization providers, we wished localization involved only the translation part. However, it is much more complicated than that. There’s a lot of technical preparation behind every project, which makes having a game localization partner a life-saver.
Text files Organization/Preparation
Text files and game code need to be organized neatly and in a way that facilitates localization. You could do this step by yourself, but it would take time off of what you do best, which is developing the game. On top of that, a game localization provider will better advise you on which file formats are better for the localization, minimizing the chances of mistakes that need rework and cost money.
Team Management
Like it or not, teams need to be managed and testing needs to be conducted. Let’s say you are localizing into 10 languages: you will most definitely have 2, 3, maybe 4 or even more translators per language. Add to that editors and proofreaders, and multiply it for the total of languages. You’ll quickly find yourself having to manage 20, 30 translators total. Are you ready to coordinate timelines, assign tasks, respond to translators’ questions, all while keeping the development process moving? On top of that you will have to implement regular testing cycles, and manage the implementation of the feedback gained.
Glossaries and Style Guides
Now you just need to create a glossary and a style guide, to ensure every translator is on the same page, and the final result is consistent and cohesive. A style guide essentially takes care of how you want the dialogues and the text to look like across all versions. How should translators handle capitalization, time formats, abbreviations, acronyms and so on. If this step is skipped, there’s a risk of potentially confusing the players. For example, if date formats are not consistent, you could have dates that are written DD/MM/YY in some occasions, and MM/DD/YY in others. The result could be players missing out on special deals because they confused the date. A glossary is also imperative for a good final product. You wouldn’t risk the same items being translated differently in the same language.
LQA
Somehow you managed to do the previous step all by yourself, with no outside help from a professional localization agency. Now it’s time for the LQA. LQA involves testing the translated game to make sure it works properly and that the text doesn’t have any issues. It differs from regular proofreading or reviewing, as it targets any localization related issues within the whole game. Problems like text overflow, broken strings, or incorrect translations can significantly impact the player experience. So you have to put on your manager outfit and assign and oversee the whole process. After that you implement the feedback you just received.
Reliability Risks
One of the biggest risks of relying on fan translations is reliability. Fan translators are often volunteers who work on projects in their free time. You may have waves of volunteers asking to participate, but they may lose interest or abandon throughout the project due to other commitments. This can leave a translation incomplete, frustrating fans who were waiting for it. You could find yourself having to put on hold the translations of certain languages. In contrast, video game localization teams operate under contracts that ensure the work gets done on time and to a high standard. They also have to sign NDAs that protect your game during the development. Studios working with professional partners can rely on them to deliver the finished product, no matter what.
Conclusion
Fan translations have played a huge role in gaming history, making early games accessible to audiences around the world. Without them, we wouldn’t have had many iconic video games. However, while in principle they highlight great passion, they also come with many issues on quality, technical aspects as well as ethical questions. In the early days of gaming, these issues weren’t a big concern, and the quality standard of translation was much lower. But with the growth of the gaming industry and international audiences the quality standard for localization has increased quite a lot. Fan translations may still have a place in gaming culture, but they can’t replace neither the expertise nor the reliability of professional localization teams. By understanding that localization encompasses many steps other than simply translating a text, game developers and studios can understand that a video game localization provider is not only an outside vendor, but rather a team member, and a partner to share the load of releasing a game with.