Communications in Humanities Research

- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences


Communications in Humanities Research

Vol. 29, 19 April 2024


Open Access | Article

The Use of Transliteration in Contemporary Video Game and Its Influence on Consumers: A Case Study of Elden Ring

Yimo Xu * 1
1 University of Toronto

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Communications in Humanities Research, Vol. 29, 101-106
Published 19 April 2024. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by EWA Publishing
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Citation Yimo Xu. The Use of Transliteration in Contemporary Video Game and Its Influence on Consumers: A Case Study of Elden Ring. CHR (2024) Vol. 29: 101-106. DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/29/20230546.

Abstract

This work concentrated on the quality of video game localization in China, especially the use of transliteration in text translation. Examples of existing Chinese-localized video games are documented and analyzed, and survey-based research is conducted to examine the response of the Chinese player community to the localization quality in a specific, representative case: Elden Ring. The result suggests that the abuse of transliteration has caused ambiguity to a notable extent among Chinese player/consumer communities, misguiding them to interpret the game content in unexpected ways. This work pointed out several flaws in the current video game localization in China. With best hope, the work could serve as a starting point for future studies in the area and provide meaningful improvement suggestions to Chinese translators in their work related to video games.

Keywords

Transliteration, Video Games, Localization

References

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4. Cheng, S., Ding, Z., & Yan, S. (2021). English-to-Chinese Transliteration with Phonetic Back-transliteration. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2112.10321

5. Wibowo, A. P., Nababan, M. R., Santosa, R., & Kristina, D. (2019). Reconfiguring Localization Quality Assessment for Video Games. Journal of Social Studies Education Research, 10(3), 346 .

6. Zhao, W. (2016). Chinese Localization of the Foreign Video Games——Translating the Foreign Video Games Titles. School English, 10, 256.

7. Newmann, W. W. (2022). Note on Chinese Transliteration and Sources. In Isolation and Engagement. University of Michigan Press.

8. Bernal-Merino, M. Á. (2015). Translation and localisation in video games: making entertainment software global. Routledge.

9. Zhao, S., & Liu, Y. (2023). From industry development to social influence: video games in Chinese newspaper coverage, 2010-2020. Chinese Journal of Communication, 16(1), 35–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/17544750.2022.2108860

10. Zhang, X. (2016). Video Game Title Translation Functional Translation Theory Perspective. Oversea English, 12, 138– 140.

11. Xu, Y. (2023) Survey about transliteration quality in Elden Ring. https://www.wjx.cn/vm/rOvWDHv.aspx

Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the International Conference on Global Politics and Socio-Humanities
ISBN (Print)
978-1-83558-365-4
ISBN (Online)
978-1-83558-366-1
Published Date
19 April 2024
Series
Communications in Humanities Research
ISSN (Print)
2753-7064
ISSN (Online)
2753-7072
DOI
10.54254/2753-7064/29/20230546
Copyright
19 April 2024
Open Access
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Copyright © 2023 EWA Publishing. Unless Otherwise Stated