I would like to add something sort of in support of "culturalization".
Changing something in a game (dialogue for example) to fit in with the target culture is not always a bad thing in all cases, and the OP's statement to "just translate it instead" is slightly ignorant/oblivious.
There are many idioms, figures of speech, & metaphors, that simply don't translate outside of their original language/culture. Puns, palindromes & other wordplays are almost never translatable .
Do players of other languages/cultures deserve to put up with inscrutable phrases & nonsensical dialogue just because they don't happen to speak the original language it was written in?
Should developers who chose to change something in their game for such reasons deserve to be vilified simply because they want foreign players to understand what their dialogue is meant to say, or because they want foreign players to laugh at a joke in the dialogue?
For example: there might be a case of a character quoting a foreign phase, and translating it to the game's native language.
"In France there is a saying 'Appelez un Chat un Chat.' it means 'Call a Cat a Cat'."
Now if that were translated directly into french it would be redundant & silly.
"En France, il y a un dicton 'Appelez un Chat un Chat'. Cela signifie 'Appelez un chat un chat'."
The developer would likely change the quote in such a case to something that gives the sentence the same meaning but in a sensible phrasing.
Is it wrong of the developer to do that or should they just plug all the dialogue into Google translate & not care how stupid or silly it may be in the foreign release?
Changing things in a game from one language/culture for a foreign release as a form of censorship is generally bad, I agree. But I just wanted to point out there are other practical reasons for changes that have nothing to do with censorship & are not bad if done correctly.
What we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly, it's dearness only that gives everything it's value.
28-Mar-2020 06:26:36
