Playing (with) the Trace

Localized Culture in Phoenix Wright

Authors

  • Stephen Mandiberg University of California Auteur-e

Keywords:

localization, translation, bordering, interface, video games, Japan

Abstract

This article elaborates how residual traces of a video game's national and cultural origins – overlooked or ignored due to limited funding – can be an ethically responsible part of game localization when the goal of localization is not simplyimmersion, full adaptation and economics, but the generation of cultural interaction. This article proposes that the moments of incongruity, when a player (uncomfortably) encounters residual traces, are a positive aspect of cultural circulation in that they help players learn how to become hybrid citizens. Far from being failures of localization, as industry professionals contend, thisarticle elaborates how these traces should be seen as successes of responsible localization practice.

Author Biography

  • Stephen Mandiberg, University of California

    Having recently completed a PhD in Communication at the University of California, San Diego, Stephen Mandiberg is an independent researcher of industry practices of localization, globalization, and media studies. His current project is about the practice and politics of video game localization between Japan and the United States. Using workplace ethnography, interviews with leading game industry workers, and textual research methods he approaches how individual game translators work to mediate between cultures and communities as responsible translators, not simply black boxes that spit out translated text and/or mere cogs in an industrial system.

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Published

2015-12-01

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2015): Geemu et media mix

Section

Articles

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