The seemingly obvious solution, the use of symbols, is not without problems, as they are not always culture-neutral. I remember translating a flight simulation game in which the function "Go the first page of the interface" was visualized through the icon of a baseball home plate - an image that would convey nothing to the vast majority of German players, and unfortunately could not be changed due to tight deadlines. Furthermore, symbols convey limited messages. While objects (gold, stone, wood), simple actions (fight) or basic concepts (health) can be depicted relatively easily, more complex actions (save game and quit to the desk-top) might not be able to be conveyed via a pictogram. A common solution is the use of mouse-over labels (called “tooltips” in Windows parlance) that appear when the player moves the mouse cursor over an icon (see Figure 3).

A special case of interface applies to modern flight simulation games, i.e., military jet and helicopter sims. In flight simulation games, a so-called HUD (heads-up display) is projected onto the center of the screen and displays information about altitude, angle of attack, airspeed, selected weapons and much more. This closely models the real HUD projected onto the canopy of a military aircraft.

Interestingly, most German fans of the Jane's Combat Simulations series preferred the HUD to remain in English (it had been translated in an early game of the series, Advanced Tactical Fighters), in order to preserve the sense of realism so cherished by hard-core flight sim gamers. This immersion into the virtual cockpit even goes so far that some players spend hundreds of dollars on highly realistic flightsticks, throttles and rudder pedals in order to create a true HOTAS (“hands on throttle and stick) flight experience.

Warning messages in flight simulations present similar challenges. In order to preserve the sense of realism, these audio messages are often not translated, but rather provided with subtitles. As games are always actions, game messages must be time-sensitive. Unlike what happens in more utilitarian software, which allows the user plenty of time to react to messages, warnings in games often require immediate responses. This is particularly important if the message takes the form of English audio with a target-language subtitle. The player should not have to spend too much time reading that, for instance, a surface-to-air missile is approaching his or her plane.

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