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Localization Of Music And Songs

发布时间: 2023-05-17 09:29:32   作者:etogether.net   来源: 网络   浏览次数:
摘要: Translating song lyrics to be sung in the TL, as is sometimes done for the key theme songs for the game, calls for spe...


The important role played by audio is increasingly acknowledged also with the inclusion of music in games; indeed research has found that players can attribute up to 30% of their overall enjoyment of a game to the quality of the soundtrack. For example, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) incorporated an in-car radio with music entirely from the 1980s. The use of audio in games has reached the stage where the major US game developer / publisher Electronic Arts (EA) has a significant collection of licensed music tracks (ibid., 110). EA developed the delivery format called "EA Trax" (ibid., 111), working with up-and-coming artists as well as established musicians to include their songs in EA titles. Songs are an integral part of the overall gameplay experience – many Japanese AAA games have specially composed music scores that are released on CD as game music, and some of them have become bestsellers. Theme songs are typically non-diegetic while other songs performed by game characters within the game form a diegetic element. Despite being outside the game world in the strict sense of their link to gameplay, theme songs nevertheless form an important part of the game creating an emotional tie for many fans, thus acting as a means of player engagement.


Translating song lyrics to be sung in the TL, as is sometimes done for the key theme songs for the game, calls for special skills akin to those required for translating poetry and can involve complete rewriting. Rather than translating the original song, which often does not work well in the rhythmic conventions of the TL, a new song may replace the original (O'Hagan 2005). Nevertheless if such a replacement is not a specifically composed score for the game, fans who consider the theme song to be an extension of the game world may question the decision. For example, the original theme song 君がいるから[Because You are Here) in Final Fantasy XIII (2009) sung by Sayuri Sugawara was replaced in the game's North American and European releases with the song "My Hands" by the British pop singer Leona Lewis from her hit album. However, the relevance of this choice was questioned by fans writing in blog posts regarding the preference of special compositions over the use of a previously recorded song by an artist who may be popular but whose song bore no relation to the game. As with the use of "adaptive music" techniques, which allow specific music to be prompted in relation to a particular event in a game, music has long been linked to affecting the player's emotional state and also raises cultural implications in game localization.


With the availability of high fidelity sound on PCs and consoles, a new genre of music games such as SingStar (2004-) and Guitar Hero (2005-) has emerged, in turn affecting localization approaches. The SingStar series by Sony Computer Entertainment provides a karaoke-style singing competition based on the contestant's pitch and timing. The localization process for this series involves including a certain percentage of local content by local artists relevant to the given locale.These are more similar to an approach based on re-makes often used in the film industry.


While the use of audio and audio localization generally increased the scope for localized games to transfer the original gameplay experience, the replacement of written text with audio in games has led to reduced accessibility for deaf and hard-of-hearing players. In contrast to the increasing awareness of accessibility issues by governments and AV producers today, this is something which remains largely unaddressed and neglected in the game industry (Mangiron 2011a, 2012).


This current problem and the gap in knowledge about AVT conventions in the game industry in general provide an opportunity for game localizer training as well as focused translation research. In particular, with the advent of cinematic games developing with a wholesale uptake of cinematic techniques (Newman 2009), audio related issues will form a highly relevant area of research.



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