A Report On The Fan Localization Groups Of Video Games In Chinese Mainland

Video game localization refers to the undertaking of translating texts files, adjusting user interfaces, removing or editing contents of a video game in order to prepare it for a targeted foreign market. The birth of fan localization groups was closely related to the scarcity of authorized video game localization and Chinese mainland players’heavy dependence on localized video games. Legal or not, fan localization groups deserves to be recognized and analyzed by translation industry.This thesis is a descriptive study of the fan localization group phenomenon of video games. This thesis discusses the basic structure, classifications, the history and latest development of fan localization groups through case study and interviews.Existing foreign and domestic literature on video game localization discussed translation strategies for game texts against different cultural background and analyzed examples of video game translation. There are three main contributions of this thesis. First, this thesis takes the history of the import of foreign video games in Chinese mainland and corresponding piracy phenomenon into account in discussing the history of unauthorized video game localization, which helps provide a new perspective in understanding the origin and development of fan localization groups; Second, this thesis introduces new classifications of fan localization groups, which provide a better way to understand the organization and characteristics of different fan localization groups; Third, this thesis classifies game texts into three types according to their functions. This classification is proposed according to the author’s discussions with localizers about game texts and analysis of game texts.