Translation Method Used For Localization Of League Of Legends From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

This research aims to investigate the role of three rules of Skopos Theory in the localization of foreign online games.In this study,famous online game League of Legends is used as the object.In addition,original English versions and Chinese translations of three types of in-game texts of League of Legends,including skill descriptions,system voices and hero’s dialogue,are selected and subject to comparison.In this research,text analysis is adopted to analyze the distribution of three rules of Skopos Theory and four translation methods in these in-game texts.Game players are also subject to the questionnaire survey so that their attitudes towards translation effects of in-game texts in League of Legends can be disclosed.The results of both text analysis and questionnaire survey corroborate that skopos rule and coherence role are evenly reflected in all types of texts,while fidelity rule is mainly realized in skill descriptions.The study also argues that type of text,background information and cultural difference mainly affect the distributions of the three rules.This study integrates three rules of Skopos Theory with online game localization,demonstrating that the translators should select appropriate translation method based on the type of game text and related information.Thus,interlingual coherence can be achieved between source text and target text,making it easier for the player to read and understand the translations of in-game texts.This study may provide referential meaning for other similar researches on game localization.