Kate Edwards has invested many years into understanding how players from around the world relate to games and how the games, in turn, interact with the players. In Kate’s talk at LOGIN 2011, Maximizing Domains and Managing Mobs: Strategies for Online Content Culturalization, she will address the themes of localization and culturalization within online games. Before she delivers her talk, Kate shares some observations about the game industry and how it does — and should — handle language and cultural adaptation.
PAUL PHILLEO: Kate, we appreciate your time to address this interview for LOGIN News. Could you give us a little background about what attracted you to geopolitical and cultural studies, especially as these topics relate to games?
KATE EDWARDS: The root of my interest goes way back, as I had originally aspired to be a storyboard artist for Lucasfilm and took the steps to pursue that direction. However, in the industrial design program in which I was based, I got tired of being told what to draw (none of which was sci-fi or fantasy-related), so I switched majors to geography and cartography. I had always had a keen interest in the topic and often had my nose buried in an atlas as a kid, so I took off in that direction, and it went extremely well. My work in geopolitics and cartography took me into Microsoft for a 13-year career, where I served as the company’s “Geopolitical Strategist” in the Geopolitical Strategy team I created and managed. My function was to help the company avoid making grievous geopolitical and cultural errors, and that included all the content coming out of the MS Game Studios once it was up and running. Now, I had always been a gamer since the first Pong machine showed up in our local Sears store (seriously) and sustained that interest all along. Between 1995 and 2005, I performed a “geopolitical quality review” on virtually every first-party title from Microsoft (PC and Xbox) and many non-first-party stuff, too. This was a perfect melding of my creative side, twinge of geekness, and my interest in geopolitics and cultures.
In general, for game developers, what differences are there in the way cultural considerations of online content versus offline content should be handled?
In the “old” days when software and games were distributed solely by packaged goods, it was somewhat easier to contain and control the content and its potential sensitivities. However, today in the online space, it becomes extremely difficult to contain any potential issue because once it’s launched, it’s virtually everywhere immediately. If the content still contains cultural sensitivities or issues that could cause a local backlash from consumers or the governments, it’s simply too late — the content is out there. So with game content that will be online, I think it demands an even greater level of due diligence to ensure the content is ready for global exposure by a wide variety of cultures.
Should even smaller online game developers on smaller budgets, such as those in the casual, social, and indie game spaces, plan for content culturalization for those products? If so, can the process be accomplished through a smaller budget?
Geopolitical and cultural nuances in game content is a universal phenomenon; it really doesn’t live only in the realm of larger publishers and developers. Smaller developers should likely be even more concerned about the culturalization aspect because if they incur a major problem due to something they released, their small company may not be able to recover from both the PR and fiscal impacts. Larger companies have this advantage — they might stir a controversy, but they’re usually able to absorb the consequences. There are definitely things smaller developers can do to ensure their content won’t be problematic. The scope may not be as extensive as a large developer, but even some basic actions at the beginning of the development cycle can often flag issues that can be avoided as the game is developed.
Is it more cost-effective for a company to create its content at the lowest common denominator, with as few distinctive culture-specific elements as possible, rather than creating highly specific content?
In short, yes. Content that contains fewer obvious cues from real-world cultures will generally be a safer bet. A lot of the sci-fi and pure fantasy-based games have this advantage, as they have the freedom to add or remove as many identifiable elements as they wish. Games based in real-world geography, history, and/or cultures have a greater burden to treat the content with respect and careful research to avoid stereotyping or misrepresentation. Assassin’s Creed was a great example of how the potentially very sensitive Crusades-era Middle East was portrayed with sufficient accuracy and respect of local cultures.
As an example of broad cultural appeal, what qualities in the various iterations of StarCraft and WarCraft have made those titles easier to transplant internationally, particularly Asian markets?
I think Starcraft and Warcraft are great examples of globally successful titles because of a few reasons. First, they’re pure sci-fi and pure fantasy; therefore, they have the freedom to remove themselves from real-world cultural elements. Second, they are built on a type of gameplay — the real-time strategy game — that had already been well-proven as a popular game type (Age of Empires, etc.), and the RTS has roots in board gaming, which has had a un
iversal cultural appeal for centuries. Third, from a localization standpoint, these games are not quite as text-intensive as other AAA titles, especially large-scale RPGs, so a game that relies less on narrative and exposition often has a greater chance of success.
Resources aside, are many games too culturally specific to their markets to be adapted elsewhere? Should that consideration factor into a developer’s original game design?
My personal belief is that a well-designed game remains well-designed and playable no matter where it goes; after all, we’re all human. If the core gameplay is really effective and enjoyable (think something like Tetris), the cultural barriers can be overcome with good culturalization and localization practices. That being said, there are times when a certain game might be too infused with a specific culture’s viewpoint, mythology, or history to be relevant beyond that market. As an example, many very popular Chinese and Japanese RPGs tend not to fare well outside of those countries because they contain story elements and ideas that are very locally appealing but not well-known outside that culture; i.e., the concepts don’t culturally translate well. Granted, there will always be niche markets within markets where some players are huge fans of those RPGs. But to achieve a global appeal, the themes within the game will likewise have to consider cultural elements that are more universal.
What culturalization or localization issues are many online game developers still overlooking, and how can they remedy them?
From what I’ve seen, I think some of the standard localization problems still apply, such as not internationalizing their code, enabling Unicode, designing UIs for various languages (they don’t all fit in the same space!), and so on. From a culturalization standpoint, the bigger challenge is simply realizing that game content might evoke a very negative reaction in a certain locale. And when your game is online, it’s everywhere — whether you want it to be or not. Sometimes governments don’t care if you intended to sell in their market or not. So rather than be put in a position of back-peddling or justifying decisions, it’s better to be proactively diligent and be aware of the potential risks you may be incurring. So in short, the biggest problem still remains awaresness.
In terms of regulation, opportunity cost, flexible game communities, are there any international (non-U.S.) markets right now that represent the best openings for localized online games, and if so, why?
This is a little difficult to answer, only because knowing the magic sequence or key that unlocks a certain market is something like the Holy Grail. When I presented a lecture in China last year, one of the questions I received was: “Can you tell us which types of games will be culturally popular in the next five years?” If I had an answer to that, I probably wouldn’t need to work anymore! However, if I was to mention a couple of regions that I see as good openings, one would be the Middle East. This usually surprises people, but the Middle East — despite assumptions and stereotypes about the cultures there — is a thriving game market. The Middle East has a very high mobile penetration rate and also has a quickly improving infrastructure that supports its status as the fastest growing market for games. Southeast Asia is also a rapidly expanding market, feeding off of China’s growth to a degree but finding their own success.
Giving you a head start on networking possibilities, what sorts of discussions about culturalization and related topics do you hope to have while you’re networking at LOGIN 2011?
The culturalization of game content is something I’m very passionate about, and I love discussing it with anyone who likewise cares. From a networking perspective, I’m always interested in connecting with non-U.S. companies who might need help culturalizing their content for the U.S. and western markets. And of course, I’m always ready to help U.S. and European companies prepare their content for non-western locales. As the chair of the IGDA Game Localization SIG, I have a broader desire to talk to anyone who is interested in our group’s efforts to elevate the visibility and importance of localization in the game industry (it accounts for about 50 percent of the industry’s global revenue!).
