STS Theoretical Approaches and Video Game Localization: Innovating Ideas

• In Event: Games, Virtual Technologies, and STS - II

Abstract

Video game localization is the process of adapting and translating a game to cultures other than the one a game was originally created, and is a theme rarely studied by STS scholars. However, STS might bring an innovative point-of-view to this practice that is becoming more and more widespread at the video game industry. The aim of the presentation is, then, to analyze the potential of some STS’ theoretical strands have into understanding better the localization process and how it has the potential to create new relations and identities between the end-user/gamer with the technology itself. The focus of this presentation will be given to post-colonial studies in STS, specially to Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (1994) piece, as she proposes that subaltern groups and cultures can have their own voices when writing/studying/talking about them. From Spivak’s perspective, we analyze how video game localization can be a practice that will enable the subaltern to create their own voice in a technology that can be considered highly imperialistic, as most of their products are created in developed countries and exported worldwide. In this sense, localizing a video game can both be a submission to another culture or a resistance to it, depending on how it is done. The paper concludes that STS is an important field of study that enables the scholar to understand how a relationship with a technology is socially constructed and how it can be used to resist imperialist endeavors.

Authors

• Marina Fontolan, Universidade Estadual de Campinas

• Léa Maria Leme Velho, UNICAMP

• Janaína Pamplona da Costa, UNICAMP

• James Malazita, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute