傳遞忠實遊戲體驗的在地化任務—電玩在地化

Abstract

自1962年MIT開發出史上第一個電子遊戲《Spacewar‭!‬》至今，電玩遊戲的精緻程度已不可同日而語。驚人的動畫技術、精彩複雜的故事劇情、以無窮想像力所開發出來的廣大自由世界，這些全讓現代的電玩遊戲不僅僅是一種娛樂，而成為一種文化現象，對文學、電影、音樂等各種多媒體造成影響。在全球化的環境之下，電玩遊戲跟著走向不同國家的市場，在地化的需求逐漸浮現。電玩在地化自1980年代起便開始運作，然而，翻譯研究學界自2000年之後才開始出現相關學術文章。可惜的是，臺灣學界至今仍未有相關研究。此研究首先從目的論的功能分析角度切入，以實際電玩遊戲文本做為案例，分析電玩遊戲當中各種可翻譯的元素、其文本種類及翻譯策略，接著再透過訪談討論臺灣電玩在地化產業的案例，並套用學者對於在地化的理論，探討臺灣市場在世界與亞洲的特殊性質與定位，為臺灣學界奠下電玩在地化研究的基礎。

Video games have come a long way since the first electronic game‭ ‬"Spacewar‭!‬‭" ‬was invented at MIT in 1962‭. ‬With amazing animation‭, ‬sophisticated storylines and wild fantasy worlds for players to freely explore‭, ‬modern video games are no longer just entertainment‭, ‬but a cultural phenomenon‭, ‬exerting influence on literature‭, ‬movies‭, ‬music and other areas‭. ‬In a globalized society‭, ‬video games are not only sold in their country of origin‭, ‬but the world over as well‭, ‬creating the need for localization‭. ‬Game localization has existed since the 1980s‭, ‬but was not a focus of translation theorists until the year 2000‭. ‬While many related articles and books have been published in English since then‭, ‬Taiwan has yet seen academic research on this topic‭. ‬This thesis first analyzes game texts through case study and discusses text types and translation strategies through functionalist approaches‭. ‬Moreover‭, ‬a case study of‭ ‬a‭ ‬game localization center is used to introduce the game localization industry in Taiwan and is the basis for discussion on Taiwan’s role in the Asian and world markets‭.‬