Adapting contested national history for global audiences in Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation

Abstract

The video game Attentat 1942 (2017) and its follow-up Svoboda 1945: Liberation (2021) received worldwide recognition and numerous awards for their representation of Czechoslovak history. Drawing upon the personal experiences of several members of the development team at Charles Games, including translators and historians, the article addresses the challenges involved in adapting Central and Eastern European historical narratives for players unfamiliar with the regional context, but also for countries (i.e. Germany) with stringent rules on video game depictions of Nazi symbolism. By doing so, we critically examine how the development team strove to maintain historical accuracy and authenticity not only in the games’ development but, more specifically, in their localization. The article builds on existing research on video game localization, which sees localization as a complex set of processes involving not only translation of in-game texts, but also more fundamental adjustments related to globalization and internationalization. The article complements a self-reflexive design case analysis with a reception study, based on a thematic analysis of foreign language reviews in the specialized press, to explore how regional historical themes are perceived by reviewers, and whether, or to what extent, localization affects these perceptions.

Keywords:

• Historical video games
• Central and Eastern Europe
• video game localization
• World War II
• communism
• Attentat 1942
• Svoboda 1945: Liberation

Introduction

Video games are a highly globalized area of cultural production in large part due to the formative role of digital distribution platforms and the networked processes of game development (Kerr 2017). A typical blockbuster game is made by studios located in the West and supported by countless outsourcing partners around the world, including, for example, Polish quality assurance providers (Ozimek 2019) or Chinese art asset companies (Nakamura and Wirman, 2021). From a cultural point of view, video games have been shaped since the 1970s by their two key markets and producers: the U.S. and Japan (Consalvo 2006).¹

In this respect, English-speaking academia has paid attention to the cultural differences between these two national industries and how they manifest specifically in Japanese games (Carlson and Corliss 2011; Consalvo 2013; O’Hagan and Mangiron 2013; Mandiberg 2017). Consequently, the scholarly interest in video game localization has mostly revolved around the more pronounced differences between domestic and international versions of Japanese games (ibid.), although other language areas have recently gained more attention (e.g. Al-Batineh and Alawneh 2022; Pettini 2021). That is not to say that the local cultures of other countries have not affected the themes and design of games, even if some areas of game production have adopted a transnational imaginary (Vanderhoef 2021). Titles ranging from the platformer Never Alone (Upper One Games 2014), inspired by Iñupiat folk tales and co-developed with the local community (Massanari 2015), to The Witcher RPG series, drawing from Slavic mythology (Majkowski 2018), have brought local themes and narratives into mainstream video game culture, often leveraging their unique settings to stand out in in a competitive gaming market.

In this article, we aim to contribute to the academic inquiry into the influence of local cultural themes and the broadly understood group of localization processes (O’Hagan and Mangiron 2013) that make them accessible to global audiences. In doing so, we aim to reflect on a two-fold transformative process by which the team at Charles Games turned an educational game for Czech students into a commercial game for international audiences. Initially developed as part of a larger educational game series, Attentat 1942 (Charles Games 2017) received worldwide recognition and numerous awards for its treatment of Czechoslovak history through a combination of live action and archival footage, interactive comics, and dialogue-based gameplay mechanics. The follow-up Svoboda 1945: Liberation (Charles Games 2021) explores contested events that occurred at the end of World War II (further as WWII), including the expulsion of the German population from the Czech borderlands and the rise to power of the Communist Party. In both games, maintaining historical accuracy and authenticity was crucial to the development team. In this article, we reflect upon how these issues transpire in the games’ development and, more specifically, localization and foreign reception.

This article draws upon the personal experiences of the development team, which included three authors of this article: Vít Šisler was the lead game designer, Shawn Clybor worked on both localization and game design and Ondřej Trhoň worked as a scripter. Our goal is to address the challenges of adapting Central and Eastern European historical narratives for players unfamiliar with the regional context, but also for countries (i.e. Germany) with stringent rules on video game depictions of Nazi symbolism (see Pfister and Tschiggerl 2020). In this regard, we build on existing research on video game localization, which sees localization as a complex set of processes involving not only translation of in-game texts, but also more fundamental adjustments related to globalization and internationalization, sometimes referred to as GILT (O’Hagan and Mangiron 2013).

In the case of the two analyzed games, developers had to contextualize historical events to ensure that players outside the Czech Republic understood the historical meanings of represented events, while avoiding schematizations common to video game treatment of historical events, especially in war-themed mainstream first-person shooters (Pötzsch and Šisler 2019). Developers also had to carefully consider how to navigate tensions between the methodological approach of the Czech historians who researched and wrote the game’s narrative, and popular understanding of those events in non-Czech contexts. Complementing this self-reflexive analysis, we present a thematic study of early critical reception, exploring how regional historical themes are perceived by foreign reviewers in the specialized press, and whether, or to what extent, localization affects these perceptions.

On a broader theoretical level, this article aims to contribute to scholarly analysis of video game localization, as well as in-game representation of local cultural themes. Eastern European perspective has been largely overlooked in both of these areas aside from a few exceptions dealing with depictions of Slavic folklore in The Witcher series (Majkowski 2018). However, Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation deal with authentic historical events, whose representation in video games is both a legal and cultural taboo in countries like Germany or Austria. This presents a unique opportunity that is not only ethically charged, but can also illuminate processes of game localisation in novel contexts.

Theoretical background

As O’Hagan and Mangiron (2013) have documented, the discursive shift from translation to localization originated in the 1980s IT industry. The video game industry later followed suit. Compared to translation, which implies interest only in verbal components, localization signals a broader agenda aimed at user interface and user experience more generally, including design choices that take into account potential international use. The work of localizers – itself a group of various professions including translators, editors, and testers – is thus often understood as a way to domesticate foreign cultural products (Carlson and Corliss 2011). The notion that localization helps in developing products for global audiences can also be observed in the industry acronym GILT (O’Hagan and Mangiron 2013), which has further expanded the scope of localization beyond translation to cover also globalization and internationalization.

To some extent, video game localization efforts, especially those concerned with more fundamental changes related to globalization and internationalization, might seem counterintuitive considering the popularity of, for example, Japanese games outside Japan (Carlson and Corliss 2011). However, Japanese studios like Square Enix have effectively and deliberately applied internationalizing processes to create games accessible to Western audiences but still identifiably Japanese in their appeal to players (Consalvo 2013). Majkowski (2018) has illustrated the intricacy of achieving the correct balance between local cultural themes and international accessibility on the use of references to Polish culture in the Witcher video game series. The trilogy has gone back and forth between explicit references to Polish Romantic literature and drama in the first game to their absence in the second installment, which has then been reversed in the third game through the embracement of Polish Romanticism, including indirect and direct quotations.

An important aspect of localization is compliance with national regulations, which can vary greatly from country to country (Carlson and Corliss 2011). Edwards (2014), an industry practitioner in the area of video game localization, has addressed this issue using the term culturalization (see also Pyae 2018), which aims to explicate the different cultural sensibilities related to the representation of history, religion, ethnicity, and geopolitics. One of the examples related to national regulation, which is especially relevant for our case study, is the depiction of Nazism in video games (see Chapman and Linderoth 2015); Germany, in particular, has strict rules regarding Nazi symbolism. As Pfister and Tschiggerl (2020) have demonstrated, Germany’s entertainment software self-regulatory body USK effectively blocked games containing swastikas and other symbols from obtaining a rating and thus prevented them from being released in Germany.² This was an arguably conservative reading of the German law, which dismissed the so-called social adequacy clause in the case of video games. This clause otherwise permits the depiction of Nazi symbolism in other media ‘if it serves arts, science or political education’ (Pfister and Tschiggerl 2020, 54). Furthermore, the preemptive removal and replacement of Nazi symbolism by video game companies did not contribute to a more critical handling of Nazi history, but rather undermined it. In 2020, however, the first two games featuring Nazi symbols – Through the Darkest of Times (Paintbucket Games 2020) and Attentat 1942 – received their ratings from USK, signalling a change in the application of the social adequacy clause. For both games, Germany constitutes a key market. By itself, the strategic choice of selecting countries for an eventual release can be understood as a matter of localization (O’Hagan and Mangiron 2013). For Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation, the Central and Eastern European countries constitute a key audience, however, the games were also developed to be played by people less familiar with the historical events depicted.

Development of Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation

Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation were both developed by Charles Games, a spin-off of Charles University, in close collaboration with the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Both games were first released as part of an educational project and made available to Czech high school teachers for free. Reworked and improved versions were later published on traditional game platforms for the general public. Attentat 1942 came out in 2017 with English, German, and Russian subtitles and its success paved the way for the formalization of Charles Games as an independent studio. Svoboda 1945: Liberation was released with English subtitles in August 2021 and German subtitles were added in October of the same year.

Across the two titles, players encounter various chapters of Czechoslovakia’s history, spanning from WWII and Nazi occupation to the communist regime’s rise to power. As Šisler (2019) has already pointed out in his summary of the main caveats of using video games to convey historical topics, the most pressing tension might be between accuracy (in terms of details, themes, questions, consequences) and an engaging experience. In this regard, Schrier (2014, 75) suggests that there is always a tradeoff due to intrinsic properties, affordances, and limitations of video games as a medium. In practice, historical specificity might be at odds with the ludic properties of games. Furthermore, during the initial development phases of Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation development, the developers encountered conflicting historical discourses, particularly between history teachers and historians (Šisler 2019). The former tend to establish history as a result of professional work, past events, causes, and effects being fixed by historians and put out for other uses. The design process of both games was, however, more informed by the historians’ approach, following the idea that ‘history is the act of constructing meaningful, critically researched, and validated interpretations of the past, interpretations focused on human motivations, actions, and the effects of those actions’ (McCall 2011, 9).

As a result, both games are founded on pedagogical constructivism, historical empathy, and social learning theory (Šisler 2019). Pedagogical constructivism (Piaget 1962) is reflected in how history is presented in the games as a ‘platform for questions to be asked’ (Šisler 2019, 208) rather than just a set of events and dates. Historical empathy (Ashby and Lee 1987, 63) manifests itself in the way Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation open up different perspectives, contexts, and mindsets for players to inhabit and sympathize with. Lastly, social learning theory also emphasizes indirect experiences of historical events without players’ input (Bandura 1977; Schrier 2014, 83). In both games, players interview ‘eyewitnesses’ of the past in the present. Depending on whom they ask and how they frame the questions, they discover a different part of the story and, more importantly, a different evaluation of the historical events. Thus, both games implement a multiperspective, polyphonic approach to history. The oral testimonies of ‘eyewitnesses’ are complemented by interactive graphic novel segments and playable memories depicting the past.

Attentat 1942 takes place during the period of Nazi occupation of Czech Territories. The story unwinds right after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, ruler of the occupied country and a chief architect of the Holocaust. The successful attack led to brutal repressions, during which the German forces decimated two villages as retribution, creating an atmosphere of pervasive terror. Players act as a grandson or granddaughter of the main character, Jindřich Jelínek, who was arrested by the Gestapo immediately after the assassination attempt. Their task is to talk to witnesses, retrace Jindřich’s story and find out the reasons for his arrest (Šisler 2016).

Svoboda 1945: Liberation is an indirect sequel to Attentat 1942 and covers the aftermath of WWII, focusing on the expulsion of German-speaking citizens from Czechoslovakia and forced collectivization of private farmlands by the communist regime after 1948. Players take on the role of a preservationist at the National Heritage Institute, who is sent to the small, fictional village of Svoboda near the Czech-German border to determine if an old schoolhouse is eligible for landmark status. They soon realize that for the local inhabitants of Svoboda the building’s history, and its meaning as a symbol, are deeply intertwined with WWII, the chaotic aftermath of the war, and the rise of the Soviet-backed communist dictatorship of the late 1940s. Similar to Attentat 1942, the narrative also takes a more personal turn early in the game when players explore the school’s attic and discover an old cache of materials that includes a photograph of the protagonist’s grandfather. To discover what he was doing there, and his role in the postwar violence, they can contact their family and question the locals as they conduct their survey.

Both games can be characterized as narrative adventures. The main gameplay consists of branching dialogues during which players encounter characters with different experience of WWII and the Nazi occupation. These interactive dialogues are complemented by interactive comics or mini-games of varying genres. Players’ choices influence the outcome of the story with multiple possible endings. Stemming from the theoretical grounding of pedagogical constructivism, historical empathy, and social learning theory as outlined above, the developers have verbalized the following key principles of their design: authenticity, constructivism, and inclusiveness (Šisler 2019). Regarding authenticity, historical research and real testimonies underpin both Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation. The historical material was used to reconstruct realistic narratives that players explore. Yet, the games do not allow players to change history or create consequential counter-factual situations. Regarding constructivism, players need to critically evaluate the information they gathered in order to progress in the games. Finally, both games include voices from groups often marginalized in the Czech historical discourse, such as Roma in Attentat 1942 and Sudeten Germans in Svoboda 1945: Liberation.

Contested histories

Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation differ in the controversies surrounding the respective historical events and periods they depict. Attentat 1942 focuses on the complex motives underlying ‘collaboration’ and ‘resistance’ under the Nazi occupation, and challenges players to consider the horrors of the occupation from different, unique, and sometimes mutually exclusive perspectives. Svoboda 1945: Liberation, delves into the final days of the Nazi occupation and the chaos precipitated by its eventual collapse in 1945, but then follows this narrative forward to the collapse of the so-called ‘Third Republic’ and the communist seizure of power in February 1948.

Particularly in the case of Svoboda 1945: Liberation, interpretations of post-war events, especially the expulsion of its German inhabitants at the end of the war, are the subject of heated discussions in the Czech public sphere. Up to three million Germans, representing over a quarter of the entire population of then Czechoslovakia, were forced to leave the country after WWII (Staněk 2005; Frommer 2004; Glassheim 2000). The rightness of the expulsion remains mostly unchallenged in prevailing historical narratives on the Czech lands over the last 70 years (Kolek 2020). What makes the expulsions especially controversial is that while they were sanctioned and organized by the newly established Czechoslovak government and all three of the Allied Powers, some of the most shocking acts of violence were committed by ‘everyday people.’ The total number of those who died during the expulsions – either directly or indirectly due to disease, malnourishment, and exposure – remains open to considerable debate. Best estimates suggest the total number of deaths was most likely between 15 thousand (excluding approximately 3.4 thousand suicides) and 30 thousand, although Sudeten German organizations have claimed the number is far higher (Frommer 2004).

Among the many controversial and deeply divisive topics related to the expulsions, few remain quite so charged as the matter of property restitution (a number of people benefited from the confiscation of German property and possessions). Unlike other countries, such as Germany and Austria, where a democratic public sphere created opportunities to debate the complicity of everyday people in wartime atrocities, the communist governments of Central and Eastern Europe placed an almost complete ban on any public discussion of the collective acts of violence that consumed their territories during or immediately after WWII. In Czechia today, this has undoubtedly contributed to the ongoing unwillingness of the public to examine the atrocities of the immediate postwar era, especially those committed by everyday people.

Similarly controversial is the communist seizure of power in 1948, when the non-communist ministers in the Czechoslovak government resigned from the government in a futile act of protest that allowed the Communist Party to seize control of the state – technically within the bounds of the law but in reality a coup (Kaplan 1987). Before February 1948, the Communists promised to follow their ‘own path’ to the development of socialism in Czechoslovakia. This reality changed with the intensification of the Cold War and Stalin’s growing fears of renewed military conflict. By 1949, the Soviet system had become the only acceptable model in Eastern Europe. In Czechoslovakia, this meant the bureaucratic centralization of the government and economy under communist leadership, widespread political purges, the imposition of ‘Marxism-Leninism’ on cultural and intellectual life, the repression of dissenting opinions in the public sphere, and the elimination of private ownership in business and property. This also included the forced creation of ‘collective farms,’ like those in the Soviet Union. Only with the death of Stalin in 1953 did the Communist Party leadership inch away from the most violent and repressive actions taken between 1948 and 1953, but it took decades (indeed, the collapse of communism itself) for the emergence of any meaningful discussions of these atrocities, not to mention the complex individual motives, behaviors, and opinions that underlie them.

Globalization and internationalization

The German release of Attentat 1942 provides an exemplary instance of an internationalization issue encountered by the developers from Charles Games. Initially, Attentat 1942 was not available on the German market because the German Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK) did not approve any games containing Nazi imagery, regardless of the specific context. This ban included symbols (eg. Nazi flags, insignia, or badges of honour relating to the NSDAP), uniforms, slogans, and greetings. Such imagery appears frequently in Attentat 1942, both in its graphic novel segments and in the various interludes that include documentary footage. Anonymized previously summed up the situation: ‘you had either to change your game or give up. […] We couldn’t pull the lever and unblock it for German players. Or we could pull it and risk dragging our team and Charles University to court’ (Trhoň 2018). At the same time, the team’s historians insisted on following German denazification laws and established procedures and did not want to release the game in Germany without an official age rating. Ultimately, the development team refused to make the necessary changes because it would ‘be impossible to make a historically accurate game about Nazi period without Nazi symbols’ (ibid.) and such a change would compromise the game’s historical authenticity.

Due to rising pressure stirred by cases like that of Attentat 1942, regulatory rules in Germany were overturned in 2018. Attentat 1942 got the rating in September 2018 and the desktop version became available in Germany (Trhoň 2018). The historical content of Attentat 1942 came under scrutiny once again when Charles Games released mobile (iOS and Android) ports. As documented by Partleton (2020), the game had initially been banned by Google from being sold in several regions (including Germany and Russia). This ban was later partially lifted after the media controversy, but the game reportedly still remains unavailable in Russia.³

During the early stages of development for Attentat 1942, cultural localization was framed primarily as a problem of ‘translation,’ which required altering certain texts to make the game more understandable to foreign audiences without the Czech cultural context. These tasks included cutting specific geographic information like street names and locations, adding titles to lesser-known historical figures, and making implied information more explicit (such as referring to a platoon of soldiers as ‘the Germans’ as opposed to assuming players would know they were Germans). Perhaps the most time-consuming task was revising sentence structures to be more active – the Czech language (like other Slavic languages) often uses the passive voice while avoiding subjects and subjective pronouns, especially when referring to authorities and power structures, making clarity difficult while discussing multiple regimes over a broad period of time.

The role of localization began to evolve, however, with the translation of object-based mini-games, which in several places required edits and changes that extended far beyond traditional ‘translation.’ For example, in one mini-game, players must decide which objects from their desk they must destroy in anticipation of a Nazi raid of their apartment. Many of these objects would be instantly recognizable to a Czech, but foreign audiences would have struggled to determine which objects the Nazis would find problematic. For example, one of the objects is a small statue of Jan Žižka, a medieval Hussite general. In a Czech context, the notion of Žižka triggers nationalistic (and anti-German) sentiment, making the statue problematic to the Nazis. Yet, to a foreign audience, such a link is nonexistent. In an attempt to find a solution, the translator began to embed hints and clues within the texts themselves that provided clues to players as to whether the object should be destroyed, a deviation from the Czech text. These changes proved so effective in enhancing the playability of the game that they were ultimately introduced into the original Czech version of the game.

The realization that began to emerge through these changes that ‘localization’ is a practice far more important than cutting details too specific for foreign audiences and adding bits of context to better frame historical events, artifacts, and pop-cultural references. Instead, the Charles Games team began thinking about localization as more of a game design problem that required translation-related solutions, but it also required game design solutions that included entirely new or revised texts, more robust tutorials, the creation of new game elements and artifacts, and additional sounds and dialogue. As discussed above, the most pressing localization issue that the Charles Games team faced was preserving historical accuracy while also maximizing wherever possible the game’s entertainment value. The dual objectives of maintaining historical accuracy while designing an entertaining game were not always in tension, but at several key moments, the strengthening of one would have undermined or compromised the other, as illustrated by examples below. These tensions embody in certain respects what Jaffe (2019) coined a ‘cursed problem’ in game design – a paradox created by two mutually exclusive and contradictory objectives that are central to a game’s core design promises, which in this case meant an immersive gamified experience and a historically accurate experience based on verified facts and documentary sources.

Although the concept of a ‘cursed problem’ assumes very distinctive forms and factors that constitute history as an academic practice and the process of designing a game (for example, the equation of game design with fun), it is nevertheless a fitting description of the overall creative process dilemmas at Charles Games. In specific, questions of how to gamify the past without ‘schematizing it’ or adding gamified elements that authentically captured the emotional experiences of the characters became paramount. At the same time, these tensions are not always as paradoxical as the ‘cursed problem’ framework suggests, as evidenced by an emerging consensus in game studies and games in history scholarship on a clearly-defined distinction between ‘accuracy’ and ‘authenticity.’ Accuracy denotes an academically rigorous methodology based upon the best practices of historical scholarship. This typically means a narrative interpretation grounded upon critical readings of primary source documents framed by a deep understanding of the interpretive and methodological trends in an existing corpus of academic literature that engage the same, or similar topics (Maza 2017). Authenticity is concerned with the perceptions and experiences of the subjects experiencing these representations, including how their preconceived notions and beliefs inform their perceptions of accuracy (Mochocki 2022). Whether or not a video game can satisfy the conditions for historical accuracy (and there are reasons to suggest it can), it can certainly achieve historical authenticity by creating an immersive experience that prioritizes academic expertise, documentary authority, encyclopedic support, and material artifacts that link personal reminiscences to collective memory. But authenticity is ultimately contingent on the games’ subjects, the players, connecting their sensory experiences in the game-world to their pre-defined understandings of whatever authenticity means to them (Mochocki 2022). Localization thus became one of the critical avenues by which the Charles Games development team sought to resolve tensions created by emergent tensions between game design and historical authenticity without compromising key design goals.

The role localization played in game design is nowhere clearer than in the ‘poetry duel’ minigame in Attentat 1942. In this emotionally charged sequence, players relive the wartime memories of their grandmother, who is trapped in a dangerous encounter with a prominent Nazi collaborator who is trying to seduce her with poetry in exchange for securing her husband’s release from a Gestapo prison. The objective of the game is for players to rebuff these advances with their own poetry excerpts – if they are too indirect, they could create the impression of interest, whereas being too direct could anger him. The game system offers a dynamic range of poetry excerpts (depending on the suitor’s interpretation of the encounter, his poems can grow more confident, more hostile, or more despairing) that are drawn from well-known Czech poets, adding additional context that Czech players can use to infer whether a given excerpt might be ‘appropriate.’ The localization challenge was that these poets are virtually unknown outside Czechia, making the minigame considerably more difficult for foreign audiences to complete successfully. The translator wanted to avoid supplying additional context because the minigame was already text heavy, and instead decided to alter–and in some places rewrite–the excerpts to draw out subtext that players could deduce to ‘win’ the game. From the perspective of a literary translator, these edits were problematic – in some instances, the original texts were transformed into almost entirely new texts. From the perspective of a game designer, these changes were necessary and resulted in a more compelling game experience. In this instance, the ‘accuracy’ of history as academic practice was compromised to maintain the historical ‘authenticity’ of the experience in a gamified context to the player.

Critical reception

As Mochocki (2022) demonstrates, not only designing, but also critiquing and playing historical video games may be meaningful heritage practices. To reflect on how the above-described game design decisions and localization efforts related to historical accuracy and authenticity have been received outside the Czech Republic, we have carried out a thematic analysis (Ayres 2008) of foreign language reviews of Svoboda 1945: Liberation in the specialized press. Altogether, we were able to collect 24 written reviews by January 31, 2022: 15 in English, 3 in German, 2 in Italian, and 1 each in French, Hungarian, Slovak, and Spanish (see Appendix for the full list). The semi-professionalized nature of video game journalism (see Perreault and Vos 2020), which spans both mainstream media outlets and smaller blogs, is reflected in our corpus. For example, only 2 out of the 24 reviews were aggregated on Metacritic. However, the other 21 reviews appeared in dedicated online publications, including Eurogamer, Der Spiegel, Hey Poor Player, NaviGames, or Third Coast Review. Combining inductive qualitative coding with a theory-driven research design, we have narrowed down the scope of the analysis to focus on themes related to historical accuracy, authenticity, and localization in general. As such, we are not, for example, considering arguments concerning the perceived lack of gameplay challenges or the relatively short playtime, which have nonetheless also appeared in the analyzed reviews. Notably, not all of the collected reviews explicitly address the themes relevant for our research, which is understandable given the subjective nature of video game reviewing. Still, the fact that Svoboda 1945: Liberation was developed in the Czech Republic has been widely acknowledged due to the game’s subject matter.

On the practical level of available language versions, several reviews have noted and praised that the FMV sections are voiced in Czech, lending these sections of the game a sense of authenticity. However, the fact that upon its release the game⁴ had been only translated into English (with the German version made available approximately two months later) was criticized by a French reviewer. The limited language options have also been mentioned in English-language reviews, although here they have not posed any accessibility issues.

Reviewers’ nationality (or place of residence) and level of interest in European history have in some cases influenced the reading of the game and of the depicted events. Some American, British, Dutch, French, and Italian reviewers have framed their thoughts on the game by acknowledging dominant, ‘Westernized’ historical narratives related to WWII, arguing that ‘the game portrays a situation that is not often portrayed in Western (European) media and games.’ (Bugter 2021; full bibliographic information can be found in Appendix) On the other hand, reviewers from neighboring countries, such as Austria, Germany, Hungary, or Slovakia, have emphasized the regional interconnectedness and the importance of revisiting and discussing the still controversial post-war transformation and German expulsion.

Nearly universally, the reviews have deemed the game historically accurate, supporting these statements by pointing to the collaboration between Charles Games and professional historians. Reviewers have, for example, praised the game as ‘an intimate and realistic portrait of the anonymous victims and the survivors of war’ (Pedro 2022) and the fictionalized characters as ‘plausible amalgams […] rather than pantomime villains and victims,’ (Tim 2021) directly associating this aspect of the game with the use of historical sources and the involvement of historians: ‘With the help of historians from the Czech Academy of Sciences, Charles Games “sifted through hundreds of real stories and fates”’ (ibid.). Four reviews have even explicitly named the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences. One reviewer has, however, suggested that there might be a ‘bias in the way the information has been compiled and reiterated’ (Brearton 2021) referring to in-game dossiers, which summarize the information learned from interviews with game characters. Aside from this one reservation, the reviewer has praised the game for how it ‘blends fiction and historical accuracy’ (ibid.).

The analysis suggests that promotional materials and other paratextual elements (including the information about the involvement of historians in the game’s development) play a role in supporting claims of historical accuracy and authenticity (see also Wright 2018). Yet, authenticity and accuracy are rarely explicitly defined in the reviews or attributed to one specific aspect of Svoboda 1945: Liberation. Although the developers tried to follow the above-mentioned McCall’s (2011) understanding of ‘authentic’ history as a practice, that is, as the act of constructing critically researched interpretations of the past, based on critical interpretations of human motivations and actions, the reviewers sometimes seem to have labeled the game as historically ‘authentic’ or ‘accurate’ based solely on the fact that professional historians were part of the development team. This implied authority of historians, however, cannot be disconnected from the game’s representation of history. As such, the mentions of the involvement of historians can well be understood as mere production trivia.

Despite the general praise for the factual grounding of the game, a Slovak reviewer has criticized the in-game encyclopedia both for its implementation as an unlockable feature and its basic alphabetical structure that, in their opinion, did not help present the depicted historical events in a systematic manner. Notably, the mix of historical and fictionalized elements within the game has in at least one case led to confusing its fictional setting as a real place (Johnson Yu 2021).

While the game has been seen as having documentary and educational qualities and focusing on a relatively niche area of 20th-century history, some reviews have speculated that it can be enjoyed and understood by players not familiar with the Central and Eastern European context: ‘Despite being deeply entrenched in historical fact, you do not need a background in history to enjoy Svoboda 1945. The writing and gameplay do a great job of contextualizing this portion of Czech history’ (Sam 2021). In this regard, the game’s audience has been argued to include not only historical enthusiasts but also ‘those looking for a brilliantly crafted narrative’ (Rahman 2021).

Concluding remarks

As illustrated by the two games Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation, localization is a multi-faceted endeavor, which cannot be reduced to translation of in-game texts. For games so tightly connected to national and often controversial (or at least contested) history, preparing them for international release requires significant adjustments, which directly interact with the work of game design and involve collaboration across individual game development roles. Localization might also be one of the avenues where developers have to resolve tensions between game design and historical authenticity.

Outcomes of localization can also inform and shape the domestic version of the games, creating a beneficial feedback loop within the iterative process of game development. In many instances, localization revolves around finding the right balance between translation and outright modification to serve gameplay needs and provide sufficient cultural contextualization.

Localization issues can stem from linguistic differences, lack of cultural references, but also from expectations of historical accuracy and authenticity as seen from the perspective of academia. What is at stake is not just accessibility in terms of understanding the meaning of in-game texts, but also the ability to successfully complete in-game tasks. The team at Charles Games has experienced firsthand how a narrow definition of translation can be counterproductive for the development of international versions, instead requiring an internal shift to a more involved and collaborative mode of localization in its broader sense as reflected by the acronym GILT (globalization, internalization, localization, translation; see O’Hagan and Mangiron 2013).

Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation can both be labeled ‘commemorative collaboration’ (Mochocki 2022): between the creators who offer historically-themed games and the players who decide to engage with it. The reception analysis then suggests that GILT is a particularly salient method of localization for such games representing lesser-known historical events to international audiences. While the reviews in the foreign specialized press have generally been positive, suggesting that the games can be enjoyed beyond the domestic market, the lack of further language options can be a limiting factor as noted in some of the reviews. Importantly, the reviewers praised the game for being historically accurate, supporting these statements by citing the involvement of professional historians. The reviews did not necessarily problematize the very notions of historical authenticity and accuracy in a fictional game, but such discussion arguably falls outside the scope of a regular video game review.

Due to its focus on Central and Eastern Europe, the article broadens our understanding of localization processes and expands on the existing literature, which has so far focused mostly on Japanese games (Carlson and Corliss 2011; Consalvo 2013; O’Hagan and Mangiron 2013; Mandiberg 2017) and thus stands alongside more recent research into understudied areas of localization (e.g. Al-Batineh and Alawneh 2022; Pettini 2021). It demonstrates that the processes of localization and internalization are more complex and nuanced than these terms might imply. Importantly, it also shows that localization is not necessarily something that is added ex post facto, but should instead be incorporated into the game design process, and can in fact inform the design of the game in the original language and context.

Finally, the article explores the challenges of localization of games that deal with authentic historical events, whose representation in video games has until recently been a legal and cultural taboo in countries such as Germany or Austria. This subject matter further raised demands on localization, emphasizing the need for collaboration across game development disciplines. As such, it illuminates processes of game localization in novel and ethically charged contexts, helping us understand how video games about local and oftentimes contested histories traverse boundaries and cultures.

Disclosure statement

The author declares the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and–or publication of this article: VŠ, OT and SC were part of the development team of Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation. They are employees of Charles Games, a company that earns revenue from the games. None of the above has affected the writing and content of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This article was supported by the European Regional Development Fund project ‘Creativity and Adaptability as Conditions of the Success of Europe in an Interrelated World’ (No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000734) and the Charles University program Primus/21/Hum/005 ‘Developing Theories and Methods for Game Industry Research, Applied to the Czech Case.’ VŠ was further supported by the Charles University project Primus/Hum/03.

Notes on contributors

Vít Šisler

Vít Šisler is a new media scholar, currently based at Charles University, Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Social Sciences. He is a lead game designer at Charles Games for the serious games Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation.

Jan Švelch

Jan Švelch is a game production studies scholar, currently based at Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences. He is the co-editor of Game Production Studies (Amsterdam University Press, 2021).

Shawn Clybor

Shawn Clybor is a historian focusing on Central and Eastern European history. He is a translator at Charles Games for the serious games Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation.

Ondřej Trhoň

Ondřej Trhoň is a new media scholar, currently based at Charles University, Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Social Sciences. He is a scripter at Charles Games for the serious games Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation. Currently pursuing PhD at Academy of Fine Arts, Prague.

Notes

1 China has recently become the biggest video market based on its revenue (see Nakamura and Wirman 2021) but its impact on global video game culture has so far been limited to financial investment in Western game studios and publishers and occasional international hits like Genshin Impact (miHoYo 2020).

2 Censorship is a relevant issue of video game localization, whether in actual state-directed censorship (Zhang 2012) or perceived censorship (Mandiberg 2017).

3 Information available in the Google Play Developer Console on November 25, 2021.

4 Meaning subtitles and user interface, including in-game text.

Appendix

A List of Reviews

• Bokor, Marielle. 2021. “Review: Svoboda 1945: Liberation Is a Tragic, Affecting Masterwork.” Third Coast Review (blog), August 3. https://thirdcoastreview.com/2021/08/03/review-svoboda-1945/.
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• Brearton, Rachel. 2021. “New Historical Narrative Game - Svoboda 1945: Liberation - Reviews.” Indie Hive (blog), August 5. https://indie-hive.com/svoboda1945/.
  <!--${if: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/if:}--> <!--${ifNot: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/ifNot:}--><!--${if: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/if:}--><!--${googleScholarLinkReplacer: %00empty%00 web %00empty%00 author%3DRachel.+Brearton 2021 Brearton%2C+Rachel.+2021.+%E2%80%9CNew+Historical+Narrative+Game+-+Svoboda+1945%3A+Liberation+-+Reviews.%E2%80%9D+Indie+Hive+%28blog%29%2C+August+5.+. %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 getFTREnabled FULL_TEXT %00empty%00}--><!--${sfxLinkReplacer: e_1_3_4_1_2_3_1 %00empty%00 url_ver%3DZ39.88-2004%26rft.genre%3Dweb%26rfr_id%3Dinfo%3Asid%2Fliteratum%253Atandf%26rft.aulast%3DBrearton%26rft.aufirst%3DRachel.%26rft.date%3D2021 %00empty%00}-->
• Brownhill, Marie. 2021. “Reliving a Haunting Historical Tale in Svoboda 1945: Liberation.” Game Industry News (blog), September 4. https://www.gameindustry.com/reviews/modern-gamer/reliving-a-haunting-historical-tale-in-svoboda-1945-liberation/.
  <!--${if: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/if:}--> <!--${ifNot: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/ifNot:}--><!--${if: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/if:}--><!--${googleScholarLinkReplacer: %00empty%00 web %00empty%00 author%3DMarie.+Brownhill 2021 Brownhill%2C+Marie.+2021.+%E2%80%9CReliving+a+Haunting+Historical+Tale+in+Svoboda+1945%3A+Liberation.%E2%80%9D+Game+Industry+News+%28blog%29%2C+September+4.+. %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 getFTREnabled FULL_TEXT %00empty%00}--><!--${sfxLinkReplacer: e_1_3_4_1_2_4_1 %00empty%00 url_ver%3DZ39.88-2004%26rft.genre%3Dweb%26rfr_id%3Dinfo%3Asid%2Fliteratum%253Atandf%26rft.aulast%3DBrownhill%26rft.aufirst%3DMarie.%26rft.date%3D2021 %00empty%00}-->
• Bugter, Omar. 2021. “Svoboda 1945: Liberation Review.” Interactive Pasts (blog), August 14. https://interactivepasts.com/blog-posts/games-we-dig/svoboda-1945-liberation-review/.
  <!--${if: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/if:}--> <!--${ifNot: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/ifNot:}--><!--${if: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/if:}--><!--${googleScholarLinkReplacer: %00empty%00 web %00empty%00 author%3DOmar.+Bugter 2021 Bugter%2C+Omar.+2021.+%E2%80%9CSvoboda+1945%3A+Liberation+Review.%E2%80%9D+Interactive+Pasts+%28blog%29%2C+August+14.+. %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 getFTREnabled FULL_TEXT %00empty%00}--><!--${sfxLinkReplacer: e_1_3_4_1_2_5_1 %00empty%00 url_ver%3DZ39.88-2004%26rft.genre%3Dweb%26rfr_id%3Dinfo%3Asid%2Fliteratum%253Atandf%26rft.aulast%3DBugter%26rft.aufirst%3DOmar.%26rft.date%3D2021 %00empty%00}-->
• Bunn, Prans. 2021. “Review: Svoboda 1945: Liberation.” GBAtemp.Net - The Independent Video Game Community (blog), August 25. https://gbatemp.net/review/svoboda-1945-liberation.1874/.
  <!--${if: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/if:}--> <!--${ifNot: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/ifNot:}--><!--${if: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/if:}--><!--${googleScholarLinkReplacer: %00empty%00 web %00empty%00 author%3DPrans.+Bunn 2021 Bunn%2C+Prans.+2021.+%E2%80%9CReview%3A+Svoboda+1945%3A+Liberation.%E2%80%9D+GBAtemp.Net+-+The+Independent+Video+Game+Community+%28blog%29%2C+August+25.+. %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 getFTREnabled FULL_TEXT %00empty%00}--><!--${sfxLinkReplacer: e_1_3_4_1_2_6_1 %00empty%00 url_ver%3DZ39.88-2004%26rft.genre%3Dweb%26rfr_id%3Dinfo%3Asid%2Fliteratum%253Atandf%26rft.aulast%3DBunn%26rft.aufirst%3DPrans.%26rft.date%3D2021 %00empty%00}-->
• Cole, Yussef. 2021. “Svoboda 1945: Liberation Review.” The Indie Game Website (blog), August 17. https://www.indiegamewebsite.com/2021/08/17/svoboda-1945-liberation-review/.
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• Couture, Joel. 2021. “‘Svoboda 1945: Liberation’ Requires Care in Talking With War Survivors.” Indie Games Plus (blog), August 13. https://indiegamesplus.com/2021/08/svoboda-1945-liberation-requires-care-in-talking-with-war-survivors.
  <!--${if: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/if:}--> <!--${ifNot: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/ifNot:}--><!--${if: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/if:}--><!--${googleScholarLinkReplacer: %00empty%00 web %00empty%00 author%3DJoel.+Couture 2021 Couture%2C+Joel.+2021.+%E2%80%9C%E2%80%98Svoboda+1945%3A+Liberation%E2%80%99+Requires+Care+in+Talking+With+War+Survivors.%E2%80%9D+Indie+Games+Plus+%28blog%29%2C+August+13.+. %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 getFTREnabled FULL_TEXT %00empty%00}--><!--${sfxLinkReplacer: e_1_3_4_1_2_8_1 %00empty%00 url_ver%3DZ39.88-2004%26rft.genre%3Dweb%26rfr_id%3Dinfo%3Asid%2Fliteratum%253Atandf%26rft.aulast%3DCouture%26rft.aufirst%3DJoel.%26rft.date%3D2021 %00empty%00}-->
• Hiller, Benja. 2021. “Svoboda 1945: Liberation Review | von tiefen Wunden und persönlichen Perspektiven.” Welcome To Last Week (blog). September 2. https://welcometolastweek.de/2021/09/02/svoboda-1945-liberation-review-von-tiefen-wunden-und-persoenlichen-perspektiven/.
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• Johnson Yu, Heather. 2021. “Svoboda 1945: Liberation Review (PC).” Hey Poor Player (blog), August 8. https://www.heypoorplayer.com/2021/08/08/svoboda-1945-liberation-review-pc/.
  <!--${if: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/if:}--> <!--${ifNot: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/ifNot:}--><!--${if: isGetFTREnabled}--><!--${/if:}--><!--${googleScholarLinkReplacer: %00empty%00 web %00empty%00 author%3DHeather.+Johnson+Yu 2021 Johnson+Yu%2C+Heather.+2021.+%E2%80%9CSvoboda+1945%3A+Liberation+Review+%28PC%29.%E2%80%9D+Hey+Poor+Player+%28blog%29%2C+August+8.+. %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 %00empty%00 getFTREnabled FULL_TEXT %00empty%00}--><!--${sfxLinkReplacer: e_1_3_4_1_2_10_1 %00empty%00 url_ver%3DZ39.88-2004%26rft.genre%3Dweb%26rfr_id%3Dinfo%3Asid%2Fliteratum%253Atandf%26rft.aulast%3DJohnson%2520Yu%26rft.aufirst%3DHeather.%26rft.date%3D2021 %00empty%00}-->
• Kordoš, Ján. 2021. “Svoboda 1945.” Sector.sk (blog), August 25. https://www.sector.sk/recenzia/37503/svoboda-1945.htm.
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• Parri, Luca. 2021. “Svoboda 1945: Liberation - Il peso della Storia.” Stay Nerd (blog), August 4. https://www.staynerd.com/svoboda-1945-recensione/.
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• Pedro, André. 2022. “Svoboda 1945: Liberation Review” GameCritics. January 24, 2022. https://gamecritics.com/gc-staff/svoboda-1945-liberation-review/.
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• Purchese, Robert. 2021. “Part Game, Part Documentary, Svoboda 1945: Liberation Teaches about a Troubled Past.” Eurogamer (blog), August 16. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-08-13-part-game-part-documentary-svoboda-1945-liberation-teaches-about-a-troubled-past.
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• Rahman, Brohmor. 2021. “Svoboda 1945: Liberation: A Haunting Masterpiece - PC Review.” The Game Crater (blog), August), August 3. https://www.thegamecrater.com/svoboda-1945-liberation-review/.
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• Sigl, Rainer. 2021a. “Damals, nach dem Krieg.” fm4.ORF.at (blog), August 17. https://fm4.orf.at/stories/3017205/.
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• Sigl, Rainer. 2021b. “Videospiel »Svoboda 1945: Liberation«: Kriegsende mit Schrecken.” Der Spiegel (blog), September 5. https://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/games/videospiel-svoboda-1945-liberation-kriegsende-mit-schrecken-a-5bd93253-f86e-454c-a76d-002f3a6b920b.
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• Sirtori, Francesca. 2021. “Svoboda 1945: Liberation | Recensione, una storia cinematografica | Game Division.” Tom’s Hardware (blog), August 3. https://www.tomshw.it/videogioco/svoboda-1945-liberation-recensione/.
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• Thurman, Ashe. 2021. “Review: Svoboda 1945: Liberation.” VN Game Den (blog), August 6. https://www.vngameden.com/review-svoboda-1945-liberation/4695/.
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• Tim. 2021. “Svoboda 1945: Liberation.” Tally-Ho Corner (blog), August 6. https://tallyhocorner.com/2021/08/svoboda-1945-liberation/.
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• Vgartsite. 2021. “Svoboda 1945: Liberation – Short Review.” Video Games Art (blog), September 8. https://vgartsite.wordpress.com/2021/09/08/svoboda-1945-liberation-short-review/.
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• Zalifalcam. 2021. “Svoboda 1945 : Liberation nous fait incarner des mémoires irréconciliables.” The Pixel Post (blog), August 5. https://thepixelpost.com/lootbox/svoboda-devoir-de-memoire.
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