Video game localisation in Iran: a survey of users’ profile, gaming habits and preferences

ABSTRACT

Today, an increasing number of people are playing video games, hence the continued growth of the game industry’s annual revenue, surpassing $150 billion in 2019, exceeds those of music and film industries combined. Considering the huge international market, accumulating and analysing information about gamers’ opinions, attitudes and experiences is of necessity for the game localisation market and could supplement and enrich the limited existing research findings. To address this gap, this article presents the results of a survey of Iranian console and computer gamers’ reception. Using quantitative data from over 750 gamers, the study examines the Iranian gamers’ profile, gaming habits, preferences, and perception of the present situation of video game localisation in Iran. The results reveal that the entertainment of playing video games appears to be entirely male-oriented and mostly in their teens and early to mid-20s. The most telling results suggest that Iranian gamers prefer a localisation approach in which the translation maintains the otherness of the original, and that on average, they are dissatisfied with the present state of game localisation into Persian.

KEYWORDS:

• Game localisation
• gamers
• console and computer games
• reception
• preferences

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This should be mentioned that translation strategies also resulted from the genre of the game and localisation may not be applicable to all games or all parts of a given game. The overall goal, however, emphasises keeping the playability or game experience (Fernández Costales 2014).

2. There is currently rich literature – outside Game Localisation and Translation Studies circles – on the effects of games on their users (e.g. Dowsett and Jackson 2019), playing performance (e.g. Almeida, Mealha, and Veloso 2016), gamers typologies (e.g. Kahn et al. 2015), and gamers’ motivations and preferences (e.g. Tseng 2011). Future research in game localisation can benefit from these studies in terms of theories, conceptualisation or research methods. For example, gamers probably manifest a different playing performance and may hold different motivations when playing localised video games.

3. This should be added that the values and categorisations are not all-encompassing.

4. The data of this discussion are based on some personal interviews with several gamers.

5. The insights mentioned in this discussion are based on some in-depth semi-structured interviews with a purposive selection of Iranian avid gamers.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ferdowsi University of Mashhad [2/48762].

Notes on contributors

Masood Khoshsaligheh

Masood Khoshsaligheh is Associate Professor in Translation Studies and Vice Dean for Research at the Faculty of Letters and Humanities at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. His research focuses on the intersection of translation, audiovisual media, and intercultural communication.

Saeed Ameri

Saeed Ameri is a PhD student in translation studies at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad where he teaches modules on general English and translation theory. He is currently working on his thesis on subtitling reception in Iran. Saeed is a member of National Elites Foundation in Iran. His main research interests are audiovisual translation and non-professional translation. His research has been published in international journals, including Perspectives, Babel, Hermes, The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, and Language and Intercultural Communication.