Using the Twitter hashtag #TorrentialDownpour, a vocal group of disgruntled, English-speaking gamers launched an attack in early 2016 protesting the localization changes made to the game Fire Emblem Fates. While dismissible as the latest “toxic technoculture” (Massanari 2015), the #TorrentialDownpour campaign’s claims are not unfounded; there are links between localization and censorship, in that both practices adapt texts moving between markets and cultures. This article draws from translation theory and observations of localization practice to problematize #TorrentialDownpour’s claims, and in the process address some of the most prevalent fallacies involving game localization: localization is not censorship; there is no better version; and one person is not ruining gamers’ fun.
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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.