Chen, Dody Menghan;
(2025)
Game Localisation in Live Game Streaming: A Practice-Led Case Study.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
Abstract
Over the past decade, it has been observed that a small group of Chinese-speaking streamers showcase their gameplay of non-localised or partially localised English video games, particularly English games. Given the varying English proficiency among Chinese spectators, these game streamers need to effectively explain game content, ranging from game dialogues, or visuals to cultural backgrounds, by the utilisation of translation, explanation or commentary. Such a new form of localisation behaviour is referred to by me as ‘streaming-based game localisation’. Based on the emerging phenomena, two research questions are raised. First, what strategies do game streamers implement to deal with the English-Chinese localisation of specific game content? Second, from a multimodal point of view, what is the role of the acoustic and the visual channel in streaming-based game localisation from English into Chinese? Focusing on a video game called Children of Silentown: Prologue (2020), multimodal corpora for two streamers’ localisation were established. One of the streamers, Chenduoduo, is me, so I provided self-reflections for the case studies. For the other streamer, Mizhisheng, in addition to the corpus studies, I conducted netnographic methods and semi-structured interviews to obtain his thoughts on the localisation preparation, strategies, or issues. Because the official localisation of the standard game version, Children of Silentown (2023), was released during the project timeframe, I established a corpus based on the official localisation and conducted a comparative analysis between streamers’ versions and the official localisation. I also employed netnographic methods to participatorily observe Mizhisheng’s streaming-based game localisation practices, aiming to identify similarities and differences in his strategies, as well as to examine his motivations and objectives. Semi-structured interviews were further conducted to obtain Mizhisheng’s feedback.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Game Localisation in Live Game Streaming: A Practice-Led Case Study |
| Language: | English |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > CMII UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > SELCS > Translation Studies UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10211107 |
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