Blending Game Localisation in the Arab World: Arafiesta as a Case Study

Blending Game localisation modifies the various channels of information in video games to suit the target culture norms. Game localisation is part of audiovisual translation where localisers translate, adapt, and manipulate game content from the source language into the target language. Game developers consider the localisation process necessary to be able to publish their games in foreign markets. This study examines the localisation of religious and obscene references in FiestaOnline among the linguistic, visual, and interactive layers by comparing it to Arafiesta, the Arabic localised version of the game. A total of 740 dialogue strings, which included religious and obscene linguistic elements, were collected, in addition to capturing several screenshots and video footages to compare visual and interactive features. A unique framework was schemed after combining three existent frameworks in order to analyse the data. Also, a list of questions was sent to the localisation company which they responded to via email. The research results show that localisers tend to utilise semantic misrepresentation among both types of references as the most frequent technique. Visual features have been generally retained, but the covering method has been commonly used among character appearances while interactive aspects fluctuate among retaining, deletion, and manipulation. Finally, the thesis concludes that blending game localisation can be implemented on game imports into the Arab world as the gaming market is generally increasing in the Middle-East and North Africa (MENA) region.