“Localization is not just translation”

This is what Lorenzo said last week on BTL Radio as I brought up Tom Lipschultz and the dust up surrounding him and his work on Akiba’s Beat. Since I’ve spoken about the nuance of localization before, and challenging your own point of view, I decided to dive into the comments and forums to learn more about this.

Setting the Stage – the short version

Developer Acquire is working with Xseed games to release Akiba’s Beat in North America. Naturally localization will be a part of that agreement. In this a sign was spotted that was intended to be a weird off brand reference to a Japanese company. “KKK Witches”, referencing company “NKK Switches”. It’s like how in cartoons they play “GameStation” games, or iFruit phones in GTA. This was likely intended to be a small, silly reference rather than a reference to a hate group. Tom Lipschultz saw this and thought that it fit surprisingly well with a Japanophiles expectations of odd misuses of English on a sign in Akibahara. His co-workers did not agree.

Xseed reached out to Acquire to alert them to the apparent unintended reference, and it was changed to “ACQ Witches”. One of the localizers, Tom Lipschitz, thought the reason for the request for the change amounted to censorship, and in the end opted to have his name removed from the credits.

The devil is in the details

Not surprisingly, the takeaway a lot of people take from this is “Translator is way too strict about the original text and whined a lot”, or “Hero makes a stand against censorship”. After digging through comments there’s a lot of details that get glossed over.

Here’s some more of what we know:

• Tom found the issue and discussed it with others at Xseed
• Xseed as an organization sent a message to Acquire about it
• Tom was concerned that the notification was sent strictly for business reasons (ESRB rating, stores carrying the product) rather than artistically relevant reasons (my words, not his)
• Tom was also concerned about the exact nature of the message sent. Was it asking for this to be changed, or was it to simply point it out to them. Moreover, he was concerned that the Japanese company may acquiesce simply to maintain a business relationship wether or not this was important to the artistry of the game.
• Tom wished to make his feelings known, and decided to have his name removed from the credits.
• Acquire, after being notified, made the change themselves.

Here’s what we don’t know

• The exact intention of the developers. Did they know about the KKK and its cultural significance in the US and put the sign in with that knowledge? (This is highly unlikely, but I can not say with certainty that it is not the case)
• The exact nature of the communiqué to the developers.
• Because we don’t know the message sent to Acquire, we don’t know the full scope of why they made the change.

With this in mind, I can understand, to some extent, Tom’s actions. I see an intellectual consistency here. On top of that, he has replied in many forums discussing the issue, done his best to explain himself, and been open to other points of view, and I respect that. I strongly disagree with his position on this, though.

Reasons I disagree

The biggest issue here is that topics like the KKK are very serious and not something that should be made in offhanded, flippant ways. That stance suggests a view that there are no racial issues in this country. I don’t want to get political, but I think it’s a safe assertion that this isn’t the case. This doesn’t mean it’s a forbidden topic, just one that needs to be handled thoughtfully. Saying that it shouldn’t be used offhandedly shouldn’t be conflated with saying that edgy comedy that challenges social norms is also forbidden. To that I say that such challenging comedy needs to be very carefully crafted so that the points, questions, or discomfort it generates are well targeted, and significant, rather than shock for the sake of shock. Tom saw the sign, the shock, and the cross cultural misunderstanding seemed so fitting to him that he thought it served the work well. Many have already said to him, and I agree, that this is him interpreting meaning on top of what was there, and arguing that what he interpreted should be kept, rather than trying to find something that would fit that same feel that does not needlessly poke at a sensitive topic.

This leads to the expected role of a localizer. Several other commenters laid out the significance of localization and the expectation that they would have that someone would let them know if they had inadvertently included something sensitive like this. If they were to see that and not even ask if that was intended, that would be a massive disservice to their client, leaving them exposed to unwanted criticism. Going back to Lorenzo, this is why he said he’d never work with that team as soon as he heard about this story. They have lost his confidence in their ability to do a good localization job.

Then there’s the question of the nature of the nature and motivation of the communication to Acquire. There’s no reason for business and art concerns to be mutually exclusive. Artistically, a sign could be changed to something like “Geek Squid”, or any number of other things that make sense locally. This does nothing to detract from the original artists intention. At the same time, it would make sure that it doesn’t cause unnecessary controversy or risk losing sales. At the same time after that, it would promote Xseed as a trustworthy and high quality localization partner within the industry. Opening a conversation has almost no downside aside from a time investment. Considering this instance is reportedly a small side gag, it would be best to avoid a lengthy debate, so proposing a replacement with detailed explanations would be wise to save time.

Always consider the other side

While I disagree with Tom, I try to live by my own advice to challenge your own point of view, so I kept digging to understand why Tom did this. One is that he considers this to be censorship. After digging through everything, I can see where he’s coming from. This is changing content due to political concerns, which fits a dictionary definition. Government control of speech isn’t required to label something as censored by the definition. However, the social or political element of this is entirely based on the local context, and therefore good copy editing is warranted so that the intended meaning is clear, rather than bringing on extra baggage.

Many people are also misinterpreting his name being off of the credits, thinking he can’t make any resume references anymore. That’s not the case. Games credits are mostly for vanity. Often times people who do work on a game aren’t credited, or people who don’t work on it are, simply because the names list was baked in at the wrong time, and they aren’t going to update that list all the time. His name being off of credits moving forward is largely a symbolic gesture.

Odds and Ends

One thing that struck me about this is how apparently insensitive Mr Lipschultz is to other people’s experiences with issues that would lead him to believe that a KKK reference is something that can be seen as a context free shock joke. It is the kind of reaction that someone can have if they’ve never encountered racism, and feel like it isn’t a real problem anymore. I don’t know if that is an even remotely applicable to Mr. Lipschultz, but it does fit that pattern of behavior.

In his comments, Tom also stated that he feels the financial sales of a game shouldn’t be a consideration when localizing, meaning that risking a higher ESRB rating, or risking losing outlets, is irrelevant. However, he also said that being saddled with an Adults Only rating would be so impactful on sales that it may require a change. This is a little dissonant, but I think is somewhere on a scale between pragmatic and hypocritical, not 100% of either. However, I don’t know Mr Lipschultz myself, and can’t really say based on the little exposure I have to his thinking.

There are other points that can be made, but most circle around the same points I’ve already outlined. However, I’m glad I looked into it in more depth. While I still disagree with Tom’s reaction, it is more informed now, and not a knee jerk reaction. I understand better where he’s coming from, and see how he can honestly come to the conclusion he did. I see his points, and see where I believe his points fail.

Point is, you can’t make your localization too literal or direct. Cultural context is significant, and sometimes that can make splitting the difference very difficult. I respect and appreciate the difficulty of that, especially when combined with an anti censorship sensibility (misguided as its application in this case may or may not be).

If you’re curious, to see these conversations for yourself, the Xseed forum thread has a lot of people agreeing with Tom, where Kotaku has many disagreeing. In particular, I think the conversation between Tom (Wydward) and FatherComstock is the best exchange between both forums. You can see that in this thread here.

Kynetyk is a veteran of the games industry.  Behind the Line is written to help improve understanding of what goes on in the game development process and the business behind it.  From “What’s taking this game so long to release”, to “why are there bugs”, to “Why is this free to play” or anything else, if there is a topic that you would like to see covered, please write in to kynetyk@enthusiacs.com