Localise and shine: it may be easier than you think

MMOs often don’t get localised, and those that are often offer very few languages. Compared to almost all other video games with a budget in the same range, an MMO will be featured in 10x fewer languages.

Why is that?

The main reason is probably player expectations. The moment a game is announced to be available in [X] language, a seed is planted within that player community about the kind of experience they can expect to have. Since an MMO is much more a service than a product (and we can go on about that for days!), it’s not unreasonable for players to expect that the service will include thorough, good quality localisation. It’s very important for developers and publishers not to be daunted by these expectations, but to grasp and manage them thoughtfully from the beginning.

Localising the game completely, with the same level of service for all languages, is the ideal scenario but it’s frequently impractical. Considering factors such as server costs, customer support coverage and complex content creation processes, there are good cases to be made for each tier of localisation. The good news is that more often than not, even a small degree of localisation is better than none at all. The bad news is that if you do it wrong, your game and brand reputation will suffer. This is why, once a tier path has been chosen, its parameters should be very clearly communicated to the player base in order to avoid misleading them. (Even if you feel your solution isn’t ideal, it’s better to be straightforward about it than to string players on towards disappointment.)

The cost of initial localisation will rarely be the determining factor in whether or not to localise into [X] language. The real difficult part is how to structure an international, multilingual service. Localisation is a long-term investment (and should be supported by a strong internal framework from the planning stages; more on that later), and the considerations include:

- Dedicated language servers. A big down side to this is cost; servers are expensive. In the event that the server doesn’t reach critical mass, it starts to feel empty and the player experience goes downhill. Although many games use dedicated language servers, you don’t really need to — at least, not in the beginning. It’s fine to host multiple languages on one server as long as you provide language-specific in-game chat channels. It is a good idea to try to nudge players towards servers where they can find a lot of people from their nationality or speaking their language, even on an English international version – using IP address or system language settings. If your player count is low in a given language, an integrated server will provide a better experience for those players (compared to the alternatives: trying to play the game in another language, or more likely, not playing at all). You’re still free to open up dedicated language servers later if the numbers justify it, even though, due to inertia and network effects, it might be very difficult to transfer your existing players towards this new version.

- Customer Support across all languages. This can also be costly, and complex to set up, especially if you plan on providing 24/7 support: lots of staff grouped in separate teams, each with its own rotation. Here again, you can start smaller. Don’t offer a universal level of Customer Support initially; instead, you can provide a first-line team in [X] language and limit that support to office hours (basically a different spin on the tier system), or state simply and honestly that customer support is only available in English (or core languages having the critical mass that justifies a comprehensive service). Again, that may not be ideal for the whole player base, but it’s a better option than failing to do a more complex job.

- Community management across all languages. It’s very tempting to assign production/operational staff to liaise directly with the community, for gathering feedback and conducting player relations. While there are benefits to this, there are also pitfalls — particularly when you’ve localised widely but your internal language resources are limited. Ideally, you should hire full time native-language community managers to be your liaisons; they’ll understand the culture and preferences of their players, and can provide you with a holistic picture of what they like and how content and initiatives are being received. Of all the service elements you can localise, this is the least reductive; if you can’t understand your players you can’t cater to them well, so it’s unwise to skimp on community management. You will need very quickly a policy on your forums for languages that you are not serving, as  unmonitored forum discussions can really tarnish your image and destroy the spirit of this sub-community, spreading a bad influence to all the other ones. Your CMs will need strong links to development and other internal departments to close feedback loops and act effectively for both players and the business. Finally, the nature of community work is evolving rapidly, so consider your tools and mechanisms carefully. A channel that works well for one language community may not suit (or exist in) another, and wikis are worth flagging generally because they’ll die without a critical mass of contributors.

- Websites across all languages. This is probably the easiest element to provide, but the execution needs to be as perfect as possible to give players a strong positive first impression of the game. There’s nothing like dodgy translation on your official website to damage your brand! Also, if players can pay through your website, you want them to feel comfortable and secure there. You will also need to localize means of payment, as they all vary from one country to another. Trouble spots on websites tend to be the dynamic sections: news, a blog — any part that requires regular updates. A strong publishing process, with clear flows for revising and proofing, can work miracles, and many routine and emergency communications can be written and localised in advance, so they’re ready to be posted at very short notice.

- The game, across all languages. The game itself may seem like an obvious thing to localise, since it’s restricted in scope and tightly controlled, but it too has challenges. After the initial localisation (which involves a fair amount of words, no small task), you need to track all changes in order to maintain consistency, especially when adding new content. Content updates require extra testing and spawn lots of tweaks; quality can suffer when you’re rushing to deliver the new stuff to players. Add the task of localising voiceovers and you’ve got a lot to keep you busy! Ensure that you have very strong content management process to help you here; it should be even smoother than the one required for websites, as in-game integration tends to be trickier than publishing web content. For voiceovers, get the same actors for recurring characters and book recording sessions early. You might also consider tiering the localisation. In offline games, it’s pretty common to use subtitles instead of dubbing — it’s logistically simpler and costs less. Finally, depending on context, leaving some sections of the game unlocalised can work fine; for example, in a game where trading is the core gameplay, having item names in English is interesting for players as well as an easy localisation option (in the same respect that plants and animal species all have a common name in Latin,that scientists all over the world are using when referring to it). Other techniques, such as having one multi-lingual client that automatically call the item name in the client’s language, can help a lot but won’t save you when players discuss outside the game or use third party wikis or databases.

Of course, a top-quality comprehensive localisation is what MMO players everywhere dream of, and the closer you can get to that the more happy players you’ll have. Happy players play your game longer, so it’s a win/win formula. Remember: a localised game service is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Starting small and building wisely can really pay off. Good luck!

Tags: community management, localisation, MMO, service design

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