At the Heart of the Mothercrystal: Final Fantasy XIV’s Approach to Localization and Lore as a Virtual Contact Zone
Notice bibliographique
Résumé
Virtual worlds by nature of their persistence and ability to have multiple simultaneous users in the same space can act as contact zones, defined by Mary Louse Pratt as a "social space where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination," (1991, p. 34). One affordance of virtual worlds in constructing the contact zone is the ability for the developer to use localization to bridge language gaps between a user and the virtual world and, to some extent, between players who have a shared understanding of the virtual world. This understanding extends to the properties of objects and locations and any narrative lore or background in the world. However, localization can be a double-edged sword, with choices in translation and localization leading to confusion among virtual world users and conflict between users and developers. Language impacts two aspects of the virtual contact zone. For one, players communicate using languages they are proficient in, using whatever affordances are available in the interface and paratextual platforms, such as the official forums and social mediaplatforms like Reddit and Tumblr. For another, the world itself is awash in language. That text manifests itself in gameplay elements from user abilities and item names to more narrative elements such as character names, dialogue, and written story and worldbuilding elements. These textual and narrative components, called "lore," are essential in contextualizing virtual spaces. Lore helps build the virtual world beyond the actual mechanics and interactions within a virtual space. Lore gives users a sense of not just place but of geography, not just time, but of history, and not just context for players but their place within the story of the virtual world. Lore offers players motivation for playing in addition to traditional gameplay motivators such as exploration, achieving, socializing, and defeating enemies or other players (Yee, 2006; Bartle, 1996) to interact with the world. This paper focuses on the case of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (FFXIV), an MMORPG initially released in 2013, its production, approaches to localization,and how it contributes to building a "virtual contact zone." In looking at specific instances where controversies in translation and localization led to confusion and conflict among the participants and developers of the game, this case study illustrates the role of localization in games beyond translation and acculturation. Localization not only serves as the linguistic bridge among members of the contact zone but, in the case of online games where world-building and narrative are important aspects for immersion and play, creates shared experiences and understandings of that virtual world among all members of the virtual contact zone.
Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.
Comment cette classification a été obtenuedéplier
Prédiction machine sur la base complète
Imitation des enseignantsNi prévalence calibrée, ni vérité terrain. Validation humaine à venir. Le volet Gemma est une étiquette directe du modèle pour chaque travail de la base, lue sur la notice réduite au titre. Le volet Codex est un classifieur appris des 10 348 étiquettes directes de Codex et calibré sur les taux pondérés de l'échantillon; les champs sans appui suffisant ne portent aucun appel Codex. Le mode candidate est l'union des deux volets; le consensus est leur intersection. Ces sorties portent le statut machine_predicted_unvalidated et ne sont pas des étiquettes humaines.
Scores du classifieur distillé par catégorie (deux têtes)
| Catégorie | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Métarecherche | 0,001 | 0,002 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens strict) | 0,001 | 0,000 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens large) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Bibliométrie | 0,001 | 0,000 |
| Études des sciences et des technologies | 0,007 | 0,015 |
| Communication savante | 0,011 | 0,006 |
| Science ouverte | 0,001 | 0,006 |
| Intégrité de la recherche | 0,002 | 0,006 |
| Charge utile insuffisante (le modèle a refusé de juger) | 0,008 | 0,002 |
Scores machine (provisoires)
Les deux têtes enseignantes du modèle étudiant, lues sur ce travail. Un score ordonne la base pour la relecture; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie, et le statut de validation accompagne chaque rangée tel quel.
Scores de référence d'un modèle non mature (critères de maturité non atteints, 7 itérations). Un score ordonne; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · tel quel depuis la passe de notation : score_only signifie que le nombre peut ordonner les travaux, et qu'aucune étiquette de catégorie n'en découleClassification
machine, non validéePrédiction automatique; un appel candidat d’une seule source (Gemma direct ou Codex distillé), pas un consensus.
Le détail, modèle par modèle et score par score, se trouve en fin de page sous « Comment cette classification a été obtenue ».