Translating proper names in video games: an analysis of «Detroit: Become Human»



Video games create an immersive experience, where players are taken into a fictional world full of original places and unique characters. This paper aims to identify the features and techniques for effective translation of proper names in video games to preserve the experience and belief in the video game’s world.

Keywords: video games, translation, proper names, anthroponyms, toponyms.

Видеоигры создают захватывающий опыт, в котором игроки попадают в вымышленный мир, полный оригинальных мест и уникальных персонажей. Цель статьи — выявление особенностей и приемов эффективного перевода имен собственных в видеоиграх для сохранения опыта и веры в мир видеоигры.

Ключевые слова: видеоигры, перевод, имена собственные, антропонимы, топонимы.

1. Introduction

Video games are seen as a complex phenomenon that embodies two concepts: the concept of a product (entertainment media) and the concept of an artwork (audiovisual art). The key elements of a video game are: interactivity, narrativity, intertextuality, mass character and interdiscursivity. As for the content of video games — they are a piece of fiction under a certain genre.

The world of a video game is an abstract idea framed by a number of components with their given names to create the illusion of a different reality. According to Jesse Schell, the main goal of everyone who is involved in the production of a video game, from the developers and designers to the translators, is to create the best experience for the players, which includes ensuring a successful immersion into the fictional world of the game. While playing a game, the players can believe for a moment that the world they see on their screens is real [6].

If something starts to stand out, be it an NPC (non-player character) that got stuck in a wall due to a programming bug, or an in-game checkpoint that doesn’t lead to the next level, or character dialogue that’s out of context, — the player is forced back into reality and the belief in a fictional game world dissipates. A poor translation can be the cause of such consequences too.

Video game worlds are rich with original places, unique items and character names. It is already quite the challenge for a translator to find direct equivalents in the dictionaries and choose from synonyms and paraphrasing that will perfectly deliver the source’s meaning and tone, and translating proper names, like character names, geographical names and item titles adds more complexity to the task.

This paper first presents the definition of proper names given by different researchers, and then goes over the approaches of translating them. An analysis of the English ST and the TT in Russian from the video game “Detroit: Become Human” is conducted to identify and further understand the features, techniques and difficulties of translating anthroponyms (person names) and toponyms (place names).

2. Definition of proper names

Although they are only a part of the whole problem, when we mention proper names, right away we think of anthroponyms (person names) and toponyms (place names). Therefore, it is necessary to show all the elements within this grammatical category and define the object of study for this paper.

Proper names, as defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, are the word or phrase that a person, place or thing is known by. Proper names can be divided into several categories: person names (e.g. Michael ), geographical names (e.g. Almaty ), marketing brand names (e.g. Nike ), festival names (e.g. Nauryz ), zodiac signs (e.g. Gemini ), etc.

Närhi (1996) denoted the two most important criteria for proper names which are: “their uniqueness and that they function as the identification marks of individuals”. In other words, a name signifies an individual being or has unique reference; it is mono-referential.

Elvira Cámara Aguilera (2008) states in her article on the translation of proper names that: “every proper name will be written with capital letters; when the article forms part of the proper name, both words will be written with capital letters” [5].

Vermes (2003) states that: “the translation of proper names is not a trivial issue but, on the contrary, may involve a rather delicate decision-making process, requiring on the part of the translator careful consideration of the meanings the name has before deciding how best to render it in the target language”.

In line with him, Newmark (1993) believes that proper nouns are “a translation difficulty in any text”. For example, in literary texts it should “be determined whether the name is real or invented. In nonliterary texts, translators have to ask themselves what if any additional explanatory or classificatory information has to be supplied for the TL readership” [9].

Every language has specific proper nouns; some of them are completely related to the culture of the people of that particular language. Accordingly, these nouns can bring about special problems for the readers of that text, in terms of understanding. Proper nouns may have particular implications and removing the hidden connotations leads to an insufficient translation.

All the aforementioned issues show that proper names are not a clearly defined, simple concept, and there are many different angles that affect the strategy that the translator may choose to use.

3. Translation strategies of proper names

As mentioned in the previous sections, proper names cover different categories: from names of persons to names of places, marketing brands, festivals and zodiac signs. Furthermore, in literature the translation of proper names performs an additional function — signaling the reader about particular implications and revealing the existence of the “cultural other”.

In translating adult and children’s literature, translation theorists, such as Newmark, Davies, Hervey and Higgins, Schäffner and others, suggest that translators choose between two general strategies: foreignisation and domestication. In addition, it is worth quoting Gergana Apostolova who indicates a variety of aspects to consider while translating proper names:

“The transformation of names in translation […] is rooted deeply in the cultural background of the translator, which includes phonetic and phonological competence, morphological competence, complete understanding of the context, correct attitude to the message, respect for tradition, compliance with the current state of cross-cultural interference of languages, respect for the cultural values and the responsibilities of the translator” [10].

Translation theorists use different classification and terms to label their strategies but the procedures are similar. For this paper, N. K. Garbovskiy’s transformation translation strategies of proper names are presented [1].

They consist of:

1) Transcription : a representation of the sound of the SL unit that preserves that national identity in their verbal sound form (e.g. Isaac Falone — Айзак Фэлоун ).

2) Transliteration : a letter-by letter recreation of the SL unit using the alphabet of the TL (e.g. Amanda Stern — Аманда Стерн ).

3) Calque : a translation of the SL unit by replacement of its constituent parts (using morphemes or words) with their counterparts in the TL (e.g. Detroit Police Department Central Station — Центральное отделение Департамента полиции Детройта ).

4) Approximate translation : a representation of the SL unit by use of a unit in the TL that partially coincides with the original meaning (e.g. Eden Club — Клуб “Рай” ).

On the whole, Garbovskiy’s transformation strategies for proper names seem to be quite relevant for the analysis. In addition, they cover techniques that could be applied for rendering proper names into the Russian language. Therefore, the above transformations will be used for the practical part of this article.

4. Proper names in “Detroit: Become Human”

Table 1

Anthroponyms
A	ST	Jeffrey Fowler	Elijah Kamski	Cristina Warren	Gavin Reed
	TT	Джеффри Фаулер	Элайджа Камски	Кристина Уоррен	Гэвин Рид
B	ST	Markus	Zlatko Andronikov	North	Leo Manfred
	TT	Маркус	Златко Андроников	Норт	Лео Манфред
C	ST	Captain Allen	Agent 54	Police officer #0617	Border Guard #2677
	TT	Капитан Аллен	Агент 54	Офицер полиции 0617	Пограничник 2677
D	ST	Dwarf gourami	Scarred android
	TT	Лялиус	Обезображенный андроид

For convenient illustration, the anthroponyms in the table above have been put into 4 groups (A, B, C, and D) according to the strategies that were identified in the analysis of the translation of character names from the video game Detroit: Become Human.

— Group A

The names from this group were translated using transcription; this is due to the differences in alphabets (Latin and Cyrillic). The pronunciations of the names in English are represented in Russian using the alphabet to mirror the sound of those names.

— Group B

The names from this group were translated using transliteration. One reason is that the grammatical systems of these names in English and Russian are similar. Another reason is that the names have become standard in translation; therefore other ways would not be acceptable. This could explain why “Leo” is “Лео” (instead of “Лио”, according to the pronunciation), and “North” is “Норт”.

— Group C

For this group, the translators used calque to translate the names. The common feature that could be identified within this group is that they all have a word that directly represents the character’s roles or professions.

— Group D

Character names that were translated by approximate translation make up only a small fraction in the game. One reason could be that these are not real names and were made up by the writers and developers of the game.

With the example of “Dwarf gourami”, the English word “dwarf” means something that is small in its size, which lead to an approximate translation in Russian “лялиус”. The root “лял” signifies as well of something that is small.

Table 2

Toponyms
A	ST	Ferndale	Stratford (Tower)	Riverside (Park)	Capitol Park
	TT	Ферндейл	(Башня) Стрэтфорд	(Парк) Риверсайд	Кэпитол-парк
B	ST	Hart Plaza
	TT	Харт-Плаза
C	ST	Canada Border Inspection Station	Phillips apartment	Eastern Motel	CyberLife Warehouse and Docks
	TT	Пункт пропуска через Канадскую границу	Апартаменты семьи Филлипс	Мотель “Истерн”	Склад и доки “Киберлайф”
D	ST	Eden Club	“Laundromatic”	Solid Waste Landfill	“24”
	TT	Клуб “Рай”	Прачечная	Полигон твёрдых бытовых отходов	Супермаркет

— Group A

The place names from this group were translated using transcription. It is worth to note that “Riverside Park” is translated as “Парк Риверсайд”, which includes the use of calque, while “Capitol Park” is “Кэпитол-парк”, transcription and transliteration. The reasons for this are the different meanings behind the words “park”. The former refers to a place’s use, while in the latter it is part of the name for the place. In other words, “Riverside Park” is a park, but “Capitol Park” is not a park, it’s the name of a square.

— Group B

The names from this group were translated using transliteration due to the grammatical systems of these names in English and Russian. We can see that transliteration is not common for the translation of place names in this game.

— Group C

Place names in this group were translated using calque mainly, and in some cases including transcription. “Apartment” is translated as “апартамент” into Russian and is a loan word; “Phillips” is the surname of the family that owns the place and it was translated using transcription.

— Group D

Place names that were translated approximately are not rare in this video game. This is due to the genre of the game being Science Fiction, meaning it is made up.

“Laundromatic” has the root “laundro” taken from “laundry”, this tells the players about the use of this place. The ending “matic” helps to build the world of the game and make it more believable. It tells the players that in the world of Detroit: Become Human technology is highly advanced and is an important part of everyday life in that reality. In the Russian translation, half of the full meaning is represented, “laundry” — “прачечная”, making an approximate translation.

5. Conclusion

In this paper, the translation of proper names, mainly anthroponyms and toponyms, was explored with an attempt to highlight the importance of a thought out, strategic approach. An analysis of English proper names found in the video game Detroit: Become Human and their translation into Russian was conducted to understand how the translation strategies can be applied in practice.

It’s been identified that anthroponyms were translated mostly using transcription and transliteration to preserve the “realness” of the video game. Exceptions to that were names that do not exist in the real world and are unique to the plot of Detroit: Become Human.

Similarly, toponyms were translated using transcription and calque for geographical places that are close to the world we live in; place names that are unique to the video game, however, were translated with an approximate translation approach.

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