Translation for video games – a “glocal” business!

When someone says that “Gaming is a serious matter”, some still might take that as an oxymoron, but every day more and more people are realizing the truth behind this once popular misconception. With expectations of $74 billion in earnings for 2015 according to a report from SuperData Research, video games have become THE thing, surpassing Hollywood and any other entertainment industry.

The boom of video games is as evident as it is international, and as such, it requires a proportionally huge investment in good translation.

According to Joost van Dreunen, CEO from SuperData Research, “Today, people don’t just consume entertainment but increasingly play an active part in it.” And for this to be possible, language is key. Gamers want to savor their favorite games in their own languages in order to get a complete sense of immersion and identification with the story of the video game as it unfolds.

Translation for video games is definitely one of a kind.

First of all, localization is extremely important. Even if you have all your text translated for a video game, gamers from UK want to hear their characters speak English with a UK accent and use UK expressions; gamers from Mexico want to hear Spanish with Mexican accents and idioms; French gamers will always prefer French accents over Canadian ones. Not taking this into consideration will break that precious “immersion effect” that can easily be the difference between success and failure for a game – and the industry is competitive enough as it is!

Video game translation also tends to be difficult due to technical aspects, such as character limitation and audio synchronization. Also, when a game is very big or has prequels and/or sequels, consistency is a major issue – and you can be sure that if something is not properly researched and proofed, the gamers will most likely express their outrage openly. Such is the industry nowadays: the final customers have as much of a saying as the companies themselves.

Lastly, initiatives such as Kickstarter and the lower costs of video game production in general due to newer, more efficient technologies have caused the emergence of millions of independent video game companies in recent years. This means that small companies need translation done fast, efficiently and at affordable prices in order not to go over budget.

Thus, it seems like a logical conclusion for a small, versatile translation company known for its efficiency, excellent price-performance ratio and delivery speed to be their best option.

Good thing that at inWhatLanguage we have a group of extremely professional linguists ready to work on gaming translation whenever the need arises! At inWhatLanguage, we are proud of our large networks of local translators who “get” the people you are targeting. We want you to become a “glocal” phenomenon – a global company that excels at localizing to needs around the world.

And “glocal” translation is definitely the way to go when it comes to video games!

Honesty – a translator’s most powerful quality

A translator’s livelihood depends on many factors: the quality of their work, their rates, their reliability, the chances they get to demonstrate their skills... It’s not always easy. Competition is fierce. Beginnings tend to be shaky, and it takes a while to build up a reputation. And certain mistakes can be fatal.

In a world where demand for all sorts of translations in all languages imaginable are in higher and higher demand, it is easy to give in to the temptation of exaggerating one’s capabilities.

Obviously, it’s all about the math: if a person says that they can translate from/to one language, that person will get a certain amount of projects. If that person proclaims that they can do translations from/to two languages, the workload doubles.

However, in the long term, truly experienced translators know that it is not about the quantity – it is about the quality.

A translator must be native in one language and fluent in another (at least) in order to offer high-quality translations in that particular combination of languages. Anything less than a native or almost-native level in any of those languages will result in lower-quality translations that, in the end, will leave a dent in the reputation of said translator.

There are special cases, of course, but generally speaking, it is in the best interest of the translator to focus on their native tongue and second language to perform at their best, earn the trust of their clients, and keep getting job after job.

If, as a translator, you feel that you can also do a good job with other languages, feel free to say so – but be ALWAYS honest.

If you have studied French for many years, that might help you work in translations FROM French, but that might not be enough for you to translate TO French. If you are fluent in Latinamerican Spanish, you might have difficulties understanding European Spanish audio recordings.

All of this is important, and it is not undermining your skills – it is stating facts that will be obvious anyway at the end of the day if you decide to omit them. Only then, it will be too late to mention them, and your dependability might be questioned.

A translator must be equally aware of their fortes and of their limitations. We are not supposed to be capable of doing everything – we are meant to focus on what we do best.

That is why translation is all about honesty!

New addition to the iWL Family: Shelbi Anderson, our new Project Manager!

As our number of clients grows, new additions to the iWL team are needed! This week, we have the privilege to say hi to yet another new member of the iWL family: Shelbi Anderson, iWL Project Manager! 

Young, positive and full of promise, Shelbi is quickly becoming an invaluable part of the team.

Now, it’s time for us to get to know a little bit more about her.

In April 2015, Shelbi Anderson graduated from Brigham Young University in Public Relations, but her career in communications began long before that.

While a student, Shelbi, a Salt Lake City native, took a year and a half off from her studies to serve a church mission in Santiago, Chile, which sparked her interest in other languages and cultures. 

Since returning two years ago, she has worked for diverse clients including Marriott International, NASA, the National Science Foundation, the LDS Church, the Laycock Center for Creative Collaboration, and the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications and BYU Museum of Art.

One of the highlights of Shelbi’s career has been the opportunity to travel around the world.

In 2013, she was one of three on her team that presented research on social media best practices to over 100 general managers at the Marriott Caribbean Latin American annual conference in Cancun, Mexico.

In 2014, Shelbi traveled back to Santiago, Chile as a journalist to do investigative reporting about the student protest movements with a small group of videographers and a graphic designer. The piece, Breaking the Class Ceiling, later won the regional Mark of Excellence Award for Online In-Depth Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Besides travel, some of her hobbies include design, eating ethnic food, staying on top of the latest pop culture, reading and (most recently) barre classes.

Welcome to inWhatLanguage, Shelbi! It’s going to be one fun ride :)

Cost and worth in translation

Looking for a suitable company to handle your translation needs is always tricky. There are many factors that can help you make a decision: availability, experience, client feedback, language range, quality, price... And of course, some of them are easier to “see” than others.

Some companies don’t publish client feedback for privacy issues. Quality can be considered by gathering translation samples, but it’s a fact that each translation is different, and quality measurement can be subjective. Price, on the other hand, is pretty definitive: once you get a price, you can easily compare it with offers from other companies, and base your decision on that.

Is it a good decision, though?

If you are offered two watches, one for $100 and another one for $500, with the guarantee that they have the exact same features and durability, your decision can be based on many factors, and price is definitely a very valid one.

But when it comes to translation, there are no such things as features and durability. The success of a translation project depends on the skills of a linguist or a group of linguists, their reliability and attention to detail, and the efforts of the company that manages it all to make sure that the client receives what they are expecting.

All of this requires people – good, experienced, trained employees willing to commit to your project, willing to make a livelihood out of it.

And, naturally, that level of commitment comes with a price.

Is it all necessary for a good translation? Definitely. If you want to settle for a less polished translation, you can save on extra costs, sure. But a good translation requires investment – financial, personal and professional.

inWhatLanguage is not the cheapest option out there. We offer great prices, yes, but the greatness is based on the price-quality ratio. The quality of our services is hard to surpass, while we keep average pricing levels to make it easier on our clients to invest on good translation.

Thanks to our wonderful new online Translation Management System Unity we can make the whole process faster and more efficient, and that allows us to throw in important discounts for large volume and repetitions in projects.

And of course, let’s not forget that there is nothing more priceless than the tranquility that comes from knowing that your precious materials are in good hands, that you will get your translation done in time and done right, and that we are always there for when you need us :)

It's official... Utah Business is talking about us!

There are times when I don't even need to write anything to keep the blog running every week. This is one of those times: Utah Business Talk has just published a great article about inWhatLanguage. And because a fresh perspective on our services is always welcome, here is the article!

Thank you, Utah Business Talk!

Cody Broderick on the Cutting Edge of Translation Services

A leading company in multilingual translation and language services, inWhatLanguage, has achieved a huge breakthrough in business translation services with its cloud-based translation management platform “Unify.” Cody Broderick, CEO of inWhatLanguage, describes his company as an international translation agency which offers unique client/translator collaboration.

According to Broderick, the company offers fast, accurate and cost-effective ways to translate websites, documents, software and multimedia in more than 160 languages and 120 countries, while continuously managing and maintaining all content in the cloud. The language translation services are delivered through certified linguists who are experts in fields related to the client’s subject matter or industry—everything from medical, legal, IT, technical, engineering, to the hotel industry and e-commerce. Broderick said, “Our industry-specific expertise ensures the translation style and writing tone is correct, and that the message is conveyed with the exact meaning intended.”

Broderick explained, “The company has 15 full-time employees and about 60 full-time translators, for a core team of about 75. There is an additional part-time translation team of around 40 to 50. Finally, we work with a global network of a few thousand linguists with whom we have built great relationships over the past few years.”

inWhatLanguage guarantees content is adapted correctly for Asia, Europe, and South America, which in turn ensures the growth of those markets for their clients. Their interpretations are accurate, whether dealing with websites, the legal written word, or marketing. Broderick expanded on how their program works with areas such as marketing: “Marketing is supposed to invoke some type of feeling—whether a brand or a written text, it makes you think a certain way or feel a certain way. It’s very challenging in language and in translation to convey the exact meaning. The company ensures that’s done. They take the time to apply science and workflow methodology to translate content and make sure it’s adapted correctly.”

Unify, the company’s proprietary cloud-based translation management system (TMS), is what makes inWhatLanguage different from other translation companies. According to Broderick, Unify provides an “A to Z ability to translate content very easily and rapidly, and provides control and access for our clients. A client can start the project, see what’s going on in the project, download the project, and interact with our team the entire time.”

Any of the company’s translators throughout the world can access the system and be logged on real-time. Work flows into the system, immediately allowing access to the materials that need to be translated. This process adds to the custom localization services. Broderick explained: “The days of working through email and saying ‘here’s a file and an attachment,’ or going through Dropbox or Google Drive or some other SaaS tool—in our system those days are gone. It’s cloud-based so any translator anywhere in the world can access the system. And they can be logged on live.”

Broderick outlined the client collaboration process: “We get content from our clients—it’s flowing into the system, we can assign it, and they can work within the system to translate websites, documents, and mobile applications. It’s a collaboration platform, because the client can log into the system and check the translation in real-time. The system also provides access to the client’s own subject matter experts so they can give opinions on the work being done instead of waiting until it’s finished. This allows the work to be finished quickly and accurately.” Broderick explained that ordinary project management tools are not customized to language or to the translation lifecycle—the time-consuming process of actually submitting something, getting it priced, having it translated, then emailing and conferencing back and forth until agreement is reached.

Everything the company translates gets archived within the database. Broderick said, “When the client submits new content to us we analyze the new content against what has already been translated. And if there are existing sentences or phrases they get automatically pre-populated. That’s called ‘translation memory.’ It helps us make future content consistent, because it has already been translated in the past. This cuts the cost down for repeat clients since some content doesn’t need to be re-translated when it’s already in the database.” The database is also split by department because the terminology and style for areas such as marketing is different from legal or medical or technical engineering.

In addition to emphasizing the custom localization services and project management virtues of Unify, Broderick also talked about the extent of the service that is provided: “We’re very, very focused on relationships and providing a red-carpet experience—the absolute best service in our industry of communicating, not hiding behind email, but calling and staying active. We send our clients video messages every day. We’re engaged. But I think above and beyond those things we have a technology platform that is very valuable for enterprise clients who need to rapidly translate their websites, documents or software.”

inWhatLanguage has not only a unique system, but also a unique way of giving back. Everyone in the company goes out every month to serve the community. Broderick said, “We’re helping Make-a-Wish Kids with their wishes. We’re helping many different non-profits, families, and veterans; we provide monetary support and help people with cancer; and we turn it into a team-building event.”

Broderick continued, “We’re taking time away in the middle of the day to go contribute to the community. But it’s great because our team loves it. They love knowing they’re making a difference outside.” One of their favorite outreach activities was throwing a Frozen party, complete with Queen Elsa, for a six-year-old girl fighting leukemia. At the end, they gave money and gas cards to her parents to help them get to treatments.

Broderick believes empowering people to make things better is the best way to manage them. He said, “I try to make sure my team has a lot of energy and passion about our shared goals and their individual goals. They clearly understand at the beginning of every single week where we’re going and how they’re going to get there.” He also explained that he follows through on what he says. Theirs is a competitive, dynamic, fast-paced environment. The company has great people who are committed to reaching their goals. Broderick said that it takes strategic thinking and shaping in many good ways, but that “there is no limit, truly, to what we can become.”


Original article

iWL: an A to Z translation service provider, ready to help!

Don’t you just hate it when you have a project divided in several phases, and everything goes smoothly and beautifully until, despite endless hours of work and reviews, a not-so-experienced person/company makes a big blunder and the whole thing looks half-done?

The saying goes: “if you want something done right, do it yourself” (actually, the original saying by French dramatist Charles-Guillaume Étienne was “On n'est jamais servi si bien que par soi-même”, which means, “One is never served so well as by oneself”). At inWhatLanguage, we believe that the way things will always look best is by letting an expert deal with it. With ALL of it.

A project managed by many companies at the same time is bound to look strange and lack consistency. A project managed by one company, on the other hand, has extremely high chances of success.

Of course, certain kinds of projects are not easy to manage by just one company. They have too many steps involved, too many technicalities, specific software, graphics, multimedia resources. Finding a translation agency that can cope with all of this is rare.

But hey, we are not your ordinary translation agency, are we?

iWL rolls with the times. We know that, while document translation is and will always be important, nowadays the demand is tilting towards projects like eLearning courses and websites, full of all sorts of different media. And we are prepared to serve this demand.

What’s more – we are ready to just take the project off your hands and return it completely translated, from beginning to end, without troubling you with project management, resource finding or quality checking. From translation to voiceover, from captioning to video dubbing, we are your ever-present factotum, your answer for every need.

For that same reason, we can take care of each step of the project individually. Perhaps you have an excellent recording studio and you just need a translation done for recording on your end. We can do that. We EXCEL in that. And if you need some extra help with the audio editing, hey, we are here for you as well!

The tranquility of having someone always ready who can do pretty much anything you ask for is priceless, and we pride ourselves in having reached that level. Let us know what you need, and we can assist you in every step of the way!

Superheroes for a super cause!

Despite what comic books say, a person does not need to fly, turn invisible or produce spider webs to become a superhero. As a matter of fact, everybody has it in him/herself to become a superhero. Real superheroes roam the streets every day, and the most amazing thing, we don’t even notice it.

Last April 11^th, The Transplant Buddy Foundation - a non-profit organization for transplant donors and transplant patients- organized the Superhero 5k race to remind us of this. In an effort to "raise funds and awareness for transplant patients and support those superheroes who have selflessly given a gift of life to others”, this event gathered a good amount of people dressed up as superheroes to run 5k in a day full of exercise, good company and lots of fun.

Cody Broderick and Karlie Bodine, to the rescue!

And inWhatLanguage took part in it as part of its latest iWL Cares initiative!

The members of the team that could make it and their families participated in this noble mission “to improve the longevity of transplanted organs, by providing transplant patients with resources to afford post transplant medications and by raising awareness of the financial aspects of solid organ transplant”, as the official Facebook website from the Superhero 5k Fun Run/Walk says.

That, plus the chance to dress up as their favorite Superheroes, was too enticing a chance for the iWL members to pass on!

iWL CEO Cody Broderick dressed up as the Hulk, while his wife Vanessa dressed up as The Black Widow and their two children, Luke and Marcus, wore Iron Man and Thor costumes respectively. Karlie Bodine, organizer of iWL Cares campaign and who once again came up with the idea for this month, dressed up as Wonder Woman. Don’t they all look simply fabulous?

Well, we are not the only ones to think so, actually. There were prizes for the Best Costumes among the participants. And guess who won the “Best Costume” prize for children? Little Marcus!

“We were all very happy to help out for such a great cause,” says Karlie Bodine with a big smile. “And it was even better that we got to dress up as superheroes!”