The Translation of Board Games' Rules of Play

The Translation of Board Games’ Rules of Play Thunderbirds Linda Verhoeven 4133633 Master’s Thesis Translation Humanities Faculty Utrecht University Supervisor: Onno Kosters Second reader: Cees Koster 18 January 2018 Cover image: BoardGameGeek Abstract In the Netherlands, the translation of board games’ rules of play is a large industry. Ninety- five percent of the games published by the well-known Dutch game publisher 999 games concerns translated games. Translation studies lack research on this matter; only Jonathan Evans briefly discussed it in “Translating Board Games: Multimodality and Play” (2013). This study, therefore, functions as a pioneering research. The aim of this investigation is to explore what problems a Dutch translator encounters in all stages of the translation process of English-language board games’ rules of play. In the theoretical background of this investigation, theories on game design and rules of play are explained. To perform an innovative investigation on the style of board games’ rules of play and the prevailing standards in translating them, a text comparison based on Geoffrey Leech and Mick Short has been conducted. The rules of play for four original Dutch games as well as four rules of play of English games that have been translated into Dutch have been analysed. On the basis hereof, possible translation strategies have been formulated. In the transfer stage executed for this investigation, a number of additional translation problems emerged in the annotated translation of the rules of play for the board game Thunderbirds. In the discussion, the post-translation stage and its problems, and a set of preferred translation strategies, are explained. Verhoeven 2 Table of contents 1. Introduction 4 2. Theoretical background 7 2.1 (Board) Game design 7 2.2 Theories on rules of play 9 2.3 Rules of play as instructive texts 12 3. Comparison of (non-)translated rules of play 18 3.1 Texts 18 3.2 Procedure 18 3.3 Expectations 19 3.4 Results 20 3.4.1 Original Dutch rules of play 20 3.4.2 English rules of play translated into Dutch 26 3.5 Discussion 32 3.6 Conclusion 35 4. Translation process 36 4.1 Translation brief 36 4.2 Text analysis 36 4.3 Translation 42 5. Discussion 67 6. Conclusion 72 Works Cited 75 Appendices Appendix A: Dutch games used in text comparison 78 Appendix B: English games and their Dutch translations used in text comparison 79 Appendix C: Source text Thunderbirds 80 Verhoeven 3 1. Introduction According to Luke Graham, in 2016, board games made their worldwide come-back as “mainstream entertainment among families, kids and even child-less millennials”. In 2013, global sales of games and puzzles were 9.3 billion dollars. In 2016, they were 9.6 billion dollars. According to Euromonitor International1, at the end of 2016, it was expected that these global sales would grow with more than one percent in the following years (Graham). In the Netherlands, 999 games is a well-known (board) game publisher. The company was established in 1990. Its first game, Magic: The Gathering, was published in 1993. From that year on, its sales never stopped increasing. Ninety-five percent of the company’s games are designed by German designers. In their current assortment, only five games are originally English and only five originally Dutch. On its website, 999 games sells 373 games in total2. The definition of ‘game’ according to the Oxford English Dictionary is: “[a]n activity or diversion of the nature of or having the form of a contest or competition, governed by rules of play, according to which victory or success may be achieved through skill, strength, or good luck”3. The rules are an important part of the game and as such offer a number of obstacles when it comes to translating them into another language. Ninety-five percent of the games 999 games has published have been translated into Dutch. Most games they have published are originally in German. However, when an Italian or Russian version of a game is needed, the designer provides 999 games with the English rules of play. Translation studies lack research on the translation of board games’ rules of play, although in the Netherlands, for example, this is a large industry. Only Jonathan Evans, in “Translating Board Games: Multimodality and Play” (2013) has touched upon the translation of board games’ rules of play and in-game texts and their multimodality. He states 1 On 999 games’ website, this description of Euromonitor International can be found: “Euromonitor International is the world’s leading independent provider of strategic market research”. 2 This information was acquired on 11 January 2018. 3 Rather uneventfully, the Oxford English Dictionary gives the following definition for ‘board game’: “A game played on a board”. Verhoeven 4 translations of rules of play aim “to avoid changes in the meaning of the rules as printed, so that the game remains the same” (27). Any additional articles on the translation of board games’ rules of play specifically are not to be found (there are theories about the translation of instructive texts, the text-type rules of play belong to; they will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 2). Accordingly, the aim of this investigation is to pioneer in this translation field and to find an answer to the following research question: What are the problems a Dutch translator comes across during the pre-translation, transfer, and post-translation stages of the translation process of English-language board games’ rules of play and how can these be solved? In Translating as a Profession, Daniel Gouadec explains three different stages of the translation process. The pre-translation stage consists of “finding all the relevant information as well as the terminology and phraseology and translation memories needed to carry out the translation” (21). The transfer stage is the act of actually translating the source text. In the post-translation stage, the target text is perfected and finalised. In Chapter 2, an explanation of game design and the role of rules of play will be given. Both will be linked to the issue of translation. Subsequently, in Chapter 3, original Dutch rules of play and English board games’ rules translated into Dutch will be analysed. Conclusions on the various options that exist in writing and translating rules of play will be drawn from this comparison. Both Chapter 2 and 3 could function as (a part of) the pre- translation stage of the translation process of board games’ rules of play. Chapter 4 is an example of the transfer stage; it contains an annotated translation of the rules of play of the board game Thunderbirds. In this stage of the investigation, new translation problems are encountered. The conclusions that can be drawn from the consulted theories and the text comparison will be considered in this translation. The annotations will explain and Verhoeven 5 substantiate the translational choices that have been made. In Chapters 5 and 6, this investigation will be discussed and conclusions will be drawn. Verhoeven 6 2. Theoretical background In the pre-translation stage of the translation process, translators analyse the source text. Translators should ask themselves what genre the text belongs to, what the intention of the source text is, who the writer is, what style has been used, etc. In addition, the intention of the target text should be determined. To stimulate the determination of such aspects, a translator should have some information about the particular field. 2.1 (Board) Game design From a text-typological point of view, board games’ rules of play belong to the domain of instructive texts, and within that domain to the genre games’ rules of play in general. The domain of instructive texts and theories on translating them will be discussed in Section 2.3. It could be helpful to retrieve some background information on the creation of a game. Answers to questions such as when the rules were written and should players test the rules of play can give the translator insight into the realisation of the rules of play. Tracy Fullerton, in Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, claims that the most important skill in designing a game is “the process of prototyping, playtesting, and revising your system based on player feedback” (XX4). Together with Christopher Swain and Steven Hoffman, she has compiled a basic step-by-step plan for game design5: Step 1 Firstly, a game designer needs to fully understand how games work and what games are. He or she should gain knowledge about the creation of rules, procedures and 4 In the introduction of this book, Roman numerals have been used. 5 The main part of Fullerton’s book is about video games. However, she states, “the design process for a board game, a card game, a dice game, a party game, or an athletic game is no different from the process of designing a video game” (103). Verhoeven 7 objectives of a game. Fullerton calls these aspects of game design the “game design basics” (VII). Step 2 The second step consists of conceptualising, prototyping and playtesting. According to Fullerton, a “playable prototype” should be played and a small questionnaire should be distributed among the players (XX). Their feedback can be used to revise and perfect a game. Step 3 Finally, according to Fullerton, it is important to understand the industry and to know the position of a game designer in it. This understanding could make it possible to actually get a game on the market. This broad step-by-step guide concerns game design in general. When examining board games in particular, the influence of board games on players’ emotional status and the reason players want to play them become known.

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