Mapping the production stage of a video game localization project with actor-network theory

Abstract The video game localization industry has undergone rapid development and expansion, entailing newly emerging roles, and technologies. Academia has strived to keep up; however, due to industry restrictions, researchers and institutions lack an in-depth understanding of what occurs within the production stage of a project, and how the various professionals interact. This research delineates and contextualizes the roles and responsibilities of those involved in the production stage of localization projects. Actor-network theory (ANT) is utilized to map and trace the actions and relationships, between the human and non-human actors involved in a Chinese-to-English video game localization project. This involved observing four professional translation teams working on the same text and has enabled a clear delineation of the complex roles and responsibilities of the linguists and project managers. Furthermore, it highlights how different roles require different skillsets.