Pearl Abyss's localizers discuss their work, what they look for in candidates

The Korea JoongAng Daily sat down with Yoon and Bernardo Vidal, a project lead in charge of Portuguese translations, to talk about what qualities the company looks for in localizers and how they work.

Head of Pearl Abyss's localization center, Joseph Yoon, right, and Bernardo Vidal, a project lead at the center, talk during an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Game localizers need a thorough understanding of countries abroad, and Pearl Abyss's localization center plans to grow from the diversity of its team.

Pearl Abyss, known for games like Black Desert, is a company based in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi. However, its localization center has 40 foreign employees from around the world out of its 60 total.

With the team's help, it services its games in 13 languages in over 150 countries.

Game localization is a specific field, and one of the key qualities the company looks for in its job candidates are linguistic skills and knowledge of games.

"Understanding the company's products and what words are used in products you are translating for is important," Joseph Yoon, head of Pearl Abyss's localization center, said. "In interviews, we try to check if applicants have a strong interest toward games and the specific themes our games take inspiration from."

The Korea JoongAng Daily sat down with Yoon and Bernardo Vidal, a project lead in charge of Portuguese translations, to talk about what qualities the company looks for in localizers and how they work.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What are the key qualities Pearl Abyss's localization center looks for in its candidates?

Yoon: Because we do localization, being able to write well in the target language is a basic skill we look for. We have games inspired by the Joseon Dynasty that use words in specific contexts, so candidates need to have a certain level of Korean fluency. It's not something you can translate after studying Korean for a short period of time. Also, as a game company, you will need to communicate and work with other teams and our developers.

Then the last thing I would say is passion for gaming. Games are our products, and you need to play games to understand the products you are in charge of. There were cases when the translated text didn't really fit in our games when localizers didn't have a thorough understanding of our games.

What's the best way to develop those skills?

Yoon: Having a knack for writing is important. There can be people who are just born with it, but if people want to develop that, reading books and watching movies can be effective ways to do that. That's actually also what we tell our employees. Our games, like Black Desert, are based in the medieval ages, so reading books and watching movies set in those periods helps. We also try to learn the terms and phrases from the period.

Another thing I would like to recommend is actually trying game translation. You can translate as freelancers, and the game industry does hire a lot of freelancers. Doing specifically game translation helps a lot, especially because you'll be able to see how your translation is incorporated into the actual game.

Vidal:Yes, reading books and watching a lot of movies will help. Words and phrases used during the medieval ages are different from what we use now, so it's good to think about how those phrases will be used by different characters in our games. Characters are designed with different personalities, so also think about what words and phrases fit best with each personality. Playing a lot of different games, and especially playing them in different languages, will help.

Does it help if you enjoy playing video games?

Yoon: We had a person who was a really good writer who would translate things like a well-written novel. But because it's game localization, the text didn't really fit into the game. There are times when game scripts need to be formal and times when they need to be casual and playful. Because the person was a good writer, but [his scripts] didn't match the tone of the game, we did get some complaints from our users. Some users said that the script sounded like something a native speaker had written but made the game sound boring. So that's why knowing the game [you are localizing for] is important.

Localization is a job that requires fluency in both the source and target languages. How much Korean fluency does the localization center require?

Yoon: We ask applicants to take localization assessments during interviews, which speaks for itself. But before the interview process, we check if applicants have studied or majored in Korean and also their Test of Proficiency in Korean (Topik) scores. Candidates with Topik level 5 are capable of doing translations, and those with Topik level 4 really struggle.

Vidal: I can speak Korean, but I don't have a Topik score, so my case is a bit different. But I think I was able to get the job because I have worked in localization at my previous company.

One of your games, Black Desert, has a region called the Land of the Morning Light in its fictional universe, inspired by the Joseon Dynasty, and uses words with a historical context. Were there any difficulties you encountered when translating those?

Yoon: It was hard to find words in the target language with the same meaning and nuance as those in our source language. We try to find words that best fit while showing the historical context. However, some users don't know all of the words associated with Korean history, and we don't want them to struggle while playing our games. On the other hand, we want them to get to know those words. So we have to decide whether we find a word with a similar meaning in the target language or just romanize the words.

Are there times when localizers have disagreed on what the right translation is? How do you resolve such disputes?

Yoon: We have a set rule for that. Our localizers will discuss those things for a certain amount of time, and if they still can't reach a conclusion, then they bring it to the team leader. They each give their reasons for why the words of their choice would be the best translation. Then, the team leader makes the final ruling. If we don't do that, it's going to be a never-ending discussion. We have a set user pool, and our users have certain preferences. So we also consider that and try to find the right word for them.

You mentioned that the localization team communicates with other teams. What teams do you closely work with?

Yoon: Because we are a game company, we work with game writers who make our storylines and those who develop quests. We need to understand the backstory and why they decided to use certain words specifically. Then, we explain to them why we chose to translate the source language in certain ways and the meaning of certain words in countries abroad.

We also work with people in marketing, game development, and customer service because their tasks are closely related to the countries where we service our games.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]