Harnessing the roar of the crowd

Abstract

Through quantitative data analysis, this study explores the attitudes of gamers from different French-speaking locales (Belgium, France, Canada, and Switzerland) in relation to their language preference and opinions of translated material while playing video games. The intended goal is to develop a replicable methodology for data collection about the linguistic preferences of video game players. The research strategy is based on online questionnaires distributed to gamers through social media. The results highlight players’ level of satisfaction regarding the localisation of games and suggest that industry strategies put forward till recently may be rather inadequate. Linguistic preferences seem to vary within locales based on factors such as English language proficiency and personal background. The results of this research may serve the implementation of new localisation strategies for video game products in French-speaking countries of emerging markets or other multinational languages.