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Censorship in video games: a comparative case study of EarthBound and Mother 2
Dalarna University, School of Language, Literatures and Learning.
2023 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

This study examines the censorship guidelines and translation techniques used in the localization of Mother 2 (1994) (English title: EarthBound), a video game developed originally by Nintendo of Japan and released in North America in 1995 by Nintendo of America. Having extracted 50 dialogue lines which are considered to include topics subject to censorship, the study analyses the prevalence of censorship and translation techniques, as well as the consistency of the localization with Nintendo of America's guidelines. The results show that adaptation and modulation were the most favoured translation techniques, used in 36% and 40% of the cases, respectively. Furthermore, censorship appeared to be more prevalent in categories related to graphic violence and religious themes. However, inconsistencies in the localization suggest that the guidelines were not always followed strictly. These findings align with some previous studies on censorship and localization in media and entertainment, although every product has a different distribution of themes, which in turn affects the type of censorship found. The study concludes that further research on censorship and translation techniques in video games, as well as other forms of media, could provide useful insights into the process of localization. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2023.
Keywords [en]
censorship, Japanese-English translation, Nintendo, Nintendo of America’s Video Game Content Guidelines, video game localization
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Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:du-46272OAI: oai:DiVA.org:du-46272DiVA, id: diva2:1771798
Subject / course
Japanese
Available from: 2023-06-21 Created: 2023-06-21 Last updated: 2025-10-09

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • chicago-author-date
  • chicago-note-bibliography
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf