Limits of the Study

As emphasized earlier, our study is very limited in scope and, consequently, in terms of representativeness, since some groups are largely over-represented compared to the typical gamer population or the overall population. In our samples, gamers tended to be French males under 35 with a high proficiency in languages, especially English, and a strong gaming background. Also, the high dropout rate, possibly stemming from the length of the questionnaire, made the comparison between the larger and the smaller sample increasingly less relevant as we proceeded with the sections, since the data and respondents were largely the same. These two elements led to a study that was not extensive and not as varied as it could have been, had the samples been bigger.

Also, for length purposes, some questions were not addressed or delved into. On average, participants took 34 minutes to complete the questionnaire, including those who saved their answers for several hours before resuming it. Therefore, the questionnaire was already extensive, and addressing more aspects would have intensified the effect of “response fatigue”

mentioned by Choi and Pak (2005). Yet, this study may still provide the basis for further investigation into gamers’ practices and satisfaction. For instance, gamers who liked playing in the original language were not asked if they did so with or without subtitles, and in which language those should be, a point that may make it easier in the future to compare gaming with watching a movie or a series.

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A second example would be inquiring more in-depth into the list of localisation issues we provided, since those usually regrouped various bugs. For example, dubbing problems (leaving out the text itself) could be split into “monotonous tone”, “inappropriate tone” and

“inappropriate voice” (for example a very high pitch for a muscly character). In the same way, we could refine the translational issues to ask players whether they encounter most often misspellings/typos, literal translations, mismatches with the original (for example with the audio for partial localisation) or absolute nonsense. It would therefore be possible to make other studies on more-targeted aspects of the topic.

Another way to gather similar answers without having a high dropout rate might be to have players answer a reduced version of the survey, with less open questions, and then ask some volunteers to participate in follow-up interviews to elaborate on the topics mentioned in the questionnaire. Yet, in this case, in order to obtain as many qualitative data as we did, a considerable number of interviews would have to be conducted. Another more viable option would consist in sending volunteers a second questionnaire with more open-ended questions, although in this particular case a minimal number of answers is not assured either, respondents possibly reluctant to answering a second set of questions, especially if those require reflection due to their openness.

This naturally leads to another potential bias of the study, inherent to the use of open-ended questions: the selection of answers or of elements contained in participants’ answers. As Choi and Pak explained “open-ended question[s] [may] present[s] a difficult recording task.

The interviewer must decide whether to record everything that the respondent says, record only what the interviewer considers relevant, or paraphrase the respondent’s answer” (2005). Indeed, in the analysis, answers that appeared several times or seemed particularly insightful, original or relevant were mentioned, whereas some others were not summarised, especially for questions that were a bit further from the core matter, for instance the question about the most important features in a video game. The interpretation of data, be it as slight as possible, may therefore have played a certain part in biasing the results.

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On a different level, the case study itself might have introduced a bias since it focused on localisation into a “big” locale, as French is part of the E-FIGS. Players are thus very used to having access to French localisations and might become more and more critical about them.

Furthermore, the Article 2 of the Toubon law enacted in 1994⁴⁶ made French compulsory for product designation, documentation and advertisement, rendering localisation into French a sine qua non condition for video games to enter French stores. Yet, with the advent of the Internet and dematerialised products, it may happen that all games sold to French players are not localised into French, as mentioned by 21 respondents, and including that French players access games that were not destined to their market (Japanese-specific genres for example).

Nevertheless, French remains a lucrative locale in which many game companies keep investing.

One may therefore wonder if the results of a satisfaction study would be similar for a much smaller locale and if the quality of the localisation, when provided, fluctuates as much.

Similarly, it would also be possible to refine the analysis by comparing the satisfaction of traditionally big locales with a high level of proficiency in English and that of a big one with a low level of proficiency. The same distinction could be operated with smaller markets which rarely benefit from localisation, or even between various locales corresponding to the same language.

This very particular point, which concerns linguistic variety, may constitute an interesting aspect and will therefore be examined in the next section, before discussing other reflections stemming from answers to the questionnaire.

46 The consolidated version is available here:

https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000349929&dateTexte=20170722 [accessed 04 Sep. 2017].

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