Preferred Gaming Language

Regarding the preferred gaming language, the larger sample featured an equal split between English and French (35 votes each – 46.67%), with one person mentioning Japanese.

It thus seemed that regardless of their mother tongue, a high proportion of gamers preferred playing in the original language. Yet, this finding must be contrasted with the fact that our sample had a relatively high level of fluency in English, as shown in the first section of the questionnaire. In both samples, another two people did not single out a specific language, but declared playing in the “original version”, which depends both on its genre and on the game itself, although one may acknowledge that the majority of games produced stem from English.

Still, these answers were set apart in order not to bias the analysis towards English.

110

Furthermore, two respondents stated that they played in various languages:

English/French (even split) and English/French/Japanese (respectively 70%, 20% and 10% of the time, meaning mostly in English).

When considering the smaller sample, results were similar, with a slightly greater number of respondents favouring English when playing video games (see table below). The following chart sums up the answers obtained for this question for both samples.

Sample

Language

Bigger sample (92 respondents – with 17 of them who did not answer anything

from this section onwards

Table 9. Participants’ preferred gaming language

In one of the following questions, respondents were asked to give an estimation of the proportion represented by this language in their overall gaming experience (i.e. in percent, how often did they play in the language they identified). The range of answers was very wide, from 10 to 100%. Yet, extremely low percentages seemed incoherent with the question itself, which concerned the language players used most of the time. For this question, the mean was 81.52%

of the time. The median, however, was slightly lower: 77.5% of the time, which means there were probably a few extreme upper cases. Still, this percentage was high, which probably indicated that many respondents had a strong preference for a given gaming tongue.

37 A third respondent specified he played in “the original language” but that this was usually English. Therefore, that participant was categorised under “English”.

111

Furthermore, among respondents who usually played in their mother tongue, 33 declared they also played in English. This represented almost the whole of players favouring French in our larger sample (35 people), indicating that there seemed to be cases in which one could not help but play in English, even if it was not their preferred gaming language. Such practices will be explained more in detail a bit further, when inquiring into the players’

rationales. For now, let us explore the reasons why gamers decided to play in one or the other language.

5.3.3.2 Reasons Dictating Language Choices When Playing Games

In the larger sample made up of 75 people, twelve respondents (16%) who preferred playing in their mother tongue said it enabled them to have a deeper understanding of the game.

On the other hand, thirteen tenants of the original version (17.33%) emphasised a preference for the original product and content, independently from the quality of the localisation. Indeed, players favouring the original version argued that using the authentic product enabled them to grasp all the richness of the original, its nuances, puns, spirit, when translations were sometimes not very faithful. For that matter, two respondents (2.67%) stated they played in English because the English (localised) versions were usually closer to the Japanese originals than the French ones, which makes sense considering English is commonly used as a pivot language for translations from more “rare” languages, Japanese included (Bernal Merino, 2015). Still, our samples were generally very proficient in English, which made it easier for these gamers to enjoy the original version, something that might not be the case on a broader scale. It is therefore important to keep this aspect in mind.

The following table sets reasons given for favouring one’s mother tongue against participants’ arguments in favour of foreign languages / original versions.

112 FRENCH

Reasons for playing in one’s mother tongue

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Reasons for playing in a foreign language Linguistic / cognitive reasons Linguistic / cognitive reasons Deeper understanding

It is my mother tongue 5 respondents (6.67%) Other reasons To enjoy the accents and

voices of the original

Has become “a habit” 1 respondent (1.33%) when there is none in their mother tongue

1 respondent (1.33%) Table 10. Participants' reasons for playing mostly in a given language

113

5.3.3.3 Reasons for Playing in a Language That Is Not the Participants’

Preferred One

After asking respondents to state which language they usually played in and why they did so, we added a question to learn whether those that usually played in their mother tongue did so in another language, and why. Most participants who liked playing in French (33 people out of 35 – 94.29%) reported that they also happened to play in English, even though it was not their preferred language. A question aimed at inquiring into why they did so.

The answers yielded by the free text box were largely similar to those presented above, but, this time, concerned specifically respondents whose default choice was not the original language of the video game. Therefore, the main reason advocated by respondents was understandably the absence of a localised French version: this aspect was mentioned twenty-one times, which represented almost two-thirds of the positive answers for this question (63.64% of the 33 positive answers – 28% of the overall 75 answers). The following table sums up the answers yielded by this open-ended question.

Reasons for playing in a foreign language when French is their preferred one

Number of respondents Linguistic reasons

No localised French version 21 respondents (28%)

Original language itself not understood (Polish and Japanese for instance)  resorting to a pivot foreign language (English)

3 respondents (4%) Only for games easy to understand and with almost no text

(arcade games for instance)

3 respondents (4%) To learn or improve one’s level in an entertaining way (English

mostly)

5 respondents (6.67%) To enjoy fully the richness of the original version 6 respondents (8%) To enjoy the accents and voices of the original cast 2 respondents (2.67%)

Greater immersion 1 respondent (1.33%)

To avoid poor translation quality (translation mistakes and inconsistencies among others)

8 respondents (10.67%)

To avoid lower-notch or poor French dubbings 6 respondents (8%) To avoid poor localisation and poor gaming experience overall

(bleeding interfaces mostly)

1 respondent (1.33%) To play with someone that does not understand French 1 respondent (1.33%)

Other reasons

Early or earlier access to the game (no sim-ship release) 2 respondents (2.67%)

Access to a game community 1 respondent (1.33%)

Access to more resources on the game (in English) 1 respondent (1.33%) Table 11. Reasons for playing by default in a foreign language

114

As a conclusion, one may say that although reasons for playing in English as a second choice were extremely varied, the main one remained a lack of localisation of certain games into the players’ native tongue: French. After having analysed players’ linguistic practice for gaming and their slight preference for the original language as a rule, let us see if they can identify a game originally produced in French.