Confronto tra la localizzazione e il translation hacking di videogiochi per il miglioramento del flusso di lavoro nel settore professionale. Tre casi di studio con le interviste ai traduttori italiani: The House in Fata Morgana, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc e The Walking dead: The Final Season.

Localisation work has been paramount to the global success of videogames throughout the decades. However, language professionals often have to work with several constraints, non-linear scripts and confusing translatable assets. Conversely, non-professional videogame translators wish to fill the void left by software houses who haven't provided an official localisation of their favourite videogames. They translate out of passion and fidelity to the brand, albeit violating the developers' intellectual property, thus excluding any profit motive. More importantly, translation hackers translate works which have been out for many years. This allows them to familiarize extensively with the game and be free of time contraints. Moreover, they benefit from the support of the fandom. This paper focuses on the diverging working conditions between professional videogame localisers and non-professional translation hackers. The aim is to analyse what the industry can learn from the amateur context of work and the potential impact to the final product. In the first chapter I introduce the theoretical framework of non-professional translation, videogame localisation, ROMhacking, the motive behind fan activity and ethical consequences. In the second chapter I delve into my research metholodogy. It consists of interviews to the respective translators of The House in Fata Morgana (2012), Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (2010) and The Walking Dead: the Final Season (2018). Each question is linked to a hypotesis based upon the findings of previous studies. In chapter three the results are reported, compared and discussed so that my hypothesis may be confirmed or refuted. The resulting findings are taken as the generalised procedure in professional and non-professional videogame translation. Finally, conclusions are drawn related to the room for improvement in the professional practice and prospective studies regarding translational differences beetween ROMhacking and localisation.