During the past week, a pair of interviews with Flagship Studios' Art Directors were published. Infocomm Asia Holdings interviewed Phil Shenk and Australian gaming news site Sumea shared a question and answer session with David Glenn from GCAP 2007. Additionally, The9 Limited, publisher of Hellgate: London in China, received multiple awards at the 2007 Annual China Game Industry Conference including "Top Ten Game Operators in China". Hellgate: London itself received a "2008 Most Anticipated Online Game in China" title.
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Worst.Photoshop.Ever.
Howdy folks! Somehow in the middle of all the crazy going-ons in the office, I managed to snag away Michelle from HanbitSoft for a brief chat. There's some really fascinating tidbits of info in there, so check it out, will ya?
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Kaiser: Hey Michelle, can you state your full name and title, and what exactly it is you do over at HanbitSoft (HBS)?
Michelle: I’m Michelle Suh and I’m the Localization Manager at HBS. Well, what I do is basically make the game "fit" for the countries in Asia – aside from Japan - where it’s going to be published. This includes choosing the language to use, and what should show up versus what shouldn't. I even which fonts to use! Anything different from the original game would go through our team.
K: How did you get your start at HBS? Is Hellgate: London the first game you've worked on with them?
M: It’s not really an interesting story. I love playing RPGs but never actually thought I’d be part of making one. But there was an opening with the following job description: "Fluent English skills required, along with experience and understanding of MMORPGs." Hehe. Heck, I just had to apply for the position. So, yes, this is my first game ever working in the videogame industry.
K: Before we get into Hellgate, can you describe what the gaming scene is like in Korea? Is it mostly PC-centric, or do consoles like PlayStation and Xbox do well over there?
M: I’m no expert on the subject, but to my understanding, Korea's market for foreign games is really complicated. Because the government tried to close out Japanese culture for so long, most anything Japanese such as anime, manga, and music had to come through the internet, and broadband just expanded so fast as a result. With the super-speed internet in Korea, it’s mostly online/downloaded games. I’d say, PlayStation and Xbox are doing well, but it’d be really hard to get all those people off the internet.
K: Last time I was in Korea, Hellgate seemed to have a really good presence everywhere we went. What do you think it is about the game that appeals to Korean gamers so much?
M: Oh, there are a lot of reasons Korean gamers love Hellgate. One is definitely Bill Roper. The producer of the Warcraft and Diablo series. I mean, can you believe there’s still at least 20 to 30 thousand people playing Diablo II at any time when you jump into an Asia realm? Well, I’m one of them. We just love Diablo, which is the second reason! My personal opinion is that, a lot of online gamers really got into World of Warcraft, but they haven't had any really good new MMORPGs for a while. So, Hellgate’s got all those expectations. If you ask me, I just love the game. It’s got great characters, and the action – it’s just so addictive. This is not just marketing speak, by the way! Haha.
K: I'm curious: How did you learn English so well?
M: Hm, I didn’t just learn it at school or anything. It was a necessity since I actually lived in the States and Singapore, and went to schools in both places. My father worked at one of the well known Korean electronics companies, and our family came along when he was stationed overseas. I was in the US for five years, and spent another five in Singapore. You’d learn Korean if you lived in Korea, wouldn’t you?
K: Haha, I thought my Korean was good! Anyways, so I've played a LOT of Hellgate (obviously), and there's definitely some colorful dialog in there. How do you go about translating the text that doesn't have a direct translation in Korean, or cultural references that obviously make no sense in Korea?
M: Oh. That’s just requires a LOT of thinking and reading over the context. And we cursed the guy wrote those lines... it just happened to be Ivan. Haha. Sorry about that! I sometimes slept on a phrase for days, trying to translate just a few lines to bring out the flavor and the humor in them. I mean, I want people to laugh and cry if those are the reactions the dialog was meant to evoke. There were some lines that didn’t even make sense to us, though, because of their deep cultural roots. In those cases, if sleeping on them didn’t work, I just ran over to Ivan and asked him to explain what he meant as though I was a six year old child. Haha.
K: Be honest now, did you give Ivan an extra hard time, even just for fun?
M: I honestly don’t think so because I tried not to jump on him every time I ran into complicated lines. You should ask him what he thinks. Did I give you a hard time, Ivan? As I said, Ivan takes a lot of whining and complaining, but I tend not to chase after him.
K: When it comes to item names, monster names, character names, etc. how do you decide what to translate and what to leave in English?
M: Now, that’s something that ended up being very difficult, and we had to make some complicated translating policies. We don’t want fans coming at us with all these questions like, "Why did you translate this to that but not this?" Our basics rule in localization is, make the change if it's appropriate, and make sure we stay true to the overall themes of the game. For instance, we try to add a little traditional Korean flavor to the Templar, while we give the Hunters a more futuristic military feel. Of course, we also do some transliterations. Cabalists are more in the area of fantasy with all the magic and summoning. The Korean Closed Beta Test has also been helpful, as many testers are giving great suggestions. We're not quite done with all of the localization yet, but we're all working hard to make sure it retains the spirit of the original text.
K: You're actually in our San Francisco office a lot (like you are now!). Does being in close proximity to the team change your work flow?
M: Okay, I’ve been working on this game for the past year, and I've been in San Francisco for five months and counting. How does this affect things? Well, me being here bugs a lot of people – I bother developers, producers, and sometimes the community manager ^_^. Yes, it makes a whole lot of difference because I get to talk to the person I need to in real time, and don't have to wait for email replies across the Pacific with a 17-hour time difference. Similarly, when I’m here, people here don’t have to wait around for me to start working 9am in Korea, which is around 4 or 5pm in San Francisco.
K: If I'm not mistaken, Jade over at HBS does some of the translation as well. How do you decide who translates what? What's the process?
M: Actually, what we do isn’t just translations. We outsource the primary translation and then go over it when it's done. How we decide who checks on what parts of the translation really depends on the individual's understanding of the game. I mean, all members of the localizing team have good understanding of the game but I, for instance, know more background details of the whole storyline than others since I’m the only one who read the whole "Hellgate Bible." Consequently, I look into the quests and NPC details most of the time. Others usually look into polishing the already-translated scripts, while Jisoo, our mighty local team leader, looks into the skills and all the more difficult things because he’s the one who’s played the most games amongst all of us. In the end, we do all look at everything, if only to keep things fresh for us.
K: Can you give me a specific example of a situation where translating the text is really difficult?
M: Wow. The most recent incident would be a huge spoiler so I won’t mention it here. In general, though, the more poetic lines were and still are a pain in the ass.
K: Alright, I know you're super swamped right now, so just one more question: which class is your favorite and why?
M: Oh, I go for Summoners first and then Engineers, because I don’t have to do too much clicking. Plus, it's awesome watching all my little pets/bots do my bidding... Haha. [You scare me... in a good way... -K]
K: Thanks, Michelle!
M: Anytime, Kaiser!
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Newsweek Interview Part I
Newsweek Interview Part II
Hellgate: London also got a mention in the New York Times. Yes, the New York Times. As part of an elite list of upcoming holiday games, Hellgate: London gets to share the space with titles such as Bioshock, Mass Effect, and Super Mario Galaxy. We're honored to be recognized by the NYT, and to stand on the same stage as all the other titles. Check it out on the link below.
New York Times Hellgate: London Spot (scroll down a little)
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