Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

As MMO gaming grows throughout the world, gaming companies are utilizing the tools available to them and setting out to create games globally. No more "All your base are belong to us" translations and half attempts at localization, NCsoft is going above and beyond with a neat and tidy westernization of Aion. Find out what it takes to take a game across seas in this editorial!

“Westernization” is one of those gaming terms that we have seen pop up quite a bit lately, particularly in connection with Aion.  Ten Ton Hammer's own Medawky recently wrote an article detailing the differences between eastern and western games showing that the leap to Asian style gaming isn't too scary.  As the Asian style games gain popularity in the North American market, the need to make these games more user friendly for these players becomes a priority.  Why tap the Asian market only when you can toss in a few alterations and conquer the entire world, right?

The trouble is westernization is also a term that inspires a lot of confusion.  What does it mean exactly and what the heck does it have to do with the games that we enjoy?  We are going to take a look at what exactly westernization is and how it makes Aion a better game for players across languages and regions.

Westernization in a Nutshell

Westernization is a broad term used to describe the process of taking something traditionally "eastern" and infusing it with culture from the western part of the globe.  The west generally refers to Western Europe, and North America and the east often speaks of the Asian countries.  In gaming, westernization is taking a game created in Asian and making it playable for Western Europe, North American, Australian, and other western cultures.  Gaming styles vary wildly across the globe and trends will sometimes localize but when creating a MMOG most gaming companies set out to appeal to the widest market possible and this will mean finding a way to meet the eastern culture with the western culture still allowing for players to feel at home within their game.

Localization goes both ways, as World of Warcraft recently found out, and some games from NA will need to be easternized.  The mega giant MMORPG created in North America had to do some additional localized tweaks in order to satisfy requirements overseas taking into account their laws and gaming needs.  Taking a NA based game and altering to fit the eastern culture is equally as challenging, but also equally as rewarding.  If done properly, a game can find success across borders and languages and cultures all over the world can have a similar gaming experience without feeling like they are playing a game made for a completely different region.

How Does Westernization Effect Gaming?

Cutscenes are a common Asian game feature that we love!

Crossing borders with MMO games is far from a new concept.  Previously, all it really took to successfully westernize a game was a poor translation of in-game dialog into English and a couple of new server locations.  This made these games playable for NA players but it always felt not quite good enough.  Hilarious translation flubs like the famous "All your base are belong to us" while amusing, can get frustrating when you play a dialog sensitive game that relies on immersion in the RPG environment.  With new technologies and years of development time, this half-baked attempt of breaking the language barrier is no longer a necessity or even desirable and now that gaming companies can do a better job, they are setting out to do so.

The new crop of westernized games have gone beyond what we have experienced and now more and more games are making localization as part of the regular game development.  Planning for global appeal starts during pre-production and MMOGs are built with future markets in mind.  The quality of games that are making it across seas is going up allowing for players to enjoy a wider range of game in various styles.  Global competition is a wonderful thing!

How Does Westernization Effect Aion?

Unlike many of its predecessors, Aion has undergone a full face lift for NA consumption in their attempt to bring eastern and western together in harmonious gaming bliss.  From the big things that we see, like in-game text, to the bigger things we don't see, like optimization of localized servers, westernization touches every aspect of the game. When players get in game, the entire goal is for them to feel as though the game had been built that way from the beginning because in some ways, it truly was.

Say it like ya mean it!  In-game text is quite likely the most noticeable of localization features.  NCsoft West put together a team to re-write every bit of text in game.  Well over a million words and lines of text had to be translated, but not just translated.  What sets Aion apart from many other previously translated games is that the in-game dialog was pulled apart and examined for relevancy to the NA culture and much of what you see is not a direct translation, but a cultural re-work that gives the quest meaning to the localized player.  You'll find little touches in game, things like our own pop culture references, which really show the quality of work that went into rewriting the dialog.

Voice also had to be reworked.  Not only adding voices in English, but just as they did with the text, making the voiced parts of the game make sense to players in the western cultures.  I love voice acting in games, and in Aion it adds to the immersed feel of the world.

Show Me Some Skin!  Starting at character creation, you will see the hand of localization.   Asian style graphics are often nicely done and if you’re a fan of the art, you don’t want to see this portion of the game re-done too much.  Thankfully, Aion keeps the beauty of its graphics but adds some nice touches to make NA players feel at home.  You’ll see hairstyles that are iconic in the Americas including the much loved afro hairstyle that successfully tempted me to create Austin Powers' Foxxy Cleopatra.  Sha-zam!  Names of hair and body styles have been changed to make sense to NA players, and the overall feel of character creation is a nice mix between Asian graphics and NA style preferences.

Romantic landscapes are a breath of fresh air for North American gamers

It's all in the Mechanics.  While all the visual touches are nice, clearly a priority of localizing a game should be the mechanics of gameplay and the user interface.  The Asian culture of gaming tends to be a bit more focused on PvP and mob grinding for experience.  In NA, we put a bit more emphasis on storylines and questing.  Aion was created with both of these in mind, so really not much westernization was needed.  Grabbing the best of both worlds, the game made both styles of play viable throughout the game.  This became particularly true with the update to the NA version of the game to patch 1.5, bringing our version up-to-date with the original Korean version and adding a lot of additional content for all styles of gameplay.

The UI has also undergone a bit of an overhaul.  The original design allowed for a lot of variations, changing features such a click to move to using the NA standard of WASD and arrow keys.  Position of UI aspects, graphics options, and complete key mapping all allow the player to alter the UI to suit their needs.  The biggest, and most favorable change from closed beta in my opinion, has been the upgrade to the chat channels.  Having legion, group, and vicinity chat is great and much needed, but being able to talk with the entire region is important.  Communities thrive on opens outlets of communication and while players have the option to not participate in the clamor of region chat, it is there for all to enjoy when they want to.

East Meets West.  When players log in on launch day, rather than expecting an Asian game that has been quickly localized for the western world, players will enjoy a game that was built from the ground up with both sets of gaming cultures in mind.  Aion takes the best aspects of both regions and combines them with a deep customization that not only will satisfy global requirements, but will please nearly every type of player regardless of continent or language.  In Aion, the field of battle doesn't care where you, the player, hails from, only that you are there and ready to fight in this glorious virtual world!