Month: July 2021

Book: Dmytry Lukashuk, Maxim Goryunov “The Belarusian National Idea”

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The book “Беларуская нацыянальная ідэя” (“The Belarusian National Idea” in English) probably would have passed me by entirely if its title hadn’t caught my attention in the news, where it was almost labeled as terrorist. Despite this, it was published in Belarus and even sold in a state-owned bookstore.

Essentially, it is a 600-page compilation of excerpts from 85 interviews with various well-known (whether widely or in smaller circles) Belarusian figures. All the interviews were conducted as part of the “Ідэя X” show on “Euroradio,” hosted by Dmitry Lukashuk and Maxim Goryunov. The central theme of the show was the Belarusian national idea. The hosts posed various questions: what exactly is this idea? Does it even exist? What does it mean to the guest, or how do they envision it? And is it even necessary?

Formally, the book is considered to be in Belarusian, but in reality, it is bilingual. Dmitry asks questions and converses in Belarusian, Maxim in Russian, and the guests respond in whichever language they prefer. Some answer exclusively in Belarusian, others only in Russian, while some guests switch languages, answering each question in the language it was asked. This means that the book can only be fully understood by readers who are fluent in both languages.

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Song: dudeontheguitar & Hey Monro “Boiy Bulgan”

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Thanks to the “Longplay” channel, I came across the song “Boiy Bulgan” by two Kazakh performers — dudeontheguitar and Hey Monro. Since my knowledge of the Kazakh language is not very good, I have absolutely no idea what this song is about. Nor had I heard anything about the performers before. But the melody and voices completely enchanted me. The song has found a lasting place in my playlist:

Book: Minako O’Hagan, Carmen Mangiron “Game Localization”

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In game development (and software development in general), there is one discipline that, in my opinion, receives far too little attention. Yet it is extremely important and can significantly impact both the perception and the sales of a product. This is localization—the process of preparing a product for another market, which is often understood simply as translating it into another language.

I can talk quite a lot about the topic of localization in general and game localization in particular (and, if all goes well, I’ll share more separately), as I spent many years as the head of several service departments at Wargaming, including the Localization Department. This is precisely why any materials on this subject are always of interest to me.

One of my former colleagues recommended the book Game Localization, where the authors decided to take an in-depth look at this phenomenon from the perspective of a scientific approach to translation in general.

The scientific approach is both a strength and a weakness of the book. The strength lies in its thorough exploration of the topic, its study of the history of the issue, and its examination of many aspects of localization. The weakness lies in the same excessive scientific rigor: countless references to other academic works on translation, an overwhelming number of quotes from analytical studies by other authors… in short, all the hallmarks of a scholarly work that tend to be too tedious for the average reader. Such readers are usually more interested in understanding the essence of the topic rather than the various methods for preparing academic research.

The authors begin their narrative from afar, discussing the history of video games in general and their localization in particular—covering the period from the mid-1980s to roughly the present day (the book was published in 2013, and much has changed in the industry in the past eight years). They then delve into the essence of the game industry (GameDev), explaining key terminology, genres, the role of narrative elements, the industry structure, and so on.

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