At the Heart of the Mothercrystal: Final Fantasy XIV’s Approach to Localization and Lore as a Virtual Contact Zone

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The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association

At the Heart of the Mothercrystal: Final Fantasy XIV’s

Approach to Localization and Lore as a Virtual Contact Zone

Rhea Vichot

Volume 16, Number 26, Spring 2024

URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1111259ar

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1111259ar

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Publisher(s)

Canadian Game Studies Association

ISSN

1923-2691 (digital)

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Cite this article

Vichot, R. (2024). At the Heart of the Mothercrystal: Final Fantasy XIV’s

Approach to Localization and Lore as a Virtual Contact Zone. Loading, 16(26),

40–64. https://doi.org/10.7202/1111259ar

Article abstract

Virtual worlds by nature of their persistence and ability to have multiple

simultaneous users in the same space can act as contact zones, defined by Mary

Louse Pratt as a "social space where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with

each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination,"

(1991, p. 34). One affordance of virtual worlds in constructing the contact zone is the

ability for the developer to use localization to bridge language gaps between a user

and the virtual world and, to some extent, between players who have a shared

understanding of the virtual world. This understanding extends to the properties of

objects and locations and any narrative lore or background in the world. However,

localization can be a double-edged sword, with choices in translation and

localization leading to confusion among virtual world users and conflict between

users and developers.

Language impacts two aspects of the virtual contact zone. For one, players

communicate using languages they are proficient in, using whatever affordances are

available in the interface and paratextual platforms, such as the official forums and

social mediaplatforms like Reddit and Tumblr. For another, the world itself is awash

in language. That text manifests itself in gameplay elements from user abilities and

item names to more narrative elements such as character names, dialogue, and

written story and worldbuilding elements. These textual and narrative components,

called "lore," are essential in contextualizing virtual spaces. Lore helps build the

virtual world beyond the actual mechanics and interactions within a virtual space.

Lore gives users a sense of not just place but of geography, not just time, but of

history, and not just context for players but their place within the story of the virtual

world. Lore offers players motivation for playing in addition to traditional gameplay

motivators such as exploration, achieving, socializing, and defeating enemies or

other players (Yee, 2006; Bartle, 1996) to interact with the world.

This paper focuses on the case of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (FFXIV), an

MMORPG initially released in 2013, its production, approaches to localization,and

how it contributes to building a "virtual contact zone." In looking at specific instances

where controversies in translation and localization led to confusion and conflict

among the participants and developers of the game, this case study illustrates the

role of localization in games beyond translation and acculturation. Localization not

only serves as the linguistic bridge among members of the contact zone but, in the

case of online games where world-building and narrative are important aspects for

immersion and play, creates shared experiences and understandings of that virtual

world among all members of the virtual contact zone.

Loading… The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association

Vol 16(26): 40-64

http://loading.gamestudies.ca

At the Heart of the Mothercrystal: Final Fantasy

XIV’s Approach to Localization and Lore as a Virtual

Contact Zone

Dr. Rhea Vichot

University of Wisconsin - Whitewater

vichotr@uww.edu

Abstract

Virtual worlds by nature of their persistence and ability to have multiple simultaneous

users in the same space can act as contact zones, defined by Mary Louse Pratt as a "social space

where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in highly asymmetrical

relations of domination and subordination," (1991, p. 34). One affordance of virtual worlds in

constructing the contact zone is the ability for the developer to use localization to bridge

language gaps between a user and the virtual world and, to some extent, between players who

have a shared understanding of the virtual world. This understanding extends to the properties of

objects and locations and any narrative lore or background in the world. However, localization

can be a double-edged sword, with choices in translation and localization leading to confusion

among virtual world users and conflict between users and developers.

Language impacts two aspects of the virtual contact zone. For one, players communicate

using languages they are proficient in, using whatever affordances are available in the interface

and paratextual platforms, such as the official forums and social media platforms like Reddit and

Tumblr. For another, the world itself is awash in language. That text manifests itself in gameplay

elements from user abilities and item names to more narrative elements such as character names,

dialogue, and written story and worldbuilding elements. These textual and narrative components,

called "lore," are essential in contextualizing virtual spaces. Lore helps build the virtual world

beyond the actual mechanics and interactions within a virtual space. Lore gives users a sense of

not just place but of geography, not just time, but of history, and not just context for players but

their place within the story of the virtual world. Lore offers players motivation for playing in

addition to traditional gameplay motivators such as exploration, achieving, socializing, and

defeating enemies or other players (Yee, 2006; Bartle, 1996) to interact with the world.

This paper focuses on the case of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (FFXIV), an

MMORPG initially released in 2013, its production, approaches to localization, and how it

contributes to building a "virtual contact zone." In looking at specific instances where

controversies in translation and localization led to confusion and conflict among the participants

and developers of the game, this case study illustrates the role of localization in games beyond

translation and acculturation. Localization not only serves as the linguistic bridge among

members of the contact zone but, in the case of online games where world-building and narrative

are important aspects for immersion and play, creates shared experiences and understandings of

that virtual world among all members of the virtual contact zone.

Author Keywords

Final Fantasy XIV, MMORPGs, contact zone, localization, virtual worlds, fan studies

The Contact Zone and its Application to Games and Virtual Worlds.

The concept of contact zones was coined by Pratt (1991) to describe social spaces "where

cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical

relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many

parts of the world today." (1991, p. 34). In particular, what distinguishes this conception of

intercultural communication from others is the acknowledgment that the mixing of two or more

cultures creates hybridized spaces of intercultural intelligibility. Rather than a flow from one

culture to the other, such as in a networked model, the contact zone is a more contested and

contestable space where these differences and the attempts to create shared understandings are

played out in concrete, material, and often messy forms.

Pratt distinguishes contact zones from the notion of community by arguing that a

community is a space of idealized unity, which suppresses those at the margins. Conversely, the

contact zone represents the realities of contact between multiple cultures along differing levels of

influence and power in the same shared space. It offers marginalized voices a space where they

can be heard. In addition, Pratt also argues that the contact zones engender a contact 'perspective'

among its inhabitants, emphasizing how subjects are constituted by their relations to one another.

These relations are not necessarily treated along strict delineations of colonizers/colonized,

travelers/inhabitants, or other dichotomies of separation but of copresence and interlocked

understandings within the overarching environment of frequently asymmetrical power relations.

Pratt argues that dismantling separation barriers allows for increased interaction among

"subjects" and greater interplay between dominant and marginalized voices, allowing for the

reshaping of both.

The usage of contact zones in disciplines such as English (Selfe & Selfe, 1994; Miller,

1994), Anthropology and Museum Studies (Schroch, 2013; Yeon & Willis, 2005; Clifford,

1997), new media studies (Farnsworth & Austrin, 2010), and education (Harris, 1995) suggest a

potential for applying these concepts to virtual world studies, particularly of online games as

they often function as spaces of interplay between players from different cultural backgrounds,

and are sites of power imbalances between players and developers. Selfe and Selfe (1994) note

that, in describing online spaces for English education, "computers, like other complex

technologies, are articulated in many ways with a range of existing cultural forces and with a

variety of projects in our educational system, projects that run the gamut from liberatory to

oppressive," (p. 482). Farnsworth and Austrin (2010) also propose the contact zone as a model

for media anthropology, noting that the contact zone allows researchers interested in media

ethnography to highlight how ethnographic practice has changed and continues to change in the

wake of new media. They acknowledge that these media technologies and the sites, practices,

and objects of study are constantly shifting and that the lines between academic and commercial

domains of research within new media spaces are blurring, creating another shift in power

dynamics. Similarly, Rees (2007) argues that thinking of the space of media anthropology as a

contact zone changes the dynamic between fieldwork sites, practices, and objects and shifts

perspectives as to what constitutes an ethnographic method. While the concept of virtual worlds

has been applied for some time in game studies literature on communities online (Castronova,

2001; Taylor, 2006; Boellstorff, 2008; Peace, 2010; Yee, 2014), a technical definition of a virtual

world offered by Nevelsteen (2018) defines a virtual world as a "simulated environment" where

many agents (human or algorithmic) interact in a real-time shared "spatiotemporal nonpausable

virtual environment" that constitutes a single unified persistent space or shard (Section 5.2).

These studies suggest that the contact zone applied to virtual worlds can help understand

the relationships of users within the virtual world and their relationship with one another.

However, as Rees notes, just as in the ethnographic study of other spaces, the role of the

researcher as a participant and member of that space must also be taken into account, especially

given the emphasis the contact zone places on understanding fundamental inequalities among

members of the zone. Therefore the relationship between the object of study, the scope of the

questions, and the role of the researcher as a participant in the virtual world must be considered.

The contact zone provides a framework for the researcher to look at the relationships between

individuals and communities within it and for the researcher to negotiate their place as a

participant within that space.

Utilizing the contact zone as a framework for talking about communication and

interaction in virtual worlds allows us to place the virtual world and its inhabitants within a

broader social context, where users, even inside the space, are bound up in inherently

heterogeneous collections of power relations, networks of social capital, and resources, all of

which act upon one another, and are particularly visible when attempts at collaboration and

incidents of conflict occur. This lens provides a broader perspective than other frameworks for

virtual world behavior, serving not only as a compliment but as a contrast to Pearce's

theorization of play communities (2010). Pearce defines a community of play as a community of

individuals who come together around an activity that is seen as play and form a network of

relations that center around the act of play, sometimes to the extent that individuals are playing

more for the social interaction and community than for the ludic aspects. Her stance on the role

of play and social interaction is that the framework of play that grounds virtual worlds, such as

those of Uru and the communities formed there, which created virtual diasporas on Second Life

and There.com, allows for individuals to meet that would otherwise not, because of real-world

social roles.

Players befriend individuals they might not otherwise have occasion to interact with.

Intimacies form around shared imagination and facets of identity that are foregrounded

through play. Because play is ultimately a form of expression, whether experienced in a

structured game world or an open-ended metaverse, it opens up avenues for personal and

social development that provide alternatives to real-life roles (p. 22)

Pearce defines play broadly, drawing on anthropological definitions of play. She draws on

Huizinga's (1949) definition of play as "a free activity standing quite consciously outside

‘ordinary’ life as being 'not serious', but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and

utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it” (p.

13).

This definition encompasses a number of non-work activities, such as military

reenactment, science fiction fandom, rituals, and play, as it occurs in more understood forms,

particularly for users of virtual worlds such as MMOGs. Pearce also draws upon the work of

Bernie DeKoven (1978) and the New Games movement in her formulation of communities of

play to highlight both the importance of the social aspects of play and the importance of design

on these social functions. Her focus on play as a space separated from regular life, and thus a

space where alternative social formations and identities can be developed, is helpful in

understanding play as a potentially productive act. By reducing geographic limitations from

communication and by creating a sense of presence for those interacting with them, virtual

worlds produce a very different environment for play activities and communities of play.

The lens of the contact zone brings with it an ability to see a more holistic relationship of

communication within the virtual world. In particular, the contact zone model is fruitful for

simultaneously examining spaces designed to be inhabited by individuals from various national

and linguistic backgrounds. While Pratt uses the contact zone to describe spaces of colonial

resistance and autoethnographic writing within the colonial space, this is but one of three spaces

she uses in her work. Another space is the classroom, particularly the English Literature

classroom at the University, in the wake of the diversification of both the classroom and the

works beyond the 'Western canon.' The contact zone here is used to talk about the way that

education shifts as students from their various backgrounds bring their history and interpretation

of works, and teachers within the classroom "had to work on the knowledge that whatever one

said was going to be systematically received in radically heterogeneous ways that we were

neither able nor entitled to prescribe" (1991, p. 39). Pratt also uses the contact zone as a model

through baseball cards. At the beginning of her piece, she explains how baseball cards were a

tool of education for her child, using them to gain skills in literacy, mathematics, history,

economics, and social dynamics in ways that traditional educational spaces could not provide.

This transplantation of the contact zone across different contexts, particularly the concept

of baseball cards and interest in baseball fandom, presents opportunities for both transplantation

and expansion of the concepts presented by Pratt in other contexts. This paper positions online

games and virtual worlds as virtual contact zones, utilizing Pratt's model to look at how virtual

worlds and online games are situated within a larger shared social space encompassing members

from various backgrounds all coming together. These differences can be reflected by nationality,

language, technical expertise, and access to technology. Like Pratt's model, the virtual zone does

operate within a context of asymmetrical power structures. It is most apparent between those

who build and operate the virtual world and the users who buy into and interact with the virtual

world. There are also differing power shifts between players, sometimes along the lines of

national identity or language, mainly when communicating with the aforementioned virtual

world creators.

The virtual contact zone builds on the literature that uses the contact zone in two ways.

One, the virtual contact zone extends previous work looking at the contact zone to examine and

model virtual and distance learning environments, in order to look at activities and

communication in other kinds of virtual environments. The virtual contact zone also expands the

ideas of space within the contact zone to be a multi-sited space within mostly digital, paratextual

spaces informed by the virtual world. It is important here to note that the virtual contact zone

acknowledged the presence of power differentials between its members, much like Pratt's model

in colonial spaces. That being said, the stakes in those power relations in the virtual contact zone

are far less severe than those in the contact zone of the colony. The concept of a virtual contact

zone is not meant to suggest that virtual worlds have contexts similar to colonial life, especially

for those subject to its effects. For another, the members of the contact zone with powers are the

creators of the virtual world, and the players often buy into the virtual world. The virtual contact

zone asks us to consider the relations between subjects when the subjects with more power are

the creators of a space, and those with less power voluntarily make their way into that space

along with other virtual world users.

Challenges in the Localization of Videogames and MMORPGs

Localization has been an ongoing practice in the video game industry since the 1980s,

when Japanese games became popularized in North America and Europe. There are several

challenges video game localization has to overcome to adapt titles across regions. It is worth

addressing that localization includes translation, but localization also includes works to adapt

content to the various target cultures, such as changing cultural references that would not be

understood in the target language and adapting idioms and expressions that maintain the same

idea as the original text, but are not literally the same. In games, this may also extend to

localizing mechanics or functions, such as games made for Sony Consoles switching the accept

and cancel buttons between Japanese and International versions from ◯ and ╳ to ╳ and ◯,

respectively

. There are several challenges video game localization has to overcome in order to

adapt titles across regions.

Game localization in Translation Studies has typically been recognized as a hybrid

between Audio-visual translation and software localization (O'Hagan & Mangiron, 2013). On the

one hand, localizing text and audio takes up most of the work, since those need to be translated

and localized for the target country and language. With voice work, in particular, localization

teams aim at providing analogs to accents, speaking and writing styles, and matching genre

conventions in the target language. On the other hand, elements such as interfaces and inputs

must also be localized. The developer or a subsidiary publisher localizes games aimed at a global

market (and budgeted accordingly) in the target country or region. Game localization shares the

challenges of other media translation and localization by needing to adapt narrative, dialogue,

informational text, etc. Game localization also has to deal with software internationalization

issues, that is make sure the actual mechanics and interface are accessible to an audience of end-

users other than those originally targeted by the developers. Videogame localization poses

several challenges for developers, such as translation of the text, translation of non-verbal cues

and animation, and translating software elements such as interfaces and input schema.

As a subset of localization, video game text translation has its own set of challenges, as

described above, with its balance of maintaining the literal meaning of the original text with

making non-literal narrative devices culturally legible. Games have utilized both "domestication"

and "foreignization" strategies in localization, as defined by Venuti (2008), with neither

approach seeming to be better, at least from an economic and developer standpoint. For example,

the 2005 rhythm game Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! was domesticated to American audiences as

Elite Beat Agents in 2006. Aside from changing the songs used from popular Japanese pop songs

to English-language pop, the publisher changed the main characters from a culturally legible

group, the Ouendan (応援団, literally 'cheering/support squad') to an Americanized "Men in

Black" style federal agent in black suits and sunglasses (Mandiberg, 2012; Stern, 2007).

With the introduction of the Playstation 5 in 2021, Sony has elected to standardize these controls, conforming to

the international mode of ╳ as confirm and ◯ as cancel which has led to some outcry by Japanese users used to

the previous convention (Ashcraft, 2020).

Similarly, ≈while the game Tetris is an abstract puzzle game with no narrative elements,

many versions of it utilize Russian imagery and music, most famously the use of a chiptune

version of "Korobeiniki," an 1861 Russian poem turned folk song (Shaver, 2017), to highlight

the game's Russian origins and its creator Alexey Pajitnov. In addition, while localization teams

have tried to exercise caution when translating cultural elements, there have been instances

where North American localizers attempted to "Americanize" foreign elements to a degree where

character names and even appearances have been altered. In perhaps one of the most extreme

examples of this over-localization, the 1996 PlayStation Game Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

changed the Japanese high school setting and characters into an American high school, giving

the characters anglicized names, and even changing the race of one of the characters to a young

black man. As Mangiron (2021) argues, localization teams working on Japanese games are more

likely these days to preserve Japanese elements, as part of the audience appeal of Japanese games

tends to be in their target culture. There is also now an overall higher baseline assumption of

knowledge of Japanese popular culture among audiences of these games, in what Henry Jenkins

describes as pop cosmopolitanism when looking at the ways "transcultural flows of popular

culture inspire new forms of global consciousness and cultural competency," (p. 117, 2004).

Accordingly, localization of Japanese cultural elements is limited to certain game components

that would require extensive knowledge of Japanese pop culture. One example is in the 2016

game Danganronpa V3 which localized a joke referencing Japanese Baseball teams to one

referencing the NFL teams (Schrier, 2017).

Localization adds to these challenges beyond translation by reconsidering non-linguistic

cues. Localization teams must be sensitive to cultural norms of visual communication, especially

regarding imagery or actions that players can perform or interact with. Character actions, such as

the body language of avatars, may be inappropriate or even offensive in the target language's

culture and may need to be changed on a technical level to remodel and reanimate sequences

(DiMarco, 2007). One example of this was the recent version of Mario Kart (Dayus, 2017). A

character performed a physical gesture, in this case "raising a clenched fist while the other arm

holds the raised bicep," which was a playful competitive gesture. However, the emote was

changed because of concerns that the gesture could be interpreted as a similar vulgar gesture in

certain European countries, Italy in particular. For all video games being adapted to China,

certain enemies, such as skeletons, have to be changed due to legal restrictions in depicting

skeletons in Chinese media due of cultural norms.

In addressing the issue of audience, Costales (2016) ran a study of regional Spanish video

game players that suggests (similar to Esser 's 2016 argument about television localization) that

conceiving an audience in video game localization is more complicated than simply conceiving a

regional or national audience. It may be even in markets where English is not the primary

language, the ubiquity of English as a lingua franca in global media has made foreignization

strategies popular, and that video game players with access to the Internet can turn to English

language websites for information and official details. While the findings are not necessarily

generalizable to the game-playing audiences, Costales notes that his findings suggest that

perhaps "the localization of video games into a specific market is becoming more complex due to

the influence of the global on the local." The multimodal nature of games and the globalized

nature of contemporary popular culture have perhaps shifted audience expectations towards

code-switching from a native tongue to English.

The last major challenge to video game localization is the logistical challenge.

Localization is often an afterthought in the development cycles. Until recently, games were

localized by small teams of less than a dozen people and text was translated by one or two

individuals. As game development has ballooned over the last ten years, the number of regions

games that need localization has increased, and the teams have grown. Even now, frequently

localization is still performed by outsourced contract firms that may not necessarily specialize in

video game localization rather than by a team that is an integral part of the developer or

publisher. The amount of text that needs to be translated and localized can lead to production

flow issues and typos, minor mistranslations, or even overlooked text. If they feel there is not

enough of an audience for a title outside the domestic market, a publisher may decide not to

create a localization. In these cases, fan translation and localization may emerge to close the gap,

especially in regions that tend to be minimized in the larger games market, such as Latin

America and the Middle East. These fan translations tend to operate in spaces such as fan-

subbing, which has been looked at in Translation Studies (Díaz Cintas & Muñoz Sánchez, 2006)

or with distribution within the contemporary media law landscape (Müller, 2014), where

companies mostly look the other way and do not seek litigation provided the projects are

noncommercial. However, exceptions do exist (Kretzschmar & Stanfill, 2019).

Live service games, such as MMOGs, have an additional set of challenges regarding

localization. While there is some research in online game localization (Chan, 2018; Heimberg,

2006), the unique challenges of localizing such games have traditionally not been a focus. Live

service games, which require constant maintenance and regularly produced content over a long

period, create new challenges unique from other forms of video game localization. One such

challenge is the simultaneous play from multi-lingual audiences. While live service games that

silo players by regions, such as Korean MMOs like Blade and Soul and Lost Ark, can afford time

delays between different localizations, online games which maintain simultaneous release

schedules across many regions need to ensure every supported localization is ready for release

simultaneously throughout the lifespan of the game. Even if players are sequestered into regional

servers, the expectation is that everyone can play the content at the same time of release. In these

cases, it often works to integrate localization teams with the developer to facilitate quick content

production and localization turnover.

Of all online or live service games, the amount of material that needs to be translated for

an MMORPG can be daunting. Heimburg notes that an older game, Asheron's Call, contained

about 350,000 words, with about 15-20,000 more words added in additional monthly content (p.

138). In Final Fantasy XIV's case, English Localization Lead from 2010-2019 and current

overall Localization Supervisor Michael Christopher "Koji" Fox commented on the translation

needed for the game's first expansion content released in mid-2015:

We receive text from not only the scenario team, but also various other teams, and we're

constantly working to perfect the text right up until the last minute. It's constantly a fight

against time. For the expansion, we translated roughly 15,000,000 words between eight

people in 2.5 months. Part way through we were concerned we wouldn't finish, so we had

help from people of other project's teams. (2016)

Heimburg states that the text displayed to players is not the only text that has to be

considered. However, localization teams have to consider what forms of text input players can

use to name things like characters or items or to communicate with other players. For example,

Final Fantasy XI does not allow players to natively type in Japanese within the game client;

players created fan mods to overcome that barrier. In other cases, games may attempt to

circumnavigate issues of text communication, such as Phantasy Star Online for instance, by

using pictographs for player communication. This option creates new challenges, such as the

problem of judging the appropriate specificity and universality of symbols chosen and the

problem of players using too many symbols at once, causing clutter and noise in communication

(p. 138). In addition, interactive text that players see, such as when receiving an item, has to be

programmed. Specific item names are coded such that scripted phrases such as "You receive the

Sword +1" are designated within the code as "You receive the $ITEM." Localized issues such as

gendered language, as in French, can complicate issues, necessitating further "meta-language" to

be coded into nouns, usually by tagging words with markers such as a type of noun (pronoun,

name, place) and gender (male, female, neuter). This degree of specificity underlies the point that

localization needs to be considered very early in the process of MMORPG development, since

this meta-linguistic programming, among other tools in implementing localization to players,

works better the earlier in development it is implemented (pp. 148-149). Along with text-based

elements, there is also voiced content, such as in cutscenes, which must be translated and voice

acted in the target languages, further complicating the organizational hurdles MMORPG

localization faces. Finally, Localization teams must address accessibility concerns, such as

changing user interfaces to accommodate languages requiring more space in their writing, such

as English or other alphabet-based languages, compared to ideographic or syllabic script forms

like Mandarin Chinese, Korean, or Japanese.

Aside from organizing and setting up localization teams, developers must also decide

how players who may speak different languages can communicate with one another. One way to

deal with this issue can be to segregate players by servers based on language or region. Another

is to develop chat systems that allow players who speak different languages to communicate.

One early example was Syzran, an autotranslation feature added to Ultima Online. Another

method was used by Phantasy Star Online, which allowed players to communicate by selecting

generic phrases from a menu and drawing pictographs for other players.

Localization is thus a complicated process, traditionally performed by a small team

expected to manage many hundreds of thousands of words of text. More recently, localization

has increased in importance. In larger budget games or online games like FFXIV, large teams are

assembled to translate and localize games in-house with a large publisher like Ubisoft or Square-

Enix, or to act as an outsourced external company. Furthermore, localization has to also work

across media, such as vocal performance and animation. Finally, localization has to manage

quality control and decide how heavily they will alter content to be accessible to the target

audience. Localization is one important aspect of creating a shared understanding within a

contact zone.

Lore and the Construction of Narrative in Games

Virtual worlds, by and large, rely on narrative techniques to help build the fiction of their

world. Storytelling devices such as lore or worldbuilding enable players to invest in the virtual

world by creating context and points of identification. These games can also utilize paratexts

such as official websites, published books, forums, live streams, and live appearances to

strengthen further narratives built into the virtual world, similar to transmedia storytelling

strategies. These strategies rely on understanding how players in virtual worlds create and

understand narrative (Atarama-Rojas & Menacho-Gíron, 2018; Rish, 2014; Jenkins, 2004).

Lore is a term used by designers, players, and game studies scholars to describe a

different but intersecting set of narrative elements present in games. This paper uses lore to

describe narrative elements present in online games and virtual worlds embedded by developers

in the stories, quests, item descriptions, environments, etc., and decoded by players. One

example of lore used in this way is Ball's (2017) discussion of how Bloodborne takes diffuse and

obscured lore hidden in item descriptions text, visual environment, and sparse dialogue to

construct narrative threads. Lore also encompasses narrative information produced through

emergent gameplay and other interactions with game systems. Gillis (2011) describes World of

Warcraft players sharing occupational folklore to create player narratives aimed at instrumental

play (Iser, 1993).

These narrative elements matter because the majority of time and effort spent by players

and localizers is on understanding and, in the latter case, translating these narrative elements to

players. This effort in creating points of identification and story with narrative elements is

critical in creating a virtual contact zone. For players of online games, narrative is the means of

identification with the story and the world. Several similar models of narrative structure are

useful to conceptualize the form in which narratives are constructed by authors and decoded by

readers. In particular, Young (2007) identifies Chatman's (1990, 1978) model as helpful in

looking at the narrative structure of games.

Chatman's model supposes a few key assumptions on narratives. First, a narrative is

fundamentally communication (1978, p. 31). Second, this communication is not directly between

author and reader but through implied authors and readers embedded in the narrative that both

author and reader imagine as they construct or decode the work (p. 32). The narrative itself is

divided into two parts: story and discourse. The story contains elements that Chatman defines as

"content" (p. 19), such as plot, characters, etc. The second part of the narrative is the discourse,

or expression, of the narrative and how the work tells the story. In a narrative, the order of events

is encoded by creators and presented to audiences (typically as a plot). It is then reassembled and

decoded by audiences to make sense of the narrative. While the model developed by Chatman

was primarily aimed at film, there is some use in constructing an analogy between how filmgoers

and players in virtual worlds find and construct narratives. The most striking differences are in

the affordances game offer compared to film. Games often disperse narrative information across

space and time, allowing players to access narrative elements non-linearly across different points

of virtual space. This gives players in virtual worlds a more pronounced, direct hand in collecting

and decoding narratives among themselves. In-game narrative information, such as

worldbuilding details, character dialogue, and player quest options, collectively allows players to

assemble narratives in a unique order depending on play style. Oftentimes this narrative

information presented to players is referred to as lore. It is often collected together in texts,

talked about and debated among players, and used to create a shared understanding of a game.

Players in virtual worlds participating in this process of narrative sense-making as they

come across components of narrative, temporally and within the narrative space, is a key activity

for building investment in these virtual worlds. This sense-making activity is partially why

transmedia texts rely heavily on these interpretive activities by readers in order to construct

narratives. Virtual worlds are further advantaged as texts in that they rely more on discursive

elements rather than a temporally locked story. Virtual worlds allow players to create emergent

narratives and make connections, both inside the virtual world, and through paratextual elements

such as published books, websites, forums, wikis, etc. Jenkins (2004) notes the role of games as

environmental storytelling, each game’s designed systems allowing for non-linear narrative

motivated by player actions, embedded narratives "within the mise-en-scene awaiting discovery"

(p. 11), and emergent narrative where systems can present players with conflicts and goals and

narrative emerges from players addressing these conflicts and goals within the designed game

system. Pearce (2010) discusses how players in virtual worlds, through emergent gameplay,

interact with extant systems, both inherent to the world and through social networks among

players, in "play ecosystems" (p. 45) that exhibit different emergent behaviors among players

based on the affordances present in the virtual world.

Games already utilize various narrative techniques to tell stories during and throughout

gameplay. Abstract games can use theming to create a context for the conflict. Games with

characters create identification between the player and who or what they control. Games can

have plots structured similarly to other audio-visual media that players uncover as they play

through levels, chapters, or scenarios. Games within virtual worlds utilize space to tell narratives,

either plot-related quests or worldbuilding elements. These elements can be textual or audio-

visual. Other times, art design, lighting, and the number and type of objects created for space

have their own narrative, much like mise en scéne in a film is used. Finally, players can receive,

and store information through informational text, such as item descriptions discovered in-game.

This type of information is another way for players to learn about the space they inhabit and gain

further context and investment in the game's narrative. Another advantage to using tools for

discourse in virtual worlds is that this also allows players to create their own narratives through

the discursive practice of role-playing. Emergent behavior and the creation of emergent

narratives using the discursive tools available have long been a major activity of users in virtual

worlds (Curtis, 1992; Dibbel, 1995; Taylor, 2001; Pearce, 2010).

Lore and Localization in FFXIV

Final Fantasy XIV's localization process focuses on a model of in-house division within

the game's publisher. The Localization team works closely with the developer. In addition,

FFXIV's approach to localization is notable in how closely localization plays a role in developing

narrative through discursive means of expression available to the developer. In a sense,

localization is part of the development process much earlier than usual, and, because of the focus

on language, plays a deep role in building that world. These approaches contribute to

constructing the virtual contact zone by creating a system for simultaneous content development,

and increasing the interest in the world's narrative across different regions of players.

The localization team estimates that each patch, released in 4-month cycles between

biennial expansions, has around 100,000 words of text that need to be localized across each of

the four supported languages: Japanese, English, French, and German. Expansions are large

chunks of content that expand on the virtual world released every two years, along with the

patches, which are a much larger localization task. According to Fox in a Live Letter, "For the

expansion, we translated roughly 15,000,000 words between eight people in 2.5 months. Part

way through we were concerned we wouldn't finish, so we had help from people of other

project's teams" (Cherzy, 2016).

While the developer has a team focused on writing story and lore content, localization

plays a significant role in this narrative development process. This is largely since the

Localization Supervisor and former English Localization lead, Michael Christopher "Koji" Fox,

is also part of the team of writers responsible for lore headed by Banri Oda. Fox's role and the

importance of English as a lingua franca have influenced the importance of localization and the

cohesiveness of the virtual contact zone.

The localization has three aspects: story content, story elements, and non-narrative text.

Story content here includes the "main scenario," the term used by the developer to indicate

player quests that are part of a single narrative, side quests, and all of the dialogue needed for all

the non-player characters that are part of those quests, as well as incidental dialogue for other

NPCs. Aside from quest text as described above, the localization team translates story elements

such as different types of small repeatable quests players can accomplish. Fox has mentioned

that these are the parts of the game's narrative he and the English localization team have the most

latitude and creative freedom in. The use of story elements in these quests has also increased

interest in in-game narrative and lore, particularly in the story elements unrelated to the main

narrative of FFXIV.

Quest types such as F.A.T.E.s (timed battles that appear in the world and players can

work together to complete) and Levequests (individual quests which can be repeated) were

initially written with very spartan, functional text. In addition to narrative content, the

localization team has also had freedom in designing player titles, small bits of text players can

append to their character names and achievements. The localization team was also primarily

responsible for creating paratexts, such as a printed Lore book, released in English before being

released in Japanese. Finally, the localization team translates non-narrative textual elements such

as support desk text and the slides appearing in the streamed Live Letters. While the answers and

announcements in the live letter are translated to the supported languages in a follow-up post, as

described in the last chapter, it is notable that the slides are only in Japanese and English.

A concrete example of the impact of localization on development involves creating NPC

names based on different languages. In an interview, Fox notes:

NPCs as well are actually a collaboration between all of the localization team members.

For example, the Hyur and Miqo'te names for NPCs are all done by the English team, the

Elezen names are all conceived by the French team, the Lalafell names come from the

Japanese team, and the Roegadyn names are a joint effort between the German and

English teams and so, again, you have all these aspects of the game that are being created

by not just the Japanese side, but also by the localization side as well (Nelva 2013)

In the case of FFXIV, it is worth noting the localization process for the game's other

supported languages: French and German. Like the English localization team, French and

German teams are based in Tokyo and have similar access to scripts, writers, and other parts of

the development team focused on creating narrative and textual elements. The translation process

differs in a few ways. First, localization focuses on different parts of the work to translate, which

leads to situations where all teams have translated different parts of the script, for example, at

different times. Second, all of the localization teams internally communicate in English. While

this is a side effect of English's role as a corporate lingua franca, it has also helped keep all teams

in accord. That said, as we will discuss below, the French and German teams take fewer liberties

with the localization than the English version regarding including pop culture references and

other elements.

These aspects seem to suggest that English has a privileged position among the

localizations, both because of its presence as a common language among localizers, and the role

of English localization in shaping scripts both by vetting borrowed English in the Japanese script

and by shaping certain discursive elements such as quest text. This privileging of English over

other localized languages, along with the inherent privilege of developers over players in the

virtual world, lends itself to the contact as a model, as the effects of these imbalances have led to

player frustrations and protests about how certain aspects of lore are localized and the developers

and localizers themselves have to manage community perceptions of the localization as it

impacts the virtual contact zone of FFXIV.

Community Perception of Localization and Lore

Players have sometimes expressed frustration with the English-localized version of the

game. Two complaints, in particular, stand out. One argues that the English language material

favors more florid language and word choice at the expense of clarity. Second, is an overuse of

pop cultural references in the non-dialogue quest text, as described above. These sorts of

complaints are not an uncommon phenomenon among fans and developers, especially with

Japanese-developed games. In some cases, players wish to address what they see as a change in

the nuance of language that differs from the original intent, with some more extreme fans even

feeling that the localization is an out-and-out mistranslation.

Table 1 is an example of such a comparison made by a player and posted on one of the leading

English-language paratextual sources of information about the game (agneslynd, 2015). With a

disclaimer that the literal translation "is not how I see the translation team should be handling the

dialogue," they directly compare a character's dialogue in Japanese, a literal English translation,

and localized English.

Table 1:

Comparison of Japanese, Literal English and localized English partial script of the character

Midgardsormr for quest “黙約の塔へ”/”The Rising Chorus”

Japanese

Literal English

English Localization

ほう、汝も「超える

力」を持つか・・・。

幻体ごときでは、敵わ

ぬのも道理よ。

So you too possess the Echo. That

is why the phantom form cannot

win over you.

By Her gifts has thou earned a

moment's reprieve.

然らば、我と引き合わ

せたのも、ハイデリン

の意志か。問お

う・・・汝は何故、こ

こへ参った？

In that case, it is Hydaelyn's will

that we shall converse. Tell me,

why are you here?

Speak, mortal, and I shall

listen.

[PC speaks to Midgardsormr]

確かに、北天の星を燃

やすは、我が一族の猛

き咆哮。進軍を告げ

る、鬨の声だ。

This is true, the star in the

northern skies burns with the

valorous roar of my kin. This is

the battlecry, calling to advance.

Guided by a star...? Heh heh

heh.

一族が向かうは、イシ

ュガルド・・・。畏れ

を忘れ、罪を犯したヒ

トの棲処。

Their destination is Ishgard, home

of the people who have forgotten

fear and have sinned.

My people have heard the

song. Ishgard shall burn.

[PC looks agitated]

これは報復よ。イシュ

ガルドの民は、己が罪

から目を背けた。その

罪こそが、尽きること

ない戦の火種。

This is retribution! The people of

Ishgard are blind to their sins.

Their sins demand battle without

end.

Sons must answer for their

fathers' misdeeds.

そればかりか、あの者

どもは今、再び罪を犯

そうとしておる。故

And yet more, they want to sin

again. This is why my kin roars.

We do not forget. We do not

forgive.

に、我が一族は咆哮を

とどろかせたのであろ

う。

Similar to this approach, players will also look at other localizations for comparison, in

the case of FFXIV, its German and French localization, and the more recent version in Korean

and Chinese, to a lesser extent. Players who primarily play in French or German note in

community forums such as Reddit that those localizations are drawn directly from the Japanese

version. The French and German versions thus use more direct language than the English

version. Another result of this is that the English localization tends to include more humor in its

writing.

Regarding the second point, the use of pop culture in the English language localization

sticks out compared to Japanese or other localizations. One example is a quest where players

team up to fight a giant crab named Cancer in all versions of the game. The names of the quest in

the main four languages (translated to English) are: "Usurper of Dead Faces: Cancer" (Japanese),

"It's Not Lupus" (English), "Challenge: Cancer, the Death Helmet" (French), and "Crab XXL"

(German). While all four titles, to varying degrees, describe the nature of the quest, the English

version doubles as a reference to the TV show House M.D. Players have complained that this use

of pop-cultural references broke the immersive experience of being in the virtual world, even

though these references are mostly non-diegetic in nature.

A case study that serves as a good lens for looking at the relationship between the contact

zone and localization can be seen by community reaction to how the developers localized a

pivotal moment within the game. For players to progress and unlock content, they must

participate in "Main Scenario Quests," story-focused quests that create a shared narrative of the

player character as the "Warrior of Light," questing as they travel around the game world. These

quests offer plot and non-player characters forming relations with the player. They also add

discursive narrative elements such as interactive objects and side conversations with NPCs not

directly related to these quests in order to flesh out the world and lore.

In one such set of quests, an important NPC that players come to know closely (for many

who had been playing since the game's release in August of 2013, almost two years) is killed in a

dramatic moment. The dialogue surrounding the death of this character, Haurchefant Greystone,

as well as his last words, bring the storyline the players are involved into focus. It also served

discursive functions of raising the dramatic tension toward the story's climax. Players scrutinized

this dialogue to understand the nature of the character's relationship with the player in the quests

he had been a part of.

As part of this process, players looked at the different localizations of all the story moments with

the character of Haurchefant. They discovered what they felt to be a change in characterization in

the English version compared to others. Players noted that the English localization erased overtly

romantic and sexual subtexts with the character's appreciation of the Player Character. Players

used this discrepancy to argue that this element of the relationship was written out of the English

script. Some players went as far as to complain that the English localization changed what was a

clear attraction Haurchefant had for the player to just subtext. Table 2 compares quest text

looking at the difference in Japanese, Literal English, and Localized English. This particular

quest the table draws from became the center of controversy among players regarding what

liberties the English localization team was taking in their translation. In addition to the omissions

in dialogue from the English localization, certain other changes were made, such as removing

reaction shots by the player being taken aback by the more forward remarks and some high-angle

shots of Haurchefant gesticulating when he gets excited.

Table 2:

Table of Opening dialogue between Japanese, English, and English localization of the quest "風

霜にわかに”/ “When the Cold Sets In” (mechanicalzombie, 2015). Blank cells indicate dialogue

was cut from that version.

Japanese

Literal English

English Localization

オルシュファン:おおお、[プ

レーヤー]ではないか！

どうした、さらに強靭になっ

た肉体を、私に披露しにきた

のか！？

HAURCHEFANT: Oh, if it

isn’t [PLAYER]! What is it?

Have you come to show me

the development of your

chiseled body?

オルシュファン:……違う？

………………本当に？

HAURCHEFANT……No?

………………Are you sure?

オルシュファン: ふむ、なら

ば仕方あるまい。

その顔を見れば、重要な用件

だということはわかる。盟友

たるこのオルシュファンに、

何なりと言うがいい。

HAURCHEFANT: Hmmm,

then it can’t be helped.

Looking at your face, this

must be an important matter.

Say what you must to your

dear ally, Haurchefant.

オルシュファン: ･･････なる

ほど、開拓団の件で訪ねてき

たのだな。皆まで言うな、そ

れだけわかれば十分だ。

HAURCHEFANT: I see. So,

you've come about the

expansion of Mor Dhona. You

need not say the rest — I am

already well aware of the

situation.

Haurchefant: The incident

with the new frontier hands?

No, no, you need not

elaborate─I have been

following their progress with

no small amount of interest.

オルシュファン: ふふ･･････

開拓団･･････！実に肉躍るた

くましい響きではないかしか

もお前が参加しているとあら

ば、なおのこと･･････イイ！

HAURCHEFANT: Fufu…

the expansion of Mor

Dhona… truly, my blood

dances to that robust sound!

And if you are participating in

it, there might even be…

splendid!

オルシュファン: モードゥナ

に一大拠点が築かれれば、か

の地の帝国軍も、クルザスへ

介入しづらくなるだろう。加

えて、お前には個人的な恩も

ある･･････

HAURCHEFANT: An

adventurer’s guild in Mor

Dhona will make it difficult

for Imperial forces to invade

Coerthan soil. Moreover, as I

have a personal obligation to

help you…

Haurchefant: Brave men and

women all… They do our

nation a great service. The

existence of a fortified

outpost in Mor Dhona will do

much to dissuade the Empire

from trespassing on Coerthan

soil.

Of course, as with any discussion, it is worth noting that the playerbase was not unified in

that opinion, with some preferring the less overt version of dialogue the English team went with,

as it made the character both less creepy and less overtly comedic, particularly in light of the

dramatic turn the character makes in the recent expansion. As one user on a forum put it, "I

prefer NA Haurchefant TBH. He still totally wanted me to be his pony but he had a better sense

of boundaries," (flidget, 2015).

Players went on official forums and other online communities to support this argument.

They often created literal fan translations of Japanese, French, and German into English. These

fan translations showed that while French and German scripts tend to hew close to the Japanese

script, the relative freedom of the English localization team created a divergence in how the

relationship between the player and Haurchefant was characterized. Table 3 shows an example of

the difference between Japanese, English, and German takes on localization.

Table 3:

Opening Dialogue for “ただ盟友のため” / “A Knight’s Calling” / “Um Ishgards willen” in

Japanese, English, and German

Japanese

Literal English

Localized English

German

English

translation of

German

聖騎士シャリベ

ル: まさか力を

使ってまで、圧

倒されるだなん

テ……！

SER

CHARIBERT:

Even with this

power, we were

overwhelmed…?!

Charibert: Our

power… How can

this be!?

Charibert:

Verflucht! Wo

ist meine

Kraft?!

Charibert:

Curses!

Where is my

power?!

ゼフィラン : 退

け、もう十分

だ！

ZEPHIRIN: That’s

enough! Fall back!

Zephirin: Fall

back!

Zephirin:

Zurück! Das

reicht!

Zephirin:

Back! That’s

enough!

アイメリク: 父

上……！

AYMERIC:

Father…!

Aymeric: Father,

please!

Aymeric: Vater!

Bitte!

Aymeric:

Father!

Please!

オルシュファン

[プレーヤー

に」アイメリク

卿は、地下監房

に囚われておら

れた。見

てのとおり、救

出は成功した

ぞ！

HAURCHEFANT:

[to the player] Ser

Aymeric was held

captive in the

lowest level. As

you can see, our

rescue attempt was

successful!

Haurchefant: [to

the player] We

were not too late,

my friend!

Haurchefant:

(zum Spieler)

Wir haben dien

Großmeister in

einer Zelle

gefunden!

Haurchefant:

[to the player]

We found the

Grand Master

in a cell!

アイメリク : 何

故なのです、父

上ッ！

AYMERIC: Why

must you do this,

Father?!

Aymeric: Why

must you do this,

Father!?

Aymeric:

Wieso, vater?

Wieso tust du

das?

Aymeric:

Why, Father?

Why are you

doing this?

アイメリク : 宿

敵であったニー

ズヘッグが討た

れた今こそ、嘘

で塗り固められ

た歴史を正し、

竜との対話を試

み、イシュガル

ドは新たな未来

へ進むべきとき

なのです！

AYMERIC:

Ishgard's enemies

are fallen, and

Nidhogg is

defeated! We

should forge a new

future for Ishgard,

one rooted in

dialogue with the

dragons, not one

coated and

hardened by lies!

Aymeric:

Nidhogg is fallen!

There is no need

for further

deception! Now is

the time to

renounce the lies

which led us

down this path─

to start anew!

Aymeric:

Nidhogg ist tot!

Jetzt ist der

Zeitpunkt, die

eschichte

richtgzustellen

und das

Gespräch mit

den Drachen zu

suchen! Wir

müssen eine

neue Ära des

Friedens

einläuten!

Aymeric:Nidh

ogg is dead!

Now is the

time to put

history right

and to seek a

conversation

with the

dragons! We

must herald

the start of a

new era of

peace!

Regarding the German localization, for example, one user noted, "The German team was

not shy about the blatant Catholicism references like the English team was. The Archbishop is

called the Pope. The Vault is called the Archbasilica, which usually refers to the official seat of

the Pope in real life." (whenarrowssing, 2015).

The controversy surrounding this apparent discrepancy in characterization became a

matter for the developer to communicate with players about in late 2015. In a special live letter

held at the G-STAR 2015 conference in Busan, South Korea, to promote the recently released

Korean version of FFXIV (FF14Sokuhō; Mainai, 2015; Ishii, 2015), Yoshida and the

development team were asked about the differences between the Japanese and Korean version of

Haurchefant. Yoshida responded that this was because the Korean team used the English

localization as their base script rather than the Japanese. This change in base scripts is what has

led to the discrepancy. Similar to other moments of communication and mortification, Yoshida

took the time to apologize for the confusion and to explain how this was being addressed within

the localization teams. Yoshida's apology was followed up on the English-speaking side of the

playerbase by a forum post by one of the English localization team members, John Crow (2015),

who explained:

In the Famitsu interview, [Producer Naoki Yoshida] further clarifies that these changes

were made due to LOC team concerns that Haurchefant's behavior might be interpreted

as problematic.

However, these changes to Haurchefant's characterization were made without consulting

the relevant parties. As a result, the JP and EN/FR/DE playerbases came to perceive

Haurchefant differently, culminating with these significantly different cutscenes in patch

2.3

Some fans protested when videos illustrating the differences between the JP and the

EN/FR/DE cutscenes were posted online. After internal discussion, it was decided that

efforts would be made by the EN, FR, and DE LOC teams to bring Haurchefant's

characterization gradually closer to that of the JP Haurchefant throughout future updates.

Moreover, the development team enacted a new policy that all cutscenes would be

fundamentally the same so that users across all regions would have more similar

experiences.

It is worth noting here that Crow follows a similar address to that of Yoshida and other

members of the development team in taking responsibility for what was perceived as a breach of

player trust and outlining how steps will be taken to fix these errors, as well as show a desire to

be reintegrated as equal embers of the contact zone by showing that they understand their role as

developers.

Over the months since, we have taken many measures to ensure that similar problems do

not arise in the future, and I am proud to say that the LOC team works more closely with

the scenario and cutscene teams than ever before... Quite frankly, I am glad to see so

many fans willing to voice their opinions, because it shows how invested you are in our

story─that you care as much as we do. However, I do hope that everyone understands

that these decisions are not made lightly─that we carefully consider the consequences of

our actions.

This case study illustrates some of the issues and concerns players have towards localization in

FFXIV. Language plays a significant role in creating a shared understanding of the larger contact

zone. Players have a deep investment in the lore of virtual worlds, both in the story's content and

how the story is told. Lore thus plays a prominent role in how players become invested in the

contact zone, and issues of language and localization can become sticking points for the

communication between players and the developer as discrepancies in localization cause

confusion between players who opt for different versions. Players will also look to see

differences between different localizations, especially if they notice significant discrepancies

between versions. As both interlocutor between players and as holders of power over the virtual

world, the developer must decide how to address these issues both with players and internally as

an organization. Players may also take steps to communicate and localize in ways the developers

cannot through platforms outside of the game itself, such as forums, subreddits, or discord

servers.

Conclusion

The original conception of the contact zone was founded on a context of colonization

that, for good or ill, necessitates several systems to translate and communicate across its

members in various languages. The messy, material exchange of cultures results from systems of

power, trade, language, and social connections and how people within these contact zones

interact with them. Virtual contact zones, such as the one created for players of Final Fantasy

XIV, are spaces where players make sense of the world through similarly fluid emergent

behavior, given the affordances of the systems. One such affordance, localization acts as the

main mechanism through which the linguistic elements of the virtual world, such as messages by

the developer, client languages and user interfaces, and most importantly, lore and storytelling,

are communicated to players. In this way, localization is a key process for instantiating the

virtual contact zone, creating a shared understanding among players. That said, when decisions

made by the developer concerning localization have not always been passively accepted, similar

to the patterns of communication by the developer in other contexts, there has been a willingness

to make changes and remain in open communication with the playerbase.

Future research in the virtual worlds can benefit from looking at how localization creates

a shared sense of place within the virtual contact zone. In particular, looking deeply at the

interactions between payers from different languages in terms of direct communication, hearsay

and secondhand ideas of what players from certain countries or regions are like, and even

gameplay styles would help to add further nuance to how online games function as virtual

contact zones. What kinds of contestation exist between players? What kinds of commonalities

do lore and narrative create? How do these begin to shape power dynamics between the

playerbase and developers? These questions are pertinent for further understanding online games

and virtual world development.

References

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/cny2lxw/

anwyll. (9 Apr. 2018). PAX East 2018 Interview with Natsuko Ishikawa and John Crow.

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ishikawa-and-john-crow/

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