The Localization of Online Games: Taking the “League of Legends” as an Example

Abstract

This paper reveals the significance of localizing online games by exploring the classification, current status and future development of the “League of Legends” (LOL), which is one of the most heated and commercially successful online games all over the world. LOL, which is a typical representative of the current online games, is a hybrid of website and system. Today, with its global popularity, commercial benefits and booming status in electronic sports, it has already witnessed and experienced localization and globalization. Currently, to serve the players from different countries, there are more than 30 game servers in 9 different regions. Each server has already been localized to adapt to the local language and culture. In this paper, the Chinese server is selected as an example to be compared with the American server (the original server), thus analyzing LOL’s localization from the perspective of characters’ names and representative lines. Moreover, this paper also highlights the possible trends for further localization and globalization of the LOL and other online games, which include improvements of game servers and the chat window. In all, the industry of online games is witnessing the process of localization and globalization. Both linguistically and technically, this industry should be and can be further revised and improved for better user experiences and business purpose.