The video game industry is a global phenomenon that transcends borders and captivates players from diverse cultures. If gaming brands want to capitalize on global opportunities, they should strive to have efficient language operations in place in order to effectively engage gamers from different cultural backgrounds and ultimately create a global presence.
While the gaming industry itself is booming, customer support remains a challenge, however. Only 53% of gaming studios offer readily available email support. Investing in customer service and marketing efforts is crucial for player loyalty, as a single instance of poor support can lead a player to switch brands, and providing quality support in players’ languages can drive spending and increase brand loyalty. Hiring agents with gaming experience and using automation, like machine translation, can overcome language barriers and streamline operations.
Improving gamer engagement through translation
Creating an effective translation program is crucial to engaging a global gaming audience but first, companies should strive to understand the market, their audience, and their needs. Discover the techniques needed to use the power of cultural translation and unlock new opportunities to elevate your gaming business.
1. Know your players inside and out
To effectively cater to gamers across different cultures and demographics, you need to understand their unique preferences, values, and gaming habits. Dive deep into their culture, learn about their jargon, and familiarize yourself with their communication norms. Player expectations are rising and you need to speak the language of your audience to improve the qualitative experience, especially when it comes to customer support.
2. Cultivate a diverse community
Promote an inclusive and welcoming environment within your gaming community. Encourage players from different cultures to connect, interact, and engage with one another. Foster a sense of belonging by celebrating diversity and actively addressing any forms of discrimination.
3. Embrace player feedback
Never underestimate the power of player feedback. Actively seek out and listen to your players’ opinions, suggestions, and critiques. Regularly conduct surveys, host focus groups, and monitor online discussions to gather valuable insights about your translation and customer support efforts. Use this feedback to identify areas where your methodologies can be improved.
You can use feedback to make improvements such as:
- Fine-tuning language choices
- Including game-based learning analytics
- Refining cultural references
- Addressing localization bugs
- Incorporating virtual reality (VR) modes
By using player feedback to inform your game environment, you can create a game experience that truly resonates with your audience.
4. Foster inclusive game design
When designing digital games, keep inclusivity at the forefront of your mind. Consider the diverse cultures of your player base and strive to incorporate elements that appeal to different audiences. From character designs and storylines to visual aesthetics and gameplay mechanics, ensure that your games reflect a broad range of cultural influences.
By embracing inclusive game design, you create immersive experiences that engage players on a deeper level and foster a stronger connection between your gaming business and its global audience.
Level up your gaming engagement with Unbabel
Achieving player engagement across cultures in the gaming industry requires effective translation strategies, especially when it comes to customer support. By using tactics like understanding your audience, fostering diverse communities, gathering player feedback, and creating inclusive designs, you can connect with players from different cultural backgrounds and increase your global presence.
In fact, with Unbabel’s help, Wargaming achieved impressive results with multilingual customer support, increasing paid player conversion by 14% and maintaining an 82% satisfaction score. By implementing multilingual AI, gaming companies can improve player satisfaction and provide a personalized experience for customer support.
Implementing these actionable strategies will help you leverage cultural translation to elevate your gaming business, increase player satisfaction, and expand your reach in the ever-growing global gaming market.
Unbabel offers a powerful tool for gaming brands to overcome language barriers, consistently deliver localized content, and enhance customer satisfaction. By embracing Unbabel’s translation services, you can expand your reach, connect with larger audiences, and create immersive gaming experiences across cultures.
Ready to level up? See a demo of Unbabel’s services.
