THE CHALLENGES OF IGAMING LOCALIZATION IN ARMENIAN

Translating apps, software and various games for the Armenian speaking market is a challenging task as the translated Armenian text is about 30% longer than the English text and it takes a lot of effort for the localizer to seek every possible solution for making it short and understandable for everyone.

One of the biggest challenges that game localization has, is that the Armenian online gaming industry lacks relevant dictionary and there are many words or phrases borrowed from Russian or even simply transliterated from English to make its user catch the sense as easily and quickly as possible. For example, the word “slot” which has to be transliterated as the Armenian language has no relevant equivalent for it. The words “poker”, “blackjack”, “jackpot” and “baccarat” also need to be transliterated.  The Armenian language is a separate branch of Indo-European language family and it is not similar to any Roman-German languages and the translation of any not frequently used word will make it difficult to grasp the meaning from first sight if the user is not familiar with it already, so transliterated words end up being a solution in this case.

Another challenge, and not less important is when some projects require character limitation. In this case, it becomes hard to maintain the main sense and character limitation, example; for the sentence “For more details please visit…” we have the following not short translation in Armenian “Լրացուցիչ տեղեկությունների համար խնդրում ենք այցելել…” or the word “stand” is translated into “կանգ առնել” (in cases when it requires only one word, but the accepted glossary has the translation with 2 words) or “total bet” is translated as “ընդհանուր խաղադրույք” and we can notice that preserving character limitation is difficult as the synonyms of these words are again long, at least not shorter than these ones.

Another challenge is that translating some words into Armenian is not always best option because Armenian people are used to accepting the Russian version of  some words; like the phrase “diamond card” is interpreted as “ագուռ խաղաթուղթ” while the Armenian word “ագուռ” is rarely used, and the user should check it with the help of a dictionary to perceive what it means. While leaving it in English or using the Russian options are not correct as well. Though we have the Russian borrowing of the word “Ace” – “տուզ” which is a term accepted by most of Armenian dictionaries.

iGaming localization is very essential as it captures new audiences; it allows users to feel at ease with their local conventions and region-specific terms and engages lots of profit for its developers. Considering all these challenges and difficulties it is really essential for the localizer to use as user friendly and accurate terminology as possible and reach the user’s engagement.
iGaming localization has certain advantages. One of those is that the translators of online games enjoy a level of liberty to any other medium, as interactive software is strongly oriented on re-creating a similar game experience for all players in the target language. Thus the game localizer is given creative license to include new cultural references, jokes or any other element they find necessary to preserve the game experience and to produce a fresh and catchy translation.  At All-in Global you will achieve this level of results by hiring experienced Armenian translators that are familiar with iGaming lingo.