THE CHALLENGES OF IGAMING LOCALIZATION IN POLISH

It’s not a secret that Polish is one of the most complicated languages around. To tell the truth, it’s actually so complex that most native speakers say they can’t use it correctly and should carry a couple of dictionaries around with us at all times. Grammar rules are strict and complex, nouns have 14 different declension forms, words in a sentence affect each other, have both male and female (or neutral forms) and don’t get us started on the punctuation. You actually need to get familiar with the grammar logic and understand how each individual sentence is constructed to be able to put that little, tricky comma in a correct spot.

On the other hand, this is nothing unusual for the Polish linguists and translators at All-in Global who are experts trained to handle that for our clients.

Localization is all about adapting language based on a medium and a field, using a proper style, including a way to address readers, always keeping correct and consistent terminology and all of that with absolute attention to the detail. The first challenge is to recognize what you’re working with. Where an everyday translator sees an online slot, a simple game with symbols and rotating reels, a Polish localization translator working at All-in Global sees three different types of content, each with specific rules to follow:

• Marketing copy – the soul of a slot – everything that makes game fresh, new and fun. This is the part where you want to be non-literal, have some linguistic fun and translate game’s feeling instead of words. At this point you’ll find lots of tricky linguistic challenges, for example new, content-specific wordplays that can’t be easily translated, lets say ‘Wild-a-licious’, and also cultural references that Polish players may not be familiar with.
• User Interface – the body of a slot – like with any other software, Polish has very strict software localization rules with specific naming conventions for options, buttons, menu items etc. which need to be followed in this area.
• Info pages/paytables – sometimes written in a fresh tone, but in the end these are the instruction manuals and as such they should be easy to understand, more formal and informative. This is where we adapt our style to make sure the content is quick to read and simple to understand so players can start gaming session as soon as possible.

And now when we know what we are translating and how to adapt styles and follow specific localization rules, comes the biggest challenge of iGaming localization in Poland: The terminology – meaning how do we make sure that players actually understand what specific words mean.

The grow of modern technologies in many fields was faster than how official language could adapt. So these days, for example, you’re going to hear IT specialists placing words like ‘defaultowy‘, ‘na inpucie‘ (on the input), ‘w firewallu’ in the middle of a sentence like natural Polish words. On the other hand, you’ll also find Polish translators being paid very nice rates for transcreation in the fashion industry, and describing a ‘trendy brand’ or ‘fresh look’ and using these with a Polish declension just because it sounds exotic and modern to Polish buyers. Gamblers often find it natural or more exclusive to use English terms with Polish declension as well. For example, some clients may have a preference to use the term ‘spiny’, instead of Polish term ‘obroty‘, ‘sloty‘ instead of ‘automaty‘ or even keep special features like Respins, Free Spins, Cashback in English, because they know that their players are used to seeing them in English. Helping our clients in creating a brand language which won’t harm the company by being too colloquial or unclear is the most important and the biggest challenge for every Polish linguist in All-in Global team. Other things, like letting our clients know that Polish customers dislike translated game names, helping to include all players by not using male-only forms in sentences or finding workarounds to place numeric variables in a way that they won’t lead to grammar errors are just usual challenges of a localization process.