What a typical browser search history looks like for a localization specialist?

Ever wondered what a typical browser search history looks like for a localization specialist?

You know what they say—you don’t have to be doing anything illegal for security services to come knocking on your door. Sometimes all it takes is being a writer… or, as in our case, a videogame translator ??

We asked our linguists for the funniest and craziest Google searches they’ve ever done. And here’s what they shared:

“Looking up words in Sindarin, Tolkien‘s Elf-Tongue.”

“Urban Dictionary definitions for Cul de Sac (a dead end / a dating scenario), Cum Laude (an academic distinction / a loud orgasm), Dipthong (a combination of two vowels in a syllable / an insult), Kumquat (a fruit / a loser), and Shuttlecock (a projectile in badminton / a cock on the move).”

“Searches for all kinds of explosives: how to make homemade explosives, types of grenades, C4… How to kill people creatively... from the Medieval Times to the current armed conflicts. And all the sexual stuff in the world. ??”

“When I translated Mafia III, I was really anxious that I'll get banned from Google for researching racist language.”

“I actually got temporarily blocked just for googling too much.”

“Story of our lives xD Years ago I had to appeal to Google to unblock my IP.”

“When I'm translating something dark in the morning and something for kids in the evening and I also don't want the police knocking on my door: "kill," "murder synonyms," "ways to kill," "types of poison," "poison and venom difference," "blunt weapons examples," "children's songs," "lullaby," "rhymes with sleep," "rhymezone com," "I'm a translator".

“What it would actually take to dissolve an entire human body into easily processable nutrients.”

“A few years ago, I translated a novel about a girl radicalized by a notorious terrorist group, and my searches probably raised a few eyebrows in some intelligence agencies.”

“While working on a popular Nazi hunt game series our IP addresses probably raised quite a lot of suspicion among the ranks of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the German domestic intelligence services ??? Particularly the first installment and the DLCs, which we had to "de-nazify" to a certain extent so it could be legally published in Germany.

Consequently, we were constantly looking up secret Nazi codes of any kind to prevent them from showing up in the German version for Germany expecting to hear loud knocking at our door by some special squad ready to storm our house anytime. Quite a weird experience ??

The laws have changed in the meantime, so today you are allowed to say things in games you weren't before similar to the movies—as long as you do not instigate or incite people with it or glorify anything.”

“Due to a specific project, we were searching an insane amount of animal names, different kinds of fish and birds.”

Judge: "Your search history includes 'poisons for quick elimination,' 'silent assassination techniques,' and 'how to dispose of a body.' How do you explain this?"

Suspect: "Your Honor, I assure you, it's not what it looks like. I'm a translator of a crime thriller series!"

Did you recognize any of the games, mentioned in this post? Did you have to Google something hilarious or suspicious? Tell us in the comments! Like and share this post, and may the odds be ever in your favor ??

#gamelocalization #gamedev #riotloc