Imagined Commodities: Video Game Localization and Mythologies of Cultural Difference

Abstract

Broadly interested in the agents and institutions that structure social imaginations and subjectivities by mediating which images are available to what audiences to imagine through, this paper specifically considers the power at play when intermediaries—in this case, video game localizers—filter the images and narratives that are sold and marketed to global consumers, and the way these mediating processes in turn are both produced by, and productive of, (cultural) imaginings. This paper also discusses the way that localization practices—while often framed by a discourse that positions cultural differences as both incommensurable and easily and discretely bounded by the borders of nation-states—typically involve a nuanced negotiation of contradictions, dilemmas and interests.