When it comes to game industry players, you can think of other game makers, who are professional e-sports players, right? In the inherent impression, the latter should be very happy, after all, "work is to play games", but in fact, stress, fatigue, injury, anxiety is the norm of the latter. Among the players in the game industry, there is such a profession that may be the best in obtaining "happiness".
Why? A survey of the UK game industry, co-authored by the University of Sheffield, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Ukie Association of Interactive Entertainment ,ukie) shows that game localization practitioners are the most educated and the least depressed. According to Ukie CEO Jo Twist OBE, the findings are "the broadest and most authoritative analysis of the diversity of the UK's gaming industry workforce".
Game localization practitioners scored the highest in terms of gender ratio, national or ethnic diversity, and proportion of master's degrees. And their happiness index is also the highest.
As Mark Taylor, senior lecturer at the Sheffield Institute of Practice and author of the 60-page census report, writes, "We have a deep understanding of the diversity of employees in other industries, particularly in other electronics industries, because the National Office for National Statistics collects a large amount of nationally representative data. This is not the case with the game industry, "it is a relatively young and fast-growing industry."
The study collected data from 3208 respondents working in the UK's gaming industry. The sector accounts for one-fifth of the UK's total workforce. The survey used "an open and targeted recruitment approach ... To ensure that the research object is a representative employee in the game industry. ”
Gender balance and diversity
While the proportion of women in the UK game industry as a whole is "significantly lower than the national average for industry sex ratios", women working in the game localization sector seem to be changing this phenomenon. The results of the localization industry survey show that the sex ratio in the industry is the most balanced, with 46% of women and 54% of men.
Moreover, localization is expected to become the most diverse industry for the workforce. The survey of ethnic groups in the study confirms this. This part of the survey broadly divides the population into the BAME group (i.e. black, Asian or minority), british national whites, and foreign whites. As the report notes, "In the 'foreign white community,' the majority work in the localization industry as predicted, while a relatively small number work in business operations, writing, and recording."
It is also not surprising that the largest proportion of the expat population in the localization sector, of which only 18% of the practitioners are British.
This is good news for the gaming industry because, as Ukie's CEO Twist says, UK game companies are aware that "putting equality, inclusion and diversity at the heart of their corporate culture is key to their success." ”
High education! High happiness!
In the survey of the proportion of master's degrees for industry employees, the localization industry was the highest, at 47%. However, it is important to note that most employees who work in core game production positions (e.g., quality assurance, programming, art direction) have specific game qualifications.
Finally, and perhaps the most exciting part of the survey, localization practitioners are mentally healthier than other British nationals.
The survey report shows that while it is "difficult to estimate the overall rate of this condition well,......, the anxiety and depression rates among gaming practitioners are higher than those of the average person. Among gaming practitioners, the proportion of people with post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder is similar to that of the general population.
The situation is different in the localization industry. The incidence of anxiety and depression was lowest, at 14 percent. In contrast, it had the highest incidence among the creative population: an anxiety rate of 44 percent and a depression rate of 29 percent. Although both content creation and localization translation account for 2% of the gaming industry workforce.
Finally, game localization is much more difficult than other translation directions, constantly updating game versions, endless circles of hot stems, not to mention the game's complex unique terminology vocabulary, but most of the game localization practitioners also love games, right? Then in the face of love, these can be overcome.