Recent State of Video Games and the Future in Turkish Law System

Gaming industry is one of the so many fields that has been affected by technology, primarily focusing on entertainment purposes. Video games have become capable of creating a worldwide impact and reaching the masses. Since commercial purposes are also involved, companies have started to look favourably on the business of opening to the world. Most of the products can easily influence popular culture and sometimes even technological developments.

Translation vs. Localization

To attract the audience, the game needs to be adapted to the market. So, it is necessary to create a market and maintain its suitability for the target audience to open to the world. The simplest and most basic way to do this is through language translation but in some cases, translation alone may not be sufficient due to language barriers. Then it is time to alter the translation, to localize. This blooms a question in our minds, what is the difference between translation and localization? Sorrentino explains these terms as; translation renders a message from one language into another. Localization adapts a translated message to the local context of the recipient (Sorrentino, 2023). For example, it is the consistent translation of words such as phrases and idioms according to their equivalents in the other language. Getting feedback from the target community by early access is a major step for game localization (Sorrentino, 2023).

An Example for Localization

One of the best (and my personal favourite) Turkish localization examples is Baldur’s Gate 3 made by a localization company named AiBell. Coşkun gave us a chance to observe the process by interviewing the founder of AiBell, Aybars Sapan (Coşkun, 2023) . Sapan explains the progress briefly as communicating with game’s company Larian Studios, gathering the team, translating in early access phase and then official translation. Some terms from the games have been a dilemma for the team in the translation phase, most significant ones were “warlock”, “bugbear” and the double trouble; “fighter, warrior” (Coşkun, 2023).

Transcreation

It is necessary for the company to pay attention to legal issues when opening to a new country. Companies must place their products in a position fitting to the legal system to gain protection. So, after the localization phase, a new term is introduced; transcreation. Harris expresses transcreation as “a re-engineering of your brand promise to make it engage with a foreign market on an emotional level” (Harris, 2022). This process may contain changing of date formats, names, measurements or even lengths and contents of some texts. Transcreation does not necessarily mean putting a legal barrier into action, it expresses an eligibility for the law system. After this point, it is crucial to define the state of video games in the target country’s legal system. As for the Turkish system, it is useful to investigate Güney Yılmaz's article. The first part of the article contains a general description of video games and an explanation of the concept of “work” according to Code on Intellectual and Artistic Works (FSEK short for “Fikir ve Sanat Eserleri Kanunu”). Then in the second part, it is examined whether video games are works according to FSEK (Yılmaz, 2020).

Examination of Turkish Law

The definition of work is comprehensive and covers all works that arise in return for labour and effort. A creator’s presence is the most essential element of the work. Definition of a work according to the law: “Article 1/B/a: Work: Any intellectual or artistic product bearing the characteristic of its author, which is deemed a scientific and literary or musical work or work of fine arts or cinematographic work.” (WIPO, 2016)

Many professionals have agreed on that the elements of being considered as a work by the law are analysed under two main headings as objective and subjective elements. Yılmaz adopted this method in their study and explained these elements as follows;

The objective element includes the fact that an abstract idea becomes perceivable and that the idea falls within one of the types of work determined and limited by law. Perceivability is the most important term for this element. In other words, it is the transformation of the intellectual effort into a commodity. At the same time some professors have agreed that the work can be protected by the law even if it has not yet become fully perceivable (Yılmaz, 2020). Still, it is the most suitable to interpret the condition of being perceivable according to the present case.

The subjective element expresses the characteristic of the author. The reason it is defined as a subjective element is that it depends on the exclusivity of the intellectual effort and creativity of the author. The subjective element contains of being a product of intellectual effort and presence of the characteristic of the author. The intellectual property arises from human's ability to think and is the fruit of the one’s effort. Since it is unique to human beings, things that occur because of natural events are not considered as intellectual property (Yılmaz, 2020).

For the characteristic of the author, it is stated that for a product to be considered a work, it must bear the exclusivity of its author. This concept can be defined as the individual effect, the signature left by the person on the work. The term holds a controversy, so professionals has agreed to analyse the aspects according to the present case. Yılmaz (2020, as cited in the Court of Cassation, 2017) also references a resolution of the Court of Cassation. This resolution concludes that the originality limit should be moderate and interpreted broadly, and that the utilization of previously known works is permitted while plagiarism and imitation being restricted.

For the videogames, it is hard to define the characteristic because the borders of different elements are intertwined. Companies work on a project with numerous people for various types of contents, sometimes even the exact creator of a work remains unknown. In some cases, the elements cannot get completely separated from each other that it is almost impossible to name the creator. Yılmaz, on the other hand, thinks that a work that utilises from previous work and bears the author’s exclusivity in a minimum extent is eligible to have the characteristic (Yılmaz, 2020).

Classification of Video Games According to the Law

Four main types of works are defined by FSEK as literary and scientific works, musical works, works of fine arts and cinematographic works. This is an extremely limited classification for a modern law system, for sure. Yılmaz (2020, as cited in the Court of Cassation, 2018) references another resolution of the Court of Cassation. This resolution concludes that video games will be subject to the protection for computer programs since they are software-based products. Although video games are defined as computer programs by the Court of Cassation, video games usually contain all four types of works. According to some opinions, it is possible to classify video games according to the dominant type of the contents. But shrinking such a wide product and reducing it to only one element would cause the loss of the entire product. The term “multimedia product” is adopted by professionals to bring a solution for this issue.

Conclusion

Yılmaz finally reaches the following conclusion: a new regulation is necessary to break away from traditional perspectives. Multimedia products, which are widely embraced by the doctrine, should be included as a new category of work. This new category can be easily defined by getting help from professionals’ existing studies. My personal commentary is mostly compatible with Yılmaz, such traditional approach on a tech-impacted matter is old fashioned now. It is both easier and eligible to create intellectual property with technological tools and getting help from virtual means is favourable to improve one’s skills. However, it is crucial to keep in mind that commanding a computer to do “your” art should not be encouraged.

References

Coşkun, S. (2023, August 4). Baldur’s Gate 3’ün Türkçe Yerelleştirme Süreci ve En Çok Merak Edilen Sorular. FRPNET. https://frpnet.net/makaleler/baldurs-gate-3un-turkce-yerellestirme-sureci-ve-en-cok-merak-edilen-sorular

Harris, S. (2022, March 9). Translation vs. Localization vs. Transcreation: Is there a Difference? Argos Multilingual. https://www.argosmultilingual.com/blog/translation-localization-difference

Sorrentino, F. (2023, March 10). Localization vs Translation: The Difference Explained. Phrase. https://phrase.com/blog/posts/localization-isnt-just-about-translation/

WIPO. (2016). Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works, Türkiye, WIPO Lex. WIPO. https://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/legislation/details/17020#_Toc170292710

Yılmaz, G. (2020). FSEK Bakımından Video Oyunlarının Eser Niteliği. (Master dissertation), Yaşar University. https://tez.yok.gov.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi/TezGoster?key=4J_FzTwlrMCH4qBROpXPH9pmS-YsCnFQtCRa8pyW88lL8d2WDOVqlOnK-QopVOUv