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[@MUWANdo]

I saw this linked as part of another discussion and figured it was worth its own thread; it's a three-part series by a former game localiser that provides some perspective on why people in Pranger's position might feel the need to publicly discuss their work, why his dismissal was so swift and how disinformation spread by games press and fans affects both sides.

The entire thing is worth reading, but here are a few excepts:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/chris-pranger-appeared-podcast-nintendo-fired-him-both-agness-kaku

The video game sector is the winningest of the entertainment industries, growing exponentially in profits and people. Yet, I don’t think I’ve met any halfway-experienced game loc professional who wasn’t anxious about long-term career prospects. They’re not worried that the profession will disappear; they're worried that they have, into the product and into the ether. This sense of erasure, or at least obscuration, is justified. Unlike most other aspects of game development, hardly anyone understands what localizers do. Game loc is a bit like postmodernism; most people who bring it up don’t actually know what it means. It’s often described as “game translation,” a label which barely applies to those who do the writing and entirely fails to cover loc editors (who don’t necessarily speak more than one language) or loc professionals who are in other tracks, such as programming, vendor relations, project management, and QA. What all these roles do share is a lack of guaranteed place in the credits. This isn’t TV or the movies, where unions make sure everyone on the crew gets listed along with their job title. Of the 11 AAA titles I was the sole localizer on, I received credit on two (and those not as the localization writer). Of the over 40 others I worked on, I'm credited on just one. This is the norm; in fact, I count myself lucky that these two clients were generous enough to credit me. But I can’t pretend that the lack wasn’t a serious professional disadvantage when I branched out to other industries in 2000

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/chri...ired-him-both-agness-kaku-6067647428721401856

As things currently stand, video game journalism is a failed state comprising pay-to-play coverage, gossip mills, news regurgitators, passion project sites, and actual game criticism. Unlike other parts of the entertainment press, it can be next to impossible to tell some of these apart. Further muddying the waters is the fact that these content sites sometimes serve as casting couches for game companies. Chris Pranger himself came to NoA not from games or language-related background, but from several years as a casual contributor to game podcasts and sites. It’s little wonder he forgot that fan journalists are not his friends; theirs was the community he came from, and he felt safe talking shop with them.

The headlines that resulted from Pranger’s earnest, unremarkable statements ranged from factual:

to WTF-he-never-says-that:

to regurgitation without fact-checking:

to downright inflammatory:

Very few of these clickbait manufacturers know that setting fires, then sitting back with popcorn, is an international pastime in game journalism. The fake controversy they generated stateside attracted a notorious member of Japanese hon’yaku-kei gheha blog, or blogs that compile and translate game & hardware news. Ostensibly, bloggers like Mirai Maniacs use their command of English to make American and British game news available to the Japanese audience; in reality, what little language facility they have is far exceeded by their pyromania, and anything involving Nintendo brings them running.

Mirai is routinely referenced by the apex predators of akushitsu matome blogs (“malicious digest blogs”)—Jin 115, Hachima Kiko, and Yaraon—all of them widely read by people in the game industry. Within just 9 hours, the hatchet job begun on the other side of the Pacific was complete.

These cringe-inducing Japanese quotes may well be how decisionmakers at Nintendo Corporate first learned of Pranger’s appearance on Part-Time Gamers. Did Pranger or his supervisor make a full report to Corporate on how he had been misquoted, then mistranslated? I don’t know. I suspect there was little time to mount a defense anyway; Pranger was fired just 8 days after the first US headlines. Having done forensic translation analyses for clients in public and private sectors, I know that proving mistranslation is hard. Proving intent, that's even harder.

Malice is like that; you know it when you see it, but always in peripheral vision.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/chri...ired-him-both-agness-kaku-6068436383205175296

“I can’t decide,” the stranger muses on Twitter, “if I like Agness Kaku or if she’s a big dumb bitch.” I click the star and move on. Twelve years age when I first put my portfolio online, I was ordered to take it down by a game studio whose titles I’d helped turn into international hits. I refused, citing the lack of an NDA between myself and the vendor, and spent the next month in a state of anxiety. That was the first time I paid for my visibility, but it wouldn’t be the last; the devil at the crossroads collects regularly, and demands its payment in blood and gold.

“Agness Kaku is a c*nt,” “But…I want to impregnate her,” goes a forum thread someone flags me on. “Everyone knows you are an evil sociopath k*nt…a cancer,” reads the first line of an email that lands in my inbox; my filter didn’t catch it because of the Krispy Kreme spelling. A couple years back, one of the aforementioned Japanese game sites ran a piece titled “About the MGS Series Screenplays Being Slammed Sh*tless by Metal Gear Solid 2’s Overseas Translator”; inexplicably, the quotes falsely attributed to me were in male Japanese glazed thick with scorn, a xenophobe’s dream of an arrogant foreigner.

For all their wealth and power, game companies are strangely afraid.
“The things in your interview, it was great to see someone say it,” an in-house localizer says to me. “Because I sure can’t.” The true opposite of erasure is authority, the recognized right to speak on an area of expertise. That sort of recognition affords protection—from egregious mischaracterization, precarious job security, and the myriad dangers of having a job that is ill-understood but strangely coveted. I finally withdrew from game localization altogether last year after a fan journalist I briefly met harassed me so intently that it played havoc with my email and bank accounts, frightened away clients and colleagues, and nearly put me in the hospital when I developed viral pneumonia from the strain.

That is, perhaps, the last bit of obvious truth I have to share: For all their wealth and power, game companies are strangely afraid. The game press frets that it has too little power, the consumers seethe that they have none, but too often, the tail wags the dog. When fake controversies of this kind erupt around a games professional, game companies often react with the panicked alacrity of a political candidate. Instead of finding a way to stand by the worker, salvage the situation, and learn from the incident, the companies distance themselves.

In the wake of Chris Pranger's firing, the chatter in the echo chamber (and perhaps conference rooms) quickly coalesced into a chorus: “It’s common sense not to talk about x / Just common sense not to talk about y / Everyone knows, it's common sense." But common sense first requires common ground. And in the game industry, the distance between companies and workers just seems to keep growing. 

 

[lazygecko]

This is all news to me. The thread is kind of overwhelming since it feels like it's 3 fully featured topics in one: One about the thankless job of game localization, one about the consequences of sensationalist media, and one about Nintendo not standing up for their employees. I'm not really sure which one is the focus of discussion here.

 

[Beartruck]

Lots of good stuff in there, but his criticism about people saying "It's common sense to not talk about your job online" is feeble at best. I work at a paint store, and I would be VERY reticent to talk about my job online. Doing that when you work in the game industry, a very online focused industry, seems like it would be guaranteed to start trouble. People forget, the internet is a public forum, and if you get on there and start talking about your job, like it or not you represent your company.

 

[DICKS AHOY]

I'm not sure I entirely get what the Agnes Kaku stuff was about (he starred a tweet making fun of her and that led to people assuming a forum full of people threatening her was him?), but man that series of screencaps continuing to distort what Pranger said snowball pretty dramatically.

I can understand why he got canned (even with my old shitty part-time job we were told not to post publicly about our work as a general precaution), but I feel in different circumstances less influenced by fans and enthusiast sites it wouldn't have escalated enough for him to be let go. Plus the few insights he gave into Brawl and Smash 4's localisation were great.

 

[BY2K]

Lots of good stuff in there, but his criticism about people saying "It's common sense to not talk about your job online" is feeble at best. I work at a paint store, and I would be VERY reticent to talk about my job online. Doing that when you work in the game industry, a very online focused industry, seems like it would be guaranteed to start trouble. People forget, the internet is a public forum, and if you get on there and start talking about your job, like it or not you represent your company.

It's not just common sense, it's a rule. I'm a QA Tester and I'm not even sure if I can even say the name of the game I'm working on right now.

Heck, you obviously can't when it's a game that's not even announced.

 

[APF]

...but he did say that localizing some games would end up losing them money, and that why they don't localize them? I'm not seeing the distortion there.

 

[Sakujou]

not just a typical problem of the press. sad to hear losing a job about wrong citation...

 

[massoluk]

Lots of good stuff in there, but his criticism about people saying "It's common sense to not talk about your job online" is feeble at best. I work at a paint store, and I would be VERY reticent to talk about my job online. Doing that when you work in the game industry, a very online focused industry, seems like it would be guaranteed to start trouble. People forget, the internet is a public forum, and if you get on there and start talking about your job, like it or not you represent your company.

With the way messages get distorted real easy online, it made sense for a very strict employee policy to me with the rabid nature of the videogame industry fans.

 

[DCS]

"Winningest" :/

 

[Ridley327]

not just a typical problem of the press. sad to hear losing a job about wrong citation...

While this was the most visible comment of the ones he made, he was hardly innocent of saying other stuff he had no business talking about, especially the comments he made about Sakurai and electing to take a very mocking tone of the audience that was upset about NOA dragging their feet on Xenoblade, particularly since he didn't even work at NOA when it was all happening. It sucks that he lost his apparent dream job, but he has no one but himself to blame.

 

[Koozek]

"Winningest" :/

?

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/winningest

 

[James Scott]

...but he did say that localizing some games would end up losing them money, and that why they don't localize them? I'm not seeing the distortion there.

The articles that made it to Japan said games like Xenoblade X would certainly lose them money by localizing them

 

[entremet]

Did he ever land on his feet?

 

[@MUWANdo]

I'm not sure I entirely get what the Agnes Kaku stuff was about (he starred a tweet making fun of her and that led to people assuming a forum full of people threatening her was him?), but man that series of screencaps continuing to distort what Pranger said snowball pretty dramatically.

Agness Kaku is the author of the article, just to be clear. She's recounting the professional pressure and public abuse she received after an interview she did about her work on MGS2 was picked up by gaming blogs, both here and in Japan.

 

[Yukinari]

This dude has been on at least 2 different podcasts correct? Youd think the 2nd time around he would know better.

Talking down to fans, speaking poorly of Sakurai and mentioning his role in games like Star Fox Zero are very poor actions. Dont agree with his stance on localization. I feel like games such as Mother 3 and Captain Rainbow would perform better in the US than Japan if released digitally.

 

[Spyder_Monkey]

This dude has been on at least 2 different podcasts correct? Youd think the 2nd time around he would know better.

Talking down to fans, speaking poorly of Sakurai and mentioning his role in games like Star Fox Zero are very poor actions. Dont agree with his stance on localization. I feel like games such as Mother 3 and Captain Rainbow would perform better in the US than Japan if released digitally.

To my knowledge he's only been on one podcast and never said any of that. I follow him on Twitter and he seems like a really cool dude. It's misinformed statements like this that got him into trouble.

 

[Am_I_Evil]

To my knowledge he's only been on one podcast and never said any of that. I follow him on Twitter and he seems like a really cool dude. It's misinformed statements like this that got him into trouble.

the article mentions 3...

 

[ShockingAlberto]

To my knowledge he's only been on one podcast and never said any of that. I follow him on Twitter and he seems like a really cool dude. It's misinformed statements like this that got him into trouble.

Nah, in the last podcast he mentioned a character he was voicing in SF0 (that had not been announced) and also talked about how Sakurai is a "control freak."

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

No.

Pranger did what he wanted to do, Nintendo did what they said they would do in the contract Pranger signed.

 

[Tom Nook Sawyer]

This is a fantastic article, and it's unfortunate that it doesn't seem to be getting much attention here (though it is oddly fitting given the article's thesis).

This dude has been on at least 2 different podcasts correct? Youd think the 2nd time around he would know better.

I don't see how that follows. If there was no negative fallout (which I assume was the case?) that would only reinforce the idea that it's okay to go on podcasts.

 

[Roo]

Nah, in the last podcast he mentioned a character he was voicing in SF0 (that had not been announced) and also talked about how Sakurai is a "control freak."

No lies detected.

 

[Chaos17]

No.

Pranger did what he wanted to do, Nintendo did what they said they would do in the contract Pranger signed.

This.
Unless your boss give you permission to speak about your job/franchise : don't speak at their place or in their name. You sign a contract about that, so you've to respect it.

 

[Masaki_]

I can't believe Agness Kaku localized MGS2 for $4.5k just holy shit

 

[TheSpoiler]

I don't see how that follows. If there was no negative fallout (which I assume was the case?) that would only reinforce the idea that it's okay to go on podcasts.

The reason it's probably not getting discussed as much is because it's pretty cut and dry - talk shit, get cut.

And we don't know if there was negative fallout or not. It could have been that this was his second offense, or that nobody at Nintendo saw the stuff in the first podcast.

 

[Chaos17]

For Agnes Kaku...

the quotes falsely attributed to me were in male Japanese glazed thick with scorn, a xenophobe’s dream of an arrogant foreigner.

I'm sorry but she just putted oil on the fire by saying this .
Best thing to do is not read forums or social media in her case...

I hope she is better now, though.

 

[Tom Nook Sawyer]

It could have been that this was his second offense, or that nobody at Nintendo saw the stuff in the first podcast

We have no reason to believe this is the case unless there's evidence to the contrary I'm not aware of.

 

[squall23]

I will never not see "Chris Pronger" when I read his name.

 

[TheSpoiler]

We have no reason to believe this is the case unless there's evidence to the contrary I'm not aware of.

Well, that's why I used the word "could". And that doesn't somehow alleviate Chris from guilt. When you get a job, you sign a contract, and violating that contract allows them to terminate you whenever they see fit. Just because they didn't (possibly) reprimand him the first time doesn't give him some sort of "go ahead" to continue talking smack about the company he works for.

 

[Tom Nook Sawyer]

Just because they didn't (possibly) reprimand him the first time doesn't give him some sort of "go ahead" to continue talking smack about the company he works for.

If he didn't think he did wrong the first time, why would he think any more of it the second?

(whether or not it actually was wrong is irrelevant to the very specific point I was addressing)

 

[Ninjimbo]

Nah, in the last podcast he mentioned a character he was voicing in SF0 (that had not been announced) and also talked about how Sakurai is a "control freak."

Yeah, I don't understand how anyone could take those statements as damaging. Sakurai is responsible for some of the best games ever made and they're ornate in their detail. It shouldn't be a surprise that Sakurai commands that level of control.

Some people took Pranger's comment and took it as an insult to Sakurai but I just thought it was a funny anecdote.

Anyhow, that was quite an illuminating read. $4k for localizing MGS2? Damn. Those headlines on the Japanese blogs? What a way to make up bullshit to spin some false narratives.

I can see why game companies don't want to open up about anything. It's way too easy to have it blow up in your face.

 

[TheSpoiler]

If he didn't think he did wrong the first time, why would he think any more of it the second?

(whether or not it actually was wrong is irrelevant to the very specific point I was addressing)

Because anyone with common sense would probably not poke the beehive again. It's a well known fact that you don't talk shit about your employer in a public space. If you somehow got away with pissing off your work, would you do it again?

It's not like talking smack is some grey middle ground thing. He admitted his passion got the better of him and he got too relaxed.

Honestly, I think Nintendo had to have said something to him. We won't know either way, but do you think a large corporation who just let a dude go on some shit like this would bypass the first time and just ignore it? It would be in neither Chris or Nintendo's best interest to reveal that first event anyway.

Yeah, I don't understand how anyone could take those statements as damaging. Sakurai is responsible for some of the best games ever made and they're ornate in their detail. It shouldn't be a surprise that Sakurai commands that level of control.

Some people took Pranger's comment and took it as an insult to Sakurai but I just thought it was a funny anecdote.

Doesn't really matter how you or others took the comment. Talking without Nintendo's go ahead and making a possibly ambiguous comment is grounds for getting axed. That goes for any job that builds a public brand.

 

[javadoze]

Great article

Spoiler

that people will probably comment about without having read it.

I was aware of the really poorly-written news stories centered around that podcast, but those overseas news outlets are something else.

 

[Tom Nook Sawyer]

Because anyone with common sense would probably not poke the beehive again. It's a well known fact that you don't talk shit about your employer in a public space. If you somehow got away with pissing off your work, would you do it again?

I think it's pretty obvious that, in Chris's mind, there was no beehive poking. Hence why he continued to go on Podcasts.

Honestly, I think Nintendo had to have said something to him. We won't know either way, but do you think a large corporation who just let a dude go on some shit like this would bypass the first time and just ignore it?

What do you base this on? The fact he continued to appear on podcasts is evidence to the contrary imo. Nintendo isn't omnipotent; odds are they weren't even aware of the original podcasts, just as most of us weren't until the last one blew up.

 

[BlastProcessing]

Yeah, I don't understand how anyone could take those statements as damaging. Sakurai is responsible for some of the best games ever made and they're ornate in their detail. It shouldn't be a surprise that Sakurai commands that level of control.

Some people took Pranger's comment and took it as an insult to Sakurai but I just thought it was a funny anecdote.

Anyhow, that was quite an illuminating read. $4k for localizing MGS2? Damn. Those headlines on the Japanese blogs? What a way to make up bullshit to spin some false narratives.

I can see why game companies don't want to open up about anything. It's way too easy to have it blow up in your face.

What really matters though is what Sakurai thought.

 

[TheSpoiler]

I think it's pretty obvious that, in Chris's mind, there was no beehive poking. Hence why he continued to go on Podcasts.



What do you base this on? The fact he continued to appear on podcasts is evidence to the contrary imo. Nintendo isn't omnipotent; odds are they weren't even aware of the original podcasts, just as most of us weren't until the last one blew up.

You might be right. Stuff could fly under the radar, and most of us didn't know about the other podcast.

That's why people need to read and question what they sign before they take a job. And with most companies, it's common company policy to need permission to represent your company and also go through training/what to and not to say.

But to answer my own damn question, Chris just got really relaxed where he worked. He loved it, so much that he began to just fly solo on those podcasts, and paid for it. Maybe, with the advent of the internet and social media on the rise, companies should take their employees through a training course or something to sidestep these issues.

 

[Calamari41]

What really matters though is what Sakurai thought.

Exactly. Sakurai is probably Nintendo's most valued partner. The last thing they need is for some peon from the American branch running his mouth about the guy and potentially pissing him off.

 

[Ninjimbo]

Doesn't really matter how you or others took the comment. Talking without Nintendo's go ahead and making a possibly ambiguous comment is grounds for getting axed. That goes for any job that builds a public brand.

I don't think there was anything ambiguous about what Pranger's said. It was pretty clear. It sounded innocuous to me of course because I like behind the scenes stories about the development process. Making games is hard and stressful and the people managing these projects have their own way of dealing with things. I don't go judging people.

I also recognize that it's just me though. I'm not going to get mad, and write a post on GAF or blog about how Nintendo doesn't want to localize anything because they want to be cheap. I realize that's a real consequence for speaking honestly.

I thought the whole thing was stupid then and after seeing the reactions from those Japanese blogs, it's even stupider now. However I don't blame Nintendo for the firing since it's probably the way they've always done things. I can't get mad at a company for trying to protect their brand in this case.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

The NDA was broken, no matter how the echo chamber manages to spin things he originally said, what he originally said was probably enough for a breach of contract. He got too comfortable and took his agency for granted, and that's where it got him.

 

[Cipherr]

There's a really seemingly intentional effort to ignore that Pranger broke CONTRACTS by speaking out about shit he agreed he wouldn't. Everyone trying to handwave what he did conveniently ignores that part.

Even if for whatever reason you don't realize that speaking out of turn like that about your employer PUBLICLY is a bad idea, you most certainly had better understand that signing a contract then breaking it is a bad idea. Pranger is trapped between the seams here. There is no way to argue what he did was reasonable at all.

 

[Vena]

These cringe-inducing Japanese quotes may well be how decisionmakers at Nintendo Corporate first learned of Pranger’s appearance on Part-Time Gamers. Did Pranger or his supervisor make a full report to Corporate on how he had been misquoted, then mistranslated? I don’t know. I suspect there was little time to mount a defense anyway; Pranger was fired just 8 days after the first US headlines. Having done forensic translation analyses for clients in public and private sectors, I know that proving mistranslation is hard. Proving intent, that's even harder.

The fact that there was an eight day delay would lead me to believe that there was *some* attempt at defense/damage control by Pranger's higher-ups. But it probably spiraled out of control way too fast.

 

[Banjotanooki]

Interesting article but my point still stands.

You sign an NDA/contract specifically telling you what you CAN'T do or say in regards to your job. The second your break that contract, your job has every right to fire you.