31:
263:
in the United States), he was familiar enough with NoA's policies to anticipate potential violations and proactively reframe them while retaining as much of the original context and drama as possible. Another challenge was the limited storage space on SNES cartridges. English requires roughly twice
246:
had made NoA especially sensitive to "controversial" video game content, such as violence, sexuality, religion, and profanity. As a result, Woolsey had to avoid or write around these topics and translate the words at the same time. He would fly to Japan for a typical project and have about thirty
268:
as
Japanese to convey the same meaning, which forced Woolsey to cut down the scripts to fit within the cartridge memory. Together, these changes have become known as "Woolseyisms" and are the subject of both criticism and praise. A famous Woolseyism is
126:
during his time at Square. Limitations on text length and strict content guidelines forced
Woolsey to make many script changes in his translation work, which became known as "Woolseyisms" in popular culture and were both praised and criticized.
130:
Woolsey resigned from Square in 1996 when the company moved offices to another city. Since then, his work in the video game industry shifted to a producer role at Big Rain, a company he co-founded, as well as others like
247:
days to translate a script based on the finished
Japanese version of the game, which had been broken up idiosyncratically by programmers to fit in cartridge memory. He made a nearly finished translation of
367:
as the
Director of Business Development. As the director, he managed RealArcade, the network's online gaming client. Between 2000 and 2004, he worked on the distribution of the service to publishers and
218:. Other employees, including one in the financial department and a senior vice president, helped with editing after hours in their spare time. Woolsey's first project with Square was the translation of
1116:
337:
in 1996, Woolsey decided to stay in
Washington and leased his old employer's office space for his next company, Big Rain. Woolsey's last project with Square was the translation of
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214:) and did not sell according to their expectations. At this point, Square had no localization department, and a Square employee who spoke some English ended up translating
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from people who believed his translations were inaccurate. In addition to localization, Woolsey was in charge of marketing for Square.
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931:"Ted Woolsey Remembers Final Fantasy 6, Evading Nintendo's Censorship Rules, and the Early Days of Localization"
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began. At Big Rain, he served as Vice
President of Marketing and Business Development. The company moved to
107:
901:"Legends of Localization: Game Localization and Nintendo of America's Content Policies in the 1990s (NSFW)"
1101:
357:
purchased it. Woolsey signed on as Vice
President of Internal Development and oversaw the development of
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in 2015 after acting as a liaison between
Microsoft and that team for four years to bring the game
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to avoid profanity and inject character into the script. Other titles he localized included
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273:'s exclamation, "Son of a submariner!"; the line was changed entirely from Japanese "Heee!
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238:(NoA) had strict policies regarding what kind of content could appear in games on the
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687:. Asian Languages and Literature Institute, University of Washington. Archived from
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before Square canceled the overseas release. By the time he worked on localizing
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144:
91:
30:
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Although born in
America, Woolsey spent five years living and studying in
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in 2007, where he was Senior
Director of First Party Publishing for the
350:
161:
274:
651:
Credited as translator or localization specialist unless noted
210:
had just been released in the United States (under the title
961:"How Kefka's Famous "Son of a Submariner" Works in Japanese"
224:, and the company asked him to review and avoid a repeat of
321:
from players who enjoyed games he worked on, as well as
114:
between 1991 and 1996. He is best known for translating
94:
translator and producer. He had the primary role in the
407:
to Xbox platforms. He later became General Manager of
986:"Gamerscore Blog : XBLA - Want More? Got More!"
424:
53:
45:
37:
21:
383:service. In this role, he brought games such as
753:"Localization: Confessions by Industry Legends"
286:
1117:University of California, Santa Barbara alumni
280:
8:
685:"Ted Woolsey: Former Member, Advisory Board"
343:and left before the English localization of
196:studies to join Square's American office in
864:
862:
860:
858:
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204:, shortly after that in 1991. At the time,
642:Sorted by year of English language release
244:1993 congressional hearings on video games
29:
18:
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139:. After managing the relationship on the
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665:Localization of Square Enix video games
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372:and helped launch RealArcade in Japan.
174:University of California, Santa Barbara
143:side for several years, Woolsey joined
924:
922:
920:
835:"Transcript of Ted Woolsey interview"
833:Johnston, Chris (February 15, 2007).
828:
826:
824:
822:
820:
818:
816:
814:
755:. Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from
7:
881:from the original on October 7, 2012
782:IGDA Online Games Committee (2002).
317:. While at Square, Woolsey received
724:from the original on March 11, 2016
240:Super Nintendo Entertainment System
869:Cifaldi, Frank (August 29, 2005).
440:
14:
1087:20th-century American translators
712:Vestal, Andrew (April 29, 1999).
751:Szczepaniak, John (2009-08-31).
164:as a young adult. He received a
1122:University of Washington alumni
1026:from the original on 2019-09-23
871:"Playing Catch-Up: Ted Woolsey"
784:"IGDA Online Games White Paper"
333:When Square's offices moved to
41:Translator, video game producer
959:Mandelin, Clyde (2013-06-26).
899:Mandelin, Clyde (2018-09-10).
16:American video game translator
1:
929:Oxford, Nadia (May 5, 2020).
1097:Japanese–English translators
1014:Weber, Rachel (2015-06-24).
714:"Interview with Ted Woolsey"
147:as General Manager in 2015.
1112:Square (video game company)
992:. Microsoft. Archived from
287:
1143:
1016:"Undead Labs hires new GM"
449:Final Fantasy Mystic Quest
370:internet service providers
296:Final Fantasy Mystic Quest
439:
436:
433:
430:
427:
281:
28:
984:DirtyDiva (2008-09-24).
471:Final Fantasy Legend III
404:Ori and the Blind Forest
221:Final Fantasy Legend III
182:University of Washington
108:role-playing video games
1127:Video game localization
1092:Final Fantasy designers
965:Legends of Localization
905:Legends of Localization
184:, where he completed a
392:Dust: An Elysian Tail
231:s messy translation.
176:. He spent time as a
1107:Microsoft employees
1082:20th-century births
355:Crave Entertainment
236:Nintendo of America
190:Japanese literature
133:Crave Entertainment
1050:Player One Podcast
839:Player One Podcast
573:Secret of Evermore
462:Translator, Writer
234:During this time,
170:English literature
1020:GamesIndustry.biz
632:
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377:Microsoft Studios
375:Woolsey moved to
346:Final Fantasy VII
261:Final Fantasy III
141:Microsoft Studios
110:released for the
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46:Years active
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256:Final Fantasy VI
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216:Final Fantasy II
212:Final Fantasy II
207:Final Fantasy IV
178:graduate student
166:Bachelor of Arts
117:Final Fantasy VI
61:Final Fantasy VI
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593:Super Mario RPG
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398:Killer Instinct
353:in 1997, where
340:Super Mario RPG
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250:Final Fantasy V
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186:master's degree
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98:production and
90:is an American
73:Super Mario RPG
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360:Shadow Madness
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314:Chrono Trigger
308:Breath of Fire
302:Secret of Mana
192:. He quit his
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96:North American
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38:Occupation(s)
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1028:. Retrieved
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434:Platform(s)
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365:RealNetworks
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242:(SNES). The
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137:RealNetworks
129:
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100:localization
87:
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77:
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65:
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55:Notable work
49:1991–present
1061:Ted Woolsey
622:PlayStation
417:to market.
409:Undead Labs
335:Los Angeles
329:Post-Square
305:, Capcom's
145:Undead Labs
88:Ted Woolsey
23:Ted Woolsey
1076:Categories
1055:Transcript
1030:2019-09-23
1000:2008-10-06
970:2020-06-08
945:2020-05-07
910:2020-05-07
885:2007-09-12
844:2020-05-07
804:2007-09-12
763:2016-03-09
728:2016-03-09
695:2016-03-09
671:References
604:Translator
564:Translator
544:Translator
524:Translator
504:Translator
484:Translator
282:ヒーーー くっそー！
259:(retitled
202:Washington
168:degree in
92:video game
1065:MobyGames
601:Super NES
584:Marketing
581:Super NES
561:Super NES
541:Super NES
521:Super NES
501:Super NES
458:Super NES
323:hate mail
156:At Square
151:Biography
112:Super NES
1024:Archived
879:Archived
791:IGDA.com
722:Archived
659:See also
626:Producer
480:Game Boy
319:fan mail
264:as many
935:USgamer
718:The GIA
351:Seattle
288:Hī kusō
275:Damn it
266:letters
198:Redmond
180:at the
172:at the
437:Notes
428:Title
401:, and
311:, and
104:Square
798:(PDF)
787:(PDF)
431:Year
421:Works
386:Limbo
271:Kefka
229:'
194:Ph.D.
162:Japan
618:1999
598:1996
578:1995
558:1995
538:1994
518:1994
498:1993
476:1993
454:1992
441:Ref.
135:and
120:and
1063:at
188:in
106:'s
102:of
1078::
1022:.
1018:.
988:.
963:.
933:.
919:^
903:.
877:.
873:.
853:^
837:.
813:^
789:.
772:^
737:^
720:.
716:.
704:^
395:,
389:,
299:,
285:,
277:!"
200:,
76:,
70:,
64:,
1033:.
1003:.
973:.
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913:.
888:.
847:.
807:.
766:.
731:.
698:.
291:)
279:(
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
