حسین عظیمی راد

The present study is an attempt to shed light on the strategies adopted by novelizers to adapt ludonarrative dissonance events in video games. It relies on Toh’s (۲۰۱۹) framework for identifying different types of ludonarrative dissonance in video games. It is exploratory, corpus-based, and employs the ex post facto method for identifying the macro strategies and Genette’s (۱۹۸۰) five narrative categories for the micro strategies adopted by the novelizer of three video games. The findings of the study indicated that when analyzing the ludonarrative dissonance cases collectively, omission is the most frequently used macro strategy, which is very closely followed by full translation; partial translation and recreation are in the third and fourth place respectively. It should be noted that fully translated cases when combined with partially translated ones make up ۴۷% of all the cases which is significantly higher than omission alone (۳۸%). As for the micro strategies, in the order category, analepsis strategy was the only strategy that was used; in the duration category, scene strategy was the most common; in the frequency category, singular strategy was decisively the dominant one; in the mood category, zero focalization was most frequently used, and finally, in the voice category, only heterodiegetic strategy was utilized. It can be concluded that the concept of ludonarrative dissonance is more acknowledged in the process of novelization than ignored (fully translated and partially translated cases combined are higher in number than the omitted ones) and that each specific case has its own complexities and nuances for translation. The implication of the research is the advancement of our understanding of the strategies and workings and behind the translation of a feature that is exclusive to the video games medium into the written medium.