Register Shift and Translation Acceptability in the Dubbing of Mobile Game: Honor of Kings

This study aimed to identify what types of register being present and dominant, the connection of register shift to translation, acceptability of translation to the dubbing, and to improve the practice of video game translation from the dubbing of mobile game: Honor of Kings. The objects of this study are types of register which followed Joos’ (1962) theory, register shift which followed the identification by Joos (1962), and translation acceptability which employs the theory by Nababan, et al. (2012). This research used descriptive qualitative method. The data was collected through purposive sampling and analyzed through the process of FGD by raters. The findings revealed three types of registers from 107 data of dubbing: casual (67.29% in SL and 75.70% in TL), formal (31.78% in SL and 23.37% in TL), and frozen (0.93% both SL and TL). Register shifts occurred in 10.28% of the data, primarily formal to casual register shift (9.35%), with lexical and tone changes as key indicators. Translation acceptability assessment, conducted via focus group discussion (FGD) with raters, yielded an average score of 2.51 (acceptable), though shifts correlated with higher acceptability averaging 3.00 (acceptable) acceptability score compared to no register shift averaging 2.45 (less acceptable) acceptability score. This study concluded that register shifts enhance translation acceptability by aligning with the norms in the TL, offering practical insights for video game translation. This study suggested further research with larger datasets to explore pragmatics and cultural adaptations in dubbing.