I do want to stress that while I'm perhaps griping about the state of the industry more frequently lately for pretty obvious reasons, when it's all said and done, I still love my job in localization as much as ever and for everything that's wrong and boneheaded about the business and surrounding economy right now, I'm putting out some of the best work that I ever have in my career and, very crucially, I've won some pretty significant work battles against big companies this past month that will result in markedly better final products. I really do feel that this industry could do so much more to support and show appreciation for its workers, especially when a lot of us are going through periods of significant instability in our employment, freelancers included. But I would be lying if I didn't also say that with some of those victories especially, as I come upon a decade in game localization next April, it's finally starting to feel like that seniority and experience is paying off when it comes to being able to pull off those gambits and try to shoot for the stars with clients.
Some of this I credit to a lot of years of hard work and long nights churning out enjoyable translations, but it's also a testament to the love and support that the rest of you have given to the work of myself and countless others in the field. When you stand up for us and what we do, especially when others try to ignorantly diminish our trade, people in decision making positions do notice and it has a positive impact when it comes to earning trust from clients, who can feel confident that the things we suggest and the words we put down really are in the interests of their games and their audiences. I've said this before, but a client on one project specifically said that they wanted their game's localization to feel and sound like Tales of Arise's when they contacted the agency, and they had no idea that I was on that agency's roster when they were still shopping the project around. You can imagine how gratifying it felt to read those exact words in my inbox and it's only possible because I'm able to operate in an environment where I can fire every last cylinder and put every ounce of my heart and soul into the English script thanks to the support of all you playing my games and everybody else behind the scenes who are facilitating the work and appreciating what I bring to the table.
There's still a lot I want to accomplish in my career. Games that I want to work on, genres that I want to make accessible to people and finally unlock for them. When I vent my frustration about things, it's because in times like these, it's easy to reminded how little power you have over the fate of your work as an individual person working in some of the deepest trenches. But it's not because I've given up on myself, or my desire to work in the medium that's most given my life direction and purpose, or my belief that with my knowledge and sometimes unique expertise I can offer things that few other translators can in this entire industry. I really am going to persist and I'm still going to go on loving this work as much as I did the day I started doing it. Just, please have our backs out there, too. As someone who lost out on nearly six figures worth' of work from what was supposed to be a years-long project because the publisher decided to take it in-house, I speak from experience when I say that in this day and age especially, many companies in particular find us to be expendable as they try to shore up costs accrued from their idiocy and we're having to fight like hell right now to make a living. Every bit of support really, truly does help.