General News IV: A New Hope?

[Asceai]

Since when do English-translated VNs have 'insane prices'? Apart from 'never'

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Kouryuu strikes me as a good fellow who is trying hard for our common hobby (not that I am 100% fine with MG's policies, believe me), and not supporting him this time could have critical consequences regarding MangaGamer's reputation and the feasibility of other mid-to-high profile localizations.

Honestly, I couldn't care less. MangaGamer's been a mess since the get go. They completely do not have a grasp on what it takes to reign in an audience. A handful of titles that are mainstream enough that many average fans can recognize them by name, backed by English releases of their respective anime series, and they still struggle to sell 2,000 copies? Might as well just close up show, relinquish the licenses, and wait until someone else who has better business sense to come along and give these games the potential they need.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Aksys' 999, Jast's Demonbane and MG's Koihime should be supported by vn fans simply because they are all do-or-die titles for their respective publishers and, in a broader sense, for the whole business of officially translated visual novels.

Just to let you know, 999, isn't really a visual novel in the same sense as the other two. It's more of an adventure game, just like the Phoenix Wright series, Time Hollow, Hotel Dusk, etc... meaning, there's already a small market for them, and how well they do or not do has absolutely no impact on companies like JAST or MangaGamer, and will have absolutely no impact on console publishers like Aksys or NISA even entertaining the thought of localizing actual bishoujo games.

If 999 bombs, you don't get more adventure games from Aksys, that's about the extent of the consequences. There will always be other companies that will try to replicate Nintendo/Capcom's success with the genre in the English speaking world.

We don't want an official market devoid of anything but low profile sex romps.

But you see, that's the irony of the situation! The floundering of MangaGamer and the moderate success of JAST shows clearly that yes, we do want more sex-romps, because they're actually selling!

People like you who want to support actual quality eroge are a fucking minority. You are sandwiched by the entitled-pirating-complex majority on one side, and the elitist-gamers-who-know-Japanese-and-don't-give-a-fuck-about-supporting-English-localization majority on the other front.

Sorry to say, I'm a part of the latter group. And most of the people on this board are too. Until either we or the self-entitled group make the shift to buying these games. your market is fucked.

Originally Posted by Sirf*palot

On a sidenote, I don't have a f*cking DS. So what can I do about 999?

Buy a physical copy of the game to support Aksys. Play it on emulator and enjoy it in the comfort of a larger screen. End problem.

[Asceai]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

But you see, that's the irony of the situation! The floundering of MangaGamer and the moderate success of JAST shows clearly that yes, we do want more sex-romps, because they're actually selling!

People like you who want to support actual quality eroge are a fucking minority.

'sex-romp' and 'quality eroge' are not mutually exclusive. I've been saying for years that JAST should translate quality sexromps-- at the moment all they really bother with are good story-centric titles and crappy sexromps.

Originally Posted by Asceai

'sex-romp' and 'quality eroge' are not mutually exclusive. I've been saying for years that JAST should translate quality sexromps-- at the moment all they really bother with are good story-centric titles and crappy sexromps.

Not that I don't know what you mean, but it makes people feel better when they can differentiate 'dirty' games from 'pure' stuff like Shuffle, Kanon, Da Capo, etc.

As for JAST localizing quality sex-romps, it doesn't matter. The market are people who buy them for one reason (hint: not the story) and the people who might buy it for the story are for the most part people like I mentioned above who will be utterly appalled at buying such vulgar seeming games.

[Asceai]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Not that I don't know what you mean, but it makes people feel better when they can differentiate 'dirty' games from 'pure' stuff like Shuffle, Kanon, Da Capo, etc.

As for JAST localizing quality sex-romps, it doesn't matter. The market are people who buy them for one reason (hint: not the story) and the people who might buy it for the story are for the most part people like I mentioned above who will be utterly appalled at buying such vulgar seeming games.

let me explain with an MS paint diagram:



JAST localises games from A and D. JAST should localise more from B (there's a lot more than those two, it's just all I could think of at the time), which can grab in the people who are after D and the people who are after A, as well as possibly making the people who were after D more interested in A.

EDIT: oh, and to head this off before people complain, examples in there are just examples, don't read too much into them because I didn't give them much thought

[Moogy]

how dare you call shuffle shit ;_;

Originally Posted by Asceai

JAST localises games from A and D. JAST should localise more from B (there's a lot more than those two, it's just all I could think of at the time), which can grab in the people who are after D and the people who are after A, as well as possibly making the people who were after D more interested in A.

My point is those interested in D have no interest in something like A. That wasn't the reason for their purchase in the first place.

Getting to something like B, having played those games, there's actually a lot more story interspersed between the H, and not as much involved during it. For someone in D who just wants to pick up and get to the goods right away, it's more effort than it would be worth, and those may prove to be more of a poor seller than a straight up D game.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

People like you who want to support actual quality eroge are a fucking minority. You are sandwiched by the entitled-pirating-complex majority on one side, and the elitist-gamers-who-know-Japanese-and-don't-give-a-fuck-about-supporting-English-localization majority on the other front.

There is also the possibility that if MG becomes successful, they will need new translators, and that new translator could be one of us. Remember, Kouryuu used to be a fan translator too.

And most of the people on this board are too.

Being more vocal on a board does not make you the majority. And also, just because a person knows Japanese, that doesn't necessarily make them elitist-haters by default. Be careful with generalizations.

[Asceai]

Originally Posted by Aaeru

And also, just because a person knows Japanese, that doesn't necessarily make them elitist-haters by default. Be careful with generalizations.

yeah, that's just me wwwwwwww

[d_fallen_god]

Originally Posted by Asceai

let me explain with an MS paint diagram:



JAST localises games from A and D. JAST should localise more from B (there's a lot more than those two, it's just all I could think of at the time), which can grab in the people who are after D and the people who are after A, as well as possibly making the people who were after D more interested in A.

EDIT: oh, and to head this off before people complain, examples in there are just examples, don't read too much into them because I didn't give them much thought

Lol XD hahahah nice way of putting it! (>^^)b

Originally Posted by Asceai

Since when do English-translated VNs have 'insane prices'? Apart from 'never'

Over 25 dollars per route of Higurasi Kai was a bit crazy.

Don't get me wrong, I love Higurashi. I just don't think it's worth the $150 it would cost to get all the routes.

[Asceai]

Yeah, I'd agree that that's a bit much-- I'd say 1-4 and 5-8 probably only cost about $25 apiece on DL sales sites, which is far more reasonable. That is, however, the exception rather than the rule as far as I can tell - most of their other products appear to be priced well below that of the originals.

Originally Posted by Aaeru

There is also the possibility that if MG becomes successful, they will need new translators, and that new translator could be one of us.

Ha, did you not read the 'why do you translate' thread? Most of the regulars here are either in it this to troll, or make too much money to deal with poor jobs like translation.

Not that I have any idea why you brought up translators. I'm not ragging on MangaGamer's translation quality (they seemed to have finally just passed over that line).

Originally Posted by Aaeru

Being more vocal on a board does not make you the majority. And also, just because a person knows Japanese, that doesn't necessarily make them elitist-haters by default. Be careful with generalizations.

Oh really. Besides yourself, can you vouch for any others who are actually supporting these games? No? Okay. Generalization stands.

I'm not even reffering to just Asceai either. Many of the people around here who enjoy discussing the latest game they played, keep up on the news as it comes out of Japan, not once do I hear them giving support to companies like MangaGamer, all I hear is them watching the train wreck from afar, make posts on their sites as they talk about the next debacle that occurs. The apathy towards actually giving these companies the monetary support is the point.

I'll rant about MG as much as I want, but at the end of the day, I don't care if Koihime Musou gets voices or not (not that I cared for the game in the first place). I'll just import a copy from Japan if I was so inclined to play the game. There is no incentive for us to support the flailing English industry, and you can bet I speak for the majority when I say that.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Not that I have any idea why you brought up translators. I'm not ragging on MangaGamer's translation quality (they seemed to have finally just passed over that line).

It could be a reason why someone such as yourself could choose to support mangagamer. I think that a larger english VN market would mean more fan translators end up going pro.