"Vote with your dollars?"

Is it my imagination or has Jast's recent licensing line-up nothing more than games already being worked on by fan translators?

What ever happened to buying the type of game you like then Jast will licence more of it?

Is it more like if you want something licenced, translate it yourself and we'll licence it at the last minute?

I don't mean to rant, but this leaves Jast as being a rather boring company. Since their line up is just going to be something from TL Wiki.

[KaioShin]

Eien no Aselia was already released, so what's to whine about? Normally only the pirates rant about this stuff since they get "robbed" of their free patches.

Mangagamer also has released Higurashi and Soul Link, both had fan translations ongoing.

JAST finally wants to release quality games and not just sex romps. And that tends to be the kind of game picked up by fan translators too. That's where the connection is.

I don't mind them releasing games translated by fans, but when their entire line-up is nothing but fan translated games, then it gets boring. If they announce they have a new game up their sleeve, its probably just another fan translation.

The difference with Manga Gamer is, while they also release fan translated games, they also have a whole load of titles no one has worked on. So there's still some buzz when they say they have some new games up their sleeve.

If both Jast and Manga Gamer only licence games already completed or nearly completed by fan translators, what's to look forward to? Other than the fact you can buy their version at a much cheaper price than paying imports and not bother patching it (so I say, but some people will import the game in advance and end up wasting a load of money)

I disagree that sex romps are the games that tend to be picked up by fan translators, with the exception of Dark Translations.

Bottom line of my rant is, release games that have been worked on by fans if you think it will sell (by all means do it, the fan translators will be bailed out of trouble), but have some original titles in there too.

I don't think you're appreciating just how hard it is to get Japanese companies to agree to release in the west. JAST get turned down by 95% of the companies they try.

It's sad but the truth is many companies want there games to stay Japanese only, and will only agree when fan translators force their hand and the two choices are license and make a little money or fan translation and get pirated to hell.

Anyway they do have some upcoming games like Kikouyoku Senki Tenkuu no Yumina and Cleavage that did not come from the fan community.

[TDOMMX]

I should note that the JAST release of Aselia is using Xuse's own English translation, not Dakkongo's. As with My Girlfriend is the President, I think this is just another case of bad timing with the license announcement.

[Stranger]

soooo...
Fan Translation = killing any chance of an official release?

hummmm..... nice, very nice

P.S. if you are looking forward to something, does it matter if it is fan translated or not?

[zalas]

Originally Posted by Strum

Is it my imagination or has Jast's recent licensing line-up nothing more than games already being worked on by fan translators?

Wouldn't that mean that JAST USA has been picking up more and more popular games? Isn't that a good thing?

@Zalas: Just because a game is translated by fans doesn't mean its popular with the masses. They only translate games that they personally like. If it becomes popular in the online community, then it's purely a coincidence.

@Stranger: Quite the opposite, it seems the way to make Jast licence something is to translate it yourself. It doesn't really matter if a game is fan translated or licenced. It's just that if Jast disappeared, they won't be missed since all the games they were planning to release would have been translated by fans anyway.

I just getting the feeling Jast doesn't know what to licence and is just hanging around tl wiki and licencing whatever is there. What's next I wonder, Wheel Country, Sunflower Girl maybe? Oh, well spotted unregistered. I had completly forgotten all about that, its just Jast's recent announcements have all been disappointing.

[KaioShin]

Originally Posted by Strum

I disagree that sex romps are the games that tend to be picked up by fan translators, with the exception of Dark Translations.

Actually I was saying exactly the opposite. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

JAST has always been accused and looked down on by certain parts of the community cause they mostly released sex romps. The more story heavy games are what most fan translators are interested in. Now JAST finally wants to bring over higher quality games and it's a natural development IMO that there will be a higher intersection with fan translated projects because of that, since both are looking now at the same list of candidates to chose from.

This is what people always wanted JAST to do, I'm disappointed people can even find fault in that.

[LoSs]

I'm sorry, I didn't know you were longing for new Zyx title so much...

Originally Posted by LoSs

I'm sorry, I didn't know you were longing for new Zyx title so much...

.
Zyx titles are definitely better than any of mangagamer's nukige

[Stranger]

you do realize that JAST have a better chance of sticking around when compared to fan translations, don't you? Or did you miss the C&D mess from sometime ago? Also don't forget that there is no guarantee from the fans that they would release anything just because they started.

I originally thought that what you are complaining about is the fact that because JAST is licensing VNs that are being translated by fans, you now have 1 VN to look forward to instead of 2. But now I am not sure any more.

so here is my personal and very biased opinion, I honestly see the fact that fan translations are being licensed and officially accepted, as a good step forward. As long as the translators get paid for the, then, free work they were going to release.

P.S. as someone who buy his eroge, the JAST releases are a lot cheaper and easier to come by when compared to the fan translations!

[Moogy]

Originally Posted by Stranger

As long as the translators get paid for the, then, free work they were going to release.

You know, I don't think any of us really care too much about being paid for something we would have done for free anyway. If I could get a guarantee that something was going to be released in a timely manner, I'd be more than willing to hand it over to JAST or MG or whoever for free, at least.

Anyway, at the rate things are going, more and more fan translations are going to get picked up by JAST and MG, so might as well get used to it now.

(by the way it's spelled "dollar")

Originally Posted by Moogy

(by the way it's spelled "dollar")

Lol I spotted that but I can't seem to edit the thread title.
*nvm, I wasn't looking hard enough*

Tenkuu no Yumina never had a translation project, for one.