General News 3: It Isn't Over Yet!

Originally Posted by zalas

CAST

Yuki Morikawa: Aya Hirano
Rina Ogata: Nana Mizuki

Official Site: http://www.whitealbum-tv.com/
(C)PROJECT W.A.

----

It looks like a lot of staff from Nanoha got moved to this project. Looking forward to it!

...Bad Zalas, now you've got my hopes very high for something I was never expecting....
<_< I don't know what this white album is, but if it's Leaf, ok, I'll be honest, if it's that staff, then there's no way I'll go by without watching it...

[Asceai]

Well, Rui wa Tomo wo Yobu is out. After being humiliated by my poor guesses at the heroines' curses and 'abilities', I'll finally be able to see how far I was out.

When I get it, anyway >_<

[Dagger]

New Sumaga demo

Awesome on a stick. Very stylish & quirky.

It has come to my attention that the KgNE Translation Project, led by Ace Starleaf, is looking for staff for the KimiNozo TP.

If anyone would like to help in the Editing, QA, or Translation aspects please post in this thread.

In your post please list:
1) What you would like to help with.

2) Any professional or community qualifications you may have.
- For example
- Translation: are you a native speaker? or have you passed any of the JLPT exams?
- Editing: are you a member of any fansub group? Can you give an example of your work.

3) Anything you believe may be relevant.

The addition of members to the Staff List will be made by Majority vote of the current members.

[Asceai]

The _OBVIOUS_ question to add to that list is
4) Have you played and finished Kimi ga Nozomu Eien?

I dunno about anyone else, but I probably wouldn't be taking anyone on board for whom 4 did not apply.

EDIT: For the translation and editing positions, of course. Not really necessary for QC / playtesting etc.

[Agilis]

That kgne project page worries me. Just as JLPT and native status have almost nothing to do with translation ability, finding a good editor is nontrivial. Both depend strongly on writing ability and it's worrying that management isn't homing in on that trait and is getting distracted by superficial indicators.

But oddly enough what worries me the most is the majority vote comment... it smacks of a bureaucratized democratic mindset, and that has no room in an agile small project of < 10 people and limited scope as far as I'm concerned.

But then, I know nothing of the project itself, maybe on the inside it's nothing like any of my speculations. But as an outsider, it's worrying.

/off-topic

Agilis, I read your previous columns about bureaucracy in small-sized projects --and, more generally, about organization of VN localization projects-- with great attention (to the point I feel I should absolutely link to them).

You said assigning jobs too specifically (X does this, and only this) spawns bureaucracy and is not recommended. Still, do you have examples of when it happened or quite happened, and the effects it would yield?

[Asceai]

Yeah, that was a good article. My approach (since I don't actually know anybody) is just to staff the entire project myself and seek help when necessary =p We'll see how it turns out!

[Agilis]

hrmm. I have a feeling this might spiral into something worthy of a thread split. Mods! I know you're out there, you know what to do with your modly powers!

Originally Posted by Rasqual Twilight

/off-topic

Agilis, I read your previous columns about bureaucracy in small-sized projects --and, more generally, about organization of VN localization projects-- with great attention (to the point I feel I should absolutely link to them).

You said assigning jobs too specifically (X does this, and only this) spawns bureaucracy and is not recommended. Still, do you have examples of when it happened or quite happened, and the effects it would yield?

Let's see, I make that argument from a few perspectives.

First, computer-mediated communication takes a lot of work, the more people involved, the more work it takes. In what way? Well, have you ever tried to make a 'group decision' online with a group? At the least, most members of the group should be informed and involved before a final decision is made right? What happens when one or two 'important' people miss that meeting? The whole thing gets postponed, no decision is arrived at, someone is usually assigned to go and get comments from the missing members, an email or two is fired off, and everyone goes home thinking something will be done to make things better.

Next thing you know, a week or three has gone by, and someone goes "so, have we decided on X yet?" and usually everyone goes "well I thought <someone else> was doing that" or "well I dunno, the other guys would know more". (For those with an interest in this sort of behavior, take a look at Social loafing theory for one aspect of it) It takes conscious management effort to get rid of this sort of stuff, and the more people you have the worse it gets. That's also why I insist on having as small a group as possible --- less wandering sheep to herd.

This also has much to do with the "Not My Department" mentality that bureaucracies have. I don't like it if I give someone a task that everyone can do "hey, take a look at this script piece here" or "give a shot timing this as best you can" or "go do some research on this topic" or "think of a way to express this" and get a "I'm just a tester, I can't do this" back. I don't care if your job is just to pick fleas off the house cat, if you have a brain, you can give it a try. I won't ask you to hack an encrypted script file, but simple things like user opinions matter and inviting outside users is best left to final beta testing.

My next reason for wanting people to do multiple jobs is simply because I want quality. Take a look at yourself, are you one dimensional? Certainly you can do one or two things much better than other people, and that would be your specialty, but are you utterly incompetent for everything else? I sure hope not. Everyone can do more than one job, even if it's not as great as a specialist.

Encouraging everyone to work on everything as best they can has a number of Good Effects (tm). First, all the members feel more ownership of the project, they're actually doing stuff that makes a significant difference, they'll be more motivated, they won't slack off as much hopefully. Second, it reduces the amount of morale-draining comments like "is X back with the thing yet? I can't do anything until then") because very few tasks depend on 1 person. Blocks along the critical path are less likely, and everyone can find something to do to keep their hands busy, which keeps them from being bored and dropping off the radar. Next, you get more eyeballs on the work without bloating your staff (ref. point 1) to untenable sizes.

Mmm, the last thing that I can think of tonight is that bureaucracies are a necessary evil when a group grows large enough. However, 'large enough' is probably in the realm of 20-30 for us, if not higher (50+). At that point, it's difficult to keep track of who's doing what, when, etc. That's why companies eventually have to lay some organization down, they spend money and effort putting all these processes and forms and whatnot, because no one can keep track of everyone in their heads anymore. Maintaining a bureaucracy is a significant cost, and most people who try to build one don't fully realize how much effort is needed to maintain one, so they get lazy, and then there's confusion since the system everyone was supposed to rely on isn't reliable.

That said, what about for smaller groups like us? Well, we can still keep track of everyone in our heads. All we have to do is, gasp, talk to one another regularly. Amazing! And 3 of the big reasons that people to talk to one another is that they're 1) in the same space at the same time, and either 2) they want to socialize, or 3) they are working together on something. Hence, if your people share roles and work on the same task (not just the same project) they'll, gasp, probably talk to each other! And then they'll have a sense of what's going on, and the group starts working like a group instead of like a bunch of sheep wandering vaguely downhill.

Mmm. If I think of anything else, I'll probably write another post...
Or even better, I probably should clean this up and make another editorial article at some point...

[Narumi]

And in the news front, the Xbox info page for Clannad is finally up.

[Asceai]

Mmmm, I hope that's native 1080p.

EDIT: what the hell is wrong with me why didn't I just read the page? 720p. Still not bad, I guess.'

EDIT 2: The clipping disappoints me. I'd rather they showed more out to the side.. although I guess they wouldn't have drawn that in the original images, but still.

[Narumi]

Perhaps there'll be an option to view them at full size in the CG gallery.

[luckyovermind]

Originally Posted by Narumi

And in the news front, the Xbox info page for Clannad is finally up.

Errr

Who is that?

I dont recognise that jumper and skirt = =

[Ojamajo_LimePie]

Originally Posted by luckyovermind

Errr

Who is that?

I dont recognise that jumper and skirt = =

It looks like Fuuko.

[zalas]

http://visualarts.product.co.jp/zinzaibosyu/
Looks like Key is looking for someone to assist in music production. Requirements include the ability to mix and arrange, the ability to use Steinberg Cubase and the ability to control all aspects of vocal recording. Not sure I'm reading it correctly, but it looks like for the trial period (of up to 3 months), the hourly pay will be 800 yen, and after full employment, there will be an hourly pay plus a monthly pay based on skill level, with overtime being 1000 yen an hour? Is this enough to survive on, or are people expected to hold multiple jobs?

http://key.visualarts.gr.jp/diary/2008/07/post_24.html
Amusingly enough, Tonokawa Yuuto (Key's sole remaining scenario writer) was called to the attention of the fact that Shinji Orito's (composer) Mac Pro apparently belongs to someone named "Nobuharo Orito."

Orito: "Who the heck is Nobuharo!? I'm Shinji!!!"