Wind translation drama

[Misu]

Well, if you havent bought a copy of Wind -a breath of heart- and actually want to play it in English, go buy the game right now off of Himeyashop, becuase in three weeks the patch will cease to be distribute due to the high amount of attempted piracy this patch has cuased. To read up the full extent to what happened, read these two relevent VisualNews.net articles:

VisualNews.net - The Death of Wind
VisualNews.net - Fighting Piracy

[Shii]

Actually, it has ceased distribution right now in order to prevent a leak. 23 July will be the only day anyone will get the patch.

[Misu]

Originally Posted by Shii

Actually, it has ceased distribution right now in order to prevent a leak. 23 July will be the only day anyone will get the patch.

Thats kinda what I ment ^^;;, considering, it probably will take two-three weeks to get your copy of Wind from whever your buying it anyways.

[procyon]

Originally Posted by Misu

Well, if you havent bought a copy of Wind -a breath of heart- and actually want to play it in English, go buy the game right now off of Himeyashop, becuase in three weeks the patch will cease to be distribute due to the high amount of attempted piracy this patch has cuased. To read up the full extent to what happened, read these two relevent VisualNews.net articles:

VisualNews.net - The Death of Wind
VisualNews.net - Fighting Piracy

The whole Wind situation is really depressing. Though I guess unsurprising, given the whole Planetarain thing :(

It seems to me that the reason most people/groups are translating games is for the challenge and comradery that comes from the community. With the pirates though, the whole community thing seems to go out the window. I see people either giving up on the large projects (since this seems to be the last straw when added to all the other issues that come into play for a hobby-project of this magnitude), or closing off distribution to everyone outside of the translation circle.

This sucks as it pretty much nixes most chances of commercializing these games in English. This is crappy for the few outfits left trying to do this commerically, and for the creators in Japan, some of which really could use the US market as a revenue source. Finall, it sucks for people like me who appreciate the efforts, but don't know anywhere near enough Japanese to translate.

I know I'm preaching at the choir here, but I just needed to vent. It all pisses me off.

edit1: I have to admit that I also failed their test. I blame that though on poor eyesight and minori's inability to spell in English, not for being a pirate though :)

[Village Idiot]

Great, my copy will arrive sometime next week and now I gotta wait another month.

Edit: Btw, any chance we can take the test sometime before July 23rd?

Going to be out of town during that week, and its either not get it at all, or I take the test over at my friend's place. Which will look really, really awkward in the event the game box/cd contains hentai scenes.

[Misu]

Just pass it via photographic evidence the on last release day of the patch ^^;;.

[Maceart]

Woah Procryon, if you really had the game, why didn't you just take a picture with you holding the game and sending it over to Gp32? That would have been a lot easier than trying to decipher japanese kanji/hiragana on the game manual or the box.

[Village Idiot]

When I was in the channel, I heard that two of the people whom failed the test then passed with photographic evidence.

[gp32]

After I finished translating Wind (November 2004), I ended my part in the translation project. I do not own re:gratitude, and do not ever plan on buying it. I also am not in possession of the patch, and will never be in possession of the patch. Sending me evidence would be useless.

[Misu]

Originally Posted by Village Idiot

When I was in the channel, I heard that two of the people whom failed the test then passed with photographic evidence.

Yup, no one has passed the test, but ampled have failed the test and not been able to provide photographic evidence.

Originally Posted by gp32

After I finished translating Wind (November 2004), I ended my part in the translation project. I do not own re:gratitude, and do not ever plan on buying it. I also am not in possession of the patch, and will never be in possession of the patch. Sending me evidence would be useless.

I think it was an honest mistake on Maceart part and he ment to say GipFace. But I do understand your feelings on the matter, and frankly, after writing up that short article I did on VNN, and especially reading the comments, I understand a lot better how you feel gp32. Frankly, its pretty sickening and ridiclous...

[GipFace]

Indeed, dovac, procyon and Duouk2000 are the only ones with the patch at this moment (along with Reikoku, the translator of the demo). I fully trust all four of them to be steadfast and to simply observe the events which are unfolding.

I find it quite amusing that people are directing flames at me and NNL. May I remind you that the other half of the localization tandem, insani, fully stands behind this decision. In fact, this was not my sole decision. We had to take a vote on it. The three people on the team who put in the most time (gp32, Clammerz, and me) all voted to discontinue.

The community had its chance with planetarian. Big name? Check (Key). Inexpensive? Check ($15). New? Check. What happened? It was pirated within five hours. If we had torrented our patch, no doubt that timeframe would have been shattered. planetarian set a precedent, and we won't let it happen again.

Maceart - None of the questions required Japanese knowledge. In fact, I will now list all the failed questions and their answers. Some of them were so easy that their failures were a major part of what caused this to happen:

Q: Add up all the digits of the barcode, then subract all the digits located on the vertical side of the box (this includes the 18+ sticker).
A: -15 (Add: 4 5 6 1 9 4 1 1 9, subtract: 1 8 1 8 9 8 2 8 1 9)

Q: How many Japanese characters are printed on the game disc?
A: ZERO

Q: On the customer feedback postcard side which says POST CARD, multiply all the digits in the larger font, then subtract the digits in the smaller font.
A: -22 (0 times anything = 0, then 0 - 1 - 5 - 9 - 1 - 6)
(Duouk2000 failed this question, but he got a second chance because he was the first person to take the test)

Q: How many discs are included?
A: THREE (Game disc, OST, support disc)
(He said one. WTF?)

Q: The inside of the startup manual uses a shot of the cafe One Day for the background. What time does One Day open on Thursdays?
A: IT DOES NOT OPEN ON THURSDAYS
(Both Duouk2000 and procyon failed this question. However, this was the hardest question in my master list. I rolled a d20 to determine a question at random.)

Q:On the customer feedback postcard side which has the word minori sandwiched between two horizontal lines, how many checkboxes are there?
A: 77 (B: 2x9, C: 9, D: 10x5. 18+9+50=77)

Q: How many of the characters introduced in the startup manual are wearing shoelaces?
A: THREE (Makoto, Tsutomu, Nozomi)
(He said zero...

This was one of of the pictures in the startup manual. Was he blind?)

And the most appalling failed question of all...
Q: What color is the cardboard insert?
A: WHITE
(He said yellow.)

We were being insulted at the failure rate of the test. It was easily passable, and Duouk2000 himself said that besides his own failed questions, he could have answered any of these.

Village Idiot - The single day is for me to end this charade once and for all in one fell swoop without losing a job. If you want to compensate me for lost work time, then by all means, name your date and I'll meet it. You are already on suspicion for "celebrating" the possibility of a leaked torrent on the GameFAQs thread, so do not push your luck.

As for people crying foul about destroying the support disc, may I paste my response on VN.net:
Guess what? Destroying the support disc is a test in itself, because it separates the wheat from the chaff. When one browses the support disc, all that person will find are Japanese patches and demos of minori releases, all of which are available for download at http://www.minori.ph. In fact, the ones included in the disc have been replaced by newer ones on their web site.

And here are some stats:
# of people who downloaded Shii's fake patch: ~400 (~250 within one hour)
# of people who downloaded the DA torrent of Wind DVD: ~1000
# of people who attempted the test: 12
The ratio approaches 99%. Obviously, the 99% will be much louder than the 1% who actually purchase this game. Would I expect even 40 of those 400 fake patch downloaders to purchase the game once they complete it? Hardly.

gp32, I think you may have to address this issue on insani.org sooner rather than later.

[Village Idiot]

The single day is for me to end this charade once and for all in one fell swoop without losing a job. If you want to compensate me for lost work time, then by all means, name your date and I'll meet it.

Just out of curiosity, were you skipping work to do these tests?

Village Idiot - The single day is for me to end this charade once and for all in one fell swoop without losing a job. If you want to compensate me for lost work time, then by all means, name your date and I'll meet it. You are already on suspicion for "celebrating" the possibility of a leaked torrent on the GameFAQs thread, so do not push your luck.

*shrug*

Game should be coming in next week or the week after (donno if their shipping estimate applies to Canada or just the US). Thus I have nothing to fear.

People can pirate the game for all I care. None of my business.

http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/gen...8852525&page=2

Page 3. My moral code. You care to want photographic evidence of this?

Edit: I understand you're pissed off, and for good reason. Just a note.

Edit2: Oh, note on the whole not pirate video games thing, freely admit I download roms. But ever since I bought a DS Lite last week, I've been buy the actual games I've downloaded. So far: Zone of the Enders Fist of Mars (arriving in mail), Riviera, Tales of Phantasia, and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. Plan on getting FFI-II, FFIV, and Minish Cap when I can snag a deal (LEGIT) off Ebay.

[deoch]

Originally Posted by GipFace

As for people crying foul about destroying the support disc, may I paste my response on VN.net:
Guess what? Destroying the support disc is a test in itself, because it separates the wheat from the chaff. When one browses the support disc, all that person will find are Japanese patches and demos of minori releases, all of which are available for download at http://www.minori.ph. In fact, the ones included in the disc have been replaced by newer ones on their web site.

I can see why people would be upset about the support disc. It's not unheard of for people to keep things with no utility simply for collector's value. It's like the OBIs that come with CDs. They're completely worthless, but that doesn't mean people don't want to keep them. When something is going to cost 100+$ to import, the collector's mentality is only going to be stronger...

[Village Idiot]

What'll happen if they bought the game off Rinkya or some other bidding place that sells used games BEFORE this incident and after it arrives, it doesn't come with the Support Disk?

[GipFace]

Used games do not provide minori any additional income. Buying a used game does not support the company at all.