rpanons | Chicken-fucking is not valid employment

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Chicken-fucking is not valid employment

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tbf it's a pretty dumb thing to say

tbf they do have a point though it could have been worded better

most companies in japan don't really like fan translations/patches and will even pass up officially releasing their stuff in english if they find out that someone released a fan translation for them. it's also part of the reason why most japanese companies think people in the west would rather pirate their shit instead of pay money for them.

obviously, fan translations have helped garner enough interest to warrant official english releases of vns like dangan ronpa and clannad, but aside from those exceptions, most companies (smaller companies especially) won't consider the translation effort worth it if there's a fan translation out somewhere.

the sentiment is essentially "instead of fan translating, come become an official translator." which is good! but it's pretty poorly phrased, which seems to be an issue they have (see: the NTY thread up top)

of course it's pretty commonly thought that if you work for MG you're going to be translating nukige for years before you get to work on anything you actually like, so even then I can't exactly blame some people for feeling apprehensive

only some though

i've got mixed feelings about this

on one hand, they definitely have a point, and i don't want to hinder the industry when it's finally starting to grow

on the other hand, otome games are almost never fucking localized, so it feels like if we don't make fan translations a lot of them will never see the light of day in english at all

mangagamer doesnt give a shit about otome/bl games, so i don't think that even crossed their minds when they wrote this

TBH you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.

If you do fan translate an Otome or BL game, you may damn that game's chances of ever getting an official release since Japanese companies will view it as English-speaking fandom needing another excuse to get "free access" to, or pirate, their games. Otome gets it pretty bad since people here are just starting to realize that games targeted towards women actually can sell, but if the companies in Japan aren't willing to make the translation effort then there isn't much anyone can do. BL is worse off as the game library BL market even in Japan is extremely limited compared to the Otome and Bishoujo markets. If you're a company producing BL and you're not Nitro+Chiral, then chances are you're not going to be a huge company to begin with. So if people produce fan translations of their stuff, then they're even less likely to spend money on an official translation.

However, you're damned if you don't since most people would never have developed an interest in Japanese Otome and BL games if it weren't for fan translations. If fans don't translate their favorite games, then you're going to have a hard time finding a good Otome or BL game to play unless you're fluent in Japanese.

The safest option would be to translate the demos and use that to garner interest without hurting the creators. Otherwise, again: you're damned if you, damned if you don't.

there are a ton of games that will never see the light of day in english. utapri, for example, and anything by type-moon, not because they wouldn't sell but because the license is too expensive. and then any older games, or games without shiny graphics, don't really stand a chance these days either.

no matter what mangagamer says, there are many vns that will never be localized, no matter how much the industry grows. there's no reason not to translate such games.

feel like i should also add that there wouldn't be much of an audience for mangagamer's games without fan translations, too. dmmd got loads of people interested in bl games, for example, and all the posts i've seen on tumblr urging people to buy no thank you!! are from dmmd fans. if there weren't any fan-translated bl games, few english-speaking fans would be interested in them, or know they exist in the first place. enzai didn't get people interested in bl games because it sucks. similarly, fan translations of muv luv, type-moon stuff and key stuff serve as most people's introduction to eroge, and if it weren't for those popular fan translations, there would be less people interested in playing kara no shoujo or eden or other localized eroge.

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