boukyaku 10 Posted October 8, 2013 Share Posted October 8, 2013 Right, I got lost when trying to maneuver my way between the squabbling. Back on topic... There's obviously a lot more going on here than what was mentioned. Instead of nitpicking fan translations AKA volunteer work I'll try to think about the commercial side of things. If the demand of VNs was much higher than it currently is in the west then I am sure we would be seeing a lot more TLs of better quality VNs. There's just not enough demand for this type of game outside of Asia. I think you've all noticed that many more VNs (of better quality) tend to get TLed to Chinese and Korean. It's mostly the main stream titles that do the workload in the west at least and this completely overshadows VNs. Now, with that, imagine how hard it would be to get a license to TL and sell said high quality VN in the west. It's most likely cheaper to TL and license older less known (crappy quality) VNs and less risky. It's also cheaper to hire amateur TLers than someone who can go through 300 pages of patents in one day. The target audience in the west also seems to be different than Asia. I've noticed there are a lot of official VNs tailored to "BOOBIES BOOBIES BOOBIES FARTS FARTS PUSSY PUSSY PUSSY!!!1111!!!" type of readers. I am not saying this is the majority of the type of readers in the lovely VN community but looking at the list of official VNs this is the impression I get when looking at the list on this site and VNDB. Here's the thought process I think most of those capable or have the skills to accurately TL a VN for free go through; "What's the reward for spending 1-2 years of my life TLing this VN for free?" It seems like one would receive a lot more grief than gratitude for TLing a VN for free. I think it would be better to say that a person studying the language and wants some practice in TL would try their hand at this stuff before moving on to something harder, like patents. It's more reasonable for someone to TL a VN for him/herself than for the community (at least for me). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gerard the Lone Wolf 10 Posted October 8, 2013 Share Posted October 8, 2013 (edited) This thread was inspired by Pretty Soldier Wars A.D. 2048, so we are talking about commercial releases since the beginning. Contrary to Aaeru claiming that VN has more than a million western readers, I'll agree that it's not very popular in the west or even in some country in Asia itself. And with the scale and nature of the current fanbase, licensing and selling high-quality VNs won't earn high profits. Big companies like Key, Type-Moon, or Giga are used to see big figures and will not deal with localization company, unless they are certain it could sell more than just a mere 5 000 copies. Instead, we got company like Softhouse-Seal for example, who is all too eager to let MG pick any title from their warehouse and eventually lead to MG being labeled as NukigeGamer. We could say that the majority of the western readers actually loves story-driven title than a nukige, but the fact remains that Boob Wars is MG number #1 high-selling VN, and I don't think we will be seeing anymore story-driven VN from them in a long time if Kara no Shoujo 2 and Cartagra sells flop. I do think that most of VN readers are hardcore pirates too, so we can't expect official titles to sell well either. I think that official localization will not grow and we can't rely on it to deliver big titles. Chinese (with its large population) and Korean's people could learn and mastered the Japanese language faster I think, and they have bigger work forces and dedication to cover many titles too, so it isn't that surprising to see many fan-translated VNs in their languages, and we can't exactly compete with them either. They are a different kind of beast. It's more reasonable for someone to TL a VN for him/herself than for the community I do think it's the right way. Just look at people saying how TakaJun is disrespecting Majikoi's fans for stalling Miyako's route. Wow, you really don't want to translate for this community. Edited October 8, 2013 by Gerard the Lone Wolf Quote Link to post Share on other sites
erogeking 15 Posted October 8, 2013 Author Share Posted October 8, 2013 (edited) This thread was inspired by Pretty Soldier Wars A.D. 2048, so we are talking about commercial releases since the beginning. no not really it was just the worst game that i could think of off the top of my head. I really just wondered why some translators would choose alright nothing that special kind of games when they can pick extremely well budgeted games with story lines that would leave you thinking WOW!. thats more of the reason why i created this thread and also so that some people can let of a bit of steam about some of the shitty games We could say that the majority of the western readers actually loves story-driven title than a nukige, but the fact remains that Boob Wars is MG number #1 high-selling VN, it is pretty sad that something that short with shitty game play could get so many sales but i do understand that its faster to translate compared to Kara no Shoujo and thats why mangagamer translates nukige's more often but what i dont understand is why boob wars would get more sales i mean i like a good nukige but i would greatly prefer a story driven eroge Edited October 8, 2013 by erogeking Quote Link to post Share on other sites
boukyaku 10 Posted October 8, 2013 Share Posted October 8, 2013 (edited) That's because VNs are categorized as PORN GAMES and not novels in the Western Market. Type "porn game" in google and you will see what I mean. Looking at what's out there with porn games and official VN titles there are a lot of similarities. Like I typed before, the target audience is different. Apparently there aren't many who are into reading VNs with great story but would rather fap/laugh/enjoy to whatever. Edited October 8, 2013 by boukyaku Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gerard the Lone Wolf 10 Posted October 8, 2013 Share Posted October 8, 2013 (edited) I am very sure a lot of people are into reading story-driven VNs (the download counts for story-driven titles like Rewrite, Grisaia, G-sen, Sharin no Kuni, F/sn, and MLA among others, can attest to that. Rewrite patch alone has thousands of downloads according to Ixrec), but the fact remains that this amounts will never be achieved for official localization sells count. Boob Wars got a lot of sales because the crack for it came out really late, like two months after the official released. And apparently those pettanko fanatics have little patience inside them and ended up buying the damn thing. lol Oh, the silly thing people do for porn and fetishes. Edited October 8, 2013 by Gerard the Lone Wolf Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fluffy 29 Posted October 13, 2013 Share Posted October 13, 2013 I dunno why random vn's get translated and why they are so random, but i mostly guess that it's because of boredom? Maybe some translators have special orders from the makers of these crappy-named vn's? There could be many such reasons.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GenjiChan 10 Posted October 29, 2013 Share Posted October 29, 2013 For Eroges.... Sex sells.... For VNs.... The Company's name sells.... Translating them is like promoting yourself.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
killerinsidee 14 Posted October 29, 2013 Share Posted October 29, 2013 In MG's case, I think it's pretty simple. If they could get better licenses, they would translate those instead of the horrid nukige. Without writing a wall of text about it, it's all about the licensing cost vs actual sales. If you take huge games from companies like Key, the music licenses alone would cost like hell, among other things (Kara no Shoujo voice license cost). On the other hand, a lot of VN companies are really xenophobic when it comes to licensing VNs in the west so they don't even want to talk to MG about it. JAST - they most take already translated scripts and buy them from fan translators so they don't have many crap VNs. Fan TL - Some translators TL some shitty nukige for practice or some really lame moege they like. The said VNs are mostly very easy so you don't need to know epic amounts of Japanese to TL them. A few rare translators tackle the more difficult and longer ones just for the hell of it. Personally, I think it's a damn miracle that some of these huge VNs got fan TL'd because it takes a fuckton of wok. Not to mention that they do it for free. We all complain about shitty VNs and slooooow TLs, etc., but there's nothing much most of us can do about it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
floral 10 Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 (edited) Companies translate what they think will get played and what Japanese companies will let them license ie what they can afford. Fan Translation individuals translate whatever their whims dictate, sometimes enlisting the aid of a hacker to figure out how to extract and insert the scripts. Fan translation groups usually form to translate a specific title, then they may decide to stick around if they have found another one they want to translate. Most often though it is the whims of the group or individual. If done wrong most ridicule. If done right and we do not like it we either appreciate that another title has been translated and/or thank them or we criticize them on their choice. If done right and we like it we hold it up on a pedestal and appreciate the effort, often thanking her/him/them. We should always be appreciative unless they really did a bad job, sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. The bad jobs that translation companies do are often on purpose to satisfy laws. Edited December 12, 2013 by floral Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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