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No. What I'm saying is that, the fact that 1) it works (to clarify: scamming people doesn't "work" as it is obviously not an optimal way of doing things) 2) it's legal, is not sufficient to claim something is "ethical". What other people claimed, and I find their arguments good for those I cited, is that using kickstarter in this way can indeed be seen as "unethical". With that said, I'm not exactly a strong believer in the meaningfulness of ethics, and I don't care very much either about SP's doings and financial situation and whatever. I guess I just don't like the assumption that anything goes as long as it works and it's legal, and I especially don't like the often underlying tone that this kind "ultra-liberal" attitude is some intrinsic rule of nature.

It sounds to me like they're using it for exactly what KickStarer was designed for though...? I've seen multiple threads like these before, and they always make me giggle at how misinformed people are. Backers are not getting nothing out of putting money into a campaign - in fact, they are getting more for their money for backing the KickStarter than if they were to just buy the game post-release. That is a very shallow thing to say, as I can't imagine you've played any of those titles. Throughout this entire thread, you have been making assumptions out of thin air, as well as forcing your own opinions onto others by claiming to know how the market is supposed to work. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be aggravated that SP is not using an orthodox approach like MG and JAST. Well, I'll tell you this - the market is a fickle thing, and is rapidly changing. Well I am deeply sorry that two major titles spells 'over-reliance' for you

Unethical for me would be if they're taking advantage of their costumers without them knowing it. But Kickstarter is, quite frankly, one of the more honest ways to go about this. They're literally exposing everything they're doing to you and what you're getting for when you pay them and you only pay and support them if you'd like. They're not taking advantage of you, they're trying to involve you in the process of licensing a game and you only chose to support it if you want to. Unlike Jast or MG who only license the titles they feel they should license, SP actually asks their audience what they want licensed by launching a kickstarter and letting the fans decide. They're not shoving this down your throat, and like I mentioned earlier most of their kickstarters aren't even theirs to begin with, they're just indie devs who happened to partner with SP for extra advertisement, SP will likely not profit much off of it. Just because SP puts those kickstarters on their websites doesn't mean SP is the one in charge of those projects, they're just helping them get exposure. I really fail to see how unethical this is when SP is one of the companies that's most directly involved with fans, where the fans decide who to support and where to put their money in. You're saying they shouldn't keep doing it because they should establish themselves as a business by now instead of relying on fans throwing money at them, but I think they already have, they're pretty much an advertisement agency, and all the kickstarters or their page are primarly done by indie developers who are doing their own thing, so SP is just listing a bunch of Kickstarters at once, what's so inherently wrong with that?? This whole "dishonest" and "unethical" talk gives me a headache.

My heart of course says yes, it's my schedule that is the problem. And currently my schedule says... not now at the very least. Especially not for this next month (real life is going to be really busy and tedious for me the next 30 days or so). When you are speaking to Flutterz, definitely! When you are on screen but not speaking to Futterz, than probably not as much. Or at least it won't be the subject of the conversation then. xD Thanks for the support everyone. I'm glad people enjoyed it. And once again, I want to give a huge shout-out to FidgetQueen for creating the face sprites. I doubt it would have been nearly as amusing without them.

Hello FUWA! RLS is recruting for Violet Hill project! We are currently searching for a talented co-artist who can help Darksin out with character art. Good art skills are expected since applicants will try and match the style and quality of our head artist. We also need a SDCG artist. For those unfamiliar with the acronym, SD stands for "super deformed" which is commonly referred to as "chibi." Cuteness and neatness are an absolute plus, please send us your samples!

Missing the troll option.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o6c1UuoMwI

lol if you think any of the people hired by any of these companies are being paid well. It is a requirement for the people they employ to be motivated by passion for the games they work on rather than by money, because they get paid a laughable amount. Like, a tiny fraction of what actual translators get paid. All people hired by MG, JAST, and SP are essentially volunteers with minor benefits. Except for Clannad, where Sekai Project used all the money they acquired to hire multiple translators at, AFAIK, the actual standard wage for translators, which is why progress is so fast. But even still, they can pay to make it fast, but apparently not pay to make it good, because according to Herkz the quality of their work is leaving something to be desired. edit: I do agree that people heavily underestimate the operating costs of these companies and overestimate their profit margins. I'll toss a guess out there and say that Sekai Project still is not exactly laden with cash, they seem to be spending it as quickly as they're getting it in order to keep the gears turning. But my point is that the "skilled labor" issue is worked around by not actually paying them much, which is achieved by not actually employing "skilled" labor but amateurs who do this as a second job in their spare time. This is why official VN translations are also slow and unreliable. If anything, I hope that SP's approach can help break this mold. Because if you actually want this industry to grow and become more popular, they are absolutely going to have to earn much more money than they currently are and actually hire full-time employees at industry standard wages. Unfortunately, I don't see many signs of this happening any time soon.

Watched the first three episodes of From The New World. It's very pretty, and it's doing a fantastic job of making me feel uneasy. I wanted to relish the calm atmosphere it has going now, because I can see that all the nice everyday stuff is going up in flames very soon, but the show keeps jabbing me with reminders that all is decidedly not well. I don't recall any show every leaving me feel quite this nervous before - it's both pleasant and unpleasant, but mostly I'm savoring the feeling.

IIRC in Suika's case it was more like that^

Everyone who buys into those tier levels know exactly what kind of deal they're getting, and are basically knowingly donating to cause.

You can make that argument when it actually happens with an SP release Backers are able to opt out at any time before the end of the campaign should they change their mind. They're given more than enough time to think about their pledge, and should they feel that they regret buying something, then that's really not a problem that arises from Kickstarter, but from the consumer's own discretion. Many games have free trials and demos that show you the direction the developers are trying to go in. If you buy a product and you don't like it, then that's a reality that encompasses not just Kickstarter, but virtually any market you can think of. Business 101. How much do you think it costs to manufacture an iPhone 6? The maximum retail value is not attributed to the cost of production - it scales with consumer demand. If it's really not worth it, then people won't pledge for that tier. However, since people clearly do want those high tiers (most of them are all gone), then you're really not in a position to say that they're getting ripped off when the backers themselves feel like they're getting good value for their money. The only people who complain about this are the ones who are butthurt that they can't afford a one-of-a-kind colored shikishi. That being said, the higher tiers are geared towards more die-hard fans. I personally wouldn't back $5,000 on a game, but you need to be more open-minded and realize that there are people out there who do so willingly, and don't feel like they're being ripped off. If the backers are okay with it, then why are non-backers stirring up things like 'injustice' and all that bullshit?

On second thought, I don't really care that much about this issue. Sekai Project isn't even releasing games I want... so why I should I even care how they run their business? Honestly what I don't like about Sekai Project is their "non-adult first" policy rather than their penchant for crowdfunding (though the two are sort of linked). If they continue down the path they're on they'll simply fall off my radar as a company worth thinking about, much like NIS America.

I think the whole thing is even more stupid when you go into right or wrong. Is it violating other people's freedom? No. Check. Is the product they promise being delivered once they get the money? Yes. Check. Are they breaking any other law of some sort? Aside from organized crime with the illuminati, no. Check. ...Can't think of anything else to check, tbh. Their priority should be profit and keeping themselves alive. Using kickstarter is a nice 'n rational way to go for it.

JAST/MG-style funding: - Pay for licensing costs out of own pocket - Players buy the game once it's released - MG hopefully makes back funds in sales Pros: - Less people bitching about you - Can possibly license in bulk, whereas KickStarter really works on one project at a time - Even if sales don't do well, licensing fees were already paid, so the Japanese companies probably wouldn't hesitate to work with them again if fees were paid again up front. Cons: - If not enough sales, they lose money ========================================= Kick Starter: - People can back projects if they are genuinely interested in the project - Easy to gauge interest - Everyone wins in the end Pros: - If not enough interest and campaign fails, no losses for anyone - Backers actually get MORE out of their money (cheaper game + extra goodies WOW!!!111) - Said goodies are exclusively made for western fans, for the KickStarter. See stretch goals for CLANNAD for instance: "With the cooperation of some amazing artists in Japan, we'll create a Kickstarter original CLANNAD anthology manga!" Cons: - If project fails, the Japanese company in question might not want to work with them again because they've already tasted failure once (it might look bad for their company if they risked failing twice in a row). This is something money can't buy, and is more damaging than low sales. - People bitch about you NOTE: Just because a project is gets funded 200% more than its goal doesn't mean they make more money than if those funds were to go into sales instead. Looking at price and raw value of backer tiers alone, it is generally cheaper for consumers to back the KickStarter. People who back the project generally won't need to buy the game a second time, which in fact decreases actual sales.

http://www.siliconera.com/2015/06/18/senran-kaguras-producer-says-small-breasts-are-hard-to-work-with/

On mobile so please forgive my brevity. Krill has suffered a stroke and is in the hospital. It sounds like he's okay but he will need significant therapy. His wife is willing to pass along messages to him, so please post and let him know you're thinking of him and sending best wishes, and I'll make sure she gets them.

Let's see: Memory's Dogma Human Reignition Project My, my, that's really a lot (!) to consider SP might fail just from the sheer ammount of work they have to do. Aside from that, they're both promising games in terms of storyline and Memory's Dogma looks way better than most vn's often published by all those well-established japanese studios. I nearly forgot about Clannad, but I doubt there's a lot to do, since most of their work is already done for this moment. I really can't find a single reasonable point why this thread was brought into existence.

I don't really know what has been going on here and I feel like my brain cells will go down the drain if I read it all, but about the overuse of kickstarter: I don't care. The fans are getting their games, the company is getting their profit, VNs are getting more popular, it's basically what Fuwa has been trying to do, to make VNs popular on the west in a completely legal way. Basically, they're doing stuff, that's already a lot. I mean, if you only care about the big guns, we're getting the whole Grisaia trilogy and Clannad, that's pretty big.

I'm trying to see the negative here, and I just can't find it. As a consumer, I have two possible modes when it comes to a Kickstarter project that I want the final product of: I pledge I don't If I pledge, I am only harmed if the project fails after being funded. As far as I'm aware, that hasn't happened. So no harm done. If I do not pledge, I am only harmed if a project I want fails to be funded and not brought over as a result. And even then, that only holds true if it would have otherwise been brought over if Sekai Project had been using a different business model. Since this is pretty much impossible to accurately gauge, the default assumption based on Sekai Project's past performance is that no harm has been done. If you don't pledge to Kickstarters, or even just not to Sekai Project's Kickstarters, you are still able to buy products they release. So in that aspect there is literally no difference between different methods from a consumer standpoint because the result is exactly the same. The only other reason I could see for claiming that Sekai Project using Kickstarter is a bad thing is from sort of ideological standpoint predicated on the premise that Kickstarter should only be used as a desperation move. And frankly, I doubt that's a stance that Kickstarter would stand behind, so it only holds as much water as the crowdfunding populace grant it, which is to say not much. Evidence suggests that people prioritize their crowdfunding based on what they are interested in rather than what projects need outside funding the most. The only other other reason I could see would be if one were to claim to be some sort of moral or ethical authority on how crowdfunding should or should not be pursued regardless of the actual consequences to the consumer or desires of those doing the funding. In which case I guess I just don't believe in your authority as much as you do.

Question 2 is missing a "conspiring" option.

my driving music atm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW_ikQbTD-4

I started playing Wild Arms 3 as part of my destressing from this week and I`ve really taken a liking to it. It has a really interesting system, and I love how they went pretty much full-out cowboy for it whereas the previous 2 games were little more like ordinary RPG settings with very small touches of wild west. The music is really good too, but then again Wild Arms has always had a really good OST for all the games.

I find it sad like half the people really disliked this. I had a blast reading through it. Maybe it's just me being desensitized to it but I really did not feel the sex so eye popping and distracting. For one, it made sense for most of the sex scenes to be where they are, and also most of them are really short and not too in depth. And of course some of them were pretty lewd. I don't know I just wasn't bothered by any of the sex in this game like a lot of you seem to have been. As for artistic direction, that's very hit and miss, the art was really all over the place, but I'm glad I'm on the side who easily got used to it. Nekoko's route will forever remain my favorite because feels.

I know you're just being snarky and all, but... No one is asking why SP crowdfunds, it's pretty freakin' obvious, but rather is it right (from whatever perspective or spin you want to use) that they're doing so.

I finally Finished Trails in the Sky. The tournament in the final chapter was so boring that I took a long break from the game. Now I'm in Second Chapter hype mode.

And what makes you to judge that and on what basis? I've never seen so many smart-asses. First you complain there are no TL's at all and no there's no games and everything is unobtainable. Then you complain, when a trusted publisher is doing too well and publishes way too many visual novels, because KS/business ethics? Logic. In case of SP, KickStarter involves little to no risk, it's only reasonable they took it as an advantage; other publishers like JAST or MG are way too mainstream and rely on different types of funding, if anything it's only their own fault for not using KS as a potential monetary source. KS is preety much an awesome way to fund projects nowadays and help small developers to appear on the market, as long as the company behind it can be trusted and knows how to handle the campaign. SP isn't and never was a big company to start with, nor does it manage huge funds. KS isn't only a crowdfunding platform anymore, it's a very optimal system that allows developers and publishers to deliver certain products in a pre-sale way, they wouldn't be able to deliver in any other case because the potential risks involved are often way too big to justify potential profits. It allows them to bypass a lot of nasty shit often that often accompanies the publishing process, or self-publish stuff. SP is a company that offers help in publishing with funding and PR, while devs can focus solely on actual game development. In case of SP, they can basically probe the market for interests, put up a potential product and it's up to people whether they want to support it, or not. In the end, everything that lands on KS was long before welcome by the consumers who want those things published/finished in the first place. As long as they keep delivering quality content, working along with devs and building a network of trust and possibilities, the fact they use KS in way that allows them to expand rapidly makes any ethics involved completely irrelevant, as it doesn't impact anyone else. After all, they've been doing good job, they made a lot of people happy and don't plan to stop. It might be their strategy to build up their title base with small indie releases, while they're preparing for bigger business deals. After all, they managed to do something both Jast and MG haven't been able to do for years. Don't expect them to sleep on money, though; they're simply smart and know how to use everything internet has to offer in order to fulfill their plans. As long as everyone's content, I couldn't care less if a bunch of people thinks what they do is unethical, simply because they learned to use KS to the fullest potential.

This remake is almost certainly coming to XBox One and possibly PC as well. Anyways, everyone knows the real reason to buy a PS4 is Persona 5. edit: Yes, I know there will be a PS3 version but I am a big enough fanboy to want to get the best possible version.

Shall I venture a guess at where this music will be used? How about one of the protagonists nightmares? That sounds about right.

Ryukishi07 did Claudia the potato girl, 'Crazy' Alfred Akagi, Old Jeanne Amakawa, Maurice Monobe (expy of Higurashi and Umineko's Okonogi), James Tomitake (expy to Tomitake Jirou from Higurashi), Old Wayne Uedera, Wang Yuanhong, Tequila Matoba, and all the grunt mafias, around 10 or so different sprites. Souichiro, one of Umineko manga adptation artist, draw Rose Haibara, Richard Maiougi, Stella Maiougi (expy to Rika), Meryl Tanashi (this one was drawn with different style in purpose, also expy in name to Higurashi Miyo Tanako), Caleb Keireiji, Miguel Kurashiki, Julie Hayashibara, and Rapunzel. Jirou Suzuki, another guy who draw Umineko manda adaptation, draw the supreme badassery incarnation Leo Shishigami, Battler expy Capt. Phillip Butler, Lee Meijiu, Alan Aramaki, Lee Meixue, and Gabriel Kaburaya (may this whitehaired bastard's soul be damned in hell several times over). Jirou Suzuki has quite a distinct art style, with those thin limbs in his drawing. But the one he draws always came out real handsome/pretty. I mean, like, REALLY. An artist named Yaeko Ninagawa draws young Wayne Uedera, Cyrus Saimura, Amanda Amamiya, and Toratsugu Uedera. An artst named Nana Natsunishi who also draw an adaptation of Rose Guns Days in the form of manga, draws Oliver Oribe, Charles Chatani, and Keith Kisaragi. An artist named Yuuji Takagi draws NIna Ninagi. Hinase Momoyama, the one who drawn Umineko and Higurashi manga adaptation, draws Xiao-Lan the Supreme Moe Chinese Loli Assassin (also named Lee Meilan in the credit), and also Young Jeanne Amakawa. Lastly, Higasa Akai draws Sun Zilong. I think that's about all of them.

Right click the image -> click open image in new tab -> copy the imgur url. Do what Roach said to edit your signature, click the picture frame icon in the text editor (pictured below), and then paste and hit okay. Then click save changes.

Happy birthday Ren! (Even though it's probably not your birthday anymore but whatever...)

I'm very late. Happy birthday, Ren. More Nico to you. <3

I'm a little late to this, but Happy Birthday Ren! I had your birthday marked on my phone's calender but didn't account for the 13 hour difference, so I'm nearly a day off in saying it I also want to say thanks for all you've done, you're an awesome person and an awesome friend.

Okay fine fine, geez.

Krills speech evaluation was yesterday they gave him 4 test and she said its not anything cognitive at all he has Apraxia of Speech he needs to go to therapy with her 3 times a week and start reading more at home out loud

Hi Everyone Time for an Update on my husbands condition....He is doing great other than still having trouble with communication He cant type as many of you in the chatroom have seen and he cant say everything he wants to say He did have a Therapy session this week and She said we need to reboot his brain if you will So Starting Monday June 15th he will be starting Speech and Cognitive therapy at a facility a few times a week so he can try to regain as much back as possible Our son EJ whose turning 3 in July is his motivation He wants to be able to read to him again because when he brings him a book and ask It kills him inside to not be able to So sorry for the update not being at the start of the week but im a very busy woman as of late Have a great weekend and i will try to update earlier next week

I graduated high school 6 years ago. Still waiting to grow up.

Hope you get better soon, dude!

Not going to lie, I have never had the pleasure of posting on a thread with Krill, but looking at some of the posts he's made, he seems like a good guy. Get better Krill.

Good luck krill, wish you best luck!!

(Last time…) Guy: "Oookay. I still think they're porny." (< not a word) Me: "That probably says more about you than the art style." *Tay gets slugged* Me: "Owww!" Guy: "No, but really. Why not just read a book or comic instead?" (And now for the "epic" conclusion!) Me: “What do you mean?” Guy: “I dunno. Why read *that”—“ *he waves a finger lazily at the PC screen* “when you could just read a comic or a book, instead?” Me: “Um. Because variety is a good thing? For example, do you eat the same thing for lunch every day?” *Uncomfortable moment of silence.* Me: “You do, don’t you?” Guy: “Yeah, generally.” Me: “Dang. Way to pull a Ford on me. Okay, so, that was a bad example –“ Guy: “Ford?” Me: “Henry Ford. The guy who made the cars? He’s famous for the line, ‘You can have any color [of Model T] as long as it's black.’ Meaning: sameness is boring.” *Guy’s eyes are still glazed over* Me: “Okay, fine. Tell me a hobby that interests you.” Guy: “NASCAR.” Me: “Um. No. Try again. Give me another one. A better one.” *Tay gets slugged* Me: “Owww!” Guy: “Music, then.” Me: *Rubbing arm* “What kind of music?” Guy: “Oh, all kinds.” Me: “What’s your favorite song?” Guy: “’The Angry American’ by Toby Keith” *Uncomfortable moment of silence* Me: “I’m feeling increasingly justified, here. If that’s your favorite song, we’ve got bigger problems to deal with.” *Continuing rapidly to avoid more pain* “Okay, so, by comparison – don’t you like listening to more than just that one song? Or to just Toby Keith? Isn’t it good to get some variety?” Guy: “I guess so. But I do listen to him most of the time. I don’t like much else.” Me: “You’re making this very hard, [Guy]. Anyway, I’m sure that if you searched your soul you’d discover that variety is a good thing and keeps life interesting. I do read books, but I also read these things—“ *pointing to PC screen* “—because they’re fun. And different.” Guy: “And porny.” Me: “What is it with you and that word?” Guy: “It’s just what they are, [Tay].” Me: *mucho annoyed look* Guy: “I’d be too embarrassed to get caught reading one of those.” Me: “How mature of you.” Guy: “They can’t be that much different than a book, man.” Me: “You’d be surprised.” Guy: “Not likely.” Me: “How about we make this interesting?” Guy: “Fine by me.” Me: “I’m going to let you borrow [my tablet] for a few hours. You’re going to play one of these ‘porny’ games. If it doesn’t impress you, I’ll buy you lunch. If it does impress you, however, you buy me lunch. And if it makes you cry, you have to take my afternoon shift.” Guy: “Fine. But if I hate it, you have to take my shift tomorrow morning.” Me: “Great.” *tap* *tap* *tap* Guy: “So what am I reading?” Me: “It’s a sunny little thing called 'Planetarian'.” *hands over tablet* Guy: “Wish me luck.” Me: “Good luck. Oh, and I locked the other apps, so you can’t snoop. Sorry.” Guy: “D*@%.” The After-Story: [Guy] loved Planetarian and he definitely cried. Lunch was delicious, as was having the afternoon off. He’s interested in trying another “porny game”, though I do not know which one I’ll recommend to him. I have not yet actually told him that there is, in fact, porn in some of the games. Mostly because I really hate the word “porny.”