AlexZandria

They put out 16 last year if you include HuniePop and Sakura Spirit, if not they put out 14. Either way that is practically double what you claimed. Also if you look at the current in progress stuff most of it isn't nukige. Super heavy tiltage man list of non-nukige planned this year: Princess Evangile, NTY!!!, Oz Mafia, Kara no Shoujo 2, BokuTen – Why I Became An Angel, Da Capo 3, Higurashi re-translation, Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning, Eden*, and Fata morgana no Yakata List of Nukiges in progress: Forbidden Love with my Wife's Sister, Euphoria, Free Friends, Free Friends 2 Super heavy tiltage man

I'm iffy on this. I don't think every fan translated piece should be officially translated but for a few of the bigger titles that will definitely sell in the US (I think fo F/S right off the bat) I would like to see them translated because I think they could bring in a bigger audience to VN players than a pirated copy with a fan translated patch could. Other than the big names though I'd rather see new games be translated. :C but like cute anime girls, people. I really hope that in the future Japanese companies feel better about letting us bring moege over here, but I don't really think it will change because US laws are stupid and I think some people consider it illegal child pornography over here.

Most of their best sellers last year were, yes, and they produced a lot more Nukige last year than anything else. They are definitely going to be producing more BL titles in the future and as long as Ozmafia produces the same amount of sales as their other titles Otomes will be seen on MG as well. They came out with 14 games last year 10 of which were Nukige which is why 8 of their best sellers were also Nukige, imo. This year they have a lot more products that aren't Nukige coming out. There's been a lot of hype around both of the female oriented titles this year and they said they would be happy to release products with more translation costs as long as they sold on the same level as Nukige. Really it's all down to where we put our money down this year. They're coming out with enough that isn't nukige that if you just support a few of the titles this year I think it'll solidify that they can come out with a fair mix of both.

GG I knew it. Guys blame Soulless--VN companies look at his bookmark history to gauge how much piracy is going on

Princess Evangile, NTY!!!, Oz Mafia, Kara no Shoujo 2, BokuTen – Why I Became An Angel, Da Capo 3, Higurashi re-translation, Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning, Eden* (did that come out last year?), and Fata morgana no Yakata List of Nukiges in progress: Forbidden Love with my Wife's Sister, Euphoria, Free Friends, Free Friends 2, that Valkyrie game that came out at the end of last year. Like most of the games 'in progress' are Nukige. Free Friends 2 is even on hold and I'd venture to say that while Euphoria will be Nukige it seems like it'll actually have some decent plot in there too.

I think the hope will be that in the future Japan finds English translations to be beneficial and 'niche' or 'unknown' titles might actually come to companies like MG to pursue translations. Their office is actually in Tokyo. Other than that I feel like we can one day reach a point where MG, JAST, and Sekai are working with most of the major companies and can work on releasing titles after they come out without fans needing to assert their desire for the particular titles.

Definitely second this, if translation companies haven't been lying to us we've been told that companies in Japan are a little uneasy about translations because they feel like the US has a lot more piracy problems and don't feel like it is worth the efforts.

I agree with MangaGamer. Yeah we still have a long way to go, but let's be honest, we are picking up pace here. We have some big names set to come out this year. Clannad and Grisaia to name a few obvious ones but come on who isn't excited for Ozmafia and Angel Beats (idek that it is actually slated for this year?) and a bunch of other ones in progress. Personally that Steampunk title that MG is TLing looks great. And don't get me started on the Steam releases. How these VNs are starting to pick up traction on a major platform like Steam (even if it is mostly sucky ones atm). There is obviously a market for them in the US and this market seems to be growing. Not only that but this market is starting to pick up a lot of non-nukige titles in different genres that will appeal to a wider range of audiences. I really hope that MG will take in translators who can work part time hours instead of full time because if they do I think that'll be huge. If we can get the people who dedicate their time to fan translating to actually get involved with real companies that'd be great. I know it sounds far fetched but I think MG knows that there is a market and they have the ability to expand their business. If people come to them I think it's not far off to say they can hire more workers and take on more titles because they know they can get the sales on it. Like they said last December they made more money than they had all year. Last December they made more than 2012/2013 combined. I think if MG is welcoming to new workers and VN TLs want to work for them this could be a huge opportunity to bring regular releases to the English language. Imo screw the whole 'pro-piracy' idea of people against it because they want to get it 'faster'. It'd be one thing if they were buying imports or DLs of the game and then adding the patches to it but a lot of people against MGs want to lower Fan Translations are people who just pirate the games. That doesn't help anybody. Yeah it spreads games--but like you're spreading games that are only found in Japan and spreading games that nobody is actually importing so you're not really helping anyone out. Now the people who do buy games and then patch them kudos to you and if you object to MG's desire for less fan translations I understand. To people who just pirate all the games, I don't really see how you're helping the situation. If that makes sense.

If the English version was so bad should I just see if I can find a hardcopy import and download a patch for it instead? I don't know if I should be directly funding MoeNovels if they butchered the TL so bad. What exactly does the restoration patch change about it? Those statistics are actually pretty scary I appreciate the article though I didn't realize there was a Fuwanovel write up on it, thanks. I didn't realize that the start of Ageha's route was about being sex friends I thought that was the end of her route so I didn't really realize they had changed the whole thing. I originally heard about it from Steam and was on the fence about it but since I'd been getting more active in the VN forum communities I've seen it get a lot of hate for censorship and I wasn't sure why. Well I know they often censor stuff for Steam. HuniePop, NekoPara, Eden* (I know the original was all ages but I have a feeling they just would have made the +bonus content version if they didn't want to put it on Steam), Princess Evangile, etc but I didn't expect them to censor it much more than they would have any other Steam game.

I've heard a lot of bad things about the IMHHW translation, mostly pertaining to the removal of the H-scenes and how they changed a lot of dynamics in the story. I was curious as to how people felt about the translation other than the H-scenes. Would it really be a bad idea to play this version? I don't really care whether or not my games have H-scenes in them and I had been thinking about getting the game but I'm pretty weary about it after all of the flak I've seen it get.

I actually appreciate you posting this. I really enjoyed this article. On the other hand I will say that part of the reason for this misconception comes from the fact that the whole 'anime' art style did in fact sprout off of western cartoons at the time. The whole big eyed simplified artstyle came from the west and as their art style's roots originated from a place dominated by white people others assumed that Japanese artists were just drawing white people. Not saying that the people they are drawing aren't in fact Japanese, but part of this assumption came from the origins of the anime art style.

Actually I beg to differ. Nukiges are the best because that's what Shigeo Hamashima draws and if she was into women I'd learn Japanese and go lesbo for her. I swear I've been fangirling over her for 2 weeks straight now. I was disappointed that ClockUp was in 10th place in terms of companies and that Fratnite didn't make it on the list of wanted VNs. Call me obsessed.

I think holding up over time is a definite consideration but I wouldn't consider re-readability to be as important. A VN can be of high quality and great enjoyability and not hold the same effect when you reread it--partly because it was the mystery and they way that mystery held up throughout the entire VN that made it good. I feel like in all types of media the Mystery genre loses a bit of its value the second go. You can still appreciate the hard work put into it and even look for clues throughout the game that would have hinted you off about what the outcome would be, but the suspense that made it such a good read isn't there the second time. It could be put together flawlessly and have a complexly weaved plot but once you know what's going on-- a lot of that charm is harder to notice. I also find that VNs that aren't kinetic can be harder to truly reread. You can go back over a route to see if it fits the test of time, but you aren't going to hold the skip button over the common route 5 times if you've already finished the VN once. You're going to pick a route or two, play them, and then leave the rest unfinished. Because dedicating 60 hours to reread something after you've already reread your favorite parts of is pretty hard... ...Unless you're an idiot like me. I played Runefactory 3 on 4 different occasions. I finished it right after I got it the first time. I played it from the start again (assuming I hadn't finished it the first time) ~6 months later and realized that ending seemed familiar after I finished it, played it again another year later and again didn't remember I had finished it the 1st time. And then picked it up a 4th time a bit after that and played it on hard mode at which point it was so easy and I'd only remembered finishing it once until I looked at my RF3 tags on my old tumblr and realized I'd actually finished it 3 times before. OTL.

Ehh yes and no. I think it really depends on what people want out of it. With a clear cut and dry survey that has a small minded purpose (how do people feel about feminism, what is your average breakfast like? What do you find are the most important traits in a lover? Do you think X was innocent?) it tells you a lot ore about the survey--with something very broad I think it depends on what the person wants out of it as to if it tells you that. I was curious as to buying habits went as well as what the survey told MG about a person's value on certain aspects of a game (the question about how important art, writing, characters, eroge were to them). Both of those were answered quite nicely (assuming most people took the survey seriously). A general trend is more titles by age (along with an guestimate) was interesting to me because I fall under the 18-21 group (although I believe their group ended at 24?) and I was curious as to what my spending habits are compared to my peers. I didn't really want a M/F comparison--age more accurately represented what I was looking for. As for what the survey told MG about a person's value for games it told me what MG is going to be looking for in the next games they translate. Telling me that the art was up there was one of the best things they could tell me as, no offense, if I don't enjoy the art I have trouble sticking with it and the first thing I look for before I read the bio is the art to see if I could potentially spend 30-60 hours looking at it.

Maybe I'd have to look deeper into it but what they Washington Post specifically stated was that a larger percent of women use computers/mobile devices than men who tend to prefer console gaming. If you're doing all your gaming on an Xbox it shouldn't affect if you get a Mac or PC

By literally 4%. In 2014 48% of gamers were cited to be female. And you can't call VNs a particularly strainious genre of games on a system which is the type of gamer polled in MGs poll anyway

SMH. It's okay my wishlist is what is really out of whack. My high priority is half nukige even though I have never bought/played a nukige. After playing NTY!!! and catching the screenshots on Euphoria I literally put every VN that Shigeo Hamashima has drawn on my WL with high priority. Placing that "women find art to be most important" stereotype to work here.

Not really I'm pretty sure it was a pick 3 on the most important topics and erotic content made it to #3 for men. Not to mention that they said the survey showed that the OLDER you got the more important it became and the OLDER you got the MORE VNs you bought per year. So the people who have the money to buy games not only value the erotic content but they buy more nukige.

Well it's talking about problems purchasing titles from them. A lit of people who took their survey probably didn't have huge problems buying from then

It doesn't really get me while playing. After I've finished the entire game I'll give it a gut feeling vote based on the words by the numbers. Games that still manage to make me sick to my stomach, or depressed, or giddy after a year or so definitely get 8s or 9s. Let me put it this way, I still hear Leon's name and I start defending him and his role in Dangan Ronpa all over again. And then I die a little inside again. ;-;

Because a site that is trying to promote visual novels in the west shouldn't also be promoting pirating. It doesn't help encourage sales of these titles either. Not to mention that the torrents are technically illegal and if they plan to grow as a website it's a lot easier to get clean now instead of in the future when legal issues arise.