Darklord Rooke

Localised doesn't just mean words and concepts are kept accurately, it also means sentence structure and language habits are changed to suit the target audience.Sentence structure causes a lot of problems, if I understand correctly(I only understand english but I try and talk to translators because I'm interested in Russian literature, and Japanese shows.) So, for example, Russian sentence structure can be completely different to English, and they can place something at the end of a sentence which refers to something at the beginning of the sentence. Tolstoy used to have these long sentences which sound awkward in english. Take for example this accurately-ish translated sentence from War and Peace She evidently considered it the proper thing to show by a smile her interest in the general conversation; but, against her will, her eyes under their long, thick lashes kept looking with such passionate girlish adoration at her cousin, who was leaving for the army, that her smile could not deceive anyone for a moment and it was clear that the little cat crouched down only in order to leap up more energetically and play with her cousin as soon as they, like Boris and Natasha, could get out of the drawing room. The cat is a metaphor for the girl being described. A more localised version follows: She seemed to have thought it necessary to get involved in the general conversation if only by smiling, but now, in spite of herself, she found her eyes under their long thick lashes turning to her cousin, who was going off into the army. Her girlish passion bordering on adoration was so obvious that her smile didn't fool anyone; it was clear that the kitten had crouched down only to pounce faster than ever on her cousin and tease him the moment they could get out of the drawing-room like Boris and Natasha. As you can see Tolstoy had a thing for massive, long sentences, and in fact this is what he is known for. I can't remember if it was a statement regarding some Russian language peculiarity or if he just wrote like that, but it makes things awkward to read in english. The comparison is much smoother, but you've lost his distinct style. So to say that keeping things less localised is pandering to the visual novel fanbase is something I don't think is right - we do want things easy to read in english, don't we? I would think that would mean changing the way Japanese sentences are structured somewhat? Which would mean fairly localised, just not OVER localised. I think localisation gets a bad rap, generally speaking. *If anyone is curious, the faithful rendition of War and Peace was obtained from 'Pevear and Volohnsky's' version, they are an award winning translation team lauded for their accuracy. The more localised version is Anthony Brigg's Britishised version of War and Peace, which keeps a closer sentence structure to Tolstoy than Garnett did, who overlocalised the bejeezus out of it.

Except quite a few men only hold a door open for women and the elderly, and then you have to think why only those people? Nobody's taking a stab at people who offer kindness to all (like you), but rather at the well entrenched notion in our society that a gentleman is a person who is chivalrous to women. This probably comes from the notion from a by-gone time that a gallant man is one who is chivalrous to women, but can you not find something wrong with this statement? Chivalry was a code of conduct among knights who defended, honoured and offered kindness to the weaker members of our society. Chivalry was offered to women because they were viewed to be weaker than men, so why would it be so surprising that the concept of gentlemen being chivalrous to women would rile somewhat? Chivalry is offering elderly and women a seat on the bus because they are weaker than you. Chivalry is offering women, elderly and children the first place on the lifeboat because they are weaker than you. Chivalry is offering the elderly and women a sheltered spot because they are weaker than you. It's a special form of kindness reserved for those who are, well, weaker than you.

Chivalry ey? Let me post an article which deals with an interesting point. Pop quiz. A professional man holds the door open for a female colleague. Is that sexist? A husband always insists on driving during tiring trips to save his wife the effort. Is that sexist? What about that nice guy on the train who stands to allow a woman he's never met to sit down. Is THAT sexist? New research has sparked fiery debate over a question I've long been unable to answer. Is chivalry sexist? The study, conducted by two female psychologists from Pennsylvania State University and Phillips University Marburg in Germany, sought to examine how much people recognise sexism on a daily basis and if awareness of sexist exchanges altered their perspective. Male and female colleagues were asked to record instances of both "blatant sexism" (derogatory name calling, unwanted sexual advances) and "benevolent sexism" (which includes well-intentioned behaviour or philosophies that differentiate women as needing special consideration, having feminine skills or as being vulnerable. Women needing to be protected by men or rescued first in a disaster were examples cited in the study.) After becoming more aware of blatant and benevolent forms of sexism around them, women tended to view the behaviours as inappropriate. Men, however, did not believe the "benevolent" incidents were sexist. <snip> It's true that women are biologically different. So should they be treated as such? Part of me feels that, with monthly pains, like childbearing and perpetual double standards of womanhood, I am owed some grocery lifting, pedestal placing, and occasional spider killing by the men in my life. Likewise, certain gendered behaviours have such deep roots in romanticism - he pays on the first date, he gets down on one knee - I would truly be sad to see them go. The danger, however, is if gallantry begets the notion that women are less than or need special favours in order to succeed. Men and women might subconsciously receive that message and carry it with them to their schoolyards, workplaces and marriages. If your girlfriend is too "delicate" to change a tire, is a female manager too "weak" to run your board? And if you believe that he should pay for dinner, are you more willing to accept a lower salary? Because I would answer yes, that would be sexist. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2011/06/28/is-chivalry-sexist/ Now, having met many feminists who DO hold the above view I can state that this viewpoint is both real and valid. So, does this kindness reserved specially towards women have a place in a world which emphasises gender equality?

If the game you're making is a pure VN, consider targeting the 'Interactive Fiction' crowd. The only difference between the majority of 'Interactive Fiction' and 'Visual Novels' is 'Visual Novels' have graphics and sound. The adventure game community might also be worth targeting, and the section of the RPG crowd who love heavy stories might be worth a go. I wish you the best of luck.

If you're making a visual novel then promoting on lemma is a must, that's where everybody goes to promote their VNs - Winterwolves, Hanako etc etc. It's a website with a solid history, and a large member base solely dedicated to developing visual novel type games. After that you'll need to pick and choose. Fuwa's a good place also, but some visual novel communities are a little prejudiced against OELVNs so be careful.

Yep, the mods definitely are. You can't both 'give the users a lot of freedom' and run a forum which aims to be inclusive, welcoming and limit abuse, because these ideas are mutually opposing. To create a welcoming website you're LIMITING human behaviour. And as I said earlier in the year, when the mods were sitting on their hands doing SFA watching as users abused a new translator who came onto the forums, I don't accept your excuse for your collective laziness. Nor did I accept Down's excuse that he was "waiting for people to behave like adults and sort things out for themselves."

Yes, there is a bit of a problem with consistency in what goes in G&C and what stays in GD. Some stuff in GD really belongs in the games and chatter forum. Like Ren's Cryptic puzzle thread which is a forum game. And also, why are all the forum groups (avatar groups for example) in games and chatter... except Steve's "Temple of Mare"?

I started out with hope for the title, but unfortunately the story doesn't grab me. And when you’re not interested in the story, you notice technique issues you might otherwise let go. Like how the VN starts with an info-dump (I’m not talking about the prologue here) or how the translators are using every replacement for the word ‘said’ they can think of. Like ‘repeated’, ‘retorted’, ‘uttered’ and ‘hoped’ (I AM talking about the prologue here.) So the VN isn’t really for me. That shouldn’t deter anyone else from giving the demo a go though.

You want new people to have discussions while also wanting all the old people on the board to ignore it. Interesting. Not much of a discussion then, is it? Maybe that's why a lot of repeated threads I see have fewer posts than the originals... If you want to have a discussion about something, then I'd recommend searching for the old threads. You may avoid rehashing old ground and may even see the opportunity to open up the discussion into new areas. Making a new thread about the same thing will not only produce unneeded clutter, but also alienate all of the older members who have already had that discussion, limiting the people who will take part right from the start.

Moderators use their power and influence to help a forum/community stay true to its ideology. Depends on the website. A certain forum I visit tries to create a pub like atmosphere, so obviously the rules there concerning profanity and abuse would be a lot more lenient than on here, a community which emphasises inclusivity and tolerance.

My thoughts are similar to Steve's here. The annoyance with creating a new thread when there's existing threads available is the old ground that inevitably gets rehashed, or the same arguments which inevitably gets repeated. I'd say if you're creating a similar thread but taking the discussion to a new area, a new thread is fine. If you want to discuss the same stuff, then merge them. The down-side to that argument is sometimes it creates threads of such size that nobody wants to dig through it for info. But I don't think Fuwanovel is a big enough forum for that to happen.

If anyone's interested: Hi, I'm sorry you feel that way but we're exploring the market and refining our business models. We're a business first and have to improve our bottom line before we can support any of the high tier high quality visual novels from the East or from the West. That's the email I received from SP in reply to my expression of concern regarding Sakura. Make of it what you will.

Valkyria Chronicles was one of the gems of the previous generation. It offered a strategy/RPG experience with combat that was engaging, fun and provided what I thought was a significant step forward for the JRPG genre (XCOM like combat.) You also got an engaging story (from a surprising narrator) which was not about wizards or magic or saving the world, and managed to produce regular emotions and tears without descending into angst (*glances at FFXIII*). Add to this enjoyable characters which were decently fleshed out and weren't caricatures or plot devices (*glances at FFXIII again*). And factor in some of the most gorgeous art you will see in a JRPG. It was imo the greatest Japanese game of the last generation that offered RPG gameplay. The only downside is how they graded you after each battle was done. Stupid method imo, and severly detracts from the game. If you like RPGs it's an essential part of your gaming library. If you need me to go into more detail, just say the word. What specifically did you want to know?

UPDATE TIME: Warmachine Tactics is now available on Steam Early Access. To all those who love strategy games similar to XCOM, you should be keeping an eye on this :3 http://store.steampowered.com/app/253510

I sent Sekai a short email to register my concern over their endorsement of this project. I expect them to take ZERO notice whatsoever, but still ... utter trainwreck.

ANIME TRAP: TRAP REVERSE TRAP

You can tell how good the prose/writing is by flicking through a few screenshots. Knowledge of grammar is terrible on the one hand, yet on the other it seems like they've used their limited knowledge to over-edit the prose. They don't know how to speak formally, leading to ridiculously padded and roundabout sentences. "But for what purpose would they have needed such an item" ... I know they're trying to speak like a village elder, but all they've manage to do is make him sound verbose. An overuse of exclamation marks, an overuse of commas, just a clumsy writing style. Everything sounds awkward. And yes, I only need to look at the screenshots to make the declaration. "I'm just teasing him my darlings, no need to get so worried. But I can imagine what brings you three here. However, I'm surprised about one thing." This line takes less than a minute to edit. They were either lazy, or lacking in some basic writing knowledge. But I'm a little picky about writing these days. PS: Icebound has MUCH better prose than this, and is a MUCH better offering from the OELVN community. Sekai Project should be more careful in picking which developers they support. They'd have to pay me to wade through their offering. Pay me, pollute my mind and corrupt my soul. You can give it a go though I just read this comment on Steam. Anyone willing to take one for the team to see if it's true? The visual novel can be read in under an hour. That's all there is. You literally get once choice and it really doesn't make a difference to the story. It's poorly written, suffers from engrish in some places and on top of that, the tropes are so recognizable and bad, not in a funny -haha - kind of way, but in a, ugh, when will this be over kind of way. Some visual novels are amazing. The stories are great and it's not a chore to read. This...it's on sale and I had money in my steam wallet and I still want a refund.

The game is being developed by Winged-Cloud. http://winged-cloud.com/?page_id=226

Kickstarter over and approximately $97,000 raised, an awesome result. Hopefully this is only the beginning for SP, and they go on to many bigger and better things etc etc.

I am both paranoid and a pessimist, so I didn't want to take any chances.

I heard the same thing a while ago, so I use Alcohol 120

Ah, thanks for the info. I try not to buy via Amazon, delivery charge is like 10 bucks an item or something. And I mostly buy books so…

To pirate? Yes, tons of places. To buy? http://www.amazon.com/Phoenix-Wright-Ace-Attorney-Nintendo-DS/dp/B000B69E96 EDIT: I'm not too good at reading Amazon. What does sold by "Most Wanted" mean? They're pretty hard to find anyway, probably only on Ebay and Amazon.

On the one hand most of the games Aaeru listed are flat out not VNs, they're adventure. Even including them in the list is just a joke. On the other, we all want to follow VNDB and their ridiculous habits so we have to include them, don't we? Just looking at that list makes me cringe in disgust. I vote to just go with whatever the official policy is. I think the most important thing is to be consistent in the things you guys do. EDIT: But I think I put too high an emphasis on consistency.