Mangagamer 2016 Licensing Survey

[sanahtlig]

I more or less expect an equivalent amount of effort to go into translation as went into writing the original game.

[VirginSmasher]

There is a reason why I am learning Japanese and that's because you can't ever trust a fan translation or even an official translation now. You have to rely on learning Japanese yourself to actually read the VNs you want to.

[DarkZedge]

Just now, VirginSmasher said:

There is a reason why I am learning Japanese and that's because you can't ever trust a fan translation or even an official translation now. You have to rely on learning Japanese yourself to actually read the VNs you want to.

Naaaah, you can always trust that it'll get done 

[VirginSmasher]

1 minute ago, DarkZedge said:

Naaaah, you can always trust that it'll get done 

Not with fan translations, you can't. Official translations will get done, but sometimes not with a quality translation.

[KuroganeHomura]

I didn't choose translation quality - not because I don't care, I care a lot - but because it's usually not a reason I'll pick a game up, just a reason not to pick a game I'd otherwise have bought. So if there are other people that thought similarly, that may have influenced the ranking a bit, too.

[Cloudedmind]

I agree with ChaosRaven that good translation quality should be a given, as that goes hand in hand with the story. The story could be awesome in it's original language, but if the translation isn't up to par then that won't really shine through. I'd end up spending more time rewriting the English in my head to something coherent, then actually being able to focus on the story elements.

[Deep Blue]

Sono Hanabira 

[sanahtlig]

6 minutes ago, VirginSmasher said:

Not with fan translations, you can't. Official translations will get done, but sometimes not with a quality translation.

The reason to learn Japanese is that 90% or more VNs never get translated.  If you're happy playing whatever the JP developers or fan translators decide to give you, then go ahead and enjoy English releases.  If you want to play specific games, you're going to have to play them in Japanese because most likely they'll never be worked on at all, and even if they are it'll be years later.  If you have any sort of niche interest (e.g., NTR, lolis) the English market won't satisfy.

[VirginSmasher]

Just now, Deep Blue said:

Sono Hanabira 

At least Derg is happy with this poll. 

[DarkZedge]

13 minutes ago, VirginSmasher said:

Not with fan translations, you can't. Official translations will get done, but sometimes not with a quality translation.

Obviously Official translations always go great, i mean look at Flowers, that's professional work

[Deep Blue]

1 minute ago, VirginSmasher said:

At least Derg is happy with this poll. 

I bet he is... I bet he is

[VirginSmasher]

2 minutes ago, sanahtlig said:

The reason to learn Japanese is that 90% or more VNs never get translated.  If you're happy playing whatever the JP developers or fan translators decide to give you, then go ahead and enjoy English releases.  If you want to play specific games, you're going to have to play them in Japanese because most likely they'll never be worked on at all, and even if they are it'll be years later.  If you have any sort of niche interest (e.g., NTR, lolis) the English market won't satisfy.

Exactly. I know that a few really interesting VNs I found on VNDB won't be translated which is why I'm learning Japanese to read them. It's a lot better than waiting for a fan translation that isn't guaranteed to finish.

2 minutes ago, DarkZedge said:

Obviously Official translations always go great, i mean look at Flowers, that's professional work

Don't remind me. 

[Chuee]

1 hour ago, Decay said:

Translation is one of those things where when it's good, people tend not to notice or even think about it. They only notice when it's bad. 

Actually, most people can't even spot bad translations, only really bad ones. Translations like Flowers and White Album 2 are only recognized as bad by most because they're absolutely horrendous (and also because others point out how wildly inaccurate the translations are). 

[Darklord Rooke]

12 minutes ago, Chuee said:

Actually, most people can't even spot bad translations, only really bad ones. Translations like Flowers and White Album 2 are only recognized as bad by most because they're absolutely horrendous (and also because others point out how wildly inaccurate the translations are). 

I should point out that ‘translation quality’ doesn’t equate to ‘translation accuracy.’ Accuracy is a part of what determines a quality product, but accuracy alone doesn’t fulfil the purpose of the product (novel) and therefore is only a part of what makes a good translation.

It was the easiest thing to ascertain Flowers was a dodgy product even without any knowledge of Japanese (it was just bad in every facet.)

[kingdomcome]

11 hours ago, VirginSmasher said:

WA2 on the rankings.

Yeah, I'm glad to see it there.

Down with the nukige!

6 hours ago, Chuee said:

White Album 2 are only recognized as bad by most because they're absolutely horrendous

I actually really enjoyed it and didn't notice how "bad" it was. Is there something wrong with me?

[Chuee]

31 minutes ago, kingdomcome said:

I actually really enjoyed it and didn't notice how "bad" it was. Is there something wrong with me?

I have no idea if the biggest problem is translation accuracy or the writing, though I'm guessing it's the former. At first glance going over a few parts, the English is readable (I'm guessing the editors got rid of any grammatical mistakes made by the people involved who have poor English), but could still use a lot of work. There's plenty of other fan-TLs that read like that, so it's not like it would particularly stick out or anything. 

[Codesterz]

Kind of a disappointing list IMO. Only 2 VNs that interest me White Album 2 and Aiyoku no Eustia. Why are so many of the requests things that have been already translated I want new stuff not things I have already read before or things that are so old I just have no interest. This could be a disappointing year for official english VN releases. Oh wait it always is. How about some VNs made in the last few years with HD graphics and preferably have no gameplay(just read and make choices).

[Arcadeotic]

This list could've been better, but also worse

It's good enough for me, but that Sono Hanabira on 3rd place is seriously bugging me

[Satsuki]

Nothing but Baldr is interesting.

Thanks for your hard work MG, I'm outta here~

[kingdomcome]

5 hours ago, Chuee said:

I have no idea if the biggest problem is translation accuracy or the writing, though I'm guessing it's the former. At first glance going over a few parts, the English is readable (I'm guessing the editors got rid of any grammatical mistakes made by the people involved who have poor English), but could still use a lot of work.

This would seem to be the case. The grammatical errors I saw when I google "WA2 bad translation" were not in the patch I read. I guess it would be to do with the translation accuracy.

[Dionysus42]

I really hope they do something other Rance. From Alice Soft, I'd prefer Atlach=Nacha.

[VirginSmasher]

All these people complaining about the licensing top 10 like they're actually gonna be translated. Seriously, it's just a survey. Just like the tournament, nothing is officially confirmed to actually be released just because it made the top 10. I imagine MangaGamer is gonna try to get the licenses, but nothing is confirmed until there's an official announcement.

[Rainey]

2 hours ago, kingdomcome said:

This would seem to be the case. The grammatical errors I saw when I google "WA2 bad translation" were not in the patch I read. I guess it would be to do with the translation accuracy.

 

Funny thing is, the completed chinese patch for WA2 is full of translation mistakes. I did a comparison in the past, looking at the chinese and japanese scripts side by side (they're not mistakes that influence the overall story much, they're things here and there). Yet, it's still one of the most loved VNs in their VN community. I believe someone here mentioned it before, but it just goes to show that as long as some people enjoyed the translation, it's not worthless.

[Scorp]

Why people complaining about "not happy with survey results"? Survey results are nothing to do with licensing, that's just a stupid survey!

[Deep Blue]

if you are not happy with the games that mangagamer is going to translate(or even then ones that were picked in the survey) then learn japanese, is getting a bit old already I know but anything will take at least 2 years if not more to translate and in that time you can already learn japanese and read it yourself!