Legality discussion

[daniel]

It would be interesting to talk with developers in Japan and see how they felt about fan translation projects. There is certainly a loss of revenue, but there is also the creation of demand. If they took advantage of that and coupled a good translation with decent distribution (say across Steam or via DDL on a website) they could make pretty decent profit.

 

 

My opinion keeps going both ways, I'm really giving this a lot of thought. Recently, I've thought that the creators of the content don't view me as a consumer and haven't provided the product to me. In the end, a US company would buy the rights, translate it, and the original artists wouldn't receive anything in return. Since it is because of the original content creators that I was hesitant to download the games, there's no real (and I mean that literally) loss to them.

[Okami]

It would be interesting to talk with developers in Japan and see how they felt about fan translation projects. There is certainly a loss of revenue, but there is also the creation of demand. If they took advantage of that and coupled a good translation with decent distribution (say across Steam or via DDL on a website) they could make pretty decent profit.

 

 

My opinion keeps going both ways, I'm really giving this a lot of thought. Recently, I've thought that the creators of the content don't view me as a consumer and haven't provided the product to me. In the end, a US company would buy the rights, translate it, and the original artists wouldn't receive anything in return. Since it is because of the original content creators that I was hesitant to download the games, there's no real (and I mean that literally) loss to them.

[Blackex]

Well i gotta admit i pirate a loooot stuff myself. I am still in education, dont have a job and there is no way i could buy all the stuff i read, play and watch. And in my country its a pain in hte ass to get anything delivered even from the countrys next to it. 

[Chronopolis]

"It's probably a headache they don't want to deal with, combined with an opportunity that's mostly nonviable, combined with the indignation of having some people get what your loyal fans are supporting your company are for free."

There are plenty of things I could that are available to buy (well not the funds to buy nearly all of them, but on an individual basis) which I pirate. If you do something like that, I think it's inconsistent to blame your not buying of VN's on their unpuchasability. After all, you pirate things which don't have that barrier.

[Down]

 

My opinion keeps going both ways, I'm really giving this a lot of thought. Recently, I've thought that the creators of the content don't view me as a consumer and haven't provided the product to me. In the end, a US company would buy the rights, translate it, and the original artists wouldn't receive anything in return. Since it is because of the original content creators that I was hesitant to download the games, there's no real (and I mean that literally) loss to them.

[Funyarinpa]

I would say that if the game is legally unavailable in the local area or country, it's OK to pirate something. It can actually even be helpful, since it is potential publication.

 

I also play games that I pirated just because I did not want to pay for them. I know that's theft and I look at that fact in the eyes.

[Drakenero]

Eh,I need to use Fuwanovel to play Visual Novels because I can't get them in my area,and also,most of them are old,so it makes it harder to get.

[sanahtlig]

The idea that piracy doesn't cause lost sales in the localized VN market is silly.  I've even seen people publicly admit that they'd buy a game if they couldn't find a free download somewhere by X date.  If someone wants something enough, they'll pay for it.  If they can get it for free effortlessly--in most cases they will.  If a person really wants 2 things, one which they can pirate and one which they can't--they'll pirate the one they can and save their money for the thing they can't pirate.  I've seen this theme repeated multiple times among console players who also play VNs.  They pirate VNs because it's easy and they can.  They buy console games because they have no choice / it's too much of a hassle to pirate them.

 

People like to hide behind a facade of morality, but in the end, people are opportunists--all the moreso if there's no obvious victim to confront them.  Confront them with the categorical imperative--that if everyone did what they did, there would be no VNs to enjoy--and they just shrug.  "Not my problem." "I have more important things to spend my money on." "Everyone else is doing it."