Dergonu

Does this fix the borked formatting? Just think of this as a quote...
Yeah, of course, there are companies that can be convinced to mend their ways. But for every such example, there's another counterexample. To this day, nobody managed to convince PULLTOP/Moenovel to give us 18+ releases of their VNs, and it's widely speculated that Sekai didn't manage to convince Giga to give them a license for the 18+ release of Baldr Sky. There are likely more examples that I can't recall right now.
 
Yes, to many a fan's frustration, this is very true. Though, granted, Pulltop just self-published, and never reached out to anyone for help, outside of platforms to sell on.
This is going back to speculation, but yes, that is one possibility. Another is that they simply didn't know anything about the English market, (happens often,) and they either A) got contacted by Fruitbat, or B) knew someone who had a connection with them, (seeing as they have done obscure doujinge like Seabed, this could be possible,) which got them in touch with Fruitbat.
Do note that I have always specified them being partly to blame. At the end of the day, Harukaze made the final decisions here, but I personally feel like Fruitbat's involvement most likely had some hand in that, and as such, I see them as partly responsible. Of course, if there's actual proof out there of Harukaze just being like "fuck, nope!" then that's fair, but based on the situation and what we have to go off, I'd say the criticism is fair.

They also handled QA, and were directly involved in making the license deals. They were the ones speaking with Harukaze about the English version. So they absolutely could have changed things like censorship, had they actually tried. 

Just have a bucket nearby. You'll need it. Well, unless you're a freak like me.

You may keep your secrets, but keeping the anime tiddies is forbidden.  Return them to this side of the screen immediately.

That is a trade secret I'm afraid.

Let me guess, oppai mousepads.

Just have a bucket nearby. You'll need it. Well, unless you're a freak like me.

ive heard about this one for years and its finally here! @Dergonu read it before it was released in the west and warned me of its horrors!
 
normally i wouldnt read this one but it is from a company that i really enjoy, clock up. ive read euphoria and enjoyed that, as well as eroge! sex and games make sexy games, as well as... please, rape me. 
 
all of these i have enjoyed from the writing to the H and style. now im gonna make the plunge into something truly vile to see if my love for them holds up! call this a test of sorts. a test for what? idk, sanity? pray for me!

Sounds like you might be reading VNs more than before if you are doing it for work. ;p It makes sense you wouldn't want to do something during your free time as much if its your job.

That video isn't that old right? Right? RIGHT?!?!?

What would the VN community do without you Zaka. Translation of the year for sure. 

This take always makes me facepalm. By this logic nothing should be translated at all, as the voiced lines will always differ from the translation. If you understand the voiced lines, what are you doing reading a translation instead of the original. 

My guy, just look at the reactions in this thread. You're in the minority on freaking Fuwanovel, the weebiest place to talk about VNs short of 4chan. The only reasonable conclusion is that the one living in an echo chamber is you, not those of us saying 3rd-person self-reference sounds like ass in translation.

Small rant about The JLPT: It is a terrible measure of actual language skill. It requires 0 speaking skill, and it’s not all that hard to guess your way to a good score since it’s multiple choice. (And you can try again as many times as you want.) 
What the JLPT should be used for is for people who feel they are at a certain level to test that theory for themselves. Do you know everything, or at least most of what is on the test without much trouble? If so, you’re on that level. Congrats. But if you barely passed based on guessing right half the time because you honestly didn’t know the answers to half the test then passing it doesn’t make you NX. Therefore having passed, let’s say the N1, does not always mean you are at that level at all, and having the N1 certificate is basically pointless if your skill doesn’t keep up with it. That’s why most companies in the TL industry gives TL tests. They want to see your actual skill level, not a certificate you might just have from pure luck. 
Another issue the JLPT has is that N1 is basically just a list of outdated and obscure kanji you will never have a use for in daily life. Fluent people won't know this shit. Meanwhile, it skips important things you do need in daily life, which is a must for native speakers. If you absolutely must do a JLPT level, N3 and N2 are the ones with the most helpful info you can actually use. N1 is just obscure and fairly pointless. 
In general I feel like simple choices like: beginner, intermediate, skilled, fluent etc is a lot better. The JLPT is really not a good measure of skill. Being on "N1 level" really doesn't mean anything, as that just implies you know a lot of obscure shit but have no practice speaking Japanese normally? Tl;dr I don't like the JLPT, lol.
(I realize I should have suggested changes to the structure of the survey before it went live, not after, so RIP.)

Filled out the survey though!

Hey there everyone!
As some of you might know, I'm a PhD student in sociology and for a long time I've been doing projects about fan communities and fan productivity of different kinds. This survey is an element of my current one, focused on the history of visual novel fan translation and the ties between the fan translation scene and the development of the professional VN localization market. It's directed to people that participated in FTL projects in various roles, asking them about general details of their involvement and other kinds of localisation/translation work they might've been involved in. If that's you, please consider filling out the survey – it's mostly simple single-choice or multi-choice questions that'll take you very little time to answer. If not, you can help by spreading the message, especially if you know places connected to the fan translation community that I might not know of or have no access to. The survey will be open at least until Sunday 6th –  it might be prolonged depending on the number of responses.
Here is the link to the survey
The results I get will be shared back with the community within a month and a half after closing the survey (it'll take me some time to process it all, as I have a conference I need the data for in the meantime). If you have any questions, please ask them here or contact me directly at [email protected]. I'll do my best to respond ASAP.
Thank you for your time!

This take always makes me facepalm. By this logic nothing should be translated at all, as the voiced lines will always differ from the translation. If you understand the voiced lines, what are you doing reading a translation instead of the original. 

I have witnessed the progress of an English speaker transitioning out of referring to themself in the third-person and into the first-person. The toddler in question finished making that change shortly before their third birthday. So if you want to feel like Saya is two years old while you're reading that game, go for it and apply that patch. Meanwhile, any halfway decent translator is going to understand how inaccurate it is to render 3rd-person self-reference in Japanese as 3rd-person self-reference in English.

Don't presume to speak for "the target audience".  That's hubris enforced by the echo chamber you live in.  Most people do not engage online communities.  Only the biggest diehard fans do.  A small subset, skewed heavily towards those with strong opinions, is not a representative sample.  And your opinion is not even universally shared among the online community.

This take always makes me facepalm. By this logic nothing should be translated at all, as the voiced lines will always differ from the translation. If you understand the voiced lines, what are you doing reading a translation instead of the original. 

This take always makes me facepalm. By this logic nothing should be translated at all, as the voiced lines will always differ from the translation. If you understand the voiced lines, what are you doing reading a translation instead of the original. 

This take always makes me facepalm. By this logic nothing should be translated at all, as the voiced lines will always differ from the translation. If you understand the voiced lines, what are you doing reading a translation instead of the original. 

This take always makes me facepalm. By this logic nothing should be translated at all, as the voiced lines will always differ from the translation. If you understand the voiced lines, what are you doing reading a translation instead of the original. 

I'm not sure why we live in a world where translators think that just because they've received years of education, training, and practice and lived in parallel cultures for years, that they're qualified to... uh... translate.

This take always makes me facepalm. By this logic nothing should be translated at all, as the voiced lines will always differ from the translation. If you understand the voiced lines, what are you doing reading a translation instead of the original. 

This take always makes me facepalm. By this logic nothing should be translated at all, as the voiced lines will always differ from the translation. If you understand the voiced lines, what are you doing reading a translation instead of the original.