aristotll

That's weird... I tried translating a bit this summer, and after some fiddling I managed to get those tools working.
If it's of any use here's the first 250 lines of Chapter 3 (TL'd and edited) from back then.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1CZ2Ai5gEW-RE1GZ0x5SUNHXzA/view?usp=sharing

I know some JavaScript.
If you only type
game.setProperty ( "money", 1000) ,there is no way  "people can hack through and steal my identity"

I'm not against free speech on this forum, but threads that specifically target religious/political discussion hardly seem like they would relate to visual novels or Japanese 2D animation. Having a discussion such as this outside of the forums seems okay, but I really don't want to see America being attacked, seeing as I was born here and actually respect my country in some ways.
Jokes aside, this thread seems like it will turn into a mudslinging contest about America; I don't think this forum is the place for that.

Hey guys, I compiled a list of most favorably rated 2014 VN (not nukige) releases in Japan (according to erogamescape). Might be interesting for those who aren't used to surfing that site.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_159rAKrn0g

Cheaper and shorter installments instead of a massive game in bulk might be one of the directions the industry heads in. There's a lot of benefits to this type of development. Anyway, treating this practice as a negative and saying it's like paying '3 times for one game' is akin to saying 'Robert Jordan forced consumers to pay 15 times for one story. He should have just sold the whole damn story at once.' Obviously a ridiculous statement. Decay is right in saying there are factors which will need to be taken into account before making a judgement one way or the other. There's nothing wrong with the practice, rather the implementation of this practice. We really don't know any details, yet.

Mmm... if you want a good example of a VN 'pure evil' villain... from Silverio Vendetta.

VNDB
 
About a year ago I decided to translate the cryptic opening scene to Dark Blue, a short murder mystery VN with netorare elements.  I did this just to show that I could.  After the recent controversy with the Monobeno project, I became curious whether others would consider my work "up to snuff".  I've always assumed that unless a translation was near professional quality it would not be welcomed by the fanbase.  What follows is a mostly unedited translation I wrote relying on the translation suite I typically use while playing Japanese eroge: text hooker, JParser, EDICT, and ATLAS (a machine translator).  I translated this before moving onwards in the game, so it's quite possible I missed foreshadowing or other elements; it reflects my understanding of the scene as I was reading it.
 
A video containing the scene can be found here, if you'd like to watch the scene while reading along.
 
Dark Blue Intro Scene Translation
 
？？？「私も、最後に君に伝えておこう」
Old man: I have one last thing to tell you.
その男は、革張りの椅子に腰掛けながら、青年へと向けてそう口を開いた。
While sitting in the leather chair facing the young man, the man opened his mouth.
？？？「なんですか？」
Young man: And that is?
？？？「確かに呪いなどがあったかどうかはわからん」
Old man: Whether it was a sort of curse or not, I don't know for certain.
？？？「だが、現に我々は狂い、自分を保つためにあらゆる方法を模索して来た」
Old man: But what I do know is we've been groping in confusion for a way to preserve ourselves.
？？？「その結果がこれなのだ」
Old man: And the result is this.
何ら恥じることなく、男はそう断言する。
Unashamedly, the man declared so.
正面にいる青年に対して、恥じる様子などひとつとしてなかった。
Facing the young man in front of him, there wasn't a hint of shame in his visage.
？？？「自分達は最善を尽くしたと？」
Young man: "We did our best", eh?
？？？「意志が弱いなりに、我々はやれるだけのことをやってきた」
Old man: In our weak-willed way, we did what we could.
？？？「そういうことだ」
Old man: That is all.
？？？「……失礼します」
Young man: I've heard enough.
もう話すことはないと言わんばかりに、青年が部屋のドアのほうへと向かう。
With nothing else to say, the young man faced the room's exit.
その表情には嫌悪が浮かんでいて、誰も近づけない刺々しい雰囲気が漂っていた。
A disgusted expression on his face, an aura of inapproachability surrounded the young man.
？？？「君は運が良かっただけかもしれんぞ」
Old man: It could be you were just lucky.
青年がドアノブに手をかけようとしたとき、男がそんなことを言った。
As the young man reached for the door knob, the man said this.
？？？「人生など、何がどう転ぶかわからんものだ」
Old man: In our lives, there's no telling when or how the fall will come.
？？？「君にだって、私達と同じになる可能性はあったはずだ」
Old man: Even you--you could have ended up like us.
？？？「そのことを覚えておきたまえ」
Old man: Remember that.
そう言って、男は煙草を口に運んだ。
Saying that, the man brought a cigarette to his mouth.
だが、彼の目にはもう青年の姿は映っておらず、どこか遠くを――懐かしい過去を見つめるように双眸を細めていた……。
But in his eyes the figure of the young man was reflected no longer--the pair of eyes narrowed as they looked into the distance, as if gazing into the nostalgic past.
 
[i also posted an edited version of this post on my personal blog]

Mod edit: Just ask any questions related to japanese here (sentences you're stuck on, points you can't wrap your head around, etc).
In the case of sentences try to provide a brief context (what's going on in this scene, what's the line before and the line after that one...).
Use that thread for finding and asking about resources to learn japanese.
 
 
You can ask for help here for japanese sentences you are stuck on, preferably fan TL related stuff.
To make it easier, paste in some context for the line you need help on (e.g. provide couple of lines before & after the one you are stuck on)
made this post because i saw peipei's intro thread and then i remembered, we don't have one of these yet!
 
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That has to be the most impressive necropost I've seen to date on fuwa.

I thought that underlined phrase was going to be a link. I'm disappointed.

Your thread asks what are people's thoughts on companies buying fan translations, and those are my thoughts, not really sure if you wanted something else? The first paragraph of your reply is just corroborating what I said: people just want free stuff.
Regarding donating to fan groups: sure anyone can do what they want with their money, but it's pretty shady to ask for money for something that's technically illegal to begin with.
In the end all you're paying for is the fan groups' work, nothing goes towards the creator of the product, and that's what I have some problem with on an ethical level.
Fan translations, as the name implies, shouldn't be about earning money.
Regarding fangroups not being upfront, I'm not really sure what you mean. There might be a case where they're unable to disclose information due to NDA agreements, for example.
If you're donating to a fan group, ultimately the responsibility falls on you.

I feel like it appeals to the otaku crowd who watch animu much more than it does for either readers or gamers, tbh. 

If people are gonna complain about it, then at least attempt to learn Japanese and if you can't, then you might as well accept the fact that not everything people want is gonna get translated. There are other factors present to localization than just what the fans want.

5 languages?
September release?
Yeah, sure. I am 99 years old, I'll turn 100 tomorrow. 
I'm not that dumb to believe it, unless it's machine tl(maybe a bit polished) or bad translation. Otherwise the guy(s) should already work translating games, with that speed.

Do not make these ideas. vndb have an API, which he should use. Scraping the site is ultra-bad idea, both for site and for him.

I know they use real places in VNs, especially those set in Japan. But some of them are quite far away. As I was playing ef. The First Tale. I suddenly recognized the place they were in, because I've been there countless times myself.
The anime has a lot of German in it. Makes sense as this background is the main square in Rothenburg, Germany!
 
 
Does anyone else have any remarkable places to note that they've noticed?

No, after those ~2200 there are Kanji that Japanese government decided are above the highschool-level. Jouyou Kanji are the most essential characters used in everyday life. Real Life, that is. They aren't necessarily the most common characters that appear in VNs. Actually, they cover plenty of Kanji you will probably never encounter in eroge (like those used in names of prefectures for example).
 
That's why I wouldn't really recommend starting with them. It will be pretty sad when you will finish cramming those ~2200 Kanji and start a random VN, only to discover that it uses ~250 characters that weren't covered by Jouyou and suddenly you can't understand anything.
Oh, and putting them before Kana is simply the most illogical thing you could do, I seriously don't know what the author of that guide-thread linked earlier was thinking. Hiragana and Katakana are the first things you should learn, they are an absolutely vital foundation.
 
As long as you know grammar well, you can read VNs even without memorizing a single Kanji - MeCab and/or JParser can deal with them nicely (and help with vocabulary too). Learning Kanji seriously increases your reading speed, but it's not absolutely essential (unlike grammar). Grammar is easier than Kanji and takes much less time (depending on your talent and dedication, learning it decently during summer break is quite realistic). You need it anyway, so you might as well start with the most vital stuff (you can learn Kanji later, or do both at the same time, why not?). Also, I'd say that learning-while-reading is much more efficient than cramming government-approved list of characters, since you will be memorizing only those Kanji that actually appear in VNs (a lot of them will be from the jouyou list, but not all).
 
Of course, different methods work for different people, so you should pick one that suits you best and stick to it. In the end, you will need both Kanji and grammar.
 
On a final note, most people mentioned this already, but machine translators do not work. At all. Atless, Bling, Gooble - it's all the same shit. Avoid them, unless you like deciphering random gibberish that has nothing to do with original text.

Lol, legit every time a thread like this gets made at least 1/4 of the posts are "Learn Japanese". While I would like to say there is an easier way, honestly their isn't. Machine translators are terrible, fan Tls are slow/unreliable, so your best option as a VN fan is to eventually bite the bullet and learn Japanese. I just hope your interest in porn games are strong enough to motivate you to learn an entire language ;P. (Honestly though, learning a language is always a good use of time. Even if it is for porn games.) 

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=why+is+a+week+7+days