Japanese Game Developer Thrilled That Fans Are Translating His Works For Other Markets
from the thank-you-for-loving-my-game-so-much dept
Richard 23 writes "07th Expansion is a dojin (amateur/hobbyist) software company in Japan that wrote and distributed the popular mystery/horror visual novel Higurashi naku no koro ni (When the Cicadas Cry) that went on to be a popular anime (originally fansubbed and eventually licensed and distributed). They have since released a new game, Umineko naku no koro ni (When the Seagulls Cry) which is currently being fan translated. The author of the game, Ryuukishi07, heard about it and contacted the unofficial group to personally give them a thumbs up.Ryuukishi07 has also been contracted to work on scenarios for one of the big visual novel software houses: Key/VisualArt's, so he could have been a real jerk about it. But I think he recognizes that getting his work more exposure does everybody more good in the long run. It certainly didn't hurt his chances to land a professional gig with Key."
Always nice to see someone excited about free fan promotion, rather than freaking out about it. From his (translated) letter:
I did not think that our "Umineko no Naku Koro ni" would be played even by all of you in foreign countries, and I am very surprised.Great to see someone appreciate the work of fans and their ability to help spread and promote the work, rather than freak out and threaten to sue.
Also, I am deeply moved by the passion which drove you to translate a tale that long into English.
Thank you for loving "Umineko no Naku Koro ni" so much!
If by your English translation patch, English-speaking people can also enjoy this work, it would make me very pleased.
I believe I will warmly watch over your actions hereafter.
And I would appreciate it if you would continue to enjoy "Umineko no Naku Koro ni".
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Filed Under: game, japan, translation, unauthorized
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Respect and Responsibility
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give it time.
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Just wanted to say
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Re:
Besides that, I highly doubt any commercial interest could pick up their script. After all, I've not heard of a commercial sub for anime that used any of the best fansubs that came out years before (and most fansubs I've seen are of a much higher quality, too!).
By your logic, they should definitely be using the fabsub texts!
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Even better! Less competition for this one!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWTmkBSmrYU
To quote from part of the interview:
"The whole concept of viral videos didn't really exist as much as it does now. So people would link to my videos and I'd get mad. Like why are you doing that. Your stealing my content, and putting it on your website. Which is really now it's sharing, you *really* want that. But I used to get irritated, because it was mine. I didn't quite understand that that it was a good thing at the time."
And according to her wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookers she's been able to turn some viral videos into some success.
So why is it a barely 20something kid can grasp a concept that most major media seem simply unable to wrap their minds around?
Not only that, but what the industry is doing not only serves to protect certain business models, it denies people opportunities like this young lady had.
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