Who is this quoting?
He does, but his main point is that the dialogue is just as important as the graphics, which is true in the case of VNs. That came off more as pleading than a major point. I said this before, but in the case of most VNs on dlsite they rarely make it out of japan in this case expecting a translation is pretty dumb, in nearly every other case I agree with OP.
Translation fees for a VN are something like 1/100th of a cent per moji, it's a fairly saturated line of employment and yes while they do generally suck I guarantee you it's leagues better than MTL. If we're talking someone translate something from Russian or some Eurasian language into English the rates would be higher, but if we're working with Japanese, French, Spanish, the rates aren't ridiculous. The majority of VNs are Japanese, so I tend to consider those more. Translation is a minor expense compared to the others you've listed off, if you're making that kind of dosh from donations to afford a team and better equipment you could have had a translation for a fraction of the price yesterday. Also, bear in mind that many devs just don't buy any of what you listed, it's become a common trend for them to just put minimal effort and string people along with PR while reaping donations t. Yanderedev.
If it's a dev who doesn't collect donations then I don't care, they can do what they want, however if they do they should recognize the people who wanted to give them their paycheck/bennies/blood money/whatever and at the very least apart from compromising their vision make their work accessible to the people they solicit. If the work in question isn't a VN getting a translation isn't a big deal, but for a VN the product is the story itself, even if you don't want to work like an art studio it's such a minor expense and worth allocating some of your donations into.
