Unity Abandoned Labyrinth of Estras [v0.0.8] [ASIMOFU]

[Serifyn]

I buy games that are in full Japanese on DLsite and subscribe to devs on Ci-en, i am among a relative minority among the English base.

Theres not many other options to discuss Japanese H-games, basically this forum and ULMF. The language barrier is one reason people don't pay for games and pirate them instead. Someone who makes an English language translation whether it is with permission or not is increasing accessibility to the game, which -- at the very least --, can't hurt sales.

Many of these devs don't put out an english version at all or if they do its several months after the release of the japanese product, by then, many hardcore fans have either used a MLT or simply played the game without a translation at all.

I'm not justifying piracy, but this is an uptapped market that Japanese devs would make next to no money in anyway if they don't put in the minimal effort to appeal to the western audience. I'm personally going the extra mile to apply an english patch or machine translation to a paid version of a game and they wouldn't have my money at all otherwise.

 

[Serifyn]

From what I read in ASIMOFU's tweets, every people who is active on a site where pirated copies are distributed are all enemies to him.

As i mentioned previously, there aren't many options for discussing Japanese H-games. If this dev wants to alienate anyone who posts on either here or ULMF, he might as well alienate their entire English-speaking audience, including the supporters he has such as myself, which is fine, but people will still play his game, they just won't be paying for it at all.

Now please,

 

[Venocide]

That's very interesting. Will the developers' wishes be ignored as long as sales increase?
Let me quote my statement again:

In my opinion, it probably doesn't matter to developers like him whether piracy is actually useful to them or not.
I think they enjoy seeing people who value their games pay for them and enjoy them, not making money itself. If they just want to make money, they can work for a company.

Furthermore, let me quote what he said on Twitter:

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"If they have to do this (piracy) to know it and play with it, then they don't have to know it and play with it."

I am sure that there are people in the English-speaking world who would like to play the game he created when they find it. I also understand that you guys want to spread his game.
But that is only your desire, your idea. The author should have the right to choose where to distribute his work. And he can't stop the distribution of pirated copies.
ASIMOFU has come to the conclusion that he will alienate this forum because his game is pirated here, and that's all.
Again, if you want a translated version, why don't you ask him directly if a translated version will be released?
Or have you already received an answer that the translated version will not be released?

 

[Serifyn]

The dev has a right to make money from the projects he is working on, he also has a right to be upset about people pirating the game and to a lesser degree, editing files without permission, but piracy in the H-community is a part of the equation and he must have known this.

I know that a while ago the dev for Ragnorok BF rpg was so upset about it that he actually went out of his way to 'gaijin proof' his game, by making systems requiring answers typed in Japanese to continue playing the game are different intervals, but this type of game can't really support such a system. I mean what are you going to do, have to type the japanese word for 'apple' every time some catgirl jumps on your dick?

Someone else asked whether he was planning on releasing an English localized version and the dev basically said that whether he does or not is up to him and him alone. fair enough, but i'm not going to wait until the game is in perfect English before i play it, with a game like this, i really don't have to.

 

[NyaaRrar]

I really think that the worst mindset is, 'I'm unmotivated, so I need to find something to… justify myself. Oh pirates, I'll blame my lack of motivation on them!' Like don't blame us we're not the motivation vampires here. As said here, we'll go put our necks out to support a developer if they're trying!

 

[dbomb]

The problem with asking the dev to make an official translation is that the translation is unlikely to be cheap. People were literally doing the translation job for free. Most westerners don't buy games because we will get in legal trouble if we do that. So we have to spoof our IPs and route our purchases so they don't look western. So basically he will no way of gauging whether any westerners bought his translated game. And given the Devs anti-gaijin stance... yeah, I don't see him having the patience to put up with it. If he's trying to lose all westerner support he's doing a great job.

And just to point out the obvious. This is a japanese game, in japanese by a hentai artist that is only really known in Japan. I wonder who would have:
1. Known about the game.
2. Knew how to purchase and acquire a copy using japanese services.
3. Leak that copy onto the internet.
I wonder if perhaps a japanese person leaked the game? Nah, no way, it had to be filthy westerners who always steal things and never support developers.

 

[WeebLoop]

I think piracy should never be justified for any reason.

In my opinion piracy is justified only if 2 of these situations are in the table:
1) The product or service is not available in my country or is hard to aquire
(like most of the things related to Hentai or occidental porn)

2) The product or service is not available in an idiom I can understand
(only applies to unofficial translations)

3) The product or service is no longer available or doesn't generate any economical benefits to his owner
(like the very old Nintendo games)

 

[Succubus Hunter]

I just read through a portion of the above comments about the Dev's reaction to the fan translation and I am deeply saddened. I had to stop reading because it just got too depressing to think about how a Dev could be so shortsighted and harsh to one of their biggest fans, and by extension, their overseas fans.

If he thinks translating a game for players who otherwise couldn't understand it is going to lose him money, just wait until he sees what this kind of bad publicity will do to his sales.


Kredyn You did nothing wrong and it is the dev who is 100 percent the antagonist in this situation. I really hope he reaches out to you and apologizes for his reaction but sadly he seems to simpleminded to admit when he is wrong. You did great work which the fanbase appreciates.

i think im reminded of the ROBF dev with how he sent virus and fake links of his game to people who translated the game to english not give out the game just the english patch its self. also with how he made alot questions u could never answer if u were from the west in his games

That is seriously not okay. Can you link or PM me some screenshots confirming this?

 

[DudePersonA]

guys... Guys! GUYS!

...
This is a piracy website. Yar-har!

 

[Reaper875]

guys... Guys! GUYS!

...
This is a piracy website. Yar-har!

Don't tell anyone! shhhhhh! ;p

 

[Venocide]

Of course! This is a pirate community and it's only natural that pirated copies are distributed here. The developers will consequently overlook the use of pirated copies.

However, unless the developers and authors make it clear that they will allow piracy, it will not be justified for any reason. It is up to the authors and the courts to decide if the act is justified, not you.
Piracy should only be done knowing that there is a high probability that it will not be justified. Even when a starving child steals food, it is up to the shopkeeper to decide whether to punish him or not.
The reason why I posted at length in this forum is because I wanted to know how you guys justify the unjust act of piracy. It is not my purpose to condemn the use of piracy.

By the way, if you want to spread the translated version of the game, wouldn't it be enough to upload only the translated patch instead of the whole game?
As for games that are no longer available (such as NES), I don't think piracy will be justified as well, but I believe that there is almost a 100% chance that the authors will overlook the fact that it is inevitable.

 

[Kredyn]

By the way, if you want to spread the translated version of the game, wouldn't it be enough to upload only the translated patch instead of the whole game?
As for games that are no longer available (such as NES), I don't think piracy will be justified as well, but I believe that there is almost a 100% chance that the authors will overlook the fact that it is inevitable.

Okay, so I'm not sure if you are talking about me, but I did only upload the translated files and not the game itself. I never leak other devs/aritst or whatever's work. In fact, I just uploaded a txt file for the game. The translation is being injected on the fly to the game by a tool also not made by me. So you can't even say that I edited his game files becasue that is not true either. I just shared it here, becasue this forum has the biggest english community around the game.

Now there are 2 debates here. One is about piracy, which is debateable and one is around me translating the game. I have nothing to do with the first one so I will skip that one.

Regarding to the translation, the only thing that you can say to me is not asking for permission. I had genuenly no idea he would care about this at all. I had no idea he was this different from me. So I guess here I made a mistake. But he could have DM-d me on twitter, or literally everywhere and I would have removed it without a second thought. (I already removed it, since that is what he wanted.) But he instead chose to throw a tantrum, publicly humiliate me on his twitter and block me so I can't even reach out to him now. I honestly think this is unjustified and he is being childish.

Also do you realize that by you being here he would most probably just block you the same way he did with me? In his eyes, the pirate community is bad and should burn in hell and if you interact with them in any way you are the same scum. And you did interact with this community. This is where our mindset differs completely and while he completely rejects and wishes that these people wouldn't play his game (hell he even would refuse to take money from people who are here), I would rather interact with them, and if that means he will get a nervous breakdown, then so be it.

 

[WeebLoop]

Of course! This is a pirate community and it's only natural that pirated copies are distributed here.

(This may be off topic)
It's not only about piracy, this place also incentivates to support the devs or original owners of the things shared here, literally every time you want to download something you can see their websites and it shows a screen telling you to support the dev

 

[Untamed]

I sincerely wish I could support Asimofu and other Japanese creators, but as said earlier, there's great difficulty in doing so as a westerner.

As for others who choose not to sell to westerners out of spite, piracy is justified because they didn't want our money in the first place. They gain nothing from not selling to us, and they lose nothing from us pirating it.

I'd rather Asimofu embrace translations, and make it easier for us to support him through Pixiv Fanbox/Subscribestar/Booth, rather than steer himself down a path of gaijin-phobia, especially making the game unplayable to us through gaijin-phobic engineering.

 

[Zeephy51]

Soo I'm actually gonna be supporting the creator on ci-en so I can get the newest version which is 0.0.6 and cause I'm a big fan Curious tho, how soon will this site be updated with the current version/english

 

[DeasEx]

Already was few pages ago. But I guess it was taken down due to authors attention to this forum. Oh well who was lucky like me grabbed both.

 

[Serifyn]

At this relatively early stage in development, i'd rather not continue to rub salt in the wound. Clearly the dev is very protective of his work and would rather nobody alter it, even for localization purposes.

To each his own, but this is clearly getting in the way of the development of the game as the dev feels 'demoralized'.

 

[domigera]

I'm already supporting the creator in ci-en, but let's not fool ourselve into thinking that's gonna make him change his mind or anything.
Especially with that kind of paranoid reasoning he seems to got currently : it's only gonna get worse if he doesn't let it go soon...

 

[Untamed]

but let's not fool ourselve into thinking that's gonna make him change his mind or anything.

I'm sure it'd help at least a little

 

[TheeSonus]

I have to say that I somewhat understand asimofu (I say somewhat since I'm in no way shape or form a game developer), but in no way do I condone their actions here.
Sure, as a game dev, it's gonna suck when you see people are pirating your game, but to then go out of your way to explicitly name drop someone who has supported you and never shared any game files, just because they happened to be trying to translate the game so that people who don't understand the language can enjoy it as well? That's kinda shitty. Seriously, don't be a child about it, just ask them to stop if you want them to stop and talk it out like adults. Not that hard.