A Short Look Back, Part 3

MascotsWith our fifth year anniversary coming to a close, we decided to take a moment to showcase some of the thoughts and feelings of the staff that have been a part of MangaGamer over the years. This third one comes directly from bamboo of OVERDRIVE and milktub fame!cut_000_00_05

What’s something you found interesting or hard over the past 5 years?

We had a lot of trouble with the differences in market for eroge abroad compared to the domestic market. Even when dealing with translation into English alone, there are different nuances in the language between America and Britain, and being Japanese, we didn’t understand that at all.

Every year the number of titles we have keeps growing along with the number of users on our site, so if we keep expanding to about twice the user base and sales we see now, I think we’ll start seeing even more developers joining in.

Also, the dinner with fans during AX was very memorable. I’d love to do that again!

live_100_2009

What are some things you hope to see from MangaGamer in the future?

I think it would be wonderful if we can form a bridge between Japanese developers and fans abroad. I think it would be really interesting if we could create something to let the enthusiastic voices of fans abroad reach developers in Japan. Also, I’d like to try using crowd-funding to actually gather localization funds and use it to convince other Japanese developers.

–Bamboo, Producer

・大変だったこと、面白かったこと
国内と海外でのエロゲの温度差に苦労しました。翻訳ひとつとっても英国と米国では言語のニュアンスが違うので、それも日本人からする知らない事のひとつでした。

年々タイトルも増えていき、それにともないユーザーも増えているので、あと2倍ぐらいユーザーや売上が増えれば参入してくるメーカーも増えると思います。

あとはAXでのファンミーティングが印象深いです。またやりたい!

 ・これからのMangaGamerに望むこと、など
日本のメーカーに海外のファンとの接点を作れると素敵かと。海外のファンの熱い声を日本のメーカーに届けれるような仕組みが作れると面白いかな。あとはクラウドファンディングを用いて、実際に翻訳費用をMangagamerで集めてそれを用いて日本のメーカーを説得してみたり。
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17 Comments

  1. Bamboo! My sister is not happy you didn’t mention her! She’s furious and she’s clawing away my skin as we speak! This is all your faaaauuuull—

    • I’m missing some context here.

      • If my memory serves me correct, Nurio’s little sister offered to teach bamboo some English. I’m guessing that did happen and if so, she’s figuratively wrecking Nurio due to no special mention of her.

        I don’t know if anything like that actually happened, but Nurio volunteering/mentioning his sister to teach bamboo English did happen on the blog, joke or real.

      • Amoirsp got it right for the most part. It was in a Livestream chat, and Bamboo was asking if people knew any girls they could hook him up with. I offered my sister then, and he happily accepted.
        Of course it’s all a joke, but it’s one I decided to keep. It has escalated a bit, and it’s now some sort of wacky relationship between my sister and Bamboo… Best part is, I don’t think Bamboo is even aware of it all!
        This fake sister makes a few appearances, for example here: https://blog.mangagamer.org/2013/07/16/testers-corner-greatest-inventions-ed-vol-1/

  2. “At first I thought releasing bad translations to the west was a good idea, but in the end no one actually bought them, so I no longer lead the company”

    I see…

  3. Nice to hear from Bamboo!

    The crowd funding idea is certainly interesting. Looking forward to seeing if anything becomes of the idea.

    And I hope you’re able to double your user base too 🙂

  4. Salutations, bamboo! May the eroge fanbase continue to grow and MG’s library with it (speaking of which, please consider talking to Waffle for the Kyonyuu Fantasy series)

  5. Thank you Bamboo for everything you’ve done for MangaGamer. I hope the user base and sales double like you say.

  6. Thanks! I hope to see some titles from Eushully in future.. >_<

    • That would not be easy but I share the same feeling. Translating games from big companies like Eushully, Alicesoft, Nitroplus would be great.

  7. I’ve purchased and played numerous VNs in Japanese, as well as Mangagamer’s and Jast’s works. One thing that you see gathering attention in the VN community is the idea of crowd-funding localizations. I’m glad to see that developers in Japan are also taking the idea seriously, as it does have significant support in the active community in general. I do suggest that if you do choose to crowd-fund that you use the existing sites, forums, and other VN-related groups (like the TL-wiki and Fuwanovel community) to do some of your advertising for you. If nothing else, they have enthusiasm and obsession going for them, as well as a strong network of devoted VN-gamers. If it gets them a localization, lots of people would willingly shell out for the chance to play any number of titles. The key is getting the word out, with crowd-funding.

  8. Just wanted to say thank you for the feedback. Its been really interesting getting the thoughts of the staff involved with mangagamer over the last few years.

    I’d completely support the crowdfunding idea. Its a good idea to not only spread the word on some other sites that may not have previously taken notes on VN, but hopefully pull in other houses to have their works released. And crowdfunding is best done legitimately through the companies that actually have the rights to do the release, rather than some fan group trying and getting slapped down with a C&D from the owners of the original work after having gathered people’s money.

    Where it could take place is the question, since I’m sure some of the crowdfunding sites would not allow the non-all ages content to be advertised there.

    I’m sure we’ve all got wish lists of who we’d like to see join in the Mangagamer merriment!

  9. I would definitely support a Mangagamer Kickstarter, bring it on bamboo!

    • I think KickStarter doesn’t allow campaigns for products who are 18+.
      However, in my opinion MangaGamer should use it for all ages title. You can’t get better publicity than on Kickstarter.

      A little googling revealed that there is at least one crowdfunding site which is adult oriented (offbeatr.com). So MangaGamer could use that for eroges. There even is a game section.

    • I think Kickstarter could also be used for VN’s with both an all ages and and adult version like Da Capo 3. The Kickstarter would only be for the all ages version and the adult version would be released a bit later and ‘financed’ by MG themselves. Probably a bit cheeky, but if I think about Rome Total War 2 which got a blood DLC later so that the original game could be sold with a lower ESRB rating then well, why should only AAA game producers be allowed to use tricks?!

  10. If crowdfunding can be used to officially translate a game or visual novel that’s currently considered too expensive or too niche, then I’m all for it. Crowdfunding through Kickstarter or Indiegogo could attract fans interested in worksafe stories, while Offbeatr or some other method could attract fans who enjoy adult games.

    Mangagamer has translated and distributed a decent variety of VNs. I sincerely hope the company can use any method in order to increase the diversity of its products: pairings other than boy x girls, translations from other languages, more story genres, additional complex games, iOS/Android software, and maybe even a console game.

  11. As far as crowdfunding expensive titles, I’ve got two words for you: Visual Art’s.

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