[Game] Umineko no Naku Koro ni - Translation Project

[k//eternal]

Originally Posted by Tibba

Haha~ I always get excited when I check the news page. The first think I see is the 100% under the EP5 header, and somehow I always think it's for EP6 and get all pumped up, only to realize I read it wrong. ._.

The numbers haven't been updated in a long time... but that doesn't mean we haven't been working hard

Just saying, so you don't keep refreshing that page or something.

[Racheya-sama]

I check the WH website every day then end up coming here to check as well XD

I think it's strange, though, that I haven't heard anything about Ep 7 yet. I would have thought that the title of it would have been released by now...

[moichispa]

Originally Posted by Racheya-sama

I check the WH website every day then end up coming here to check as well XD

I think it's strange, though, that I haven't heard anything about Ep 7 yet. I would have thought that the title of it would have been released by now...

mm yes it seems a bit strange. I'm seeing rokkenjima dates and it seems new from the release of episode 6 was at the beginning of November and the title in the middle.

I think we must fear a not release in summer if there are no news at the middle of July

[actawesome]

Don't sweat it. I remember last year the portrait and news didn't come out until July 4th or 5th. And since professional companies like to keep on certain guidelines, I think we're all okay.

[Leafsnail]

Just to say, great work. The quality of the writing in the VNs is actually significantly better than those in several books I have bought (there weren't any mistakes that ruined the flow of a scene or the mood). Keep it up.

Also, I just found your advice for Linux users whose patches weren't working, heh.

[Jan-Poo]

Hmmm about Linux I have a question, just out of curiosity...

Since Linux is case sensitive isn't it a problem the fact that the game script doesn't bother with that?

[rogerpepitone]

Linux doesn't see the script directly. The fact that Linux filesystems are (usually) case-sensitive does matter, but ONScripter handles getting filename case correct.

[chronotrig]

Okay, I'd been planning to spend a full week translating after my finals for a while now. We've just gotten off our longest absence yet, and I was hoping for a boost in speed like the old EP1-EP2 translation, but, well...

On the first day, the rough for 'the first patch' was competed. In the week after that, I managed to finish the rough translation for a huge chunk of the game, which comes out to about 100,000 words and brings our percentage up to 70%.

In other words, there's no point in releasing a partial patch. The full translation will be finished by the end of next week, if not sooner. However, as we've said previously, editing is going to be a real time drain for this game, so there's a chance it'll take several weeks after that before we're ready for a release.

[TTR]

Do your best WH~ We're all waiting for you~

*sniff sniff* I've been waiting so long, it feels good to finally have date to wait for! Just a few more weeks!

[moichispa]

wow a full one thanks you so much with hunt you are best thing ever

[Thunder Book]

On one hand it is cool to get the whole thing at once.

On the other the wait is longer and I'm continually being driven insane.

Must remain patient...

Oh well. It gives me time to finish Onikakushi-hen, Tales of Rebirth, and MGS: Peace Walker.

[Witch of Uncertainty]

Guys, I just bought Umineko ep 6, and having some real problems opening the game. I have installed it, and I run the .exe file with AppLocale, etc, but when I try to open the game; nothing happens. :/
Anyone knows what I can have done wrong?

Sorry if this should have been posted elsewhere. ( 　ﾟ,_ゝﾟ)

[Lenyo]

Originally Posted by Thunder Book

On one hand it is cool to get the whole thing at once.

On the other the wait is longer and I'm continually being driven insane.

I honestly have to agree with this. I'm really glad we'll be getting the whole thing at once. I'm even happier that a lot of the game is essentially done. But I am a little saddened I have to wait a bit longer to start playing Ep6 properly. Haha

[chronotrig]

Also, just to clarify a few points. We've been keeping quiet about this because we don't want to start any drama wars here, but it's only fair that the facts get out. I really hope that this is the last time I have to do this.

Spoiler for size:

Many people have heard of this 'drama' regarding the GameFAQs translation group and us, and the story seems to be that we flat out rejected their help after they sent us six chapters, all because we didn't like them reporting completion percentages and talking to the fans.

So I think it's time to straighten things out a bit. First off, it was actually their group that split up with ours first. After they sent us two chapters, one of which I had already edited a large chunk of, we received this message on 4/20/10:

Spoiler for PM:

Originally Posted by Lazarillo

I come in peace! No, really. I'd offer some peach cobbler, but, y'know, the stuff isn't digital yet.

Pleasure to meet'cha, I'm Lazarillo, the third member of the little group that offered our help translating the episode 6 patch. After some pow-wowing amongst the team, we've basically decided to go ahead on our own. The general sentiment is that this is probably the best choice all around.

I haven't spoken you directly before, so I'm only left able to make assumptions, but from what's been relayed to me, our styles don't mesh well, and it sounds like attempting to work together would really only hold both our groups back. Since I think both your goal, and ours, is to create what we each consider to be a presentable product in a timely fashion for friends and fellow fans, we're really just defeating the purpose if I'm having to second-guess my translating work to decide if it's something that fits your style, and you're still having to go back and edit it because it doesn't fit anyway.

I hope you don't take this the wrong way. This is neither a challenge, nor a warning, nor any of that other stupid drama that seems unfortunately common in the fan-translating community, especially when series get popular (and Umineko has gotten quite popular, thanks in very large part due to your efforts). There are no hard feelings on my end, at least, and I hope the same goes for you. If ya'll decide you do want what we've done in the end, then that'd be super-duper, and would do a serious job for boosting my ego. If you don't, then I won't begrudge you your own desire for perfection, either.

I don't post on these forums at this point (heck, this account is less than 30 minutes old as of this writing), but I didn't want to be stand-offish when Shiro and Tcaz have already been in contact with you. If you have anything you want to toss my way, though, feel free. Good ideas and suggestions are always welcome.

Of course, after this happened, we removed the translated sections they had sent us and did them from scratch, not wanting to steal their work.

Then, one month later, they sent us two more PMs. One said that yes, they were perfectly happy with working separately from us. The second said that they wanted to join our group again, and included 4 more translated chapters.

However, during this one month period, they posted repeatedly in other places that they were still working with our group, had sent us their chapters, and even implied that they were responsible for our last large leap in progress. I won't always have time to read all the boards to put out fires in the future, and that is why we decided not to have them back into our group.

Spoiler for Our reason, for what it's worth:

I'd also like to add that this recent boost in speed has been planned for quite some time now. The other group might have added to it, but if you look at it logically, what else would we have done after a six month slow period once we finally got some free time? The fans deserve some time to read and think about the games.

This is also part of the reason why we didn't include them again. Throughout the entire project, it's the editing that's been the bottleneck, not the translation. A few of our editors have had even busier schedules outside of the project than I have, and there has never been a time that they were all waiting for the next chapter to be translated. In other words, getting more translators wouldn't actually increase the project's speed one bit, though it would make things a bit easier for me personally. Now, however, all of our editors are finally free and working at breakneck speeds, and it looks like the project will be completed on time.

After all of this, we have offered to keep them on as editors if they would agree to stop posting project details, but they have decided to continue on their own (which is perfectly reasonable, since they had already translated a lot when we made this offer).
And to clarify, it's not that we're against posting percentages more often, it's that we don't want every member of our group making announcements in our name whenever they like. The EP6 translation so far has been done in a few quick bursts, so that the progress shown on the website has always been nearly identical to the current progress, give or take a few weeks.

[Shiro Kaisen]

Originally Posted by chronotrig

Also, just to clarify a few points. We've been keeping quiet about this because we don't want to start any drama wars here, but it's only fair that the facts get out. I really hope that this is the last time I have to do this.

Spoiler for size:

Many people have heard of this 'drama' regarding the GameFAQs translation group and us, and the story seems to be that we flat out rejected their help after they sent us six chapters, all because we didn't like them reporting completion percentages and talking to the fans.

So I think it's time to straighten things out a bit. First off, it was actually their group that split up with ours first. After they sent us two chapters, one of which I had already edited a large chunk of, we received this message on 4/20/10:

Spoiler for PM:

Of course, after this happened, we removed the translated sections they had sent us and did them from scratch, not wanting to steal their work.

Then, one month later, they sent us two more PMs. One said that yes, they were perfectly happy with working separately from us. The second said that they wanted to join our group again, and included 4 more translated chapters.

However, during this one month period, they posted repeatedly in other places that they were still working with our group, had sent us their chapters, and even implied that they were responsible for our last large leap in progress. I won't always have time to read all the boards to put out fires in the future, and that is why we decided not to have them back into our group.

Spoiler for Our reason, for what it's worth:

I'd also like to add that this recent boost in speed has been planned for quite some time now. The other group might have added to it, but if you look at it logically, what else would we have done after a six month slow period once we finally got some free time? The fans deserve some time to read and think about the games.

This is also part of the reason why we didn't include them again. Throughout the entire project, it's the editing that's been the bottleneck, not the translation. A few of our editors have had even busier schedules outside of the project than I have, and there has never been a time that they were all waiting for the next chapter to be translated. In other words, getting more translators wouldn't actually increase the project's speed one bit, though it would make things a bit easier for me personally. Now, however, all of our editors are finally free and working at breakneck speeds, and it looks like the project will be completed on time.

After all of this, we have offered to keep them on as editors if they would agree to stop posting project details, but they have decided to continue on their own (which is perfectly reasonable, since they had already translated a lot when we made this offer).
And to clarify, it's not that we're against posting percentages more often, it's that we don't want every member of our group making announcements in our name whenever they like. The EP6 translation so far has been done in a few quick bursts, so that the progress shown on the website has always been nearly identical to the current progress, give or take a few weeks.

I think we encountered a very major misunderstanding in the midst of those PMs, as often happens on the internet.

Spoiler:

We never intended to separate from you guys unless you told us you weren't interested, which you implied. You consistently said that there was no guarantee that you were going to use our chapters, so we assumed the worst.

That PM from Lazarillo says that you could have used our Chapters 6+7 if you wanted to, but we were going to continue translating separately as our own group either way. We were always open, the whole time, to joining with you guys if you wanted to. The last thing we wanted was this.

We never implied that we were responsible for the progress leap. We said what chapters we completed and that it was possible, but if other people were saying it was definitely us then there's nothing I can do about that. But after we sent you four chapters, we figured that you would want to use them.

Then you sent us that message "Simply put, this is a matter of trust, and the comments that your group has been posting around the web make it really hard to trust you guys. I don't want there to be conflict, but I think we'll proceed with this translation without your assistance," we assumed a possibility of a partnership was over and kept working along on our own. However, we always have been and always will be open to a reconciliation.

I admit, we could have handled things better. I'm sorry for everything that happened, and I wish things hadn't turned out this way.

[zorahk]

I'd like to point out that it's really uneccessary to have two groups translating umineko.

[lesengirz]

Originally Posted by zorahk

I'd like to point out that it's really uneccessary to have two groups translating umineko.

Pointless?

yes, it's a good way to say it, Not many VISUAL NOVELS/ SOUND NOVELS, Get Translataded, and it's such a pity.. having 2 groups on one it's kinda sad, it's been awhile since i have been wanted 2 o 3 VN Translated for me,
They are as good as any other you can mention and Very underated.

But well, what can we do..

[Shiro Kaisen]

Don't worry, guys. The drama has been resolved, and we've come to an understanding. No need to discuss this anymore.

[Sir Andy Richter]

Apologies, I haven't read the last few pages but:

The two patches idea for EP6 was scrapped with the recent burst in speed, I'm assuming?

[Pika_power]

What does an editor actually do? Is it just reading through to catch typos and the like? If so, would it speed up editing to release a beta version to the community for them to catch typos? Or do the editors rework entire paragraphs and the like?